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INTRODUCTION:

“A case study can be described as the study of an object, person or situation in its natural habitat in an uncontrolled and observational manner”.

When any management graduate undertakes his course; he will frequently come across with various case studies during his academic curriculum. There is no management course without referring to case studies. Research reveals that students may work with as many as 800 case studies during a two year MBA program. It indicates the importance and significance attached to case studies. Apart from Management, the medicine and other courses also club case studies as the part of the academic curriculum. In this context, it is essential to explain the meaning and definition of a case study.

WHAT IS CASE STUDY?

Case study is the study of a particular situation or case or a problem in a given scenario thoroughly after weighing the pros and cons, taking a practically feasible decision in the best interests for effective implementation. Case studies are essential for MBA so that the students can step into the shoes of the given case study, understand the implications and the complications involved and can have the feeling that of a trouble shooter. To put in a nut shell, case study is a simulation of a management situation that helps the management graduates to react in a real situation and helps them by providing right direction towards right decision making and problem solving.

The technical students like engineering graduates have both theory and laboratory activities. The faculty teaches the theory in the class room and then takes them to laboratory to try and test what was taught in the class. The students will be in a position to correlate the theoretical concepts and aspects with that of the practical experiments in the laboratory. As a result, the gap between learning and doing is minimized and also students can grasp, understand and memorize quickly. And while doing practical experiments in the laboratory they may have a few doubts and the same can be clarified, verified and authenticated.

The case studies are also just like laboratory activities. Since for management education the students can not be taken to industry for each and every theoretical concept the case studies will prove handy for them. When the management concepts are explained then the case studies of the companies are explained so that students in the class room can feel like in a simulated situation and they will be able to understand the concepts effectively and efficiently.

IMPORTANCE OF CASE STUDIES:

People, in general, love to listen stories, examples, case studies and anecdotes. No teaching will be complete without the same. And teaching for management graduates is no exception.

Case studies will arouse the interest amongst the students. Every class should have at least one case study to make the teaching process interesting and entertaining. The students, for a while, get into the shoes of the key player in the case study and think and act like him.

There are institutions which are specializing in case studies alone and they have acquired prominence globally. ICFAI has number of case studies under its reservoir and its case studies are accepted and adopted all over the world especially USA, Canada, UK and other European countries. There is specialization in every discipline in these days. IBSCDC which is the acronym for Icfai Business School Case Development Centre was set up in 2003 and it has developed over 2000 world class case studies. Its case studies have been featured in more than 30 international textbooks on Management. It has sold more than 1, 30,000 copies to various global B-schools and universities. It is the second largest producer of case studies in the world and the biggest producer of case studies in Asia. Under the visionary leadership of Dr.Nagendra V Chowdary, Dean of IBSCDC, who has passion for excellence, it is set to conquer the globe with innovative case studies. IBSCDC believes in quality research and catering quality case studies. It coined a new tool ‘Structured Assignment’ for the first time in the world. Now days, the world looks at the innovative tools and techniques. Innovation is the key to survival in this cut throat competitive world.

ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS FOR CASE STUDY:

A few characteristics and qualifications are essential for preparing case studies. The person should have passion to become the creator of case studies. He needs to involve and immerse himself in the case scenario thoroughly so as to have the feel of the real situation. Then only the best can be expected. The author should have flair for writing the case studies. He should be a voracious reader of various books from the discipline in which he is preparing. For instance, the writer of the case studies of HR should have read various books related to Human Resources functional area in order to do justification. Having industrial experience in the same discipline will help to create effective case studies. Imagination works out to some extent but having worked in the same field will bring out the best as the author knows the practical problems.

Lot of patience is essential to create the stuff. Ability to analyze the problems and prospects of the case and logical correlation of various activities in a given situation will prove to be highly beneficial. To put it in a nut shell, the author should have analytical bent of mind, problems solving skills and decision making skills for preparing case studies.

HOW TO PREPARE A CASE STUDY?

“Case study is a description of an actual administrative solution involving a decision to be made or a problem to be solved. It can be a real situation that actually happened just as described, or portions have been disguised for reasons of privacy”.

Usually the case study can be brief or extensive running from 2 to 30 pages. As such there is no specific rule that the content should be limited or extended up to certain levels. Read the entire text thoroughly once and jot down the key points and concepts and also the important issues involved in it in a separate sheet. Look for 4 W’s in the case such as what is the problem? where is the problem? when the problem started? And why the problem occurred? Relate and correlate all the factors and forces together to have better quick grasp about the case. Also read between the lines keenly. Apply your common sense and make comparative study of the situation. Observe closely if any statistical data is given. Look at the cause and effect relation with in the case study. At times the causes are hidden and it requires extraordinary ability to unearth the hidden causes. It needs probing temperament and correlate the same with the effects. This will help to get at the root of the problem for generating bags of solutions. During this process, the visualization technique is highly useful in order to correlate various things mentally. If time permits read and reread the text more times for getting at the crux of the case. Repeat the process till you get perfection.

Create number of multiple solutions to a given problem. Choose the best that suits the present position and adopt. It requires intuition and gut feeling to shortlist the best logical, analytical and appropriate decision. Don’t repeat what is already stated in the case.

During the case study analysis and preparation the academician with industrial exposure can deliver better results than mere academician without any industrial experience. The academicians always look at the case purely from their vast theoretical perspective as they are not exposed to industry. Of course, they honed their skills based on reading plenty of case studies. But that will not be sufficient to create effective case studies. On the other hand, the academician who hailed from industrial or from corporate background look at the case from multiple perspectives. They might have faced the same scenario as stated in the case study in their practical life. Therefore, they have ready made and tailor made answers and more solutions to each problem. Case study analysis requires critical and creative thinking. It also requires empathy i.e. stepping into the shoes of a situation and generating multiple solutions.

CONCLUSION:

Case Study is the heart of the management curriculum. Creating case study is a skill not a talent. If the case study writer has creative mind, passion, nose for writing, eye for detail, analytical bent of mind, problem solving skills, decision making skills and the ability to see the big picture and the capability to think out of the box, the best and the most memorable case studies can be crafted.

If you are interested in investment opportunities but are not sure where to start, a mutual fund might be a good option for you. A mutual fund is a way to invest along with a group of other people. Everyone shares the gains and losses. Group investing allows you to make investments that you might not be able to make on your own. It is professionally managed, which is another benefit for the novice investor. After determining that this form of investing is right for you, the only thing left to do is determine the best mutual funds.

Most people have realized that caution must be used when investing in this sluggish, fickle economy. A little research and common sense will help to steer you in the right direction. The best mutual funds in the upcoming year might be things such as gold and other natural resources. The price of gold has been steadily rising for years and seems to be a safe bet for guaranteed returns. Real estate could even be a good bet in some markets. This will vary of course by location. After prices bottom out, they inevitably rise again. This means excellent profits for you.

They key to securing your financial future through money markets is diversifying. This has been stated so often that it has becoming almost cliché. Nevertheless, it is still a true statement. Diversification in an unpredictable atmosphere means that you will never be caught with all of your eggs in one basket. Diversification assists in limiting the effects of any losses in your portfolio. Look for different stable areas to balance your assets. When properly balanced, adding a few high risk funds might prove to be the best mutual funds in your diversified portfolio.

Mutual funds are an easy way to invest money. The best mutual funds will be the ones which are the most cost effective, and the ones providing the largest profits. People have begun to seek regular funds as a relatively safe alternative to other stock market investments. Funds offer liquidity, making accessing your money easy and might be exactly what you are looking for.

Have you ever thought how important audience response? The power of the audience is increasing at a greater pace. With plethora of options and wider range of sight of an individual, it has become of great importance that the audience feedback be retained. An audience poll has become the most essential tool for enhancing and evaluating our performance at user end. All service providers need a response or a feedback to turn into a user oriented output. Be it a market research for product analysis, or education and training systems to gain the feedback of trainer in the view of the trainees, a feedback gives the idea of system or providers effectiveness, strengths and weaknesses. Audience response is also required in the departmental meetings, training workshops, Medical symposiums and a lot more. And the list will go on. All I want to indicate is that in this seeker oriented (and not provider oriented) world, it has become essential to seek the seekers perspective. And that is best done by seeking the audience response.

Have you ever scratched your brains to find the most effective Voting System? Do you think paper feedbacks are good enough? Will the manual Voting Systems be of any help? I guess not. With the regional diversities and a vast overspread of work region, something electronic is needed. If we are analyzing in the right direction, Electronic Voting Systems, are best suited. They are smarter and sharper.

If we start listing the requirements or essentials of an Electronic Voting Systems we will find a plethora of aspects. To list a few of them here, I would say that the most important is the ability to restore attention of the audience. If there is attention there is a true feedback. Any Electronic Voting System should also be capable of tracking individual responses and displaying polling results immediately. And an added feature could be that a summary report is created immediately after the responses are gathered. This will give the true picture of the audience response and enhance faster decision making.

An Electronic Voting Systems such as an ARS is a system of wireless keypads used by a presenter to poll the audience and receive real time answers to the questions being asked.

It consists of a wireless keypad for the audience to feed response, a software system to capture response, a storage device to save and finally a display unit to display the data collected. The most attractive part of the whole system is that when the presenter shows the presentation with a computer with built in ARS software; questions are displayed on the screen which makes it lucrative and attractive and audience responses with the wireless keypads. The answers are immediately sent to a receiver that is attached to the presenter’s computer, and the audience response software collects and tabulates the results and graphically displays representation of the data within the presentation. Isn’t it fancy!

What more you need apart from capturing the thoughts suggestions and opinions of the audience at the very moment and evaluate them effectively? Powercom software and ARS together can create wonders in your work. The best thing is that data is transferred to word, excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. For Electronic Voting Systems, such a combination is cost effective and a powerful means to grab all that you want!

To summarize, for an automated audience, it is very essential to be automated and effective. And in an interactive system where feedback is a major criterion, Electronic Voting Systems prove to be the most effective tools. So, go ahead and pick up the best suited tool to strengthen your work capabilities!

The main thing to understand about discounts is the thinking behind them. The insurance companies want to encourage you to act in ways that favor them. If you are contrary and do the opposite, you will probably cost them money so your premium rates will be higher. Let’s take a few examples and see how it works. Obviously the point of insurance is that, if you have one of those unfortunate accidents or someone steals your vehicle, you get to claim money from the insurance company. From the insurer’s point of view, this is bad news. It wants to be able to treat all your cash as profit. The more it has to pay out, the more it should raise premiums. Except, at some point, you throw up your hands and say, “We’re not going to pay that.” So a balance has to be struck. The insurer wants all the safe drivers like you, and aims to discourage all the drivers with bad records – they are the ones who get the really big premium hikes. Although loyalty bonuses go some way in the right direction, there are more ways in which the insurer can save money. It all starts with the make and model of vehicle you are driving.

Risk assessment is done by the actuaries. These are the math wonks who collect details of every accident reported in the US. This is not just the data from claims on vehicle insurance. This is every incident reported to the police, attended by the firefighters or ambulance crews, or dealt with through claims on health insurance. Put all this together and the actuaries can tell you the probability of an accident in any make and model of vehicle, given its color, whether it was fitted with any additional features, who it was driven by, the time of day or night, whether the driver and passengers were badly injured, so on. Yes, it’s that detailed. Turning this around, if you drive a vehicle that’s statistically unlikely to be involved in an accident or stolen, your premium will be lower than average. Put a safe driver in a safe car and the chances of the insurer having to pay out are small and the profit is higher. Everyone is happy. So how do you find out which are the safest vehicles with the lowest premium rates? Well, you start with http://www.safercar.gov/, a site run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This allows you to get the safety ratings from all the tests carried out by the NHTSA. There’s a guide published at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/staticfiles/DOT/NHTSA/Vehicle%20Safety/Articles/Associated%20Files/2009_Insurance_Costs_Comparison.pdf which is also helpful. Finally, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety publishes its own list of safe vehicles at http://www.iihs.org/ratings/

The safer the vehicle you drive, the greater the discount on the premium rate. So when you are filling out the questionnaire for those auto insurance quotes, aim to have a safe vehicle. If you vehicle is not safe and you cannot afford to change it, try to upgrade it by fitting safety features. Look at the questions asked in the questionnaire and talk to insurance agents to find out what features save the most money. Similarly, fit better locks and any systems making your vehicle more difficult to steal. Anything you can do to reduce the risk of a claim will be reflected in low rates in the auto insurance quotes you receive.

If you are an investor and looking for something new, a life settlement may be an opportunity for you. There are many older adults looking to get a life settlement because of one reason or another.

Life settlements are a lump sum of money that is paid to someone who is selling their life insurance policy. An investor will pay them the money and will become owner of the policy. The buy will also take over the payments that are supposed to be monthly. When the original owner passes away, the buyer will receive the cash payout from the life insurance company.

If you want to invest in a life settlement, there are a few things that you need to be aware of. If you purchase a term life settlement and the person doesn’t die in the specified amount of time, you will not receive any money when they do die because the policy is expired. There are a few other types of life insurance policies that you can choose to invest in depending on what you are looking for.

Once you have decided that you would like to invest, it is beneficial to contact a broker to help pair you up with a seller. There are many people that are trying to sell their policies, so you need to find the right one for your investing situation.