...How to Write a Case Analysis Read a case at your normal speed without stopping to take notes. Read the assignment at the end of the case (if there is an assignment), and then carefully read the entire case again, taking notes in the margins as you read. Your task is to identify problems in the case, formulate recommendations to solve these problems, and then write your analysis with the following four headings: 1. 2. 3. 4. Summary of the facts presented. Analysis of the problems. Recommendations for solutions to the problems. Implications your recommendations will have on the operation of the organization. Follow the above format even if there are Assignment questions at the end of the case. Important: Weave the answers to the Assignment questions into your “Recommendations” section. As you write your case analysis, you must include appropriate references to the assigned reading. Your references should be in the following formats: For books and articles, (Brandenburger & Nalebuff, 1996. p. 126) and for Web articles and material, (www.charleswarner.us/articles/BUDGETS.html. September, 2004). The date in the Web reference is the month you accessed a Web site. Do not include a bibliography or references section at the end of your case analysis unless you refer to books or articles that are not Required or Recommended Reading. Summary Begin your write-up with a concise synthesis of the facts in the case, under the heading “Summary.” Stick to one or two sentences and do not put...
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...FIN 4414 Financial Management Course Syllabus Spring 2010 Term INSTRUCTOR: Dr. T. Craig Tapley Graham-Buffett Master Lecturer of Finance Section: Section: Room: 2109 – Monday and Wednesday, Periods 3-4 (9:35 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.) 7111 – Monday and Wednesday, Periods 5-6 (11:45 a.m. – 1:40 p.m.) 112 Matherly Hall Office Hours: Wednesday (2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.) Thursday (1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.) CONTACT INFORMATION: Office: Phone: Fax: E-Mail: 329 David Stuzin Hall (352) 392-6654 (352) 392-5237 ctapley@ufl.edu http://vista.courses.ufl.edu/ Class Webpage: COURSE MATERIALS: TEXTBOOK 1. Financial Management: Theory and Practice (12th Edition), Eugene F. Brigham and Michael C. Ehrhardt, Thompson/South-Western, 2008, ISBN: 0-324-42269-5. The official textbook for the class will be an excellent reference book as you start your career, as you may easily find that there will be times, on the job, when you need to reference prior material, or formulas, covered in your corporate finance classes at UF. However, books have become somewhat expensive, so you may, instead, purchase the 11th or 10th Edition of the book, typically at a cheaper price, through various online booksellers. However, there are minor differences between the 10th, 11th, and 12th editions; mainly in the order of the chapter. These differences should not impact your ability to perform well in this class, but you may need to map the chapters in the 10th or 11th Edition to those assigned in the 12th Edition. This is...
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...Professor Kay Lemon MK811 Helpful Notes for Case Analysis In case analyses in Marketing, we first try to get a good idea of the goals and obstacles facing the firm. Thenwe engage in analysis, followed by recommendations for action. What precisely are goals and obstacles? GOAL What the actors in the case (i.e., the firm) should be trying to achieve (improved profit, sales, customer lifetime value, market share, etc.). Note that goals are NOT a “decision to be made”, such as “what price should we choose?” What impedes or restrains them from achieving the goal. Obstacles are specific things or situations that may get in the way of the goal (company culture, new product development processes, competitors, government or environmental issues, customer education, etc.). OBSTACLES ANALYSIS Key issues underlying or affecting the goal and or obstacles. Analyses such as: competitor analysis, customer decision-making analysis, break-even analysis, quantitative analyses, channel analyses, SWOT analysis, etc. Recommended approach, based upon the analysis, that will overcome the obstacles and allow the firm to achieve the goal. Must show how the plan will overcome obstacles and achieve goal. ACTION PLAN 1 Professor Kay Lemon MK811 Guidelines for Case Analyses: (Or: How to save time understanding a case and getting at the key issues) 1. When you first read the case, have a pen and paper handy and jot down three columns of things as you go along: Goal – Obstacles...
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...Tuesday, 2-3.20 pm (Or by appointment) Office Phone: 217-300-1033 Email: schattop@illinois.edu Website: Maintained on Illinois Compass 2g INTRODUCTION AND COURSE OBJECTIVES Strategic management deals with decisions that fundamentally influence the direction of the organization and effective implementation of the direction chosen. Strategic management addresses the organizational structure, resources & capabilities, and the strategic positioning of the organization to create, capture, and sustain competitive advantage. In addition to economic value creation, management also must make decisions concerning the distribution of this economic value across stakeholders. In BADM 449, you will develop your skills at: • Understanding how firms create, capture, and sustain competitive advantage; • Analyzing strategic business situations and formulating strategy; and • Implementing strategy and organizing the firm for strategic success. Success ultimately depends not only on the soundness of the formulated strategy, but also on effective implementation through appropriate organizational choices. This capstone business course focuses on strategic decisions, and with both the content of those decisions and the processes by which general managers position the businesses and allocate scarce resources (including time and attention) under conditions of uncertainty and competition. This course utilizes various tools, concepts, and analytical frameworks that enhance our ability...
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...Course Problem Solving Case (Hank Kolb, p. 160 – 161) Following are the instructions you are to use in analyzing the Hank Kolb case. During Class 5, you and your class members analyzed the direct causes of the quality problems on the Greasex line. You used the fishbone diagram to display your analysis. In the next paragraph you are now asked to analyze this case from a larger perspective. You are Hank Kolb and you realize that the quality problems with the Greasex line is a symptom of a larger quality management issue for the organization. You have formed a problem solving team within the organization to analyze this larger problem and make recommendations on how to improve the quality management system with in the organization. Describe how your team will analyze this problem and make recommendations for improvement. 1. Write a problem statement that identifies the improvement objectives. 2. Describe the data and information collection tools that you will use to analyze this problem. Be specific. For the data you would collect, design the data form(s). You may also identify data that may be within the organization data bases that you would analyze. 3. You will also be given some data to supplement this case (since you cannot actually collect the data) to analyze. You are to show how you would use one or more analysis methods to analyze this data. 4. Establish design criteria that you will use to evaluate alternatives that your team may develop...
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...Syllabus: Fall 2015 Course Number: MKTG 315-201 Course Title: New Product and Service Management Credit: 3 credits Class Days: MW 11:00-12:15 p.m. Instructor: Professor E. Yoon E-mail: eunsang_yoon@uml.edu Office: Pasteur 308 Phone: (978) 934-2814 Office Hours: MW 1:00-3:00 p.m. and also by appointment CATALOG DESCRIPTION This course focuses on the process of new product and service development and marketing. Emphasis is given on market opportunity identification, R&D-marketing interface, business model development, market potential estimation, and market entry timing. Preference: Marketing concentrators. Group Project: A product development and marketing plan. Career relevance: Developing and marketing new product or service. PREREQUSITES: MKTG 201: Marketing Principles and MSB filter courses. MSB 300/400 level courses are restricted to the MSB students who have completed the filter courses. COURSE OBJECTIVES This course is designed to familiarize students with the principles and practices in the conceptualization, design, testing, forecasting, and launching of new products and services. Course objectives include comprehension and application of: 1. Strategic elements of new product development 2. Concept generation, evaluation, testing, and screening 3. Product protocol, design, development, and sales forecasting 4. Teamwork, product use testing, and market-entry strategy, and ...
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...SYLLABUS LAW/531 Business Law Copyright ©2014 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description This course prepares students to evaluate the legal risks associated with business activity. Students create proposals to manage an organization's legal exposure. Other topics include the legal system, alternative dispute resolution, enterprise liability, product liability, international law, business risks, intellectual property, legal forms of business, and governance. Course Dates Oct 14, 2014 - Nov 24, 2014 Faculty Information Name : Email Address : Alternate Email Address Phone Number : ADRIENNE YEUNG (PRIMARY) Not Available Policies Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents (both located on your student website): • Academic Policies University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies at the beginning of each class. Policies may be slightly different depending on the modality in which you attend class. If you have recently changed modalities, read the policies governing your current class modality. Get Ready for Class • Familiarize yourself with the textbook used in this course. Course Materials All electronic materials are available on your student website. Week1 Legal Forms of Business and Alternative Dispute Resolution Tasks • Review the Week 1 Study Guide. • Review the Knowledge Check Faculty and Student...
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...create value and profit for the company. Maintaining a strong and compelling value proposition and long-term relationship with the company’s customers are vital for the company’s continued success and require constant monitoring of market, environmental, technological and competitive forces. Marketing is therefore integral to establishing a company’s strategic direction. This in turn makes marketing skills and perspective essential to the success of all business managers in any business. This course provides an in-depth exploration and practical application of basic marketing tools. These include product policy, pricing, promotion, distribution, sales management, and customer segmentation and retention. In most classes, we will analyze case studies that require us to identify marketing opportunities, refine value propositions, select customer segments and develop marketing programs for a variety of management situations. The course also includes a number of creative and analytic...
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...with practices and systems within organizations that facilitate or hinder effective behavior. Conceptual frameworks, case analysis/discussion, and skill-oriented activities are blended within each topic. Topics include communication, motivation, group dynamics, leadership, social responsibility, diversity, stress/fear, and organizational change. Class sessions and assignments are intended to help participants/students acquire the skills that managers need to improve organizational relationships and performance. Course Objectives This course aims to improve ones understanding of human behavior in organizations and ones ability to lead people to achieve more effectively and how to increase organizational performance. Readings are assigned to give the student a clear understanding of the specific material. Cases are assigned to afford the student the opportunity to apply the theory, and put it into practice. Students will be expected to explore and reflect on their own experiences in the workplace, and discuss ways in which they might apply the material to their daily work. Required Books for Readings (Again – Please note that both books are Required) Hitt, Miller, & Colella: OB: Organizational Behavior, 3rd ed. John Wiley & Sons; “Binder Version” or “Version” to be uploaded to tablet, computer etc. Buller & Schuller; Managing Organizations: Cases in Management, Organizational Behvior, & Human...
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...create value and profit for the company. Maintaining a strong and compelling value proposition and long-term relationship with the company’s customers are vital for the company’s continued success and require constant monitoring of market, environmental, technological and competitive forces. Marketing is therefore integral to establishing a company’s strategic direction. This in turn makes marketing skills and perspective essential to the success of all business managers in any business. This course provides an in-depth exploration and practical application of basic marketing tools. These include product policy, pricing, promotion, distribution, sales management, and customer segmentation and retention. In most classes, we will analyze case studies that require us to identify marketing opportunities, refine value propositions, select customer segments and develop marketing programs for a variety of management situations. The course also includes a number of creative and analytic assignments, including a semester-long, group...
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...MKTG577 Case Study Guidelines Case studies are interdisciplinary in scope; they cross many disciplines within organizations and expose the "manager" to many varied situations of day-to-day activities. Cases studies are a picture-in-time, much like an accounting profit and loss report for a past business quarter. They are, after all, real life situations. Cases develop a manager’s analytical skills, because the results are quantitative and qualitative in nature and support their recommendations and decisions. They are also beneficial in helping the learning process of asking the right question(s). Case studies place you (the student) in hypothetical Consultant position, requiring you to weigh the facts and options to recommend those critical decisions. As the consultant, you are to remain objective and refrain from making subjective claims. Opinions should be supported using concepts and terms from your text. If you use outside research, be sure to cite your sources IN the body of the paper as well as listing the source as a reference at the end of the paper. A case study will have three common traits. They deal with real companies and situations, seldom have a solution, and contain loads of data. Your task as a consultant will be to review the respective data, locate the relevant information, arrange it in a practical and sequential order, and arrive at a solution or recommendation. You must remain objective throughout this process. Since this is a formal analysis, you are...
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...have discussed how to analyze and apply legal authority. We have also discussed how to write a case brief, which law students usually write for their own use. Most legal writing, however, is done to communicate with others. As a law student (and new lawyer), you will receive legal problems and will be asked to analyze the problem and write up the results of that analysis. The typical vehicle that lawyers use to do this is the legal memorandum. When you write a memorandum, you will make use of the several analytical skills you have been developing. This handout explains the form and content of a legal memorandum. II. PURPOSE OF A MEMORANDUM A legal memorandum is a document written to convey information within a law firm or other organization. It is a written analysis of a legal problem. The memorandum is usually prepared by a junior attorney or by a law clerk for a more senior attorney early in the firm's handling of a legal dispute. The writer analyzes the legal rules that govern the issues raised by that problem and applies those rules to the facts of the case. These memoranda prepare attorneys to advise clients how to proceed, if at all, with prospective business dealings or litigation. The memo must be complete and objective including both the rules and facts that help the client and those that do not. In concludes with a considered opinion of the likely outcome on each issue. The attorneys will then use the memo to understand the issues that the case raises, to advise...
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...Harvard Business School 9-682-010 Rev. September 30, 1985 How to Avoid Getting Lost in the Numbers This note is not for everyone; rather, it is aimed at students who are not sure of their abilities to handle the numbers in case analyses. It contains hints and tips to guide such analyses, and it is intended for all functional areas of business analysis. The hints and tips range from the conceptual to the practical, from the complex to the blatantly obvious. The note's underlying philosophy is that, in case analysis, it is not true that there are people who are good at numbers and people who are bad at numbers. Ability to do numbers is not innate; it's all a matter of approach. How you attack numbers is what counts. There are good numbers habits and bad numbers habits. This note has been written to help the reader develop good numbers habits. Part One: The Essentials • Take it slowly: more haste, less speed. • Never pick up your calculator until you know why you are doing a calculation— what you intend to do with the result, how you plan to interpret it. • Always seek a reaction to the calculation's result by asking questions such as: What does this mean? What does it imply? Am I surprised? Is it good, bad, or indifferent? • One useful trick is to guess at the answer before you perform the calculation. Then, when you do it, you can see whether you are surprised or not. If you are surprised, you have found something to think about. Is...
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...E.J. Ourso College of Business Flores MBA Program Introduction to Case Analysis & Discussion and How to Write Persuasive Recommendations 1 by Dr. Randle D. Raggio (fall 2009) Recommend reading: The Case Study Handbook, by William Ellet, from Harvard Business School Press ($25). Overview: Many of your MBA classes (e.g., BADM 7100) will feature very few lectures. Instead, case analysis and discussion will be the focus of several entire class sessions and require detailed preparation, whether or not a written recommendation or report is required. To benefit from these case discussions, it is essential that each student thoroughly prepare a case analysis prior to class. Merely reading the case, or developing only a superficial understanding of the facts is not sufficient. This document will give you a jumpstart on understanding how to effectively analyze, discuss and write about cases. The Case Method: Cases allow you to analyze real‐life situations that business executives have faced. Not only do you get to experience the situation as the executives encountered it, but you also get to make your own recommendations given the same set of information they had. What makes case‐based learning so exciting and effective is that you will hone your analysis skills by presenting and supporting your recommendations in front of your peers and professor. Your experience in the MBA program will differ substantially from the typical lectures that most ...
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...Analyzing Cases (the following material was derived, in part, from The Case Study Handbook by William Ellet) A case, at its simplest level, is a real-world situation in which you, the marketing professional, are expected to use your critical thinking skills to figure out what to do. As in most real-world situations, you have neither enough information or time to really address the problem, and you also have a million other things going on at the same time. So rather than thrashing about aimlessly, this mini-guide is intended to give you a skeleton of an approach that may be useful in analyzing these cases. The first step in any case analysis is to actively read the case. That means going through it carefully and making notes in the margins, highlighting, or whatever other methods you typically use to understand what is really going on in the case. Treat the case like a mystery novel – try to unravel the complex web of information (and sometimes disinformation) that is presented. Typically the cases will be tied to the chapter of the text we are currently reading, but that is not always the case. If appropriate, think about the principles we are discussing for that chapter and see if they apply to that particular case or not. The instructor (me) is not always good about fitting the cases and the chapters together, and these are general purpose cases not necessarily oriented to a Product Management course, so there may not be the perfect overlap that would happen in a...
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