What are cases? This question is usually asked by students who first come across this term. However, this concept is becoming popular in business communities. Before answering the question about what cases are and giving examples of their solutions, we delve into the history of the term.
The emergence of cases
The concept first appeared at Harvard University back in 1924. Professors of a prestigious university realized that the textbooks of previous years are not able to prepare graduates of modern professions. Manuals and manuals that are relevant at this point in time have not yet been created, and the previous ones are already outdated. Then the professors thought out business cases - the urgent tasks of our time, which had to be solved by graduates. To do this, business owners were invited to Harvard who instructed graduate students in detail. Entrepreneurs at the seminars talked about the real problems that their companies faced. After that, graduate students had to find their solution to these problems. The peculiarity of such training is that there are no right answers. You just need to find the best way out of this situation. In other words, everyone chooses the case solution individually.
The innovation of Harvard professors has proven effective. Graduates already at the exit actually had a semblance of experience. They knew the problems and tasks of successful companies, could easily cope with the tasks. In fact, the student’s case study gave him real practice at the university. Therefore, since the middle of the twentieth century, this method has gained distribution around the world.
Appearance in Russia
In our country, even with the collapse of the socialist system in the nineties of the last century, the education system has long existed on the thumb. The country is no longer there, but there are USSR textbooks. Even the history books of the CPSU with Lenin on the covers finally disappeared only by the mid-nineties of the twentieth century, not to mention other disciplines.
And only since the 2000s . management cases began to appear in leading universities in our country. To date, this method is actively developing in Russia. In addition, themed case clubs open. Especially popular with schoolchildren and students are the club MSTU. E. Bauman, career center of NUST “MISiS”, etc.
So what are cases? Let's move on to the very concept.
The concept
Case (from Latin casus) is an extraordinary situation, a problem whose solution cannot be found in textbooks. A more accurate interpretation of the term “case” is a problem that needs to be solved, however, the term came to Russian from English, in which the Latin word casus is pronounced “case”.
Students model a problem situation that is as close to real as possible, and they must find a solution. The bottom line is that there is no right answer. There is only the opinion of teachers and a real way out of this situation, if the case, of course, was taken from life. Evaluated are solution methods, reasoning, collective discussion, etc.
So, what is the case, we explained, now we will move on to the goals.
Goals
Despite the fact that the topics of the cases may differ from each other, the simulation itself, as a rule, has common goals:
- Verification of students' intellectual and analytical data.
- Development of arguments for their position.
- Development of resistance to stressful situations.
- Time management skills training.
- Development of communication abilities, teamwork skills.
Interview Cases
This method is used not only in educational institutions. Today, many companies use it during an interview. Every day, the employer is less and less looking at the resume of the applicant, at the level of his education, work experience, etc. It is enough to offer several cases to the candidate for the position, and everything about a person becomes clearly better than various pieces of paper and recommendations.
Of course, this does not mean that education and experience do not matter. Without them, you can’t even reach the stage of solving the case. However, it is the last stage that becomes the decisive factor in choosing an employee. In this regard, Google stands out, which is developing its own methods for modeling cases. They are individual for each vacancy. Experience, level of education will not help the candidate in the event that he can not solve cases. And they sometimes amaze the imagination with their deceptive simplicity.
Case Studies
We give an example. The company was faced with the problem of employee performance in the sales department. Three people work. The first works with 70% of customers, the second - with 20%, and the third - with 10%. With these indicators, the second one shows sales above all, but it works only with regular customers. The third, on the contrary, works only with new customers, while the first works with both new and regular customers. The task for the manager is to increase the sales plan and redistribute the flow of customers in such a way that the company receives maximum profit.
To solve this problem, the following questions must be answered:
- What improvement opportunities can be in this situation?
- What standards can help in the long term improve the performance of each seller and the sales department as a whole?
Perhaps the first seller works best with new customers, or with regulars. It is also worth trying to swap the second and third seller. Those. the second will only work with new ones, and the third only with constant ones. Perhaps they have a professional crisis, and they need a change of scenery.
Second example
An interview is being held for the position of head of the personnel management department. The candidate must have such a quality as the ability to be flexible and avoid unnecessary conflicts. It is proposed to solve the following case: the CEO insisted that the daughter of an influential person be taken to the company. The previous manager gave her the position of secretary-referent. The girl herself did not show herself in any way, she did not identify herself with the company and she had no desire for career growth. Added to this is a lack of experience in other enterprises.
During her work, her main skills became: receiving incoming documents, maintaining accounts, packing documentation folders. Six months later, the place of a leading specialist in document management was vacated. The CEO insisted that this girl take this position. However, the company has many other employees who deserve a promotion. In this task, the applicant must make a choice: either go against the general leadership, or work with a discontented team.
Perhaps the candidate will find an acceptable option for both the CEO and the team. Case studies do not have the right solutions. Each case is individual.
There are not only business cases, but also cases in other industries: pedagogy, medicine, law. In each profession, you can simulate a problem situation.