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HOW TO PREPARE AND PRESENT A CASE ANALYSIS 353

Answering Questions
It is best to field questions at the end of your presentation, rather than during the presenta-
tion itself. Encourage questions, and take your time to respond to each one. Answering
questions can be persuasive because it involves you with the audience. If a team is giving
the presentation, the audience should direct questions to a specific person. During the
question-and-answer period, be polite, confident, and courteous. Avoid verbose responses.
Do not get defensive with your answers, even if a hostile or confrontational question is
asked. Staying calm during potentially disruptive situations, such as a cross-examination,
reflects self-confidence, maturity, poise, and command of the particular company and its
industry. Stand up throughout the question-and-answer period.

Tips for Success in Case Analysis
Strategic-management students who have used this text over 12 editions offer you the fol-
lowing tips for success in doing case analysis. The tips are grouped into two basic sections:
(1) Content Tips and (2) Process Tips. Content tips relate especially to the content of your
case analysis, whereas the Process tips relate mostly to the process that you and your group
mates undergo in preparing and delivering your case analysis/presentation.

Content Tips
1. Use the www.strategyclub.com Web site resources. The software described there is
especially useful.
2. In preparing your external assessment, use the S&P Industry Survey material in
your college library.
3. Go to the http://finance.yahoo.com or http://moneycentral.msn/investor/home.asp
and enter your company’s stock symbol.
4. View your case analysis and presentation as a product that must have some compet-
itive factor to favorably differentiate it from the case analyses of other students.
5. Develop a mind-set of why, continually questioning your own and others’ assump-
tions and assertions.
6. Because strategic management is a capstone course, seek the help of professors in
other specialty areas when necessary.
7. Read your case frequently as work progresses so you don’t overlook details.
8. At the end of each group session, assign each member of the group a task to be
completed for the next meeting.
9. Become friends with the library and the Internet.
10. Be creative and innovative throughout the case analysis process.
11. A goal of case analysis is to improve your ability to think clearly in ambiguous and
confusing situations; do not get frustrated that there is no single best answer.
12. Do not confuse symptoms with causes; do not develop conclusions and solutions
prematurely; recognize that information may be misleading, conflicting, or wrong.
13. Work hard to develop the ability to formulate reasonable, consistent, and creative
plans; put yourself in the strategist’s position.
14. Develop confidence in using quantitative tools for analysis. They are not inherently
difficult; it is just practice and familiarity you need.
15. Strive for excellence in writing and in the technical preparation of your case.
Prepare nice charts, tables, diagrams, and graphs. Use color and unique pictures.
No messy exhibits! Use PowerPoint.
16. Do not forget that the objective is to learn; explore areas with which you are not
familiar.
17. Pay attention to detail.
18. Think through alternative implications fully and realistically. The consequences of
decisions are not always apparent. They often affect many different aspects of a
firm’s operations.
19. Provide answers to such fundamental questions as what, when, where, why, who,
and how.