The document outlines the case study method used at Harvard Business School (HBS), emphasizing the importance of collaborative decision-making in diverse groups. It introduces the PACADI framework, a structured six-step approach for analyzing business problems, which assists students in developing critical-thinking and decision-making skills. The method prepares students for real-world challenges by engaging them in dynamic discussions and practical applications of business concepts.

1. Department of Management Studies
Case study
by
Dr G.Nagarajan
Professor -MITS, Madanapalle

2. Case study
ü Have you ever worked with a group of people trying to solve a
problem?
ü There are different opinions, different considerations, and each
person’s perspective provides a different angle on the problem.
ü Ultimately, you must decide a course of action.
ü There’s no right answer, but you have to confront the
complexities of the choice you make. What if that room was filled
with people from diverse industries, functions, countries, and
backgrounds?
ü All trying to analyze a problem and make a decision? Every day?
ü That is what the case method at HBS prepares you to do.

3. Method of Case Study Process
• Read and analyze the case. Each case is a 10-20 page
document written from the viewpoint of a real person
leading a real organization.
• In addition to background information on the situation,
each case ends in a key decision to be made.
• Your job is to sift through the information, incomplete by
design, and decide what you would do.
• Discuss the case.

4. • Each morning, you’ll bring your ideas to a small team of
classmates from various professional backgrounds, your
discussion group, to share your findings and listen to theirs
voices.
• Together, you begin to see the case from different
perspectives, better preparing you for class.
• Engage in class.
• Be prepared to change the way you think as you debate with
classmates the best path forward for this organization.
• The highly engaged conversation is facilitated by the faculty
member, but it’s driven by your classmates’ comments and
experiences.

5. • HBS brings together amazingly talented people from diverse backgrounds
and puts that experience front and center.
• Students do the majority of the talking (and lots of active listening), and
your job is to better understand the decision at hand.
• You will not leave a class thinking about the case the same way you thought
about it coming in!
• In addition to learning more about many businesses, in the case method
you will develop communication, listening, analysis, and leadership skills.
• It is a truly dynamic and immersive learning environment.
Reflect.
• The case method prepares you to be in leadership positions where you will
face time-sensitive decisions with limited information.
• Reflecting on each class discussion will prepare you to face these situations
in your future roles.

6. • Just as actors, athletes, and musicians spend thousands of hours practicing
their craft, business students benefit from practicing their critical-thinking
and decision-making skills.
• Students, however, often have limited exposure to real-world problem-
solving scenarios; they need more opportunities to practice tackling tough
business problems and deciding on—and executing—the best solutions.
• To ensure students have good opportunity to develop these critical-
thinking and decision-making skills, we believe business faculty should shift
from teaching mostly principles and ideas to mostly applications and
practices.
• And in doing so, they should emphasize the case method, which simulates
real-world management challenges and opportunities for students.

7. • To help educators facilitate this shift and help students get the
most out of case-based learning, we have developed a
framework for analyzing cases.
• We call it PACADI (Problem, Alternatives, Criteria, Analysis,
Decision, Implementation); it can improve learning outcomes
by helping students better solve and analyze business problems,
make decisions, and develop and implement strategy.
• Here, we’ll explain why we developed this framework, how it
works, and what makes it an effective learning tool.

8. PACADI: A Six-Step Decision-Making Approach
• The PACADI framework is a six-step decision-making approach that
can be used in lieu of traditional end-of-case questions.
• It offers a structured, integrated, and iterative process that requires
students to analyze case information, apply business concepts to
derive valuable insights, and develop recommendations based on
these insights.
• Prior to beginning a PACADI assessment, which we’ll outline here,
students should first prepare a two-paragraph summary—a
situation analysis—that highlights the key case facts.
• Then, we task students with providing a five-page PACADI case
analysis (excluding appendices) based on the following six steps.

9. Step 1: Problem definition
• What is the major challenge, problem, opportunity, or decision
that has to be made?
• If there is more than one problem, choose the most important one.
Often when solving the key problem, other issues will surface and
be addressed.
• The problem statement may be framed as a question; for example,
How can brand X improve market share among millennials in
Canada?
• Usually the problem statement has to be re-written several times
during the analysis of a case as students understand the layers of
symptoms or efforts.

10. Step 2: Alternatives.
•Identify in detail the strategic alternatives to address
the problem; three to five options generally work best.
•Alternatives should be mutually exclusive, realistic,
creative, and feasible given the constraints of the
situation.
•Doing nothing or delaying the decision to a later date
are not considered acceptable alternatives.

11. Step 3: Criteria
üWhat are the key decision criteria that will guide decision-making?
üIn a marketing course, for example, these may include relevant
marketing criteria such as segmentation, positioning, advertising and
sales, distribution, and pricing.
üFinancial criteria useful in evaluating the alternatives should be
included—for example, income statement variables, customer lifetime
value, payback, etc.
üStudents must discuss their rationale for selecting the decision criteria
and the weights and importance for each factor.

12. Step 4: Analysis.
•Provide an in-depth analysis of each alternative based
on the criteria chosen in step three.
•Decision tables using criteria as columns and
alternatives as rows can be helpful.
•The pros and cons of the various choices as well as the
short- and long-term implications of each may be
evaluated.
•Best, worst, and most likely scenarios can also be
insightful.

13. Step 5: Decision
•Students propose their solution to the problem.
•This decision is justified based on an in-depth analysis.
•Explain why the recommendation made is the best fit
for the criteria.

14. Step 6: Implementation plan
•Sound business decisions may fail due to poor execution.
•To enhance the likeliness of a successful project outcome,
students describe the key steps (activities) to implement
the recommendation, timetable, projected costs,
expected competitive reaction, success metrics, and risks
in the plan.