The B-School Case Study Gets a Digital Makeover

New York University management professor Glenn Okun throws a 500-page, spiral-bound book of Xeroxed course materials onto his desk. The thick tome contains nearly 20 business case studies and represents just half the reading his students will plow through this fall—fairly typical of MBA courses.

"Leafing through one of these is like leafing through the equivalent of the Manhattan Yellow Pages," he says.

Next, Okun unsheathes the alternative: an edition of the same course materials—a feature NYU introduced last year. In each digital case study, students can highlight material in fluorescent colors and take notes. A tap on the screen allows them to skip to an exhibit at the end of a document, and then follow the menu back to where they left off reading—with no virtual or actual page-leafing required. All the features work offline.

"Now," Okun asks, "which would you prefer?"

Case studies are the lifeblood of a business school’s curriculum. Each describes a company or economic scenario that actually happened. Students decide what they would have done had they been making decisions.

As case studies migrate to tablet form, they have the potential to undergo some of the greatest transformations in the way students interact with the material since the case method was introduced at Harvard Business School in 1924. Over the ensuing 87 years, the case study has undergone some changes but remains much as it was at its inception—a straightforward narrative of business success or failure. Tablet technology may make the case study more of an interactive experience.

HBS Case Ivey Tablet Conversion

Harvard Business School, the largest publisher of case studies in North America, is in the process of converting its 3500 files for improved shelf formats during this school year, and expects to complete the conversion of its library of 17,000 titles in 2013. The University of Western Ontario Ivey School of Business, the second largest, has more than 500 cases of its accessible via Apple iBookstore at the end of June

When Harvard is complete, the purists will have access to digital documents in their original format.Teachers would be able to bring them to life as they see fit, incorporating the chief executive videos, audio files, and a number of additional assets in the text, which would Harvard or instructors can select their same.

How To Write A Business Case - News


The B-School Case Study Gets a Digital Makeover
The B-School Case Study Gets a Digital Makeover

"I think it will get to the point where [academics] write a case study that is designed for a tablet experience," says Maureen Betses, vice-president of higher education at Harvard Business Publishing. Still, most cases are already available as PDFs.



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How To Write A Business Case - Bookshelf

Making the business case, how to create, write and implement a successful business plan

Making the business case, how to create, write and implement a successful business plan


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If you don't feel the consultant assigned to your case is a good match, don't hesitate to ask for another. For business owners on a tight budget, ...

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Cheat Sheet: How to write a business case
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how to write an effective business case. Module 1 - What is the ... The writing of the business case forces the team to sit back and reflect on all of the ...

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A business case study is a snapshot of a company that shows how the business succeeded. ... Business schools use case studies to teach students about how to run, ...

How to Write a Business Case - wikiHow
How to Write a Business Case. A business case provides justification for a proposed change and the allocation of capital and resources to make the change work. ...

How to Write a Business Case | eHow.com
How to Write a Business Case. When you have developed a course of action that, based on a solid business plan, would be either advantages or profitable (or both) to ...