The Case Method: Four Steps to Success

In VUCA times, making the right decision for you company is crucial. Knowing which route to take paves the way for your organization – and your own career. You need to know how to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

To do this, managers today need to have deep transversal knowledge of their company, their sector and the global situation they face.

 These three factors that can’t be learned overnight. It takes time and dedication.

It’s easy to get bogged down in the sea of online platforms and educational resources claiming instant, easily accessible answers to age-old business problems. And yet none of them provide the results years of decision-making experience can offer.

So how can we learn to make managerial decisions without investing 20 years in the process? And how can someone with a technical background transform into an excellent manager and expert in decision making?

The Case Method: An Overview

The Case Method was designed for this purpose. Students from a variety of backgrounds prepare and discuss real business problems faced by real companies. It requires you to form opinions, discuss them with your team and come up with the best decision possible.

The case method lets you think, act and decide like a manager – before stepping into the role in real life.

Each case is unique and there is no right answer to the problems presented. The Case Method teaches you how to approach their decision making objectively, from various perspectives.

Steps One and Two: Individual and Team Preparation

During the course of the IESE Executive MBA, students are faced with 400 real-life business cases.

It offers the only fast-track available for gaining experience in making decisions that affect companies across sectors and functions in the shortest time possible. 

You have to be fully committed to get the most out of each case. You are at the center of your learning experience. You must dedicate time to preparing every case by yourself. 

Read the case, take notes and make sure you understand what the problem is. Analyse the company’s situation, research the company and the sector, try to find out as much as possible to help you make your decision as objective as possible.

The next step is comparing and sharing your analysis and conclusions with the rest of your team.

The team discussion serves as a sounding board to your conclusions. It may be that you have similar or completely different outcomes to those of your team mates. That’s part of the case method process. You build on one another’s input to come to an objective final decision.

Steps Three and Four: Class Discussion and Lessons Learned

The preparatory work you do shapes the class discussion. Gone are the days of the professor talking for two hours and students taking notes. You and your classmates set the pace in class. According to Harvard Business School, student participation represents 85% of talking in class.

In every case discussion at IESE, around 60 people from diverse countries, sectors, positions, functions and different experiences share their knowledge and approaches to business problems.

 As the class debate takes shape around your ideas and opinions, the professor acts as a facilitator, posing questions, and adding key insight based on their own business-world experience.

The professor guides the discussion towards discovery and reflexion, helping the students work from diverse and fresh perspectives, developing new, alternative lines of thinking. 

The Case Method offers the opportunity to think and act like real managers, running real companies and face real-life business problems. It’s the most effective teaching methodology for those with a technical or specialist background who want to make the leap into to managerial positions.

You have the opportunity to apply what you have learned and discussed in the classroom the next day in your work place.

You will develop a transversal perspective of the company while honing your analytical and decision making skills. You'll improve your ability to express orally your ideas with others and become creative in finding innovation solutions to everyday problems. And your network will grow as you expand your horizons.

In conclusion, the case method is the most powerful and effective teaching methodology to date. One which will be tough to replace – if at all – in the future.