Introduction to Case Studies - GD & PI

Some of the top management institutes, as well as some of the lower ranked ones, have shifted from using Group Discussions during the second stage to using Case Studies (along with the Interview). Thus, it is quite important for students to:

(a) Understand what these Case Studies are all about;
(b) How you should go about a Case Study discussion
(c) Demonstrate the necessary skills; and
(d) Prepare accordingly for them
 
What is a Case Study?
 
It is important to realize, first of all, that you are not going to get a big Case Study, running into several pages, that you may get during the placement process at your college or that you will be given during your MBA course. Case Studies handed out during the admissions process are typically short one-pagers, which are fairly straightforward and easy to grasp.
 
Usually Case Study discussions, like Group Discussions are held over a duration of between 15-20 minutes. You will be given time before the discussion to read the material given to you and think/ jot down some points. As for GDs, utilize this time well!
 
Just like GDs, your discussion will not be moderated (the evaluators will not usually interrupt the flow of the discussion or indicate who should speak etc); you shall only be evaluated based on your performance. You have to take whatever opportunity you get to speak.
 
Case Studies given are typically in the form of a situation/ problem that you are faced with. You have to work with the others in finding out a solution or deciding how to proceed. For example, you may be told that you have been appointed the marketing manager of a firm and you are faced with a situation of declining sales and loss of market share of your major product over the past couple of years. What can you do to reverse this decline and put your company back on the right track?
 
Another example could be that you are told that you are the HR manager of a firm. The situation is that there has been a massive drop in the performance of a particular employee, who has earlier been a top performer. His boss comes to you and notifies you of the situation and states that in spite of the employee’s good track record till then, the current situation cannot be accepted. How are you going to address this issue?
 
Before getting into the subsequent sections where we shall discuss essential skills needed for Case Studies, let us make the point that in such discussions, everyone starts off from the same point, in the sense that prior knowledge (or content) of the topic plays no role. So it does not matter what your academic background is, and whether you have studied Economics/ Commerce, Engineering or some other subject. What matters is how you analyse the situation and come up with your points.