Steps On How To Conduct A Case Study Analysis

Case study and case analysis are important for courses like management and law. Students face many problems while tackling case study assignments. Therefore, My Assignment Servicesbrings to you a detailed insight into how to conduct a case study analysis and what you should keep in mind while writing your management case study. You ready, mate? Let’s do this then.

Checklist for Case Study Analysis

Before you proceed into the depth of the ocean of steps of case study, cross check your assignment with the following checklist. If you complete this successfully, a major part of your assignment will be done successfully.

Make It Real

A case study is more than just an assignment. If you will treat it as an assignment, a grade and mark are all that it will be. But, you can make your assignment much more than that. You can make it a real exercise which will help you in your professional life ahead as well.

You got your mind convinced? Good, check this off.

Devise Strategies

The first step here should be to decide what strategy you are going to follow in your assignment. Once you have decided what you will be doing in this case study, decide how will you approach it.

Decide whether you want to proceed in the favour of the argument or if you want to criticise the argument in question or maybe you want to analyse if the outcome was right or wrong.

Check the Source

Whatever case study question you have, it will be based on some real company or organisation. If not, it will be inspired by one. Here you have to check what the company and decide on what they should have done instead.

Steps of Writing a Case Study

Industry Type

Check for the industry that you are assigned as it will define your case study to a great extent.

For example, if you choose a law firm, the case study will vary in accordance with the laws and the country’s jurisdiction. The same case study will differ when applied to a hospital. This is an important step in how to write case study.

Environmental Analysis

Once you know what the industry type of your assignment is, you need to analyse it on the basis of the seven below mentioned parameters –

• Economic
• Physical
• Sociocultural
• Global
• Technological
• Political
• Demographic

Identify and note down the important points of each element but do not emphasise way too much.

Environment of Industry

Step 3 in how to write case studyis identifying the 5 governing forces of your industry –

• Power of suppliers
• Power of buyers
• Competitors
• Substitute for your product
• New brands entering

Does this sound familiar to you? Exactly, it is the Porter’s Five Force Model. It is a good way to go about analysing the operation of the business.

Do not forget that you are analysing an industry, not one single firm. For example, if you are analysing the shipping companies, consider all the major players in the market. Do not be focused on one company like Maersk or Chevron.

Competitive Environment

Analyse what other industries have in place. Read about the strategies that rival organisations are following, what are their capabilities, what threats does your business have with them, etc.

No other how to write case studyguide will explain you this, but we are the good guys. Here is an example for easy understanding –

Fanuc is a known name in the market when it comes to CNC machines. If you have an averagely priced CNC machine brand, you have to play the pricing part very strategically.

If you raise the price too high, people will not buy your machines because Fanuc has the same quality at a cheaper price. If you decrease your prices too low, big brands like Fanuc would eat you alive in the competition.

Opportunities and Threats

When you know about the industry type you are targeting, have played out the environmental factors and have identified the competitive market that you face, you now have to identify what opportunities your business has and what threats are present there.

The best way to proceed here is to follow a SWOT analysis. Though SWOT analysis is not a part of how to write case study, you can use this for your own simplification. Lay out the opportunities like what areas your competitor does not cover and you can dominate, how you can use the advertising strategy of your competitor to your advantage.

However, keep in mind that these strategies have to be analysed with the perspective of the threats as well. If you do not have a backup plan in place, your plan might backfire on you.

Resources

In ancient times, did people just went to a war blindly aiming to counter the foe? No, they laid out their resources on how many soldiers they have, what additional weaponry they have that the opponent doesn’t. This is called identifying of resources.

You have to do the same for your firm. Unless you do this effectively, you will be lost asking the same how to write case studyquestion over and over again.

Capabilities

You cannot analyse strategies for your firm unless you know what your firm can do. Google recently celebrated its 20^thbirthday. Could they have grown so big as a company unless they knew what all they can achieve? A crucial part of your analysis depends on your identification of the capabilities of the firm.

Do not create a company brochure here. You need to identify the capabilities related to your analysis.

Core Competencies

This is probably the most important step in this how to write case studyguide. When you identify the capabilities of the firm, analyse them for their core competency. You can analyse them against –

• Is it rare?
• Is it valuable?
• Is the replication costly?
• Does it have any substitutes?

You can look into a case study exampleto get how to identify the core competencies of any business.

Value Chain

Identify what are the primary activities that are being carried out in the firm and what secondary activities are being carried out. Then analyse what value is it adding to the firm.

Weakness

You cannot improve unless you know where you are lacking. Therefore, identify the weakness of the firm.

Current Strategies

Check what strategies does the firm has in place. If this is not given in the question file, you can check for them in their database or Google.

Strategies

Now that you have done everything that would determine your strategy, it is time to drop the bomb. Take advantage of the existing strategies, do not be afraid. Exploit them to the greatest. Improve upon the weakness and shortcomings.

If you think that you can get by without improving the weakness, the competitors are going to kick you out the game real soon. Suggest strategies and changes at the ground zero level. Do not change the entire way the business operates. Instead, provide how unproductive processes can be improved.

If you need further help from professional case study experts on how to write case study, you can request the same with My Assignment Services. We will be more than happy to assist you.