Note: Adapted in part from K. Davis, Marketing Management (New York: Ronald Press, 1972).
To really understand how managers make decisions, we would have to expose ourselves directly to the decision-making process. Unfortunately, we cannot project ourselves into actual business situations and make decisions. As a substitute, however, we can read descriptions of particular business situations and make decisions based upon the data we find there. By doing so, we can simulate the functioning of a manager.
Descriptions of business situations are frequently referred to as cases. A case is a statement of condition, attitudes, and practices existing at some particular time in a company's history. It usually describes a situation in which the company is facing some challenging problem or problems. A "case" differs from a "problem" in several respects. In the first place, a case typically contains several problems. Some of these problems may be self-evident, but more frequently, you have to identify the key problem or problems. One of the very real assets of the case method of instruction is that it forces you to identify problems. A second distinguishing feature of cases is the reality of the situations they describe. A "problem" might be posed as a question, "Should a manufacturer expand its product line?" or "Should the Vice President of Manufacturing be replaced?" or "Should the company increase its prices?" A case could suggest these or other problems, but by describing the conditions under which they arise we recognize that the real world is much more complicated than a single problem stated as a question. Indeed, we recognize that these questions should only be asked and answered in the context of a specific situation.
A case provides some, but usually not all, of the information that was available to executives at the time they had to resolve a challenging problem. It frequently includes data on alternative courses of action. Because it is an attempt to reconstitute a real life situation, a case is purposely written in a manner that requires the rearrangement of facts and interpretation of these facts, including the evaluation of opinions, behavior and intentions. Many of the facts available are relevant to the solution of the problem presented in the case, but some may be irrelevant. This arrangement of the descriptive material, on a somewhat unstructured basis, in itself simulates experiences of the business executive. Data that he or she has available for the solution of a problem are never orderly and systematically presented.
On first reading a case, you may well ask yourself, "What's this all about?" One of your first adjustments to the case method of instruction will be getting acclimated to the manner in which case material is presented. It will be up to you to develop your analytical ability by reorganizing the factual material and recognizing throughout this reorganization the particular problems involved.
You will have to develop the alternative solutions, gather the data relative to these solutions, evaluate them, and finally--and most importantly!--make a decision. In the course of your analysis, you will want to rely primarily on the substantive material that is presented in the case. But you will undoubtedly want to resort to the use of information and ideas that you have gathered in your general experience and in other courses. In addition, ideas developed from discussions with other students will provide you with much that is necessary to the solution of business cases.
In preparation of cases for classroom discussion, you will run up against the problem of insufficient information. By and large, each case has incorporated in it sufficient information to permit you to do an adequate job of analysis. Occasionally, however, certain types of data will be lacking, and your action plan may have to include as an early step the gathering of certain additional kinds of data. The absence of data, and the necessity of making assumptions about the nature of data, is likely to add some confusion in the early stages of studying under the case method of instruction. In many respects, this lack of information is a desirable aspect of cases, for business people likewise must make decisions under circumstances where they do not have all the necessary data.
To realize the maximum benefits while studying under the case method, you should recognize that: