Case Study Rubric APA GradingMissing Title PageIncorre.docx

Case Study Rubric
APA Grading
Missing Title Page
Incorrect Margins
Incorrect Header/Footer
Missing Abstract
Missing References Page
Incorrectly Formatted References
Spelling and Grammar
-10 points
-2 points
-2 points
-10 points
-10 points
-2 points
-2 points for each occurrence
SUPERIOR SCORE 94 - 100
Content and Subject: Easily identifiable, clear. Meets or
exceeds page or word length requirement.
Structure: Apparent, understandable, and applicable. Excellent
flow and well-structured.
Examples/Sources: Examples were used. Integration of external
sources occurred.
Analysis: Interesting and novel. Provides different Marketing
Principles based perspectives; demonstrates critical thinking
and critical analysis at a high level.
Mechanics: Excellent APA format. Virtually devoid of errors in
grammar, syntax, punctuation, and spelling.

ACHIEVING SCORE 86 - 93
Content and Subject: Overall concrete, but may be slightly
unclear. Meets or exceeds page or word length requirement.
Structure: Generally clear and appropriate.
Examples/Sources: Examples were used to support most points.
Analysis: Evidence relates to the Marketing Principles based
content. Evidence may lack some clarity. Critical analysis and
critical thinking is apparent.
Mechanics: APA format above average. Good sentence structure
(syntax), grammar, punctuation, and spelling, with minor
errors.
AVERAGE SCORE 78 – 85
Content and Subject: Fairly easy to read and understand, but the
paper meanders from the topic or lacks cohesion/content. Meets
page or word length requirement.
Structure: Overall good, with minor shortfalls.
Examples/Sources: Examples used to support most points.
Arguments sometimes lack supporting evidence and
some critical analysis. Limited external source use to support
paper.
Analysis: Cited references appear intermittently, with some
Marketing Principles based critical thinking, but with minimal
or no analysis or further discussion by the adult learner.
Mechanics: APA format may contain intermittent problems.
Sentence structure may have some errors relative to syntax,
grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
BELOW AVERAGE Less than 77
Content and Subject: Often unstructured and vague. Content not
totally applicable to the paper's requirements.
Structure: Mostly unclear and difficult to visualize.
Examples/Sources: Very few examples used to support points.
Minimal, if any, citations.
Analysis: External references not used or very limited with

no Marketing Principles based analysis or further discussion by
the adult learner that demonstrates adult learner critical
thinking/analysis.
Mechanics: APA format not followed. Numerous mistakes in
sentences, paragraph formatting, spelling, and grammar that
subtract from the content of the paper. The writing errors
suggest minimal likelihood that this paper was proofread for
errors prior to submission. Writing is not at a graduate level.
Bulletin of Education and Research
June 2013, Vol. 35, No. 1 pp. 95-105
Competitive Branding & Development Model:
A Qualitative Case Study of UAE approach to Human Capital
Dr. Nadir Ali Kolachi *
_____________________________________________________
__________
Abstract
The paper reports on the branding and development factors.
Countries are in need to brand
their activities to attract the coordination and business from
other countries. The main focus of
this paper is related to competitive branding at individual &
country level in order to develop
required human capital in next five to seven years. The paper
investigates the parameters of

branding and competency through the proposed model named
competitive branding and
development (CBD) model. The model reports on the important
factors for branding and
competency. The paper is spread on two levels of branding
based on the micro level
(individual) and macro level (country). The paper aims to
investigate the competitive branding
of individuals and countries. This paper will report on UAE
perspective. The branding is
discussed through the proposed model named Competitive
Branding & Development (CBD)
in this paper. The study reports as a practical Case study limited
to UAE only. The choice of
case study approach in this research was convenient and
suitable in such types of studies. The
practical implication of this study is to identify the parameters
to brand & develop individual
and countries at various domains. The parameters are organized
into a model form named as
Competitive Branding & Development (CBD) Model. The
countries can utilize such model to
evaluate their competency levels in comparison to other
countries. This paper is academic,
research and practical type and may benefit students, teachers,
researchers, managers, policy
makers from International Business, Individual development,
Country development and
Comparative management domains.
Key Words: Competitive branding, Individual branding,
Country branding and Human Capital
*Associate Professor, Skyline University, University City of

Sharjah, UAE
email: [email protected], [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]
96
Introduction
Today’s age has no choice but a greater investment in human
capital. To
ensure this, countries are in search of logical plans where such
investment can be
initiated. The huge flow of training trends, economic forums,
university campuses,
collaborative symposiums, international conferences, exchange
of talent and
attracting the talent is the main practice of UAE these days.
Such cordial situations
will equip UAE nationals with high exposure, flourish business
at rapid pace and will
become a central hub in this part of world. The model comprises
on two levels. First
is individual level which will explain the parameters required
for individual branding.
This will justify the importance of branding at individual level
and also put some
reasons of UAE national’s approach to adopt such sub
parameters at individual level.
Second is the model is about country level which means UAE
approach to coordinate

with other countries. This research part will also touch some
points which are
required for international associations. The purpose of this part
is to inform the
readers about UAE approach towards country branding. The
main factors like
education, business, entertainment and sports are listed in the
second part of the
research. The first part of the model is comprised on the main
factors as competency
branding, professional branding and career management
branding which are further
followed by four subheadings each. The subheadings have also
some further
subheadings.
In order to have some concepts of different categories of
branding, this
research provides following references of branding concepts and
also proposed
definitions of different branding in this research.
Branding in marketing is the concept of promoting the
organizational
products. Branding in Human Resources is the concept of
promoting one’s
capabilities in the Organization. Few definitions proposed by
different authors lead to
the similar concepts as Corporate branding represents the idea
that the organization
and everything it stands for is mobilized to interact with the
stakeholders the
organization wants to reach and engage them in dialogue”
(Hatch & Schultz, 2000, p.
27). Employee branding is defined as “the process by which
employees internalize

the desired brand image and are motivated to project the image
to customers and
other organizational constituents” (Miles & Mangold, 2004, p.
68). The concept of
Competency branding is to show and market one’s capabilities
in any specialized
field where as Professional branding is similar but adds the
marketing of one’s
professional and demanded behavior in the different
organizational context.
Nadir 97
Competency Branding
Competency branding is the most important and little technical
to achieve. It
requires time and depends on many other factors as well. To
achieve the factors, UAE
government has initiated to equip its nationals to have more
experience and exposure
which comes through efforts. Facilitating them with high
standards of education at all
levels are the initiatives to build competency level. Good
exposure comes through
travelling, participation, reading, education, technical

education, interest and active
learning. The branding of one’s exposure and intellectual level
is to enter into more
challenging environment and accepting more responsibilities to
show talent in various
fields. Visionary people are always given frequent opportunities
as they showed
results through the visionary approach. The technique to brand
one’s talent is to show
the results of practical projects, practical implementations and
high achieved targets.
This will help company to understand the sense of ownership of
an employee. People
must enhance the exposure through understanding the company
and country level
affairs. See the talented people’s style and adopt it. Build
knowledge and read
knowledgeable models to understand the trends. People must
show sense of
ownership with the company
Professional Branding
The second part is related to professional branding which is
based on
professional grooming and development. This can be achieved
through training &
development. Professional branding is second most important
factor as it helps to
interact, good impression and high learning opportunities. To
brand this way,
employees need to be very fair-feeling, supportive,
collaborative and cooperative.
Such activities of employees always get noticed by the high ups
and can get an
opportunity for any other challenge task. This is good in

branding because people
start trusting your dealing way which can be utilized at other
occasions. The last part
of this part is much noticed and branding factor. This means
people behave
professionally by solving all company’s problems without any
anger or displeasure.
They are professional with high emotional stability which is
good sign and can have a
salutary effect on others. Such things can make an individual
branded and turn to be
good leader, good coach and work for the status of the
company. Good observation of
good things, being neutral in few things and showing emotional
stability will earn
good response in the company. Individual must practice
unbiased behavior, show
responsibility and work with patience. This will help people
grow and achieve good
things in life.
98
Career Management Branding
The third part of individual level branding is career oriented.
To grow in the
career and to cross all exponential ladders, one must have
mature and motivated

behavior. People can know people more when they enter into
interactive sessions,
show the commitment in work and respond in most disciplined
manner. People like it
and want to implement and spread in the company. To brand
individual level, one
must show dignity and help everyone, show prudence, give
extra care to company
affairs and play self respect every time. This part shows that
people who are
ambitious driven always noticed and people who are always
socially accepted by
other people always get good promotions as it helps to improve
peer relations and
contacts. In the branding, individual must learn how to be
socially accepted. This can
be achieved through interaction and participation. Individual
must do such
participation all the time.
Competitive Branding & Development Model
Individual Branding
1. Competency Branding
a. Good Exposure
b. Talented & Visionary
c. Intellectual & Knowledgeable
d. Sense of ownership with self & Company
2. Professional Branding
• Smart, Coach & Leader
• Neutral, Trained & Observer
• Unbiased, Responsible & Coordinator
• Professionally Developed with Emotional Stability
3. Career Management Branding

• Bold, Mature & Motivated
• Interactive, Committed & Disciplined
• Self respect & Dignity and Professionally groomed
• Opportunistic, Ambitious Driven & Socially Accepted
Country Branding
4. Collaborations
Associations & Collaboration among Countries
5. Strategic HRD & Usefulness
Intellectual Capital development OD, T&D and Career
Management
Nadir 99
6. Resources & Resourcefulness
7. Competency & Competitiveness
Talented workforce, Educational reforms and R&D (Technology
and
Management)
8. International Relation & Belongingness
• Security (Safe, cordial and easy access) and FDI (Investment
and Business
Dealings)

• Sports (Football, Tennis and Cricket) and Tourism (Tourism
education)
The purpose of such branding is to evaluate the branding and
competency of
UAE dimensions. The branding at career level, organizational
level or country level
has become an important for the self development,
organizational development and
country development. The study examines the proposed CBD
model and suggests the
required parameters for branding at individual and country
level. To be competitive in
this rapid paced business & technological era, the branding and
development in
human capital has become prime importance. Education and
training is focused on
intellectual capital development in UAE. This paper will
examine all required factors
of branding at individual and country level.
Collaboration
The fourth & fifth point of second part is very much required in
this
competitive era. The collaboration is the dire need for the
countries in order to grow,
build, intellectual change, enhance competitive level and help
each other. Future time
will definitely depend on regional collaboration. This is
possible through various
kinds of associations in different domains as health, education,
security and military
compatibility. When countries are not good to one another
especially in regional
cases, then the third party takes advantage which might be

expensive and will flourish
dependency situation. The countries must collaborate &
innovate association in
various fields to brand and develop the effectiveness. The fight,
win loose or only us
concepts are finished but competency, branding and
development in different
domains are hundred percent required for success and
prosperity.
Strategic HRD & Usefulness
After collaboration, the countries’ development is highly
dependent on the
strategic HRD factors and their usefulness at the right time.
This is the time where all
the countries are making heavy investment in intellectual
capital development and it
is only possible through strategic HRD implementation. The
developed societies are
not developed because they are in the west but because of the
right strategic HRD
100
models. Organizational development is the push from change
management or
something new initiative with better compatibility. This
compatibility and concern
can be supported by right training & development activities.
Today the workforce

from Germany, China, India and many other countries are
inclined to make huge
investment in HRD activities because this is one area which
develops the countries at
larger scale. Right HRD initiatives can brand an individual and
country and ensures
the development more and more. So countries’ branding will
actually happen when
they cooperate with each other and exchange their HRD
initiatives, exchange &
innovate on various fields.
Resources & Resourcefulness
The sixth point of the model is important parameters for long
term
development. The concept of resources means natural resources,
environment,
infrastructure, climate, energy and many others but
resourcefulness means the talent
to manage the resources. Some countries might have resources
but lack
resourcefulness, the ability to manage them while others might
not have resources but
have talent to manage the resources. Such things can easily be
exchanged and
beneficial for each other. Coordination is greater required at
that level.
Competency & Competitiveness
The seventh one is Competency & Competitiveness. These are
very obvious
parameters to enter world. Competency means the competency,
talent of doing
something while competitiveness means how to market the

competency as American,
Chinese, Indian and German workforce have done so far. The
countries can learn
from other countries and adopt them at full length. BRICS is
one of the biggest
example of exchange talented workforce, technology, energy,
money, research ideas
and cooperation with each other. Countries should make the
combination of resources
with competency which means if country is blessed with
resources, they need to build
competency to take advantage of it. This can be done through
collaboration with
other countries or sending country men to other countries to
learn techniques to
utilize the resources in best possible manner. Resourcefulness
should be accumulated
with competitiveness. If some countries are capable enough to
manage the resources
or have some techniques to do, then they market it, show
willingness, competencies
to other countries to attract the business collaboration and
enhance good long term
relationship.
Nadir 101

International Relations
The eighth point is International relations. The millennium age
is the age of
collaboration, cooperation, international relations, and
belongingness in various
domains like health, education, security, sports, trade, travel,
regional cooperation,
investment and entertainment. Some countries feel proud to
have good relations with
developed and rapidly emerging markets. Competency branding
becomes very easy
when some initiatives are taken in the above areas positively.
The areas will also
attract the attention of other countries to join, cooperate and
take cooperative favors
from each other. Best possible projects are always good and
flourish the relationship
with different countries. These days many top corporations are
investing in China,
Russia and India for good returns and maintaining good
relationships at the same
level. Countries must initiate different investment forums, trade
shows and
exhibitions to figure out the areas of contribution and decide to
cooperate with other
countries in various areas. European Countries, Asian Tigers,
Gulf Countries have
initiated such activities and have achieved tremendous
responses from each other.
Just to conclude this part of the paper, the EU countries, Gulf
Countries, BRICS have
been utilizing the parameters very positively. Much focus of
such countries is
regional cooperation and huge investment in HRD projects to

equip people and build
it at world level.
Literature Survey
Countries’ branding is based on countries’ competency. This
competency is a
set of knowledge, abilities, technologies, political systems,
managerial & value that
generate competitive differential to the organizations which are
perceived by clients
and which are difficult to imitate. (Prahalab and Hamel (1990).
The competency of
India and China in Asia, the competency of France & Germany
in Europe and
competency of UAE through recent developments are the
evidences of the
competitive world. Today’s’ age is the age of competition not
just based on the
corporate level of corporations but on competency level of
countries. This research
has proposed a Competitive Branding & Development Model.
The purpose of
innovating such model is to evaluate the branding &
competency plans of different
countries. The countries’ initiatives in different associations
and unions like BRICS,
EU, ASEAN, MERCOSURE, NAFTA and many others are the
signs of collaboration
and help each other. Most of the countries are busy in
evaluating intellectual capital
models to equip the people in different demanded fields. UAE
has planned all of them
and more in 2020.

102
The developed countries have branded them on the basis of
knowledge
management which means data mining the right information in
today’s age. There is
much research work available on knowledge management and
suggest that
organizational level and country level development depends on
what strategy,
information and technology is required? Such things are always
answered in
knowledge management framework which explains
organizational learning. This
integration of information system, technological solutions,
resources, abilities and
organizational memory (Gramine 2007), Berends et al (2006),
Smith et al (2005),
Rolan et al (2004). But country branding & competency is not
just on knowledge
management but other active parts are also important to focus
on as mentioned in the
model of this research. This paper reports on the parameters
required for individual,
country branding, competency level to present the focus of UAE
at individual and
country level especially in 2020.
Individual or Country Competency is based on the development

of
intellectual capital. This is the step which makes any country
very much branded not
the workforce within the country but around the world. This
emphasis has been
mentioned by many philosophers over the years. In the 90s
many conceptualizations
of intellectual capital have been proposed (Bontis 2002, Bontis
2001, Bontis 1998,
Edvisson & Malon 1997, Klien & Prusak 1994, Seemann et al
2000). Also mentioned
in world developments report that Knowledge, not capital,
would be the key to
sustained economic growth and improvements in human well
being. (World
Development Report. 1998. 1999).UAE’s effective initiatives in
education to build
intellectual capital are the signs of success in coming years.
UAE is doing a lot to
invest in knowledge, learning and implementation in business,
engineering and
technological fields. Individual branding helps in organizational
learning. This will
ultimately help the organizations and productivity will be
enhanced. The individual
can be noticed by the top management because of his proper
organizational behavior,
interest and knowledge. Organizational learning refers to the
process of improving
organizational behaviors by acquiring and developing new
knowledge & capabilities
(Fiol & Lyles, 1985). Knowledge is also continuous (March &
Olsen), 1976.
Discipline is one of the important factor to get people noticed.
If a person

shows his disciplined behavior in most of the affairs, he is
known as professional
person and a serious employee in his work. This helps
individual to build his good
relationship with other employees. Discipline and disciplinary
rules have long been
recognized to be a key dimensions of the employment
relationship (Edwards, 2005)
Nadir 103
Research Methodology
This particular research is a case study research which based on
practical
viewpoints of expert people involved in Branding. Most of the
data is this research is
primary, however, few reference are consulted from secondary
sources and internet.
The research has consulted literature survey and interviewed
few policy makers at
executive & intellectual level in order to understand the theme
of branding. Most of
the interviews were in favor of using Competency Branding &
Development (CBD)
Model in UAE organizations. The interviews were unstructured

based on the
availability of those policy makers. The model is developed on
the basis of primary
sources in this research.
Objectives of the Study
The objective of this study was to evaluate and develop
competitive branding
model for Individual and country. The objective was also to
develop a real model
which can portray the theme of individual branding when
measuring the competency
at individual & country levels. In order to achieve such
objective. This research
proposed a model named as Competitive Branding &
Development Model (CBD).
Scope of the Study
The scope of this research is focused on two levels (Individual
and Country)
with special focus on UAE. The purpose of limiting study to
UAE was the growth,
huge investment and huge flow of technological trends in recent
past.
Exploratory & Case study method
This approach was convenient for such study as mentioned in
this research. It
has explored and informed deep analysis of CBD model.
Proof of Data collection
Primary, Author’s interest, Secondary and interviews (personal,

telephone,
emails, facebook) based on structured & unstructured formats.
Data analysis: the data instrumentation was qualitative & case
based
methodology.
104
Analysis
UAE government has taken very effective initiatives to brand at
individual,
organizational and country level. Investments in international
programs in Dubai,
enticing huge business building tower buildings, opening huge
universities, attracting
talented people to work in engineering, technology, business
and education industry
are the main concerns in 2020. The major investment at
individual level is to mix
their people with international people to have required
exposure, experience,
knowledge, technical stability, solution provider techniques,
professionally and
socially accepted behaviors are at the main streams these days.
The initiatives and
investment in transport system, information setup, and

technological approach at
work, intellectual understanding and implementation at schools,
colleges and
university levels. Recent Google practices, global villages, high
tech immigration
setup, airport security, emirates destinations and many other
things will definitely a
great pool for individual branding.
Conclusion
The paper concludes that UAE has to focus on the individual &
country level
development by following all the parameters identified through
CBD model in this
research. The CBD model has been part in this research to
evaluate the factors of
individual branding and country branding which have been
identified as the main
concerns for UAE’s human capital development agenda in 2020.
Individual branding
as mentioned in the introduction part has always been a great
concern for developed
countries because it ultimately gives good room for country
level branding. Most of
the countries have set an agenda to develop intellectual capital
for the next 10 to 20
years. The paper identifies that the start of developing human
capital is the initiative
of branding at individual & country levels. The CBD model can
also be used to
evaluate the standing of other countries as in future research.
Recommendations
• UAE needs to be more aggressive in building business

relationships with
USA and leading EU countries.
• UAE has to build more universities at international levels in
which UAE
nationals should be the policy makers.
• Need to ease the immigration process for the people from
western world as to
have their exposure and mixed it up with the local UAE in order
to promote
understanding and learning at national & international levels.
Nadir 105
• Individual needs to work on the first part of CBD model and
try to
incorporate all parameters. This will enhance the competency
level in the
country.
• Individuals must be well versed with professional branding as
it gives much
confidence in business dealings.
• UAE should take any initiative to come up with the idea
similar to BRICS
with the coordination of Gulf and some emerging markets of

Asia.
• The exchange of resources and their management is becoming
crucial in
today’s faster paced technology and UAE can take advantage
and to offer and
get offer from neighboring countries.
References
Bontis N (1998) Intellectual capital, Management decisions vol
36, pp 63-76
Bontis N (2001) Assessing knowledge assets, International
Journal of Management
Review pp 41-60
Edwards. P (2005), Discipline and attendance, A murky aspect
of people
management. Managing Human Resources, Personnel
Management in
transition, 4th edition, Blackwell, 376-397
Edvisson and Malone (1997) Harper Business (Newyork NY)
Fiol, C, Lyles (1985), Organizational Learning, Academy of
management Review,
10, pp 803-813
Klien and Prusak (1994) working paper, Center for Business
innovation NY
Gramigna (2007) Model of Competency (Pearson Prentice Hall)
Prahalab (1990) the Core competency of corporations 79-91

Rolan (2004) Managing Organization forgetting MIT
management review 45-51
Smith (2005) Existing knowledge, knowledge capability
Academy of Management
Journal 346-357
World Developments report (1998, 1999), Knowledge, not
capital, would be the key
to sustained economic growth and improvements in human well
being.
(World Development Report. 1998. 1999).
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An Approach to Case Analysis
Preparing A Case Study
It helps to have a system when sitting down to prepare a case
study as the amount of information and issues to be resolved
can initially seem quite overwhelming. The following is a good
way to start.
Step 1: The Short Cycle Process
1. Quickly read the case. If it is a long case, at this stage you
may want to read only the first few and last paragraphs. You
should then be able to

2. Answer the following questions:
1. Who is the decision maker in this case, and what is their
position and responsibilities?
2. What appears to be the issue (of concern, problem, challenge,
or opportunity) and its significance for the organization?
3. Why has the issue arisen and why is the decision maker
involved now?
4. When does the decision maker have to decide, resolve, act or
dispose of the issue? What is the urgency to the situation?
3. Take a look at the Exhibits to see what numbers have been
provided.
4. Review the case subtitles to see what areas are covered in
more depth.
5. Review the case questions if they have been provided. This
may give you some clues are what the main issues are to be
resolved.
You should now be familiar with what the case study is about,
and are ready to begin the process of analyzing it. You are not
done yet! Many students mistakenly believe that this is all the
preparation needed for a class discussion of a case study. If this
was the extent of your preparation, your ability to contribute to
the discussion would likely be limited to the first one quarter of
the class time allotted. You need to go further to prepare the
case, using the next step. One of the primary reasons for doing
the short cycle process is to give you an indication of how much
work will need to be done to prepare the case study properly.
Step 2: The Long Cycle Process

At this point, the task consists of two parts:
1. A detailed reading of the case, and then
2. Analyzing the case.
When you are doing the detailed reading of the case study, look
for the following sections:
1. Opening paragraph: introduces the situation.
2. Background information: industry, organization, products,
history, competition, financial information, and anything else of
significance.
3. Specific (functional) area of interest: marketing, finance,
operations, human resources, or integrated.
4. The specific problem or decision(s) to be made.
5. Alternatives open to the decision maker, which may or may
not be stated in the case.
6. Conclusion: sets up the task, any constraints or limitations,
and the urgency of the situation.
Most, but not all case studies will follow this format. The
purpose here is to thoroughly understand the situation and the
decisions that will need to be made. Take your time, make
notes, and keep focussed on your objectives.
Analyzing the case should take the following steps:
1. Defining the issue(s)
2. Analyzing the case data

3. Generating alternatives
4. Selecting decision criteria
5. Analyzing and evaluating alternatives
6. Selecting the preferred alternative
7. Developing an action/implementation plan
Defining the issue(s)/Problem Statement
The problem statement should be a clear, concise statement of
exactly what needs to be addressed. This is not easy to write!
The work that you did in the short cycle process answered the
basic questions. Now it is time to decide what the main issues to
be addressed are going to be in much more detail. Asking
yourself the following questions may help:
1. What appears to be the problem(s) here?
2. How do I know that this is a problem? Note that by asking
this question, you will be helping to differentiate the symptoms
of the problem from the problem itself. Example: while
declining sales or unhappy employees are a problem to most
companies, they are in fact, symptoms of underlying problems
which need to addressed.
3. What are the immediate issues that need to be addressed?
This helps to differentiate between issues that can be resolved
within the context of the case, and those that are bigger issues
that needed to addressed at a another time (preferably by
someone else!).
4. Differentiate between importance and urgency for the issues
identified. Some issues may appear to be urgent, but upon
closer examination are relatively unimportant, while others may
be far more important (relative to solving our problem) than
urgent. You want to deal with important issues in order of
urgency to keep focussed on your objective. Important issues
are those that have a significant effect on:

1. profitability,
2. strategic direction of the company,
3. source of competitive advantage,
4. morale of the company's employees, and/or
5. customer satisfaction.
The problem statement may be framed as a question, eg: What
should Joe do? or How can Mr Smith improve market share?
Usually the problem statement has to be re-written several times
during the analysis of a case, as you peel back the layers of
symptoms or causation.
Analyzing Case Data
In analyzing the case data, you are trying to answer the
following:
1. Why or how did these issues arise? You are trying to
determine cause and effect for the problems identified. You
cannot solve a problem that you cannot determine the cause of!
It may be helpful to think of the organization in question as
consisting of the following components:
1. resources, such as materials, equipment, or supplies, and
2. people who transform these resources using
3. processes, which creates something of greater value.
Now, where are the problems being caused within this
framework, and why?

2. Who is affected most by this issues? You are trying to
identify who are the relevant stakeholders to the situation, and
who will be affected by the decisions to be made.
3. What are the constraints and opportunities implicit to this
situation? It is very rare that resources are not a constraint, and
allocations must be made on the assumption that not enough
will be available to please everyone.
4. What do the numbers tell you? You need to take a look at the
numbers given in the case study and make a judgement as to
their relevance to the problem identified. Not all numbers will
be immediately useful or relevant, but you need to be careful
not to overlook anything. When deciding to analyze numbers,
keep in mind why you are doing it, and what you intend to do
with the result. Use common sense and comparisons to industry
standards when making judgements as to the meaning of your
answers to avoid jumping to conclusions.
Generating Alternatives
This section deals with different ways in which the problem can
be resolved. Typically, there are many (the joke is at least
three), and being creative at this stage helps. Things to
remember at this stage are:
1. Be realistic! While you might be able to find a dozen
alternatives, keep in mind that they should be realistic and fit
within the constraints of the situation.
2. The alternatives should be mutually exclusive, that is, they
cannot happen at the same time.
3. Not making a decision pending further investigation is not an
acceptable decision for any case study that you will analyze. A
manager can always delay making a decision to gather more

information, which is not managing at all! The whole point to
this exercise is to learn how to make good decisions, and having
imperfect information is normal for most business decisions, not
the exception.
4. Doing nothing as in not changing your strategy can be a
viable alternative, provided it is being recommended for the
correct reasons, as will be discussed below.
5. Avoid the meat sandwich method of providing only two other
clearly undesirable alternatives to make one reasonable
alternative look better by comparison. This will be painfully
obvious to the reader, and just shows laziness on your part in
not being able to come up with more than one decent
alternative.
6. Keep in mind that any alternative chosen will need to be
implemented at some point, and if serious obstacles exist to
successfully doing this, then you are the one who will look bad
for suggesting it.
Once the alternatives have been identified, a method of
evaluating them and selecting the most appropriate one needs to
be used to arrive at a decision.
Top of pageKey Decision Criteria
A very important concept to understand, they answer the
question of how you are going to decide which alternative is the
best one to choose. Other than choosing randomly, we will
always employ some criteria in making any decision. Think
about the last time that you make a purchase decision for an
article of clothing. Why did you choose the article that you did?
The criteria that you may have used could have been:
1. fit

2. price
3. fashion
4. colour
5. approval of friend/family
6. availability
Note that any one of these criteria could appropriately finish the
sentence, the brand/style that I choose to purchase must....
These criteria are also how you will define or determine that a
successful purchase decision has been made. For a business
situation, the key decision criteria are those things that are
important to the organization making the decision, and they will
be used to evaluate the suitability of each alternative
recommended.
Key decision criteria should be:
1. Brief, preferably in point form, such as
1. improve (or at least maintain) profitability,
2. increase sales, market share, or return on investment,
3. maintain customer satisfaction, corporate image,
4. be consistent with the corporate mission or strategy,
5. within our present (or future) resources and capabilities,
6. within acceptable risk parameters,
7. ease or speed of implementation,
8. employee morale, safety, or turnover,
9. retain flexibility, and/or
10. minimize environmental impact.

2. Measurable, at least to the point of comparison, such as
alternative A will improve profitability more that alternative B.
3. Be related to your problem statement, and alternatives. If you
find that you are talking about something else, that is a sign of a
missing alternative or key decision criteria, or a poorly formed
problem statement.
Students tend to find the concept of key decision criteria very
confusing, so you will probably find that you re-write them
several times as you analyze the case. They are similar to
constraints or limitations, but are used to evaluate alternatives.
Evaluation of Alternatives
If you have done the above properly, this should be
straightforward. You measure the alternatives against each key
decision criteria. Often you can set up a simple table with key
decision criteria as columns and alternatives as rows, and write
this section based on the table. Each alternative must be
compared to each criteria and its suitability ranked in some
way, such as met/not met, or in relation to the other
alternatives, such as better than, or highest. This will be
important to selecting an alternative. Another method that can
be used is to list the advantages and disadvantages (pros/cons)
of each alternative, and then discussing the short and long term
implications of choosing each. Note that this implies that you
have already predicted the most likely outcome of each of the
alternatives. Some students find it helpful to consider three
different levels of outcome, such as best, worst, and most
likely, as another way of evaluating alternatives.
Recommendation
You must have one! Business people are decision-makers; this
is your opportunity to practice making decisions. Give a

justification for your decision (use the KDC's). Check to make
sure that it is one (and only one) of your Alternatives and that it
does resolve what you defined as the Problem.
Structure of the Written Report
Different Instructors will require different formats for case
reports, but they should all have roughly the same general
content. For this course, the report should have the following
sections in this order:
1. Title page
2. Table of contents
3. Executive summary
4. Problem (Issue) statement
5. Data analysis
6. Key Decision Criteria
7. Alternatives analysis
8. Recommendations
9. Action and Implementation Plan
10. Exhibits
Notes on Written Reports:
Always remember that you will be judged by the quality of your
work, which includes your written work such as case study
reports. Sloppy, dis-organized, poor quality work will say more

about you than you probably want said! To ensure the quality of
your written work, keep the following in mind when writing
your report:
1. Proof-read your work! Not just on the screen while you write
it, but the hard copy after it is printed. Fix the errors before
submitting.
2. Use spell checker to eliminate spelling errors
3. Use grammar checking to avoid common grammatical errors
such as run on sentences.
4. Note that restating of case facts is not included in the format
of the case report, nor is it considered part of analysis. Anyone
reading your report will be familiar with the case, and you need
only to mention facts that are relevant to (and support) your
analysis or recommendation as you need them.
5. If you are going to include exhibits (particularly numbers) in
your report, you will need to refer to them within the body of
your report, not just tack them on at the end! This reference
should be in the form of supporting conclusions that you are
making in your analysis. The reader should not have to guess
why particular exhibits have been included, nor what they mean.
If you do not plan to refer to them, then leave them out.
6. Write in a formal manner suitable for scholarly work, rather
than a letter to a friend.
7. Common sense and logical thinking can do wonders for your
evaluation!
8. You should expect that the computer lab's printer will not be
functioning in the twelve hours prior to your deadline for
submission. Plan for it!

9. Proof-read your work! Have someone else read it too!
(particularly if english is not your first language) This second
pair of eyes will give you an objective opinion of how well your
report holds together.
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