Gogte Institute of Technology Department of MBA

video on Michel porters five force model

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Video on PEST analysis

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video on strategic objectives

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mission statement

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video on vision statement

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video on goal setting

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video on swot analysis

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video on competitiveness

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video on strategic management part 7

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strategic management part 2

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strategic management part 1

2010-08-10T20:27:00.000+05:30

corporate strategy

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business model

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internet advertising

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Management case study development and analysis

2009-11-09T15:40:00.000+05:30

Case Studies: Overview Case Studies: Table of Contents WHAT IS CASE STUDY ANALYSIS?
A case study presents an account of what happened to a business or industry over a number of years. It chronicles the events that managers had to deal with, such as changes in the competitive environment, and charts the managers' response, which usually involved changing the business- or corporate-level strategy.
Cases prove valuable in a course for several reasons. First, cases provide you, the student, with experience of organizational problems that you probably have not had the opportunity to experience firsthand. In a relatively short period of time, you will have the chance to appreciate and analyze the problems faced by many different companies and to understand how managers tried to deal with them.
Second, cases illustrate what you have learned. The meaning and implication of this information are made clearer when they are applied to case studies. The theory and concepts help reveal what is going on in the companies studied and allow you to evaluate the solutions that specify companies adopted to deal with their problems. Consequently, when you analyze cases, you will be like a detective who, with a set of conceptual tools, probes what happened and what or who was responsible and then marshals the evidence that provides the solution. Top managers enjoy the thrill of testing their problem-solving abilities in the real world. It is important to remember, after all, that no one knows what the right answer is. All that managers can do is to make the best guess. In fact, managers say repeatedly that they are happy if they are right only half the time in solving strategic problems. Management is an uncertain game, and using cases to see how theory can be put into practice is one way of improving your skills of diagnostic investigation.
Third, case studies provide you with the opportunity to participate in class and to gain experience in presenting your ideas to others. Instructors may sometimes call on students as a group to identify what is going on in a case, and through classroom discussion the issues in and solutions to the case problem will reveal themselves. In such a situation, you will have to organize your views and conclusions so that you can present them to the class. Your classmates may have analyzed the issues differently from you, and they will want you to argue your points before they will accept your conclusions; so be prepared for debate. This is how decisions are made in the actual business world.
Instructors also may assign an individual, but more commonly a group, to analyze the case before the whole class. The individual or group probably will be responsible for a thirty- to forty-minute presentation of the case to the class. That presentation must cover the issues involved, the problems facing the company, and a series of recommendations for resolving the problems. The discussion then will be thrown open to the class, and you will have to defend your ideas. Through such discussions and presentations, you will experience how to convey your ideas effectively to others. Remember that a great deal of managers' time is spent in these kinds of situations, presenting their ideas and engaging in discussion with other managers, who have their own views about what is going on. Thus, you will experience in the classroom the actual process of what goes on in a business setting, and this will serve you well in your future career.
If you work in groups to analyze case studies, you also will learn about the group process involved in working as a team. When people work in groups, it is often difficult to schedule time and allocate responsibility for the case analysis. There are always group members who shirk their responsibilities and group members who are so sure of their own ideas that they try to dominate the group's analysis. Most business negotiations take place in groups, however, and it is best if you learn about these problems now.
Case Studies: Table of Contents
What Is Case Study Analysis?
Analyzing a Case Study
Writing a Case Study Analysis
The Role of Financial Analysis
Conclusion
ANALYZING A CASE STUDY
As just mentioned, the purpose of the case study is to let you apply the concepts you've learned when you analyze the issues facing a specific company. To analyze a case study, therefore, you must examine closely the issues with which the company is confronted. Most often you will need to read the case several times - once to grasp the overall picture of what is happening to the company and then several times more to discover and grasp the specific problems.
Generally, detailed analysis of a case study should include eight areas:
The history, development, and growth of the company over time
The identification of the company's internal strengths and weaknesses
The nature of the external environment surrounding the company
A SWOT analysis
The kind of corporate-level strategy pursued by the company
The nature of the company's business-level strategy
The company's structure and control systems and how they match its strategy
Recommendations
To analyze a case, you need to apply what you've learned to each of these areas. We offer a summary of the steps you can take to analyze the case material for each of the eight points we just noted.
Analyze the company's history, development, and growth. A convenient way to investigate how a company's past strategy and structure affect it in the present is to chart the critical incidents in its history - that is, the events that were the most unusual or the most essential for its development into the company it is today. Some of the events have to do with its founding, its initial products, how it makes new-product market decisions, and how it developed and chose functional competencies to pursue. Its entry into new businesses and shifts in its main lines of business are also important milestones to consider.
Identify the company's internal strengths and weaknesses. Once the historical profile is completed, you can begin the SWOT analysis. Use all the incidents you have charted to develop an account of the company's strengths and weaknesses as they have emerged historically. Examine each of the value creation functions of the company, and identify the functions in which the company is currently strong and currently weak. Some companies might be weak in marketing; some might be strong in research and development. Make lists of these strengths and weaknesses. The SWOT checklist gives examples of what might go in these lists.
Analyze the external environment. The next step is to identify environmental opportunities and threats. Here you should apply all information you have learned on industry and macroenvironments, to analyze the environment the company is confronting. Of particular importance at the industry level is Porter's five forces model and the stage of the life cycle model. Which factors in the macroenvironment will appear salient depends on the specific company being analyzed. However, use each factor in turn (for instance, demographic factors) to see whether it is relevant for the company in question.
Having done this analysis, you will have generated both an analysis of the company's environment and a list of opportunities and threats. The SWOT checklist lists some common environmental opportunities and threats that you may look for, but the list you generate will be specific to your company.
Evaluate the SWOT analysis. Having identified the company's external opportunities and threats as well as its internal strengths and weaknesses, you need to consider what your findings mean. That is, you need to balance strengths and weaknesses against opportunities and threats. Is the company in an overall strong competitive position? Can it continue to pursue its current business- or corporate-level strategy profitably? What can the company do to turn weaknesses into strengths and threats into opportunities? Can it develop new functional, business, or corporate strategies to accomplish this change? Never merely generate the SWOT analysis and then put it aside. Because it provides a succinct summary of the company's condition, a good SWOT analysis is the key to all the analyses that follow.
Analyze corporate-level strategy. To analyze a company's corporate-level strategy, you first need to define the company's mission and goals. Sometimes the mission and goals are stated explicitly in the case; at other times you will have to infer them from available information. The information you need to collect to find out the company's corporate strategy includes such factors as its line(s) of business and the nature of its subsidiaries and acquisitions. It is important to analyze the relationship among the company's businesses. Do they trade or exchange resources? Are there gains to be achieved from synergy? Alternatively, is the company just running a portfolio of investments? This analysis should enable you to define the corporate strategy that the company is pursuing (for example, related or unrelated diversification, or a combination of both) and to conclude whether the company operates in just one core business. Then, using your SWOT analysis, debate the merits of this strategy. Is it appropriate, given the environment the company is in? Could a change in corporate strategy provide the company with new opportunities or transform a weakness into a strength? For example, should the company diversify from its core business into new businesses?Other issues should be considered as well. How and why has the company's strategy changed over time? What is the claimed rationale for any changes? Often it is a good idea to analyze the company's businesses or products to assess its situation and identify which divisions contribute the most to or detract from its competitive advantage. It is also useful to explore how the company has built its portfolio over time. Did it acquire new businesses, or did it internally venture its own? All these factors provide clues about the company and indicate ways of improving its future performance.
Analyze business-level strategy. Once you know the company's corporate-level strategy and have done the SWOT analysis, the next step is to identify the company's business-level strategy. If the company is a single-business company, its business-level strategy is identical to its corporate-level strategy. If the company is in many businesses, each business will have its own business-level strategy. You will need to identify the company's generic competitive strategy - differentiation, low cost, or focus - and its investment strategy, given the company's relative competitive position and the stage of the life cycle. The company also may market different products using different business-level strategies. For example, it may offer a low-cost product range and a line of differentiated products. Be sure to give a full account of a company's business-level strategy to show how it competes. Identifying the functional strategies that a company pursues to build competitive advantage through superior efficiency, quality, innovation, and customer responsiveness and to achieve its business-level strategy is very important. The SWOT analysis will have provided you with information on the company's functional competencies. You should further investigate its production, marketing, or research and development strategy to gain a picture of where the company is going. For example, pursuing a low-cost or a differentiation strategy successfully requires a very different set of competencies. Has the company developed the right ones? If it has, how can it exploit them further? Can it pursue both a low-cost and a differentiation strategy simultaneously? The SWOT analysis is especially important at this point if the industry analysis, particularly Porter's model, has revealed the threats to the company from the environment. Can the company deal with these threats? How should it change its business-level strategy to counter them? To evaluate the potential of a company's business-level strategy, you must first perform a thorough SWOT analysis that captures the essence of its problems.
Once you complete this analysis, you will have a full picture of the way the company is operating and be in a position to evaluate the potential of its strategy. Thus, you will be able to make recommendations concerning the pattern of its future actions. However, first you need to consider strategy implementation, or the way the company tries to achieve its strategy.
Analyze structure and control systems. The aim of this analysis is to identify what structure and control systems the company is using to implement its strategy and to evaluate whether that structure is the appropriate one for the company. Different corporate and business strategies require different structures. For example, does the company have the right level of vertical differentiation (for instance, does it have the appropriate number of levels in the hierarchy or decentralized control?) or horizontal differentiation (does it use a functional structure when it should be using a product structure?)? Similarly, is the company using the right integration or control systems to manage its operations? Are managers being appropriately rewarded? Are the right rewards in place for encouraging cooperation among divisions? These are all issues that should be considered.
In some cases there will be little information on these issues, whereas in others there will be a lot. Obviously, in analyzing each case you should gear the analysis toward its most salient issues. For example, organizational conflict, power, and politics will be important issues for some companies. Try to analyze why problems in these areas are occurring. Do they occur because of bad strategy formulation or because of bad strategy implementation?
Organizational change is an issue in many cases because the companies are attempting to alter their strategies or structures to solve strategic problems. Thus, as a part of the analysis, you might suggest an action plan that the company in question could use to achieve its goals. For example, you might list in a logical sequence the steps the company would need to follow to alter its business-level strategy from differentiation to focus.
Make recommendations. The last part of the case analysis process involves making recommendations based on your analysis. Obviously, the quality of your recommendations is a direct result of the thoroughness with which you prepared the case analysis. The work you put into the case analysis will be obvious to the professor from the nature of your recommendations. Recommendations are directed at solving whatever strategic problem the company is facing and at increasing its future profitability. Your recommendations should be in line with your analysis; that is, they should follow logically from the previous discussion. For example, your recommendation generally will center on the specific ways of changing functional, business, and corporate strategy and organizational structure and control to improve business performance. The set of recommendations will be specific to each case, and so it is difficult to discuss these recommendations here. Such recommendations might include an increase in spending on specific research and development projects, the divesting of certain businesses, a change from a strategy of unrelated to related diversification, an increase in the level of integration among divisions by using task forces and teams, or a move to a different kind of structure to implement a new business-level strategy. Again, make sure your recommendations are mutually consistent and are written in the form of an action plan. The plan might contain a timetable that sequences the actions for changing the company's strategy and a description of how changes at the corporate level will necessitate changes at the business level and subsequently at the functional level. After following all these stages, you will have performed a thorough analysis of the case and will be in a position to join in class discussion or present your ideas to the class, depending on the format used by your professor. Remember that you must tailor your analysis to suit the specific issue discussed in your case. In some cases, you might completely omit one of the steps in the analysis because it is not relevant to the situation you are considering. You must be sensitive to the needs of the case and not apply the framework we have discussed in this section blindly. The framework is meant only as a guide and not as an outline that you must use to do a successful analysis.

WRITING A CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Often, as part of your course requirements, you will need to present your instructor with a written case analysis. This may be an individual or a group report. Whatever the situation, there are certain guidelines to follow in writing a case analysis that will improve the evaluation your work will receive from your instructor. Before we discuss these guidelines and before you use them, make sure that they do not conflict with any directions your instructor has given you.
The structure of your written report is critical. Generally, if you follow the steps for analysis discussed in the previous section, you already will have a good structure for your written discussion. All reports begin with an introduction to the case. In it you outline briefly what the company does, how it developed historically, what problems it is experiencing, and how you are going to approach the issues in the case write-up. Do this sequentially by writing, for example, "First, we discuss the environment of Company X...Third, we discuss Company X’s business-level strategy... Last, we provide recommendations for turning around Company X’s business."
In the second part of the case write-up, the strategic-analysis section, do the SWOT analysis, analyze and discuss the nature and problems of the company’s business-level and corporate strategy, and then analyze its structure and control systems. Make sure you use plenty of headings and subheadings to structure your analysis. For example, have separate sections on any important conceptual tool you use. Thus, you might have a section on Porter’s five forces model as part of your analysis of the environment. You might offer a separate section on portfolio techniques when analyzing a company’s corporate strategy. Tailor the sections and subsections to the specific issues of importance in the case.
In the third part of the case write-up, present your solutions and recommendations. Be comprehensive, and make sure they are in line with the previous analysis so that the recommendations fit together and move logically from one to the next. The recommedations section is very revealing because, as mentioned earlier, your instructor will have a good idea of how much work you put into the case from the quality of your recommendations.
Following this framework will provide a good structure for most written reports, though obviously it must be shaped to fit the individual case being considered. Some cases are about excellent companies experiencing no problems. In such instances, it is hard to write recommendations. Instead, you can focus on analyzing why the company is doing so well, using that analysis to structure the discussion. Following are some minor suggestions that can help make a good analysis even better.
1. Do not repeat in summary form large pieces of factual information from the case. The instructor has read the case and knows what is going on. Rather, use the information in the case to illustrate your statements, to defend your arguments, or to make salient points. Beyond the brief introduction to the company, you must avoid being descriptive; instead, you must be analytical.
2. Make sure the sections and subsections of your discussion flow logically and smoothly from one to the next. That is, try to build on what has gone before so that the analysis of the case study moves toward a climax. This is particularly important for group analysis, because there is a tendency for people in a group to split up the work and say, "I’ll do the beginning, you take the middle, and I’ll do the end." The result is a choppy, stilted analysis because the parts do not flow from one to the next, and it is obvious to the instructor that no real group work has been done.
3. Avoid grammatical and spelling errors. They make the paper sloppy.
4. In some instances, cases dealing with well-known companies don’t include up-to-date research because it was not available at the time the case was written. If possible, do a search for more information on what has happened to the company in subsequent years. Following are sources of information for performing this search:
The World Wide Web is the place to start your research. Very often you can download copies of a company’s annual report from its Web site, and many companies also keep lists of press releases and articles that have been written about them. Thoroughly search the company’s Web site for information such as the company’s history and performance, and download all relevant information at the beginning of your project.
Compact disk sources such as Lotus One Source and InfoTrac provide an amazing amount of good information, including summaries of recent articles written on specific companies that you can then access in the library.
F&S Predicasts provide a listing on a yearly basis of all the articles written about a particular company. Simply reading the titles gives an indication of what has been happening in the company.
Annual reports on a Form 10-K often provide an organization chart.
Companies themselves provide information if you write and ask for it.
Fortune, BusinessWeek, and Forbes have many articles on companies featured in most cases.
Standard & Poor's industry reports provide detailed information about the competitive conditions facing the company's industry. Be sure to look at this journal.
5. Sometimes instructors hand out questions for each case to help you in your analysis. Use these as a guide for writing the case analysis. They often illuminate the important issues that have to be covered in the discussion.
If you follow the guidelines in this section, you should be able to write a thorough and effective evaluation.
Conclusion
When evaluating a case, it is important to be systematic. Analyze the case in a logical fashion, beginning with the identification of operating and financial strengths and weaknesses and environmental opportunities and threats. Move on to assess the value of a company's current strategies only when you are fully conversant with the SWOT analysis of the company. Ask yourself whether the company's current strategies make sense, given its SWOT analysis. If they do not, what changes need to be made? What are your recommendations? Above all, link any strategic recommendations you may make to the SWOT analysis. State explicitly how the strategies you identify take advantage of the company's strengths to exploit environmental opportunities, how they rectify the company's weaknesses, and how they counter environmental threats. Also, do not forget to outline what needs to be done to implement your recommendations.

framework for case analysis

2009-11-09T15:13:00.000+05:30

Part I – Analyzing a Case What is this document?
You will be asked throughout your MBA experience to analyze cases. Because there are many ways to approach cases, the CM faculty has agreed upon a framework for case analysis that you will be asked to learn in MGT 650. This framework will help you throughout your MBA experience in thinking about cases as well as in preparing written reports.
What is a case?
A case is a story---usually a true story, but not always---that illustrates business and management theories and concepts you are studying in a course and/or presents a problem or series of problems for you to solve. A case usually ends with a dilemma faced by a particular character in the case. Sometimes a case will be accompanied by a set of questions, usually theory-based, that your instructor expects you to answer. Some questions will be devoted to figuring out the problems imbedded in the case and the causes of those problems; others will ask you to determine a course of action to take in the future.
More complex cases usually contain a variety of types of information, e.g. industry and economic data, financial reports, policies and procedures, market share and pricing data, descriptions of personnel and other resources, job descriptions, individual perceptions, and dialogue. Due to their complex nature, these cases demand your careful, sustained attention; indeed, each case contains subtleties that are likely to be discerned only by several rereadings and discussions with other students.
Why do professors ask students in the MBA Program to analyze cases?
Through the process of analyzing cases, professors believe that MBA students can learn the value of:[1]
responding actively and constructively to the conflicts of organizational life.
suspending judgment about personalities as well as about courses of action.
differentiating between facts and opinions.
graciously giving up an opinion if it is shown to be inadequate
integrating what one learns through discussions with others in order to progress in one’s own thinking
examining the total situation rather than focusing on the most obvious or pressing elements of that situation.
gaining multiple perspectives on a situation by using theory, concepts and research findings.
understanding the continually evolving interrelationships among the factors in a situation.
acknowledging what is not known or understood by the student analyst about a situation.
explicitly assessing and acknowledging the degree of confidence the student analyst is able to have in what he/she has come to understand about the case.
recognizing that a situation can involve many “problems” and that different stakeholders will probably experience different problems.
setting priorities---deciding which problems deserve immediate attention.
developing an action orientation---a willingness to take calculated risks under conditions of incomplete information, inadequate resources, and often imperfect solutions.
appreciating the complexity of transforming proposed solutions into comprehensive, detailed plans for action.
seeking to understand the consequences and limits of managerial actions.
Will all instructors in the MBA Program use cases in the same way?
The life of an MBA student would be easier if the answer to this question were “yes.” The truth, however, is that cases can be used in a variety of ways, even by a single instructor. One UMass/Boston faculty member has wisely observed that cases can be used as:
the hook---a snappy introduction to a topic;
the curtain raiser---a hook with conceptual implications;
the example---an illustration of a concept, frequently predefined;
the exercise---a test of the student’s mastery of the course’s conceptual material
the rehearsal---an opportunity for the student to try out skills or behavior related to or in the context of the course material.[2]
When instructors use cases for the first three purposes, they almost never expect students to produce a full-fledged case analysis. Instead, the cases, if they are discussed in class at all, usually are used by instructors to engage students in thinking concretely about conceptual material presented in course readings. Indeed, such cases are usually quite brief---a paragraph or two, or a page or two, in length. However, when cases are used by instructors in the form of an “exercise” or “rehearsal,” students are usually required to produce a systematic analysis in the form of an oral presentation or written paper. If you are confused about the purpose for which a case is being used by one of your MBA program instructors and, as a consequence, you don’t know what type of analysis is expected of you, it is important that you seek clarification from your instructor.
If you are asked to analyze a case, what are the key elements your instructors might ask you to consider?
You rarely will be asked to analyze cases the same way every time, even by a particular instructor in a particular course. Nevertheless, the analysis elements described below cover most of the ground that is likely to be of interest to instructors in your MBA courses.
In thinking through a case, you may be asked by your instructor to consider all twelve of the elements described below. Most often, however, your instructor will ask you to consider only a few of the elements. There are many possible reasons that an instructor might exclude elements from consideration: sometimes an instructor’s goals for a particular class session can be met only if students are asked to concentrate on a few selected elements; sometimes elements are excluded because they are not relevant to a particular field of study; sometimes elements are excluded because they interfere with a particular instructor’s carefully considered way of teaching cases.
No matter which elements you are asked to use, make careful notes as you conduct your analysis. You will need to bring to class well-organized and detailed references to the evidence of the case if you are to participate effectively in class discussions.
Elements of Analysis
1. Develop a detailed chronology of events---both major events and those that seem, on first reading, relatively minor. In doing so, pay careful attention to how certain you can be about each event.
2. Describe the key economic and policy issues and trends in the country(ies) where the firm is operating.
3. Describe the industry in which the firm is operating---perhaps including such information as competitors, new entrants, substitute products, suppliers, and the end-use and intermediary buyers.
4. Identify the relevant cast of characters (often called stakeholders).
a. Acknowledge to yourself whether you like some of these stakeholders better than others. Have you tended to jump to conclusions about what kind of people they are (e.g. he can’t be trusted; she’s the perfect boss; that procurement department is full of obstructionists)?
b. Look carefully for evidence that might contradict, in any way, your first impressions.
5. Describe each stakeholder’s problems, goals (or demands), and concerns.
a. For each stakeholder, look for evidence that something has happened in the case that the stakeholder finds troublesome and seems to consider a problem.
b. Identify the assumptions being made by each stakeholder, and any apparent biases of each stakeholder.
c. Identify the goals (sometimes stated as explicit demands) of each stakeholder.
d. Then, as best you can, identify the concerns underlying these demands. In other words, what does the behavior (words, actions) of the stakeholder suggest to you about why that person (or group) wants what he/she seems to want?
6. Evaluate the quantitative information that you have available in the case.
a. Identify assumptions underlying the data.
b. Examine consistency among units.
c. Determine the quality of data, e.g. completeness, accuracy, possible biases, consistency among multiple sources.
d. Use estimation to gauge whether results “seem right.”
e. Identify ways in which the data may oversimplify an issue or situation.
f. Summarize the quantitative information.
g. Be prepared to express the summary in a variety of forms: in words, in visual/graphical displays, in tables of numerical results, in analytical formulations.
h. Look for patterns among the results that help you gain insight into the issues of the case.
7. Use theory, concepts, models, and research findings that you have been studying in your class to enrich your view of the case and help you to identify problems.
Sometimes your instructor will give you questions that ask you to use a particular theory, model or concept. Here are some typical questions: “Use the cultural perspective to understand the problems facing the new Executive Vice President for Customer Operations at Dyna-Corp.” “What are the economic characteristics of the golf equipment industry?” “What is the size and rate of growth of this firm’s market segment?” “Based on your analyses so far, what are the pros and cons of the Snapple acquisition?”
Even if your instructor has not given you a list of conceptually-grounded questions to frame your search for problems, you can develop your own questions using the ideas, theories and models you have been studying. To do so, use the following format: How does __________ (theory/model/concept) help me understand ___________?
Using a variety of different concepts, theories and models to organize your investigation will allow you to gain multiple perspectives on the issues of the case. As you complete your various inquiries, you will find that some have enabled you to gain important new insights about the case, while others told you little of significance. In your written report, of course, you should write about those inquiries that were most meaningful.
The steps below describe a process that you may follow to answer a conceptually-grounded question:
a. Define the concept (theory, model). Be prepared, if your instructor asks you, to quote it from the text or relevant readings; this will ensure that you are working with the appropriate conceptual material and that you have a framework for organizing evidence from the case.
b. Look in the case for evidence that seems relevant to all or some portion of the definition that you quoted in (a). Be prepared, if your instructor asks you, to quote that evidence, also noting where it is located in the case and identifying what is happening at that moment in the case.
c. Next, express in your own words how the piece of evidence you quoted in (b) fits all or some part of the definition you quoted in (a).
d. Repeat (a) and (b) as many times as necessary:
to search for evidence concerning all elements of the concept, theory or model, not just the ones for which evidence is easy to find; and
to locate all relevant evidence from the case, not just an obvious example or two.
Sometimes you will be unable to find evidence relevant to a particular part of the definition. If this happens, be sure to acknowledge explicitly that you were unable to locate evidence.
e. When you have finished your analysis of the evidence, express in your own words how you would answer the question posed about the case. Be sure to:
describe how confident you are about your conclusion, given the amount of evidence you have found; and
describe how your conclusion is affected by the direction of the evidence (e.g. the evidence all points in one direction, is evenly divided, or is mixed but slightly weighted in one direction).
8. Identify additional information that you need to fully analyze this case.
In analyzing a case, you often find that you must make certain assumptions because essential information has not been included by the case writer. In real life, too, key pieces of information often are missing, or cannot be obtained because the collection of the information would take too long or be too costly. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that relevant pieces of information are missing and that your conclusions, therefore, might be flawed.
9. Identify the basic issues that you must confront and the relationships among them.
a. Considering everything that you have learned in the steps above, identify the key problems that must be solved. Sometimes, one problem cannot be solved without first making at least some progress on the solution of another---so be attentive to how problems overlap or interrelate.
b. Also, identify problems that are less central but still deserving of attention.
c. Then, identify problems that can safely be ignored for the foreseeable future.
d. Before considering additional analysis elements, be sure that you have fully described the existing situation, or what in quantitative modeling might be called the “base case.”
10. Keeping in mind the whole array of problems that must be solved, create as at least two different courses of action, each of which seems likely to solve these problems. Be specific and practical.
a. In creating courses of action, you should carefully consider at what level (e.g. individual, team, department, organization) action must be taken.
b. In creating courses of action, you also must think carefully about how much specificity is required. In a manufacturing case, for example, you will have to decide whether to model each step in the production process separately, or to treat the production process as a “black box” with raw materials as inputs and finished products as outputs.
11. For each possible course of action, think through the consequences. Almost every action has negative as well as positive consequences. Think carefully about:
a. how each course of action will be perceived by each stakeholder.
b. how each course of action will affect other problems that must be resolved.
c. the difficulties you will encounter in actually implementing the course of action under consideration.
d. how implementing the course of action you propose may create new problems.
e. how uncertainties in your evidence and assumptions you have made during your analysis might affect the courses of action that you are considering. Consider what you can do to prepare for the possibility that the assumptions you made might prove to be wrong.
12. Decide on a set of recommendations.
a. Prepare a rationale for your recommendations, based on other elements of your analysis, that anticipates challenges and counter-arguments that are likely to made by others.
b. Create a plan for implementing your recommendations.
c. Establish criteria for assessing how well the implementation plan is working.
FRAMEWORK FOR CASE ANALYSIS
Part II – Writing About Your Case Analysis
If you are asked to produce a written report about your case analysis, what format should you use?
There is no “one best way” to write a report about your case analysis. The following pages outline five options, one of which will usually provide a suitable outline to follow in preparing the assignment you have been given by your instructor. If, however, your assignment does not seem to fit any of the five options, you should seek additional guidance from your instructor.
Option A: Use this option if your instructor has given you several conceptually-based questions to use to analyze the case and has instructed you to write a paper answering these questions.
Sometimes your instructor will give you questions that ask you to use a particular theory, model or concept. Refer to Element 7 in Part I of the framework for examples of typical questions. A paper that addresses a set of conceptually-based questions may be organized in the following manner.
A. Introduction
in a few sentences describe the case
in a sentence or two, tell the reader how your paper will be organized, i.e. what the major sections will be and the order in which they will be presented.
B. Body (should include a section for each question; use headings)
Within each heading, identify the question that you are seeking to answer. Then:
1. Define the concept (theory, model) on which the question is based. If your instructor asks you to do so, quote the definition from the text or relevant readings; this will ensure that you are working with the appropriate conceptual material and that you have a framework for organizing evidence from the case.
2. Present evidence that seems relevant to all or some portion of the definition that you quoted in (1). If your instructor asks you to do so, quote that evidence; you often will wish to tell your reader where this evidence it is located in the events of the case by identifying what is happening at that moment in the case. For each piece of evidence presented, also be sure to tell your reader in your own words how the piece of evidence you just quoted fits all or some part of the definition you quoted in (1).
3. Repeat (1) and (2) as many times as necessary:
to search for evidence concerning all elements of the concept, theory or model, not just the ones for which evidence is easy to find; and
to locate all relevant evidence from the case, not just an obvious example or two.
Note: Sometimes you will be unable to find evidence relevant to a particular part of the definition. When this happens, be sure to acknowledge explicitly that you were unable to locate evidence.
4. When you have finished your presentation of the evidence, express in your own words how you would answer the question posed about the case. Be sure to:
describe how confident you are about your conclusion, given the amount of evidence you have found; and
describe how your conclusion is affected by the direction of the evidence (e.g. the evidence all points in one direction, is evenly divided, or is mixed but slightly weighted in one direction).
C. Conclusion
Briefly explain what you have learned about this case, given your answers to the array of assigned questions.
Option B: Use this option if your instructor has given you several conceptually-based questions to use to analyze the case and has instructed you to write a paper: (1) answering these questions, (2) identifying the most important problems of the case based on your answers to the questions, and (3) recommending a course of action, given the problems that you have identified.
Sometimes your instructor will ask you to answer a set of questions use theories, models or concept that you have been studying. (Refer to Element 7 in Part I of the framework for examples of typical questions.) Your instructor may also ask you to identify problems and recommend solutions. This type of paper may be organized in the following manner.
A. Introduction
in a few sentences describe the case
in a sentence or two, tell the reader how your paper will be organized, i.e. what the major sections will be and the order in which they will be presented.
B. Body (should include three major sections: analysis of questions, with a sub-heading for each question; identification of problems; recommended solutions)
Analysis of Questions
Within each sub-heading, identify the question that you are seeking to answer. Then:
1. Define the concept (theory, model) on which the question is based. If your instructor asks you to do so, quote the definition from the text or relevant readings; this will ensure that you are working with the appropriate conceptual material and that you have a framework for organizing evidence from the case.
2. Present evidence that seems relevant to all or some portion of the definition that you quoted in (1). If your instructor asks you to do so, quote that evidence; you often will wish to tell your reader where this evidence it is located in the events of the case by identifying what is happening at that moment in the case. For each piece of evidence presented, also be sure to tell your reader in your own words how the piece of evidence you just quoted fits all or some part of the definition you quoted in (1).
3. Repeat (1) and (2) as many times as necessary:
to search for evidence concerning all elements of the concept, theory or model, not just the ones for which evidence is easy to find; and
to locate all relevant evidence from the case, not just an obvious example or two.
Note: Sometimes you will be unable to find evidence relevant to a particular part of the definition. When this happens, be sure to acknowledge explicitly that you were unable to locate evidence.
4. When you have finished your presentation of the evidence, express in your own words how you would answer the question posed about the case. Be sure to:
describe how confident you are about your conclusion, given the amount of evidence you have found; and
describe how your conclusion is affected by the direction of the evidence (e.g. the evidence all points in one direction, is evenly divided, or is mixed but slightly weighted in one direction).
Identification of Problems
1. Identify the key problems that must be solved. Explain with reference to your analysis of the questions above.
2. Also, identify problems that are less central but still deserving of attention as well as problems that can safely be ignored for the foreseeable future.
Recommended Solutions
Present detailed recommendations addressing the problems identified above. Present a rationale for your recommendation that anticipates challenges and counter-arguments. Your rationale should address at least the following issues:
how the recommended course of action will be perceived by each stakeholder.
how the recommended course of action will affect other problems that must be resolved.
how you plan to implement the recommended course of action
the difficulties you expect to encounter in actually implementing the course of action under consideration.
how implementing the course of action you propose may create new problems.
how uncertainties in your evidence and assumptions you have made during your analysis might affect the courses of action that you are considering.
C. Conclusion
Briefly summarize the essential difficulties posed in this case and the relevance of your recommended solutions.
Option C: Use this option if your instructor has instructed you to “analyze this case.”
A. Introduction
in a few sentences describe the case
in a sentence or two, tell the reader how your paper will be organized, i.e. what the major sections will be and the order in which they will be presented.
B. Body (should include four major sections: identification of major stakeholders and their problems, goals and concerns; identification of problems; analysis of alternative solutions; recommended solutions)
Identification of Stakeholder’s Problems, Goals, and Concerns
1. For each stakeholder, identify events in the case that that stakeholder finds troublesome and would consider a problem; in doing so, quote the case.
2. Identify the assumptions being made by each stakeholder, and the apparent biases of each stakeholder; in doing so, quote the case.
3. Identify the goals (sometimes stated as explicit demands) of each stakeholder; in doing so, quote the case.
4. Then, as best you can based on the evidence of the case, identify the concerns underlying these demands; again, quote the case.
Identification of Problems
1. Identify the key problems that must be solved. Explain with reference to appropriate concepts, theories, models, and/or research findings---and the evidence of the case. Quote evidence to justify your assertions. (Note: this is likely to be a lengthy part of your analysis.)
2. Also, identify problems that are less central but still deserving of attention, as well as problems that can safely be ignored for the foreseeable future.
Analysis of Alternative Solutions
1. Keeping in mind the whole array of problems that must be solved, describe two or three alternatives courses of action that might be taken to resolve these problems. Be specific and practical.
2. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of each course of action, with reference to the following:
how the course of action is expected to resolve the key problems presented.
how the recommended course of action will affect other remaining problems.
how the recommended course of action will be perceived by each stakeholder.
the difficulties you will encounter in actually implementing the course of action under consideration.
how implementing the proposed course of action may create new problems.
how uncertainties in your evidence and assumptions you have made during your analysis might affect the courses of action that you are considering.
Recommended Solutions
Present a detailed recommendation, based on your analysis of alternative solutions:
Present a rationale for your recommendation that anticipates challenges and counter-arguments.
Describe a plan for implementing your recommendations.
Describe the criteria that could be used to assess how well that implementation plan is working.
C. Conclusion
Briefly summarize the essential difficulties posed in this case and the relevance of recommended solutions.
Option D: Use this option if your instructor has asked you to “take the role” of a particular character in the case and to prepare a written response to a memo received from another character. Present your analysis in the form of a memo.
To: John Doe, Senior Vice President, MarketingPharmacia & Upjohn, Inc.
From: Student(s)Product Manager, Rogaine Hair Regrowth Treatment
Date: November 30, 1998
Re: Revised Forecast and Marketing Plan
Begin the body of your memo by briefly explaining to John Doe why you are writing this memo and telling him how the memo will be organized. You may wish to organize your memo as outlined below, keeping in mind that you must be sure to answer John Doe’s questions and respond to his explicit requests for information:
Problems
· Identify the key problems that must be solved. Explain with reference to the evidence of the case and any analyses of that evidence that you have prepared.
· Also, identify problems that are less central but still deserving of attention, as well as problems that can safely be ignored for the foreseeable future.
Recommended Solutions
Present detailed recommendations about a course of action that seems likely to solve the array of problems identified above. Present a rationale for your recommendations that anticipates challenges and counter-arguments. Your rationale should address at least the following issues:
how the course of action is expected to resolve the key problems presented.
how the recommended course of action will affect other remaining problems.
how the recommended course of action will be perceived by each stakeholder.
how uncertainties in your evidence and assumptions you have made during your analysis might affect the courses of action that you are considering.
Implementation
· Describe how you plan to implement the recommended course of action
· Describe the difficulties you expect to encounter in actually implementing the course of action under consideration, including how implementing the course of action you propose may create new problems.
· Describe criteria that could be used to assess how well the implementation plan is working.
Option E: Use this option if your instructor has given you a list of questions that can be answered without reference to conceptual material, such as theories and models.
Sometimes an instructor will give you a list of questions and will want your answers written in direct response to these questions, rather than in the form of a paper with an introduction and conclusion.
In this situation, your answers should sequentially match the format of the questions addressed to you (e.g. if the questions are labeled 1, 2, 3, …, your answers should be labeled 1, 2, 3,…). In composing your response to any given question, you usually need not restate word-for-word the question you were asked; your response, however, should make clear to the reader what subject is being discussed. For example, “No” would not be a sufficient response, while “No, I would not recommend hiring Mr. Smith at this time” might be. You also must be certain to answer each question in complete sentences, and, when necessary, in fully formed paragraphs.
In giving you a writing assignment of this type, your instructor will often have one of the following purposes in mind:
To check that you have found and understood the relevant evidence in the case. Therefore, you should simply reply to the question with a clear, concise statement of the facts of the case.
To direct your thinking to a particular point in the case. Therefore, you should:
1. present relevant information from the case that addresses the question
2. present any additional information you are using to answer the question
3. explain how you interpret the evidence in the context of the case
To encourage you to formulate and state a conclusion. If the question asks you to “explain” or “state your reasoning,” you should follow the three steps above, and then state your conclusion.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] We are indebted for some ideas in this section to: C. Roland Christensen, Teaching By the Case Method. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, 1981, pp. 12-14; Pearson Hunt, “The Case Method of Instruction,” Harvard Educational Review, XXI, 3 (Summer 1951): 186.
[2] Mark Schlesinger, “One of Those If or Maybe Things…Case Analysis Reconsidered.” Proposal for a Presentation/Paper, 7th Nat’l Conference on Intellectual Skills Development, Nov. 11-12, 1988. Grand Rapids, MI.

the case study development process

2009-11-09T15:07:00.001+05:30

This post is a summary of what I’ve learned over the years about developing case studies. I hope this will serve as a reference, and save some effort, for anyone in the process of telling stories about their work. As I’ve written many times in this blog, telling compelling and engaging stories is one of the central duties of marketing. When it comes to case studies, I think I’m fortunate because I’ve discovered that I am better at telling real stories than I am at making them up from scratch. Oh well, no great novels for me.
A Word About Format
Case studies can be prepared in a variety of formats, but the process of collecting information should not change significantly. The format, or formats, that you choose to present the stories in should address the needs of the reader you are targeting. Is this for people visiting your website? For a sales presentation? Or, a presentation at a conference? No matter who it’s for, remember that case studies are just another way of making products and services tangible. thereby building credibility and trust. Here is a list of relevant formats:
ABSTRACT – A concise presentation of information that explains what took place. Abstracts are well suited for internal training, bringing new employees up to speed, or refreshing you memory in advance of a presentation.
SHORT-FORM – A brief version of the case study that highlights the challenge, intervention, and result. Typically this format focuses on the broad strokes. The short-form might also include your best image or testimonial. These work well in the context of websites, or to present a variety of studies to a client before diving deeper into the most relevant example.
LONG-FORM – This is the full blown case study with supporting materials such as testimonials, press coverage, and deliverables. These work well as presentations, and as printed collateral that you can leave with a client. Sometimes. however, you won’t have permission to give away a printed version of the presentation, though you may have the right to incorporate it into a presentation deck during a sales meeting.
THUMBNAIL – This is a very brief summary, often just the challenge and results, that serves as a teaser to get people interested in reading more. The thumbnail works well in to context of an online presentation if you have a page of thumbnails organized by industry category.
The Outline
Now that we’ve talked about different formats, let’s talk about the internal structure of the case study itself. Most case studies have a fairly simple and straightforward format. Sometimes the format is highlighted by standard section titles (see examples below) and sometimes, these titles are replace with more colorful phrases that imply which section is about to follow.
THE TITLE – The title is very important because it’s the first thing the reader will see. The best titles are descriptive and to the point. Try incorporating the client’s name, their industry, or the product/service name. I wrote a case study for Adaptive Path about a project they did for MySpace, the title of that was “The Little User Research Project That Changed The Future Of MySpace In A Big Way.
THUMBNAIL – If a thumbnail is included in a longer form, then it should follow directly after the title. This is you chance to really set the hook and engage the reader. This is also the point at which most readers will either commit to reading the study, or move on to another one. The best thumbnails are concise, colorful, and inspiring. Here’s the thumbnail from the MySpace case study: As the largest social network in the U.S., with over 76 million users, MySpace’s decision to overhaul all of the major sections of the site could not be taken lightly. Redesigning MySpace demanded a great deal of empathy for a diverse user base and clarification of what makes MySpace unique in the saturated social networking space. The resulting redesign was welcomed by users and shot MySpace to the top of online ad views.
ABOUT THE CLIENT – This is the part of the case study where you establish who the client is, what industry they are in, and how they fit into the larger industry. It’s essentially an opportunity to set the scene and establish the backdrop for the rest of the study. This section can end with a statement of the goal of the engagement, which serves as a good transition to the next section. You can see an example of this from a recent case study I developed about PayCycle.
THE CHALLENGE – Like the title states, this is about the challenge that your product or service took on. Define a problem, flush out the context in which it arose in greater detail, illuminate any other information that will either affect, or be affected by, your work.
WHAT WE DID – Again, very straightforward. What did you do? Walk through the process step by step if necessary, and highlight key moments. This is an important place to also highlight what the client contributed to the solution. A successful case study should not only support your practice, but should support the organization that you’re working with. This will also help immensely when it comes to getting approval for the case study (more on that later).
THE RESULTS – This is the most important section, and also the hardest to complete. It’s the most important because it offers the metrics of success that allows potential clients to measure the return on a potential investment in your product or service. It’s the hardest because results take time to measure. It can be hard to convince a client to go through the follow up measurement process once they’ve moved on to other things. Fortunately, it’s in your mutual interest to do so, which is what you’ll have to explain (again, more on that later).
Because the results is the last section of the case study it’s at the end of the attrition curve for readers. One way to offset this issue is to place some of the results early in the case study in a inset box or column. The visual design and layout can have a huge impact here. Here’s a quick sketch of what a printed long-form might look like. In the context of online case studies there are many ways to manage this issue with interaction design as well.
It Starts With Research
Now that we’ve got an idea of what a case study looks like, where do we start the process of creating one? Before we write anything we need to do some research; like any research, you’ll want to have a structure to work within to make sure you ask the right questions and get a good sample of data. In the past, I’ve created a case study worksheet which I used as a guide to the research process. You can see a list of sample questions you might want to include in your worksheet here.
The design of your worksheet is important because you, and you team, will probably spend a significant amount of time with it. Plus, it can be a helpful asset in the future if you ever want to review the project at a very detailed level. Unfortunately, most people don’t enjoy filling out forms, which is what the worksheet really is … so here are a couple things you can do to deal with this reality:
Have your team fill out the worksheet while they do the project, thus completing the task in increments over time.
Build the completed worksheets into the end-of-project team review meeting.
Make it accessible online (Survey Monkey, Google Forms, BaseCamp, etc) so that it’s available to the whole team, and allow them to collaborate as they fill it out.
Use the form as a guide to an in-person interview with the project team.
My experience has been that the success of these techniques depends on the individuals you’re working with and the culture of your organization. As a general rule, the interview approach will almost always work so long as you can find a time to meet. though it’s generally more time consuming for everyone involved (this is one good reason to embed it in the post-project review meeting). As a general rule it should take no more than 3 hours to thoroughly fill out the worksheet and collect the related assets.
Part of the worksheet process includes getting a set of sample deliverables that you can embed into the story. These can be images, quotes from research participants, design assets, or information about a particular practice or method used in the project. Once you’ve got the worksheet complete and an inventory of assets to work with, it’s time to analyze the data.
Analyzing The Data
Since the data is structured, it easy to get a handle on things fairly quickly. This is the time to ask what the story is really about, and how it fits into the larger portfolio of stories you tell. If the story is about a medical device and you already have some great stories in this area, maybe this one should be a short-form or thumbnail. Or, maybe you have a great story in the area but you only have permission to use it in the context of sales meetings. Or, maybe you turn it into a story about a particular design method or practice, such as interaction design?
Getting It In Writing
So now you know how your story relates to the case studies you’ve already got, and what the best format should be. In theory, as you work with the matrix you should be able to identify projects that are likely to fill in gaps before they even start. This is important because it allows you to get into the project early and set expectations with your internal team, and with the client. It’s great if the sales team is also involved so that they can take this into account as they sell. If there’s a project that can complete the matrix, it might be consistent with the larger business strategy to make some sacrifices to win the project. This is particularly relevant if you’re trying to bring your products and services into new industries or markets where you have not worked before.
When this is the case, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve got clear language in your contract that will allow you to talk about the project. This is a significant challenge, particularly when you’re working with large companies, so be prepared to negotiate. Also, go into the process understanding that it’s probably not worth blowing the deal, and that your chances of getting what you want might only be 50%.
THE CONTRACT – You’ll probably want to consult your lawyer but the goal is to get some language into the contract that says that you can talk about the project, list the client on your website, get a testimonial, represent a deliverable, etc. They probably won’t agree to anything that doesn’t require their approval, but you can use language that states that they must be “reasonable” with respect to the approve process, and turn around time. Also, make sure that they’re on board with the commitment to share follow up project data with you, or your results section will be weak.
THE SACRIFICES – Depending on what your product or service is, you may be able to provide an incentive for your clients to allow you to create a case study with discounts, offers to submit the work to competitions, faster turn around time, participation of senior staff, etc.
THE EARLY START – If you’re working on a project that you think has significant potential as a case study, get in early and connect with the most senior person you can. Communicate that case studies are essential to your business, that as clients they relied on a case study in their decision to work with you, and talk about how it can provide value for them as well.
And Finally, Writing It
Here’s a good formula to follow:
1. Start by writing the project abstract.
2. Get approval from the project team that it’s an accurate representation of the project.
3. Send the abstract to the client and tell them that this will be the basis for a case study. Explain that this version is for internal use only.
4. Once you have approval, try your hand at the thumbnail. I recommend this because it’s a great way of setting the tone of the case study. I find it’s helpful to have someone of the project team check in on your progress as you go.
5. With an solid thumbnail, outline the format you’ve decided to go with. If you’re doing both a short and long-form version, I recommend starting with the short-form, and then expanding it into the long-form later.
6. This is a good time to check back in with the internal team and any other stakeholders.
7. Assuming all is well, it’s time to bring in a copy-editor to clean it up.
8. With the copy edited version in hand, it’s time to get approval from the client. Embedding the copy in a rich visual presentation may be more compelling, but you might also end up having to make a significant number of edits …. just something to be aware of.
9. Once you have approval, it’s time to turn it over to a designer for each of the presentation formats you’re working with.
I have been asked whether it makes more sense to have a copywriter manage the whole process, or if it makes more sense to write it yourself and then work with a copy editor. The short answer is that it depends on how your organization is set up. The main thing is that one person manages the process from start to finish.
I hope this is helpful, and I look forward to any feedback and comments on how to improve these guidelines.

PGIE assignment- seven habits of highly effective people

2009-10-23T15:04:00.001+05:30

Upload workshop action plan on seven habits of highly effective people

Case study: Mukta Arts

2009-10-21T11:08:00.002+05:30

Mukta Arts: Searching for the right product depth.

© Prasad Kulkarni. Faculty, GIT Belgaum

This Case study is prepared in 2008.

A Mukta art is India’s well known Media Company managed by Mr. Subhash Ghai. The company which started its operation in the Bollywood in the year 1980 gave some of the block buster movies like Karz, Hero, Khalanayak, Pardes and Taal. The company expanded their business from movie production to film processing, broadcasting, and content development. The corporatization of the film industry resulted in the extremely competitive environment. Companies like ADLABS, Saregama, Pyramid saimira, PVR, UTV etc came out with innovative strategies to lure Indian audience. In the past 2 years all these competitors were able to produce blockbuster movies, but there is none from the Mukta arts¹. Filmy pundits in Bollywood however wondered that how this golden oldie missed the bus.

The Film industry

Indian film industry has experienced unprecedented growth in the previous decade. Bollywood movies ventured into the new countries and put their footprints. The Indian film industry is worth of Rs 96 billion 2007 is expected to touch Rs 176 billion by 2010². The film industry is expected to grow at 24% per annum. Of the total revenue three fourth of it comes from the domestic market and rest from the overseas market. Overseas box offices collection currently estimated at Rs 700 crore is expected to grow at 18%³. The film industry is not depending on the box office collection alone they are finding new vistas in the film music rights, copyrights for ring tones, gaming content based on the movies, in film advertisements and events related to movies. The top players in the media industry are given in the table 1⁴. Table 1

Sl. No

Company

Net sales

(Rs in crore TTM)

Net profit

(Rs in crore TTM)

1

Adlabs Films

426.1

75.3

2

Balaji Telefilms

331.9

87.8

3

Mukta arts

95.4

17.9

4

Pyramid Saimira

380.5

42.1

5

PVR

196.6

16.1

6

Saregama India

123.8

13.5

7

Shree Asta vinayaka cine vision

78.5

15.4

8

UTV software

200.6

18.3

(TTM: Trailing twelve months)

Mukta arts: Subhash Ghai’s dream child.

Mukta Arts is currently in the business of production and distribution of the movies. It generates the revenue form the issue and reissue of rights of theoretical, audio, video, DVD viewing and satellite. As the internet became the major media for promoting a movies and songs, Mukta arts realized the importance of content development and content delivery. Therefore company restructures itself into two major divisions; creation of contents and delivery of contents.

Table 2: Mukta arts organization hierarchy⁵

Production of Movies/ Tele-serials and Music Albums: This division will be looking after producing movies, Tele-serials and music albums. The budget estimation will vary according to the need of the movie. Higher budget movies are produced by the Mr. Subhash Ghai himself and the low budget movies are produced by the other hired directors.

Expansion/Up gradation of Hardware Facilities: Mukta Art proposes to upgrade its existing studio 'AUDEUS'. This will help company to provide its facilities like generator, vans and other instruments to needed clients

Training Center: the company established whistling woods international a training institute, which provides two year training in film making. The training is given by renowned film directors like Ashutosh Gourikar, Nagesh Kukanoor etc.

Film Distribution: The company has movie distribution wing which undertakes the distribution of major banners and well known directors.

Web Casting and designing: The company created web portal through which it broadcasts content movies and music albums. Mukta Arts also understood the importance of the design in the film industry. Malpix, the design studio, is the lifeline of Mukta Arts’ design and creative representation offering the world a clear and consistent image of the company and all its ventures – be it films or television. Masters in the use of color, type, illustration, photography, printing techniques, multimedia and other elements of design and production, Malpix boasts of an astounding expertise in both technical and aesthetic aspects of communication.

Competitors’ analysis: Adlabs: One of the prominent entertainment companies in India entertainment industry has presence in almost all parts of film value chain. The company has seven strategic units; film processing and services, film production, distribution, television content production, film exhibition through multiplexes, publishing of home videos and FM radio. In the year 2007-08 company released Johnny gaddar and Namastey London, both were huge hit. Company is planning to release its Singh is King and Sultan The warriors.

Balaji Telefilms: The pioneer in television content has huge plans to expand its presence to film industry too. Company has signed up four prominent directors- Abbas- Mastan, Apoorva Lakhita, Rohit shetty and Tigamanshu Dhulia for its fourth coming production slates. Balaji team is planning to release Kya kool hai hum 2, Mission Istanbul and C Company.

Pyramid Saimira: Company is a pioneer in the developing single screen theaters, setting up an exhibition network and film processing. Company’s release Halla Bol has done reasonably well.

Saregama: One of the largest content copyright holders in the Indian market. Company is into the Producing the film and publishing the content. Saregama’s revenue comes from newer areas like internet streaming and mobile ringtones.

Shree Ashtavinayaka Cine vision: No body understood the Bollywood like this company in the last year. Company’s two releases Partner and Jab We Met were runaway hit. It also has a presence in the film exhibition. Currently it is having 30 single screen theatres in its fold.

UTV software: The Company which produced Rang De Basanti did not live up to its expectations in the year 2007-08. It released the Namesake, Life in a metro and Dhan Dhanadan Goal and all the three were able to score above average. Recent release Jodha Akbar which had superstars like Hritik and Aishwarya Rai, unable to convince the audience. However the latest release ‘race’ is doing well in the box office.

Product depth problems

Mukta arts Product mix consists three important product lines; movie distribution, movie production and training. In movie production product line, Mukta arts produced some of the wonderful movies like Karz, Hero, Ram Lakhan, Saudagar, Khalanayak, Pardseh, and Taal. However the movies released in recent time like Joggers park, Kisna, Bombay to Bangkok and Black and white did not live up to the expectations. ‘36 china town’ and ‘Iqbal’ are the only two which were able to recover the amount invested. The results of their movies have created the doubt in the minds of the employees. . Low budget movies like Iqbal and Joggers Park were able to recover their cost while Kisna was a major debacle⁶. Does it mean that low budget movies are bigger bet to Mukta? Somewhere down the line, think tank decided to concentrate on releasing the regional language movies. Films like khande pohe and valu were released in Marathi. Both the films did extremely well in the box office. Does it mean Mukta should consider more regional movies or mainstream movies? These questions will have their repercussions on the image of the company and stakeholders response in the stock market.

Considering this company divided its film production into two divisions. Mukta arts will focus on developing the big budget movies in the Hindi and Malpix division will concentrate on the regional language movies. According to Ravi gupta CEO of Mukta arts, company will focus on the big budget movies⁷ but company’s top earning movies this year are Iqbal and Joggers Park which are low budget movies and big budget movie like Kisna bombed in the box office. ‘The film Kisna was 1920 year old story and younger generation did not accept it’ said subhash ghai ⁸. However Jodha Akbar which based on the mogul emperor did well in the box office. Mukta arts could not find right solutions at the moment and waiting for a big hit. Stake holders are still intact with company because it earns the revenue through reissuing the rights and distribution. There lies unresolved question how long such initiative will sustain company’s bottom line.

Discussion questions:

1. is it right on the part of Mukta arts to focus on all the streams of movie or just to focus on their core strength film production?

2. Should Mukta have movies in regional as well as Hindi languages?

3. Do you think that product (movies) have a right attribute to expect the acceptance of the consumer?

4. Suggest type of Products Company needs to revitalize the Mukta business.

Reference

1. Niren Shah Business standard, January 21 2008.

2. Economic times, 1^st June 2008.

3. Frames 2007, FICCI- PwC report on Indian entertainment industry.

4. http://www.rediff.com/cms/print.jsp?docpath=//money/2008/jan/21spec.htm

5. Daily corporate news analysis, KRC research, www.krchoksey.com

6. Ghai, guts and glory, Economic times, 17^th September 2006.

7. Interview with Ravi gupta, www.indiatelevision.com 10^th December 2007

8. I thought kisna will be a big hit – Rediff news 6^th March 2008

Statistics assignment 1

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Solve the questions of module 1 and module 2( till median) appeared in the following question papers

question paper and respective teams

2003 July team 1

2003 Dec team 2

2004 July team 3

2004 Dec team 4

2005 July team 5

2005 Dec team 6

2006 July team 7

2006 Dec team 8

2007 July team 9

2007 Dec team 10

2008 July team 11

2008 Dec team 12

AIMA management quiz

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http://www.aima-ind.org/SANMAR_National_Management_Quiz.asp

Strategic Management Assignment 2

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Assignment 2

Analyze the external enviornment and Porter's five forces model for foundry business.
Prepare SWOT analysis for any one foundry company.

Movie service pricing

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© Prasad Kulkarni, Faculty, GIT Belgaum

The case is written in 2008

Priya village road show, popularly known as PVR is the pioneer in establishing the theater system in India. PVR started its operations in the year 1998 and redefined the way movie service provided in India. It is the first Indian company that corporatized the theater system. Till then theaters are owned by the individuals.

PVR is the first media company to initiate the multiplex system in India. Multiplexes are the theaters built inside the shopping malls or commercial complexes. PVR knew that establishing multiplexes alone cannot help it to expand. Therefore it started an innovative idea of holding the theaters and screens.

Pricing a movie ticket is a complex issue. PVR believed in providing high quality movie experience at an affordable price. But rising input cost like, wage, rent, electricity and others made PVR to rethink its business model. PVR restructured its business model and divided its services into PVR premier and PVR theater. The comfort and hospitality provided in these two formats vary. PVR Forum Mall Theater in Bangalore divided its theater into three divisions. They are; classic, Europa and gold class. The prices of the ticket of these three categories on weekends are Rs 200, Rs350 and Rs 500 respectively for Hindi and English movies. The price per ticket for the Kannada movies varies as the company gets tax sops from the Karnataka government. It charges Rs 80 to Rs 150. The price of the ticket in the weekdays will vary in the classic and Europa sections to attract more number of consumers. The price of the gold class remains same. The company realized that numbers of movie goers in the morning are less. It reduced the price of classic and Europa to Rs 80 till 12 noon on weekdays where as gold class price remains as it is. The gold class price is having two components. Out of Rs 500 charged Rs 350 is considered as movie ticket price and Rs 150 is used to provide snacks to the consumers.

PVR started all these permutations and combinations in pricing products because movie goers felt that ticket price is too high. PVR thought that this consumer perception will harm its revenue in the future as it won’t get the volume. At this juncture the company reduced the ticket price. This has resulted in the lowering of the margins for the PVR limited. To rationalize this company started providing the food and beverages inside its lounge. These products are priced higher than the market price. To adapt this strategy company studied the market extensively and found that consumers who use the food and beverages inside the theaters are not price sensitive. For them it is a habit to have food and beverages to get the movie experience. This bundling helped the PVR to improve its bottom line.

Discussion questions:

1. What is the pricing strategy adopted by the PVR?

2. Does bundling the movie ticket and food and beverages help company to improve the image in the minds of consumer? Support your answer from the extracts of case let.

3. Suggest a business model that help PVR to improve its bottom line.

Data fabrication

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Topic: Marketing research.

Mr. Suryaputra is working for Suchitra private limited, a marketing research organization since two months. Suchitra is a well known, recognized marketing research company. It offers market research solutions to large clients cutting across various industries.

Mr. Ganesh and Mr. Narayan are working as business development executives in marketing department of Suchitra Private limited. Both of them get the research project from clients and give it to operation team. The operation team analyzes the data and marketing strategy is written on the bases of data interpretation by the research team. The final report is given to Miss Jhanvi Who looks after the operation department. In turn this report is handed over to Mr. Ganesh and Mr. Narayan who gives verbal presentation to clients. The research projects are assigned to 20 research analysts in the firm on the basis of their workloads. As numbers of clients are large it is very difficult for the company to have fixed analysts working on the project. Therefore operation department allocated the work internally and externally. Internal analysts work on sample, construction of questionnaire and interpreting the data. Data collection and data processing is outsourced from Shankar research Limited.

Mr. Suryaputra’s responsibilities are interpreting the data and provide the recommendation to the clients. He has completed over 10 projects in the last two months and his works are well appreciated by the clients. He has completed the new assignment on the Friday and submitted to Miss Jhanvi. When Mr. Suryaputra returned to office on Monday he saw the changes in the data processed and a note to see Miss Jhanvi.

Miss Jhanvi explained that Mr. Narayan would not like the report as client probably not agree with it. She explained that Mr. Narayan took permission to do some correction in the primary data and asked Mr. Suryaputra to write a new report.

Questions for Assignment:

1. Is it ethical to change the actual findings of the marketing research report? Support your answer.

2. What is the impact on the business if the un-fabricated data sent to clients?

Mission statements of FMCG companies

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1. ITC Mission

To enhance the wealth generating capability of the enterprise in a globalizing environment, delivering superior and sustainable stakeholder value

2. Godrej Saralee

We are in the business of household and environmental pest control solutions. We have a mission to accomplish, and this is our mission:

Accelerate the growth of the Indian household insecticides market,

Strengthen our leadership position in India and

Rapidly globalize our business.

We shall achieve this objective by:

Understanding, continuously tracking and satisfying changing customer needs,

Continuous improvement in quality, cost and distribution,

Nurturing, developing and empowering our employees and

Encouraging an open atmosphere conducive to learning and teamwork.

3. Cholayil

To empower and enrich people’s lives globallywith world class personal and healthcare productsand services. To provide sustained and increasing value to all stakeholders.

4. Procter and gamble India

We will provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world's consumers. As a result, consumers will reward us with leadership sales, profit, and value creation, allowing our people, our shareholders, and the communities in which we live and work to prosper.

Discussion Question:

Analyze the mission statements of above FMCG companies on the following points

1. Does mission explains who its customer is?

2. Will the mission statement describes how company satisfies its consumers

3. Is there any specific reference to what type of Products Company offers?

MBA Department

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Vision

To be Visual in the Global Market Place.

Goals

To provide the best Management Education for furthering the students career leading to excellent placements and successful entrepremeur.

Overview

Gogte Institute of Technology, Belgaum was established in the year 1979. The Department of MBA which is affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University was started in September 2007. The present intake in 60 students. The MBA program comprises of four semesters (2 years) with specializations in Marketing, Finance, Human Resource, Information Systems, Production and International business. The admission process generally starts after April and students are required to appear for the entrance tests. Our MBA is recognized by AICTE and government of Karnataka.

Sl. No	Company	Net sales (Rs in crore TTM)	Net profit (Rs in crore TTM)
1	Adlabs Films	426.1	75.3
2	Balaji Telefilms	331.9	87.8
3	Mukta arts	95.4	17.9
4	Pyramid Saimira	380.5	42.1
5	PVR	196.6	16.1
6	Saregama India	123.8	13.5
7	Shree Asta vinayaka cine vision	78.5	15.4
8	UTV software	200.6	18.3