how to read a business case study

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A number of universities and organizations provide access to free business case studies.  Below are some of the best known sources.

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• Last Updated: Sep 24, 2024 3:15 PM
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How to Analyse a Case Study

Last Updated: October 8, 2024 Approved

This article was co-authored by Sarah Evans . Sarah Evans is a Public Relations & Social Media Expert based in Las Vegas, Nevada. With over 14 years of industry experience, Sarah is the Founder & CEO of Sevans PR. Her team offers strategic communications services to help clients across industries including tech, finance, medical, real estate, law, and startups. The agency is renowned for its development of the "reputation+" methodology, a data-driven and AI-powered approach designed to elevate brand credibility, trust, awareness, and authority in a competitive marketplace. Sarah’s thought leadership has led to regular appearances on The Doctors TV show, CBS Las Vegas Now, and as an Adobe influencer. She is a respected contributor at Entrepreneur magazine, Hackernoon, Grit Daily, and KLAS Las Vegas. Sarah has been featured in PR Daily and PR Newswire and is a member of the Forbes Agency Council. She received her B.A. in Communications and Public Relations from Millikin University. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 18 testimonials and 88% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 415,768 times.

Case studies are used in many professional education programs, primarily in business school, to present real-world situations to students and to assess their ability to parse out the important aspects of a given dilemma. In general, a case study should include, in order: background on the business environment, description of the given business, identification of a key problem or issue, steps taken to address the issue, your assessment of that response, and suggestions for better business strategy. The steps below will guide you through the process of analyzing a business case study in this way.

Examine and describe the business environment relevant to the case study.

Describe the structure and size of the main business under consideration.

Identify the key issue or problem in the case study.

Describe how the business responds to these issues or problems.

===Identify the successful aspects of this response as well as its failures.=== #Indicate whether or not each aspect of the response met its goal. Talk about whether the response overall was well-crafted. Use numerical benchmarks, like a desired customer share, to show whether goals were met; analyze broader issues, like employee management policies, to talk about the response as a whole. [3] X Research source

Point to successes, failures, unforeseen results, and inadequate measures.

• Suggest alternative or improved measures that could have been taken. Use specific examples and backing up your suggestions with data and calculations.

Describe what changes you would make in the business.

Conclude your analysis by reviewing your findings.

Community Q&A

• Always read a case study several times. At first, you should read just for the basic details. On each subsequent reading, look for details about a specific topic: competitors, business strategy, management structure, financial loss. Highlight phrases and sections relating to these topics and take notes. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• In the preliminary stages of analyzing a case study, no detail is insignificant. The biggest numbers can often be misleading, and the point of an analysis is often to dig deeper and find otherwise unnoticed variables that drive a situation. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• If you are analyzing a case study for a consulting company interview, be sure to direct your comments towards the matters handled by the company. For example, if the company deals with marketing strategy, focus on the business's successes and failures in marketing; if you are interviewing for a financial consulting job, analyze how well the business keeps their books and their investment strategy. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Do not use impassioned or emphatic language in your analysis. Business case studies are a tool for gauging your business acumen, not your personal beliefs. When assigning blame or identifying flaws in strategy, use a detached, disinterested tone. Thanks Helpful 16 Not Helpful 4

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Expert Interview

Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about business writing, check out our in-depth interview with Sarah Evans .

• ↑ https://www.gvsu.edu/cms4/asset/CC3BFEEB-C364-E1A1-A5390F221AC0FD2D/business_case_analysis_gg_final.pdf
• ↑ https://bizfluent.com/12741914/how-to-analyze-a-business-case-study
• ↑ http://www.business-fundas.com/2009/how-to-analyze-business-case-studies/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/writing-case-study-analysis
• http://college.cengage.com/business/resources/casestudies/students/analyzing.htm

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How the HBS Case Method Works

How the Case Method Works

• Read and analyze the case. Each case is a 10-20 page document written from the viewpoint of a real person leading a real organization. In addition to background information on the situation, each case ends in a key decision to be made. Your job is to sift through the information, incomplete by design, and decide what you would do.
• Discuss the case. Each morning, you’ll bring your ideas to a small team of classmates from diverse professional backgrounds, your discussion group, to share your findings and listen to theirs. Together, you begin to see the case from different perspectives, better preparing you for class.
• Engage in class. Be prepared to change the way you think as you debate with classmates the best path forward for this organization. The highly engaged conversation is facilitated by the faculty member, but it’s driven by your classmates’ comments and experiences. HBS brings together amazingly talented people from diverse backgrounds and puts that experience front and center. Students do the majority of the talking (and lots of active listening), and your job is to better understand the decision at hand, what you would do in the case protagonist’s shoes, and why. You will not leave a class thinking about the case the same way you thought about it coming in! In addition to learning more about many businesses, in the case method you will develop communication, listening, analysis, and leadership skills. It is a truly dynamic and immersive learning environment.
• Reflect. The case method prepares you to be in leadership positions where you will face time-sensitive decisions with limited information. Reflecting on each class discussion will prepare you to face these situations in your future roles.

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General Case Reading Tips

• What are the main issues? 
• Which points are more valid? You should be able to defend your analysis. Connect what you have read in the case with the content of the course to help guide your thinking.
• ​​​​​​​ Does your assignment ask that you answer specific questions in your analysis? If so, read the case again while focusing on those questions. As before, ensure that you are able to validate your analysis with evidence. Focus on the facts from the case if they add to the narrative and support a deeper level of analysis. 

• Case Studies: Preparing an Effective Case Analysis Covers strategic management case studies, specifically the process for effective case analysis.
• Case Studies: Analyzing a Case Study Step by step recommendations for analyzing a case study.

Critical Reading

To read critically is to make judgments about how a text is argued. This is a highly reflective skill requiring you to “stand back” and gain some distance from the text you are reading. (You might have to read a text through once to get a basic grasp of content before you launch into an intensive critical reading.) THE KEY IS THIS:

don’t read looking only or primarily for information

do read looking for ways of thinking about the subject matter

When you are reading, highlighting, or taking notes, avoid extracting and compiling lists of evidence, lists of facts and examples. Avoid approaching a text by asking “What information can I get out of it?” Rather ask “How does this text work? How is it argued? How is the evidence (the facts, examples, etc.) used and interpreted? How does the text reach its conclusions?

Source: Knott, D. (n.d.). Critical reading towards critical writing. Writing Advice.  http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/researching/critical-reading/

The Gut Test

When evaluating an information source, especially online information, remember the simple Gut Test-- your immediate first impression after an initial examination or reading of a piece of information.  

Consider whether or not the information is:

• biased or has a particular agenda
• factually inaccurate or treats opinion as fact
• poorly presented, i.e. is it full of spelling or grammatical errors, etc..
• or just seems "off"

…then it is probably not a reliable source of information for your assignments.

Using ‘Bad’ Information

But, sometimes "bad" information can be very useful, if you are using the information to illustrate a point, exhibit conflicting or mistaken opinions or to critically analyze it. However, if you use "bad" information, provide context to the information and clearly identify it within your paper. 

And one last thing:

Confirmation Bias

Beware of searching for or selecting information that confims your existing beliefs or opinions about a topic.

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• How to analyse a case study

Case study analysis

A case study analysis investigates an organisational challenge, provides solutions based on a tried theoretical framework or model and then proposes the most effective solution/s using evidence-based research.

Preparing the Case

Before you begin writing, follow these guidelines to help you prepare and understand the case study:

• Take notes, highlight relevant facts, and underline key problems.
• Identify two to five key problems
• Why do they exist?
• How do they impact the organization?
• Who is responsible for them?
• Review course readings, discussions, outside research, and your experience.
• Consider strong supporting evidence, pros, and cons: is this solution realistic?

Drafting the Case

Once you have gathered the necessary information, a draft of your analysis should include these sections:

• Identify the key problems and issues in the case study.
• Formulate and include a thesis statement, summarizing the outcome of your analysis in 1–2 sentences.
• Set the scene: background information, relevant facts, and the most important issues.
• Demonstrate that you have researched the problems in this case study.
• Outline possible alternatives (not necessarily all of them)
• Explain why alternatives were rejected
• Constraints/reasons
• Why are alternatives not possible at this time?
• Provide one specific and realistic solution
• Explain why this solution was chosen
• Support this solution with solid evidence
• Concepts from class (text readings, discussions, lectures)
• Outside research
• Personal experience (anecdotes)
• Determine and discuss specific strategies for accomplishing the proposed solution.
• If applicable, recommend further action to resolve some of the issues
• What should be done and who should do it?

Finalising the Case

Read through your first draft to check for gaps or inconsistencies in the content or structure. Consider if your thesis statement is clear and direct. Have you provided solid evidence? Is any component from the analysis missing?

• Cengage learning - Analyzing a case study
• Guide to case analysis  - from the publisher McGraw Hill. Includes sections on objectives of case analysis, preparing a case for class discussion and preparing a written case analysis.

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