DailyPost 1598
A CASE FOR BUSINESS CASE STUDIES!
Is there any case for business case studies? Over a period of time, business case studies have become as routine as the regular chapters of a management book. The situation has reached to such an extent that quite a few times the main issues get missed out. We have the world renowned case studies, some of which have been making rounds for decades together. Not denigrating the utility of it, those pieces of knowledge and wisdom, if required can find entry into books, chapters and articles or they should be dropped, if not relevant. Some talk of experiential learning, the concept is fine, but how do you make it happen. In the changing times, the pedagogy should give you a feel of business while you are still in college.
What are the learning outcomes of a Business Case Study has to be decided first. What it was few decades back cannot the same today. Or is it just to get the student into the folklore of companies stories which the entrepreneurs and cog in the wheel employees love to talk about. A supposedly professional and social talk mix. It is of the type of Google guys went to Yahoo for funding. If the purpose is bland knowledge about some companies and experiments which have long been dried and dusted, then it’s a different story, but what purpose does it serve? Can it used as an effective learning tool to make forays into tech entrepreneurship?
The Business Case Study approach was to open you mental horizons in ways unknown, what is known is the final outcome. It would give you skills by which you gain the capability to comprehend and react to business situations better .It would also provide you the spine and the steel necessary for business / entrepreneurial operations. It would provide you better ability to decide and move ahead with greater confidence compared to conventional textbook education. In my recent forays into the Amul and the Aravind Eye Care System, the learning interventions can be different and way more than what the Business Case Studies have ever been able to convey. Can receptivity to the operations of the mind and heart be documented in a better manner.
The business of business case studies in the present avatar needs to give way to a combination of the well researched articles with the right real life connects, the autobiographies, biographies; fully researched and objective and an intensive field trip to the project, startup or the entrepreneurial venture. The persona himself is the biggest repository of knowledge, expertise and learning. Tech entrepreneurship and even well established businesses have become extra complex today, given the fast changing times of sweeping tech changes and consequent management process changes. The teaching and assimilation has to match the field requirements.
THE REAL LIFE OUTCOMES CAN ONLY DECIDE THE CONTENT & MODE OF STUDY.