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HOW TO PREPARE AND PRESENT A CASE ANALYSIS 355

25. Let someone else read and critique your presentation several days before you
present it.
26. Make special efforts to get to know your group members. This leads to more open-
ness in the group and allows for more interchange of ideas. Put in the time and
effort necessary to develop these relationships.
27. Be constructively critical of your group members’ work. Do not dominate group
discussions. Be a good listener and contributor.
28. Learn from past mistakes and deficiencies. Improve upon weak aspects of other
case presentations.
29. Learn from the positive approaches and accomplishments of classmates.

Sample Case Analysis Outline
There are musicians who play wonderfully without notes and there are chefs who cook
wonderfully without recipes, but most of us prefer a more orderly cookbook approach, at
least in the first attempt at doing something new. Therefore the following eight steps may
serve as a basic outline for you in presenting a strategic plan for your firm’s future. This
outline is not the only approach used in business and industry for communicating a strate-
gic plan, but this approach is time-tested, it does work, and it does cover all of the basics.
You may amend the content, tools, and concepts given to suit your own company, audi-
ence, assignment, and circumstances, but it helps to know and understand the rules before
you start breaking them.
Depending on whether your class is 50 minutes or 75 minutes and how much time
your professor allows for your case presentation, the following outlines what generally
needs to be covered. A recommended time (in minutes) as part of the presentation is given
for an overall 50-minute event. Of course, all cases are different, some being about
for-profit and some about not-for-profit organizations, for example, so the scope and con-
tent of your analysis may vary. Even if you do not have time to cover all areas in your oral
presentation, you may be asked to prepare these areas and give them to your professor as a
“written case analysis.” Be sure in an oral presentation to manage time knowing that your
recommendations and associated costs are the most important part. You should go to
www.strategyclub.com and utilize that information and software in preparing your case
analysis. Good luck.

Current Readings

Kearney, Eric, Diether Gebert, and Sven Voelpel. “When Members’ Need for Cognition.” Academy of Management
Diversity Benefits Teams: The Importance of Team Journal (June 2009): 581–598.