Getting Ready to Write the
Case Exam
*Newville Tigers Case used within this slide deck for illustration purposes.
1
Report Contents
 Cover Page
 Executive summary
• Management issue, strategic problem, recommendation, major
implementation issues
 Introduction
 The report’s contents
 Body of Report
 Analyses
 Recommendation
 Implementation Plan
 Conclusion
 Appendices or exhibits
2
Steps to Solving a Business Problem
Scan Internal Environment
Identify Internal Strategic Factors
Strengths
Weaknesses
Financial Assessment-Bal. Sheet/ Inc S/M
ID Current Mission
Is there an implied mission?
What is it? Goals? Targets?
Needs/Preferences?
Constraints?
1
ID Major Strategic Issues
Rank issues
ID Alternatives
2
Identify
4
KSF
Competitive Advantage
Key risks to be
eliminated or mitigated
Scan External Environment
Identify External Strategic Factors
Ext. Opportunities
Ext. Threats
Financial Assessment-Benchmarking
3
What must we do
to succeed in our
new direction?
5
Analyze Alternatives
Provide balanced analysis:
Qualitative & Quantitative
Pros & cons
Consider information
from Internal and
6
external scan
Recommendations
7
Rank Alternatives
State recommendations
Prove feasibility & viability
Explain how it achieves goals/targets,
mitigates key risks, does not exceed
constraints, capitalizes on KSFs and
meets stakeholder preferences
Implementation Plan
8
changes:
•ID and analyze issues
e.g. change mgmt, resources
•Resolve cons
•Resolve weaknesses in
Leadership, Structure,
Mgmt Info, Internal Control,
Ethics, H/R, Marketing,
Operations, IT, etc.
Address minor issues
Provide action plan
Financial Forecast of all
Recommendations
Pro Formas (cash flow, F/S)
Identify future financial
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benefits
3
Managing Your Time Hint
 Do as much financial analysis as you can beforehand.
This provides you with insight about where the
organization is making or losing money and will provide
you with a good foundation when you start working on
the case examination
4
The Key for Success – Manage your Time
Work the backgrounder beforehand – more on this below
Set milestones for your work
Do not over invest in any one area
You will never have enough time to do everything you
would like to do
 Go for the major points – worry later about the minor
points
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5
Working the Backgrounder (BG)
 Backgrounder conveys most of the information that you
will be required to complete in boxes 1-4
 The Additional Information document might include
additional information relevant to these boxes.
 You should do any financial analysis you can with the
Backgrounder information so that you will get a feeling
for this organization’s financial situation
 Remember that the Backgrounder will contain many, but
not all, of the constraints, risks, and stakeholder
preferences
6
The Steps with Time Allocations
During the Exam*
Step 1 – Scan Additional Information (5 minutes)
Step 2 – Fill in Storyboard While Reading AI (55 minutes)
Step 3 – Situation Analysis (10 minutes)
Step 4 – Issue Identification & Analysis (60 minutes)
Step 5 – Rank Alternatives (15 minutes)
Step 6 – Recommendation(s) (5 minutes)
Step 7 – Provide Evidence of Viability/Feasibility of Recommendations (10
minutes)
Step 8 – Implementation Plan and Financial Summary (60 minutes)
Step 9 – Prepare Report (20 minutes)
*suggestions only – will differ with each case – some will be weighted differently on strategic7 vs
business issues.
Managing your Time on the CE
 NEVER NEVER NEVER plan on transcribing. Organize
your report layout so you only have to write something
once.
 Do not evaluate both sides of a strategic alternative. For
example “introduce the new product” or “do not introduce
the new product”. Rejecting the initiative automatically
means accepting the alternative.
 Do not evaluate status quo situation in the case as it is a
repetition of the situation analysis.
 Use incremental analysis when evaluating alternatives
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More Time Management Hints
 “Storyboard” your response—Prepare sheets for all
elements of the response so you do not forget anything
(cover page, executive summary; introduction; situation
analysis; analysis of issues; implementation plan;
conclusion; appendices (quantitative analysis for each
issue that requires one)
 Rather than highlighting something in the exam, record it
on your handwritten or typewritten response.
 Bullets are okay (and recommended)! But be sure to
communicate in full sentences and be clear about your
point.
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Box 1 – Identify or Infer the Mission
 The opening mission is usually given – if not, you need
to infer what it is by studying the organization’s current
strategy
 Remember that you should revise the mission statement
if you recommend a strategy the moves the organization
in a new direction
 The mission should reflect which of the three generic
strategies (or combination of these) that the organization
is using or trying to use
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Box 2 – Internal Data
 This is where you gather the important facts about the
organization’s internal characteristics
 You will find these facts in both the Backgrounder and the
Additional Information
 The facts will include
• The organization’s resources (tangible and intangible)
• Stakeholder preferences
• Organization culture
 Internal acts that support the organization’s strategy are
strengths – those that impair the strategy are weaknesses
 Be on the lookout for constraints and circumstances that could
turn into weaknesses (risks)
 Evaluate the organization’s financial situation using suitable
ratios. If there are benchmark ratios use them – compute ratio
trends and interpret
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Backgrounder – Internal Scan (Provided)
Strengths
Weaknesses
12
Backgrounder – Internal Scan (Provided)
13
Backgrounder – External Scan (Provided)
Strengths
Weaknesses
14
Backgrounder – External Scan (Provided)
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Other
 Stakeholder Preferences
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
 Constraints
1.
2.
3.
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Other
 Stakeholder Preferences
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Miller – Improve area safety
Gagnon – Develop an optimistic budget
Agani – Develop a conservative budget
DeVue – Sell beer at games
Nack – Don’t sell beer at games
 Constraints
1. Salary cap of $1.7 million
2. Area capacity limited to 5,020 seats and 4 boxes
3. Event capacity 3 event rooms, one arena
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Key Ratios
 Liquidity
 Current ratio – a liquidity measure – always provides insights
 Quick ratio – identifies excessive inventory issues in a manufacturing firm – not a big
issue in this case
 Efficiency Ratio
 Net income/sales – always provides insight
 Turnover Ratios
 Sales/Assets – a good overall measure
 Sales/Average Accounts Receivable – not a big issue in this case since receivables are
not large
 Cost of goods sold/inventory – not a big issue in this case since this is not a
manufacturing or retail operation
 Leverage Ratios
 Assets/Equity – always provides insights
 Profitability
 Net income/equity – always provides insights
 Net income/assets – always provides insights
 Financial Risk
 Earnings before interest and taxes/intererst
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Ratios
Newville Tigers Inc.
2008
Dollar values in thousands
Sales
Interest
Earnings before interest and taxes
Net Income
Current Assets
Total Assets
Current Liabilities
Total Equity
Ratios
Current Ratio
Times Interest Earned
Net Income/Sales
Sales/Total Assets
Total Assets/Total Equity
Return on Equity
Return on Assets
2007
2006
2005
2004
8570
20
1029
666
954
2683
890
1697
7902
35
604
376
682
2698
870
1431
7397
50
283
154
583
2940
787
1455
8474
65
1114
692
969
3590
890
1701
9014
80
1542
965
708
3584
875
1409
1.07
51.45
7.77%
3.19
1.58
39.25%
24.82%
0.78
17.26
4.76%
2.93
1.89
26.28%
13.94%
0.74
5.66
2.08%
2.52
2.02
10.58%
5.24%
1.09
17.14
8.17%
2.36
2.11
40.68%
19.28%
0.81
19.28
10.71%
2.52
2.54
68.49%
26.93%
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Insight From Ratio Analysis
 The current ratio averages about 1 which is significantly
below 2 – the usual rule of thumb value
 Times interest earned suggests low financial risk except
for 2006
 Net income to revenue is small – this is a low margin
business that relies on total asset turnover and a
reasonable level of leverage to provide an adequate
return on equity
 Total asset turnover averages slightly less than 3 which
may be reasonable in this type of business
 Leverage is very low
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Boxes 3 and 4 – External Data
 These are the facts about the environment facing the
firm
 Useful facts include
 PESTE
 Porter
 Industry Key Success Factors
 External facts that the organization can exploit are
opportunities – facts that have the potential to impair
performance are threats
 Remember to look for external constraints and facts
(risks) that can turn into threats
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Summary to Date
 You have identified the organization’s current strategy
and its mission statement
 You have gathered the data about the organization’s
environment both internal and external
 You have labelled these facts as strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, or threats
 You have identified the industry and firm key success
factors
 You have identified any risks and constraints
 You have identified the organization’s financial situation
 You have a good understanding of the organization and
you are ready to address the issues that arise in the
additional information
22
Reviewing Your Work
 Study the marker’s comments
 Study the general feedback on the case provided on the CPP site.
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Now you are ready for the
Additional Information (AI)
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Add additional SWOT points from the AI
Delete any SWOT points that have changed from the BG
Identify the issues (you cannot do this from the information provided in the BG)
 Strategic and operational
Evaluate alternatives for dealing with the issues (you cannot do this from the info
provided n the BG)
 Qualitative
 Quantitative
Identify the criteria you will use to recommend what to do (focus on constraints,
financing availability, key SWOT—ROBUST RECOMMENDATIONS deck)
Make specific recommendations
Identify and discuss the implementation issues
 3 parts:
1. Address/try to solve cons to recommended alternatives (some may be
weaknesses
2. Solve remaining relevant weaknesses
3. Action Plan: WHO is going to do WHAT, WHEN and HOW MUCH (if
feasible)
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Recommendations Decisions Matrix
Criteria—one possible approach
“What are you Basing your
Recommendations on”
Alt One
Alt Two
Alt Three
Alt Four
Strategic Fit







Shareholder’s Preference
Financials –
Bank/Profitability

Branding – Store/Product




Customer
Inventory



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Implementation Plan
Actions
Q1
Action 1

Q2
Q3
Q4
Who
Cost
HR
$5k
Action 1
Step Three
Step Four
Step Five
Step Six
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