There are essentially two different approaches to education. If one polarizes the issue, one approach presupposes that education should consist of accumulating important pieces of knowledge in classified and systematized form. It teaches accepted truths. The other approach presupposes that education consists of acquiring the ability to act in the presence of new experience. The case itself consists of a problem or situation that the company in question has to solve in some way.
In analyzing a case, the following questions are listed as guidelines to the student:
1. What are the objectives of the company or the person(s) involved?
2. What is (are) the major problem(s)?
3. What are the chief sub-problems?
4. What are the pertinent pieces of information contained in the case?
5. What are all the feasible alternatives for a solution to the problem(s) and sub-problems?
6. What information not contained in the case would you like to have to aid in selecting from the various possible solutions? Is this additional information worth obtaining from a time and cost viewpoint? How would you use this information?
7. How would you go about obtaining this additional information? What specific research tools, if any, would you use?
8. What assumptions are you making in the face of the unavailable information? What is the reasoning behind these assumptions?
9. What are all the advantages and disadvantages of each feasible solution?
10. Which alternative would you finally choose and why?
11. Given the chosen alternative, what plan of action would you recommend as optimal?
The steps required for an International Business case analysis is stated below.
1. Analysis of the Situation
Do not restate the case. Emphasize only the information that you think is critical to your decision process. Two levels of analysis are useful. The first, the macro level, attempts to understand the