Sony Ericsson Mobile Music Strategy not working

Sony Ericsson and low profit expectations in 2008

On March 19, 2008, Sony Ericsson warned of a sharp decline in profit expectations. The No.4 player in the cell phone industry cut its current-quarter profit forecast ($276 million) to less than half the year-ago level ($571 million). Reasons given were a slowdown in consumer spending on its mid-priced and high-end phones. The growth in the mobile phone industry is expected to be at 15% in 2008, about half when compared to a high of 31% in 2004. Sony Ericsson expects to ship about 22 million phones in the first quarter. It shipped 30 million units in the fourth quarter and 21.8 million in the first quarter of 2007.

Sony Ericsson's announcement was expected when Texas Instruments cited fewer mobile phone chip orders for its lower guidance. Its key customer Nokia possibly has a inventory pileup. Sony Ericsson also said that certain component shortages for popular midprice phones had also contributed to modest unit-sales growth in the first quarter.

A low profit expectation is common in the first quarter - the slowest time of year for phone sales after the Christmas shopping season. However, the concern is the magnitude of Sony Ericsson's shortfall. The same can be expected from Nokia and Motorola might even lose its third place position as a mobile phone maker.

The Sony Ericsson joint venture

In 2001, Sony Ericsson was formed as a joint venture between Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson of Sweden, and Sony Corporation of Japan. Both partners had 50% ownership in the company.

Ericsson was established in 1876 and was a major player in the telecommunications equipment and related services to mobile and fixed network operators worldwide with presence in 140 countries. Sony on the other hand was established by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita in 1946 in Japan. At the time Sony was the world's second largest consumer electronics company and famous for its innovative products like the Walkman, Playstation, and Aibo, the robot dog.

In the last quarter of 2000 and the first quarter of 2001, Ericsson made a loss of US$ 1 billion and US$ 558 million respectively. Shareholders of Ericsson wanted a sell-off. Sony was also making losses in its mobile phone business. Ericsson's board decided to form a joint venture with Sony instead of exiting the business. In 2001, this decision was rated as the fifth best management decision by Sunday Business.

Walkman phones are no longer popular?

In February 2005, at the 3GSM World Congress in France, Sony Ericsson had announced its mobile music strategy. It looked to integrate of high quality digital music players into stylish mobile phones under Sony's world famous Walkman brand. The strategy was to target a specific product portfolio and not look at providing various types of mobile phones across various price points.

In the third quarter of 2005, the Walkman phones were launched. The impact was visible in the subsequent quarter itself in terms of increased volumes, sales, and net income for the company. Similar to its success with its camera phones in 2004, Sony Ericsson reported a 36.4 per cent increase over its third quarter figures and 47.1 per cent higher than the figures for the same period in 2004. It even revived Sony's Walkman music player which had lost market share drastically after the launch of iPod by Apple in 2001.

However, mobile phone users are known to be quite finicky and generally choose the most popular or the next cool mobile phone in the market. Earlier, users replaced handsets every three years, but with the economy slowing down this is no longer the trend. And with the popularity of Apple's iPhone growing, Sony Ericsson may have reached the end of its good run with the popular Walkman phones. The general higher price of its phones than its rivals' devices does not help either.

Quote
Be Number 1 or Number 2. “When you’re number four or five in a market, when number one sneezes, you get pneumonia. When you’re number one, you control your destiny.“ - Jack Welch

Unquote
"Sony Ericsson will continue to try to reduce its dependence for growth on the European high-end sector and develop its presence in new markets. This strategy will continue, and our objective remains to become a top-three player globally by 2011" - Sony Ericsson President Dick Komiyama

Related Reading:
Case Study on Nokia in India [Pdf file]
Nokia and its growth strategy in China
Nokia increases market share, Motorola Struggles
Nokia to exit expensive Germany, move production to low cost countries

Will Tesco succeed in the U.S?

The British are coming

Tesco Group is UK’s biggest retailer and operates more than 2,500 stores in the UK and 12 other countries in Europe and Asia. For years, Tesco had plans to enter the U.S. retail market. It was believed that Tesco even looked into possibly acquiring key parts of the Albertson's grocery chain. But finally, Tesco announced that it would enter the US by 2007 and that its new stores would be based on its "Tesco Express" convenience store model. Tesco operates four different retail formats – Tesco Express, Tesco Metro, Tesco Supercenters and Tesco Extra. Tesco Express is a smaller store format of up to 3,000 sq. feet.

At the time many analysts predicted that the coming of Tesco - even though a new player was a quite accomplished retail entity - had the ability to impact the U.S. market over the long term. To the conventional supermarket channel and even Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Safeway it could only be viewed as a negative. For the traditional supermarket chains who were already struggling to compete with Wal-Mart and the growing popularity of organic food stores like Whole Foods (and other premium food chains), the competition was only going to get worse.

Taking on Wal-Mart

Tesco was serious about expanding into the U.S. as indicated by its initial plans to spend $400 million a year to build its U.S. stores. This investment could pay for 100 to 150 stores. It aims to build 1,000 stores in the US eventually. Tesco chose to enter U.S. through the West Coast first because that region of the country is not yet dominated by Wal-Mart. Like Wal-Mart, Tesco is nonunionised. Wal-Mart is planning to test similarly sized new grocery stores under the "Marketside" banner in the Phoenix area later this year.

Success of Tesco's launch in the US?

There was growing speculation that the initial performance of Tesco’s new Fresh & Easy discount grocery stores concept was not up to the mark and that internal sales targets were not being met. Some reports in the US suggested that the small neighbourhood groceries, similar in concept to an Aldi hard-discount store, have been failing to attract customers at the rate needed. (The hard discount store, pioneered by Aldi, is a small outlet with only 700 to 1,000 lines of stock compared with 100,000 in a big Wal-Mart. The shelves are mostly filled with own-brand goods.)

Even competitors like Stater Brothers, a supermarket chain in south California (and where the first 20 Tesco stores opened) felt almost no impact from Tesco. The Fresh & Easy concept was being questioned. Fresh & Easy had claimed to be up to 25 per cent cheaper than its main supermarket competition and had expectations of average sales to reach $200,000 per store per week.

Will Tesco succeed in the U.S?

A spokesman from Tesco however maintained that its failure claims were “a bit ridiculous, given that we only opened four months ago”. Tesco is continuing to push ahead with its ambitious US store plans, with another 150 stores expected to open over the coming year in its initial markets. The group has committed £1.25bn ($2.48bn) over five years to its US expansion plans. It is signing leases on additional store sites in northern California, where it is also planning to open a second large distribution centre outside Stockton.

In the past, retailers from the UK like Marks & Spencer, Next, Dixons, and Sainsbury’s have all tried to expand in the US and failed. Tesco has already made the first change to its executive management team at Fresh & Easy. Jeff Adams is heading back to US. He was the chief executive of Tesco’s Lotus business in Thailand. He will be second-in-command to Tim Mason, Fresh & Easy’s chief executive. Meanwhile, Tesco has other things to worry about in its home UK market after it was accused of setting up an elaborate offshore tax avoidance scheme.

Related Reading

Tesco takes on US Wal-Mart [Pdf File]
Wal-Mart's supply chain management practices [Pdf file]
Wal-Mart's Marketside or Tesco's Fresh and Easy stores in US
Corporate Social Responsibility at Tesco [Pdf file]
Of Wal-Mart price cuts, Struggling Retailers and Weak 2008 Retail Sales Forecast

Adidas Reebok Merger Case Study

The sporting goods industry has seen many mergers and acquisitions (M&A) driven by rising competition and industrial growth. In 1997, Adidas acquired the Salomon Group for $1.4 billion. In 2003, Nike acquired Converse for $305 million and in 2004 Reebok acquired The Hockey Company for $330 million.

Adidas and Reebok - Two mega brands, with great strengths

In August 2005, German adidas-Salomon AG announced plans to acquire Reebok at an estimated value of € 3.1 billion ($3.78 billion). At the time, Adidas had a market capitalization of about $8.4 billion, and reported net income of $423 million a year earlier on sales of $8.1 billion. Reebok reported net income of $209 million on sales of about $4 billion. While analysts opined that the merger made sense, the purpose of the merger was very clear. Both companies competed for No. 2 and No. 3 positions following Nike (NKE).

Competition with Nike and Puma

Nike was the leader in U.S. and had made giant strides in Europe even surpassing Adidas in the soccer shoe segment for the first time. According to 2004 figures by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association International, Nike had about 36%, Adidas 8.9% and Reebok 12.2% market share in the athletic-footwear market in the U.S. Adidas was the No. 2 sporting goods manufacturer globally, but it struggled in the U.S. – the world’s biggest athletic-shoe market with half the $33 billion spent globally each year on athletic shoes. Adidas was perceived to have good quality products that offered comfort whereas Reebok was seen as a stylish or hip brand. Nike had both and was a favorite brand because of its fashion status, colors, and combinations. Adidas focused on sport and Reebok on lifestyle. Clearly the chances of competing against Nike were far better together than separately. Besides Adidas was facing stiff competition from Puma, the No. 4 sporting-goods brand. Puma had then recently disclosed expansion plans through acquisitions and entry into new sportswear categories. For a successful merger, the challenge was to integrate Adidas's German culture of control, engineering, and production and Reebok's U.S. marketing- driven culture.

The ADDYY and RBK Merger – Impossible is Nothing

On January 31, 2006, adidas closed its acquisition of Reebok International Ltd. The combination provided the new adidas Group with a footprint of around €9.5 billion ($11.8 billion) in the global athletic footwear, apparel and hardware markets.

Adidas-Salomon AG Chairman and CEO Herbert Hainer said, "We are delighted with the closing of the Reebok transaction, which marks a new chapter in the history of our Group. By combining two of the most respected and well-known brands in the worldwide sporting goods industry, the new Group will benefit from a more competitive worldwide platform, well-defined and complementary brand identities, a wider range of products, and a stronger presence across teams, athletes, events and leagues.”

Hainer also said, "The brands will be kept separate because each brand has a lot of value and it would be stupid to bring them together. The companies would continue selling products under respective brand names and labels."

Related Reading on Adidas Reebok merger case study: Is the Adidas Reebok merger working?

Download PDF file (25 pages) - Management Case Study on adidas and Reebok Merger

Daimler Chrysler Merger and De-merger

Daimler Chrysler De-merger

In early 2007, Daimler sold 80 percent of Chrysler to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LLC for $7.4 billion. This strategic move ended a nine-year merger. Daimler can now concentrate on its luxury Mercedes brand and its truck business.

Daimler Chrysler Merger - Marriage made in heaven?

In 1998, Daimler and Chyrsler merged to form the Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corp. in a $36 billion deal. At that time, then-CEO Juergen Schrempp described the merger as a marriage made in heaven. Since then, up-and-down earnings and repeated cost-cutting soured many investors on the effort to create a global auto giant.

Wal-Mart in Japan Case Study

Wal-Mart in Japan

The focus of this case study is the hurdles faced by retailing giant Wal-Mart in the Japanese market. In the early 90's, Wal-Mart's decision to globalize is a major focus area.

Issues covered in the case study include: Download Case Study (in PDF format)

• Wal-Mart's entry strategy in Japan
  
• WalMart's best practices in retailing like Every Day Low Prices (EDLP) and Rollback to the Japanese market through its joint venture with Seiyu.
  
• Wal-Mart's problems faced in Japan because of the differences between the operational and cultural environment in its home market and the Japanese market.
  
• Walmarts future prospects and business strategies in Japanese Market.
  

Other management issues covered include:

• The Japanese retailing industry: It's nature and structure and its market size, market scope, and market characteristics.
• How to frame an entry strategy for a global and culturally diverse market.

Business Case study terms:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Green Field Operations, Costco Wholesale, Metro, Tesco, Japanese Retail Industry, Ito Yokado , Large Store Law, Every Day Low Prices, Carrefour, Daeiei, America Online Inc., Sam's Clubs

Related Case Study Reading:

1. Can Wal-Mart Woo Japan?, Business Week Online
2. Japan Isn't Buying The Wal-Mart Idea, Business Week Online
3. How Wal-Mart Is Reshaping Packaging?
4. A New Era in Japan's Retailing Market
5. Tesco Enters The Japanese Market
6. Japanese Retail Market Overview
7. Japan Market Research
8. Japan Retail Sector Overview: companies Walmart

Will Wal-Mart be able to sustain its supply chain advantage : Download Case Study on Wal-Mart's Supply Chain Practices in PDF format.

GlaxoSmithKline - Supply Chain Challenges

GlaxoSmithKline - Supply Chain Challenges - Part 1

Supply chains have improved drastically in the past ten to fifteen years. The revolution can be attributed to companies’ shift in focus to efficiency. This applies both to the supply and manufacturing operations. GlaxoSmithKline is an example in case. Its efforts in improving production processes and packaging and enhanced supply to meet demand better are proof enough. This article highlights some of the challenges GlaxoSmithKline faced and how it overcame them.

GlaxoSmithKline - The Company

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is the world’s second largest pharmaceutical, biologicals and healthcare company (as per 2004 figures). Its sales touched GBP 20 billion yielding a profit of GBP 6 billion approximately. It employs around 100,000 people worldwide, with over 40,000 in the sales and marketing teams. Primarily headquartered in London, with dual US headquarters in Philadelphia and Research Triangle Park. GSK’s prime activities include creation, discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing pharmaceutical and consumer health-related products the world over.

GSK operates largely in two segments, Pharmaceuticals and Consumer Healthcare. GSK has more than 36,000 SKU’s manufactured across over 80 manufacturing plants worldwide. GSK has a market share of seven percent in the pharmaceutical business.

Year Merger/Acquisition New Company Name
1989
Beecham merged with SmithKline Beckman SmithKline Beecham
1995
Glaxo acquires Burroughs Wellcome & Co. Glaxo Wellcome
2000
Glaxo Wellcome merged with SmithKline Beecham GlaxoSmithKline
2001 GlaxoSmithKline acquires consumer health care company Block Drug Co. GlaxoSmithKline
Exhibit 1: Merger and Acquisition activity at GSK

The Challenges

Post merger Integration Issues
With the spate of mergers and acquisitions, GSK faces three major integration challenges:

* Integrating the separate identities
* Integrating different strategies and
* Integrating the packaging and manufacturing operations of Glaxo, Burroughs Wellcome, Beecham, SmithKline Beckman and Block Drug Co.

Complex product portfolio
Market dynamics and short life expectancy of patients have tilted the demand in favour of specialised drugs. GSK, like its competitors has to combat the need for specialised drugs continuously and reaping quick rewards. Such market forces alongside a changing industry make creative marketing and innovative products crucial.

Multi faceted US Markets
The US market mainly comprises of chain pharmacy stores, more traditional mom and pop stores and high-end deliveries. Such diverse markets have diverse needs. Catering to different customers brings forth the challenge of managing small volumes of niche packages.

Regulatory and operational challenges
Frequent merger and acquisition activity implies complicated paper work (re-registration and labelling) compliance with regulatory frameworks of different countries. With over 250 legal entities across the world, printing and other associated challenges emerge with different names that have to appear on different products distributed in different countries. The complexity increased manifold with the mergers owing to labelling changes. Moreover, different markets have different schedules on when GSK must incorporate the labelling changes.

Different departments could always make different packaging design changes. Communicating packaging specifications, graphics and artwork changes across the entire pharmaceutical organization was challenging if not an insurmountable task.

Outsourcing/supplier challenges
One of GSK’s products, Aquafresh Floss‘N’Cap (AFNC) is symbolic of the typical outsourcing challenges. AFNC has a flip top containing dental floss and toothpaste in the tube. AFNC had three custom designed sub assemblies outsourced to three different suppliers. The suppliers worked in sequence on the custom designed cap. Once the package reaches GSK, only filling of the tube with toothpaste remained. Coordinating with these three cross Atlantic suppliers, especially outside GSK’s manufacturing facilities was a challenging task.

Finding alternate/multiple suppliers
GSK had a bad experience early on with supply disruptions from a single source supplier. Almost a decade ago, one of its sole resin supplier’s plants exploded. It had no alternate suppliers and consequently had to lose market share not to mention customer goodwill, as customers have to do without critical drugs or life saving devices. GSK wanted to eliminate such situations. The challenge was not only to find alternate suppliers but ones who complied with the FDA regulations and supplied in time.

On the major machinery and equipment side, GSK’s goals were different though. It wanted to limit the number of machinery suppliers to better familiarise with the manufacturer’s equipment and establish partnerships with machine suppliers who offered total packages when compared to independent system integrators.

Operational/production challenges
The foremost challenge in production operations was synchronising with different manufacturing locations and multiple suppliers. With different packaging and assembly lines, implementing automation and advanced technology or process improvement programmes was a huge challenge. Other considerations were quick machine setup, minimum production stoppages, better equipment availability and flexibility besides handling innumerable design changes.

Technological Challenges
Technologies, for example RFID in anti-counterfeiting are largely untested or simply not the best. GSK has RFID supply chain projects planned but faces a tough test with respect to being the first mover in investing huge sums into the technology or adopt a wait and watch policy. GSK may lose out in both cases owing to failure of the relatively new technology or lose out to competitors who can gain significantly by adopting the technology faster

* Originally published by me in TMM

Glaxo Smithkline (GSK) spends about GBP 800 million to develop a drug. Its efforts and money will go waste unless its customers get the product in time without any defects and have no difficulty in handling the package. In other words, every facet of GSK’s supply chain should be up to the mark. This article (Glaxo Smithkline Supply Chain Challenges –Part I) highlighted some of the supply chain challenges GSK faces. Part II of this article (Glaxo Smithkline Supply Chain Challenges –Part II)illustrates GSK’s response to those supply chain challenges.

Backsourcing - JPMorgan and IBM - Outsourcing

Have a backsourcing plan before outsourcing

When JPMorgan Chase signed a seven year USD 5 billion outsourcing contract with IBM in December 2002, it was touted as the largest outsourcing arrangement ever made. JP Morgan was the second largest financial services company in the US at that time in terms of net assets. The arrangement was to shift a major part of JPMorgan’s IT services infrastructure which included data centers, help desks and data and voice networks to IBM. Part of the arrangement was also to transfer 4000 IT employees to IBM. JPMorgan wanted to utilise IBM’s OnDemand capability.

Preliminary transfer started in April 2003 and was completed in January 2004. It was estimated that the major work on securing data centers, improving hardware and setting up a common networking infrastructure would take minimum two years to complete.

However, by July 2004, JPMorgan merged with consumer banking business leader, Bank One. Total combined assets of the merged entity were valued at USD 1.1 trillion. The deal was aimed at reducing JPMorgan’s dependence on investment banking.

Bank One believed it could manage technology in-house and was well experienced at integrating systems from acquired businesses. As a result, in August 2004, the agreement with IBM was called off citing that it could manage it mission critical technological infrastructure better with its improved capabilities, tools and processes now. A decision to rehire all 4000 employees was also taken. JPMorgan in all likelihood had to pay IBM millions for terminating the deal.

Such bringing of IT functions back in-house after they have been outsourced is known as BackSourcing. The backsourcing decision had negative consequences. There was poor morale and the loss of employee trust. Most experts felt that bringing IT back in-house was a good decision. Nevertheless, it was a costly and complex move. The time spent in first preparing the organisation for the outsourcing and then restructuring again to bring the IT work back in-house was a colossal waste. Most IT related projects and day-to-day activities almost came to a standstill. Lack of IT services was a serious problem. Technology was not updated and new projects were not scheduled. JPMorgan’s management gave the same reasons for the backsourcing decision that they had given when signing the outsourcing deal with IBM. This made some employees confused and resentful. Morale was at an all time low.

If outsourcing is a complex decision to make, most organisations fear taking a backsourcing decision for its disruptions. A recent survey by Deloitte indicates that more than 25 percent of companies are unhappy with their outsourcing decisions and have considered backsouring. Seventy percent of top executives interviewed expressed negative experiences with outsourcing. However, organisations should plan and assess how they will be able to take back their IT operations or other outsourced services beforehand. Even before outsourcing them in the first place. JPMorgan's saga with IBM is an example for any organisation contemplating an outsourcing deal. The following set of best practices will make the outsourcing or backsourcing journey much easier.

Best Practices to BackSourcing

Inform beforehand

When the backsourcing course of action is decided upon, the outsourcer should be alerted beforehand. This helps promote a cooperative atmosphere as well as conform to any contractual commitments as well.

Adequate documentation

Documenting operational audits and requirements analysis helps avoid any failure to meet the expectations and results in the best outsourcing scenario.

Plan and Schedule

A sound backsourcing plan and schedule should:
• Incorporate clauses to make sure that all assets are returned properly
• Ensure support to the company staff for a specific time period until the company can reassume full operational control to its satisfaction.

Quick Reassignment of employees

Promptly decide upon employee reassignment and responsibilities. This minimises uncertainty and associated productivity and motivation concerns.

Security Policy and Procedures

To protect key information relevant security procedures need to be established. For example, password protection and new software installation procedures can be documented. Any annoyed former employee should not be able to access crucial data or cause system shutdown.

Business Continuity

The course of action for any unforeseen occurrences during the switch should be planned for and be included as part of the backsourcing plan.

Ask the following questions before making the decision.

• What particular state of affairs or likely events will be responsible for ending a relationship?
• What are the penalties for termination? Which parties will incur them?
• How will the companies manage the backsourced operations?

Some outsourcers charge customers for services previously not defined in the contract. The contract between JPMorgan and IBM also was ambiguous. IBM could charge for something that was not previously being done within the bank before the deal began. If the customer is unwilling to pay, such extra but often essential improvements can have an adverse impact on IT. Such outsourcing deals can be bad in terms of IT innovation and efficiency. Such considerations must be accounted for.

JPMorgan's and IBM’s experience stands out as an example to any organisation contemplating an outsourcing or backsourcing possibilities. Even with JPMorgan's earlier claim on the value of backsourcing, the bank does more offshore outsourcing in India. I hope that it has planned better this time and will in future.

Case Studies / Web Sites selling case studies

Case Study Providers / Web Sites selling case studies

The following academic institutions/web sites have collections of business strategy and management case studies. Some of them contain case abstracts and teaching notes/instructor guides to case study analysis and require payment for the full text of each case study.

• Babson College Case Studies


• European Case Clearing House


• Darden Case collection


• Harvard Business School Cases & Teaching Materials The HBR is fulltext on the Business
  Source Premier database.


• Ivey Business School Cases.


• The Melbourne Business School has the Melbourne Case Study Services


• MacQuarie Graduate School of Management Faculty & Research case studies


• Thunderbird Graduate School


• Times 100 Case Studies can be browsed by company name.
• BizEd Marketing Case Studies
• Monash University Case Studies and Surveys Database
• Sunday Times case studies
• Stanford Business School Case Services Collection: listing of cases many of
  which have teaching notes
• eMarket Services also includes international case studies as well as New Zealand
  companies/industries
• Best -Practice.com has collections of case studies and reports for purchase, some as pdf files
• The Management Case Study Journal (University of South Australia)
• The Asian Case Research Journal
  
  

A Guide to Case Study Writing

A Guide to Student-Written, Instructor-Facilitated Case Writing
by Paul Michael Swiercz, Ph.D. The George Washington University


Student-Written, Instructor-Facilitated (SWIF) case study writing is a powerful tool for helping both students and instructors redefine their roles. The guide is divided into two sections. The first section provides background information on the case-study-writing process and answers the most commonly asked questions about case study writing. The second section provides a guide to data resources and some tools for evaluating the case study. New library technologies and computerized databases offer an extraordinarily rich array of information resources. In fact, the resources are so rich and growing so rapidly that it is impossible to summarize them in a document of this size, so this second section is meant to be only a starting point. The guidelines provided and the resources identified will help the new case study writer prepare a clear, concise, and illustrative case study.

What is a Case Study ?

How to analyze strategy case studies :Resources

Analysing a case study requires careful thinking through the issues, considering a range of strategies and actions and recommending a "solution" to the case issues.

The following books/resources will be helpful:

Guide to case analysis, McGraw-Hill

Preparing an effective case analysis / South-Western College

Case studies / University of St Thomas, St Paul, Minnesota.

Analysing a strategy case study

How to write a case study?

If you do not know how to write a case study, then you are at the right place.

First point to note. Identify a relevant issue to write on. Having a lot of issues in one case study-hmmmmm not a good idea. Here you need to display your ability, firstly, to have a good understanding of the business subject (strategy, ethics, finance, governance, HRM, Marketing, innovation ...) you have chosen. Identify a company which is relevant to this subject. News items, business magazines, management articles are a good source to start of with an idea. After you have identified an issue to write a case study on, start analysing. Here company information is crucial to analyse the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, yeah yeah you guessed it right, DO a SWOT Analysis.

Identify the key players (could be the marketing manager, product manager or the CEO)central to the theme that you are building the case upon. More to follow

What is a Case Study?

Case Study : An actual description of a situation, usually concerning a management decision, a challenge, an opportunity, a problem or an issue faced by managers in an organization. A case study can vary in terms of style, organization and approach depending on how it is formally or informally structured.

Case studies are usually considered as problems to which a unique, correct solution is possible. However, this is not the case as a decision maker can choose between several options, conventional or unconventional backed by a logical argument.

Management Case Studies can present an extensive, detailed analysis of a single project in the context of its business environment.

The case method of imparting management education has been used for several years now in business schools to teach various management subjects. Use of case studies holds great potential as a pedagogical technique for teaching management science, particularly to budding managers, because it illustrates various approaches and values. It hones students’ skills in team based learning, presenting, and analytical thinking, and since many of the best cases are based on latest and often debatable management problems that management students encounter in the news (such as Unethical Practices being followed by a particular company), the use of cases in the classroom makes business management study relevant.