Case Studies

Instructor

Jeremy Alexis

Course Description
Introduces a case based approach for analyzing business/ design challenges. Students are introduced to frameworks for analyzing a business problem and providing some potential solutions.

Assignment:
Students will read about issues in the marketplace based on case studies from HBR and elsewhere. They will extract interesting insights from the cases. Students will be expected to present their analysis in class and defend their choices.
Information related to the topic area -- both qualitative and quantitative -- will be analyzed in a systemic way.

Format & Grading

Format:
Classes will be conducted around case discussions. Students will be given cases every week to analyze and will present their analysis in class. There will be breakout sessions for students to critique and discuss cases. The case presented in every class will be discussed briefly in class prior to handing out of assignments. The emphasis will be on students thoroughly understanding the issues, using basic design /business frameworks to analyze and then presenting their solutions in class.

There will be a larger case competition that will be given to the students at the beginning of the semester which they will analyze (in teams) based on class learning and present during the final class which will be critiqued by outside people.

Teamwork outside of class:
Yes. The cases will be analyzed individually by students but they will be expected to discuss their analysis with other students prior to class. For the final case study, the students will have to work together to analyze and create the presentation.

Approximate number of hours teams are expected to work outside of class: 2/week

Grading
40% class participation, 40% weekly assignments, 20% final project

Schedule:
Week 1 Introduction, Short Case Study, Discussion
Week 2 Case Study Presentation, Analysis and Discussion, Frameworks
Week 3 Case Presentation, Analysis and Discussion, Frameworks
Week 4 Case Presentation, Analysis and Discussion, Frameworks
Week 5 Final Case Competition Outline
Week 6 Final Case Draft Presentations and Discussions
Week 7 Final Case Competition Presentations, Critique