All cases should be approached by following these three steps: (thanks Frankie for this info)
- identifying the underlying issues that the business may face (these can be in the form of important decisions, or problems that managers have to solve),
- analyzing the causes of the above-mentioned issues and attempting to reach a solution for the most important ones,
- summarizing a recommendation or recommended strategy to cope with the issues.
In COMM101, the first step would be to skim through the case – the first and last page are usually good indicators for the key problems the case is focused on. They also provide a first look at the key decision in the case. Our first case (lululemon) had as its key decision a choice between expanding geographically and expanding the product line-up. Such a key decision is the main focus of the case and should also be the main focus of our answers.
A good strategy to get an overview over all issues is to list them all after a second read-through of the case. Subsequently, the issues can be ‘bucketed’ and overarching issues are to be identified. These can be further narrowed down to one large all-encompassing issue that is the focus of the case.
The actual analysis then consists of prioritizing the issues and finding arguments through pro/con comparisons, cause/effect diagrams, SWOT diagrams, financial analysis, etc. – remember, however, that you have to be selective and not everything should be included!
After this is done, a recommendation can be worded, in the form of advice and recalling the key decision that is to be made.
always remember – ‘my analysis shows…’ beats ‘I think…’
