Efficient Case Solution

The Case Method – How not to hate the cases

1. How to approach long cases (Marketing):

* One of the goals of MBA is teach us how to work under stress

* Try to understand what the case is about (spend 15 min max for it)

* Use frameworks i.e. EVERY marketing case can be classified into the following:

* Reduce losses

* Increase sales/profits

* Introduce a new product in the market

* Once you have the framework, identify the key drivers – needs a bit of practice but soon you will realize there is a pattern

* Try to understand the mentality of the person who wrote the case – it really helps!

* Start making ‘analyzed’ guesses – Why is half of the class sick on Monday?

* Finally being a native English speaker helps!

2. Leverage the numbers to get to a valuation:

* Use frameworks similar to the above mentioned

* Identify the drivers of revenue and cost while you are reading the case and note them on excel

* In EVERY case you just need two things revenue and cost

* Also important is to identify the market size – sometimes you realize the market is too small to pursue

* One of the smartest things to do is to pick up the ‘low hanging’ fruits – Read the footnotes

3. Quick way for valuation:

* There is NO such thing as quick valuation – Though you can always avoid a slow valuation

* ALWAYS use linked cells in excel – never type numbers (trust me)

* Set up your excel as if you are solving the case from the end to the beginning – case in point Decan case of Oct 6th

4. Valuation tips and tricks:

* Set up your excel to repeat calculations – the magic of $

* Spend some time in keeping the units for every numbers

* Being neat and clean on excel helps – use white ‘white fill’ for the sheet

* If you are not super used to excel write the approach on a white piece...