Is there a case to revisit the Case Study Method?

You bet!

 

Back in the 1920s, Harvard Business School(HBS) professors decided to develop and experiment with innovative and unique business instruction methods. As the first school in the world to design a signature, distinctive program in business, later to be called the MBA, there was a need for a teaching method that would benefit this novel approach.

 

 

Central to the case method is the idea that students are not provided the “answer” or resolution to the problem at hand. Instead, just like a board member, CEO, or manager, the student is forced to analyze a situation and find solutions without full knowledge of all methods and facts. Without excluding more traditional aspects, such as interaction with professors and textbooks, the case method provides the student with the opportunity to think and act like managers.

 

 

HBS professors selected and took a few pages to summarize recent events, momentous challenges, strategic planning, and important decisions undertaken by major companies and organizations. The idea was, and remains to this day, that through direct contact with a real-world case, students will think independently about those facts, discuss and compare their perspectives and findings with their peers, and eventually discover a new concept on their own. So far, so good.

 

 

In lecture courses, claimed a Harvard professor, students ” are waiting for you to give the ‘answer ‘ “. There is a built-in bias against action. What we say with the case method is : ” Look, I know you don’t have enough information, but given the information you do have, what are you going to do? “.

 

 

Consider a typical scenario. James is the CEO of MegaCorp Inc. What should the company do now? The professor and almost 90 of James’ classmates anxiously await his response to the totally ‘ cold call ‘- designed to ensure that students have prepared the case. James did give it a long thought. After all, he was told that the case study method is intended to ” challenge conventional thinking “. He has also been reminded that good managers are decisive, good MBA students must take a stand. So James swallows hard and answers the question.

 

 

” How can I answer the question? “- James begins. ” I barely heard about MegaCorp Inc before yesterday. Yet today, you want me to pronounce on its strategy. As is typical at Harvard, James was working on two other case studies the previous night, so he barely had a couple of hours to prepare on the MegaCorp Inc case. He had never knowingly used any of the MegaCorp products. Until the previous day he did not even know that the rat poison that he used on his basement was made by the same MegaCorp Inc. He had never visited any of its factories nor has been anywhere close to ‘ You Never Know Where, Newfoundland ‘, where MegaCorp is headquartered. He has never spoken to any of the company’s customers(except of course himself). James says ” My previous experience(the little there was) took place in a furniture company. MegaCorp is a high-tech company and I am a very low tech guy. All I have to go by are these few pages. This is a superficial exercise. I refuse to answer your question “.

 

 

What happens to James? At the business school, I will let you hazard(?) a guess. But from there James moves back to the furniture business, where he immerses himself in the products, the process, the people. And with his courage to be decisive and with an appetite to challenge conventional thinking, James rises to the position of the CEO. There with hardly any ‘ industry analysts ‘ at all, James and his colleagues learn their way to a strategy that transforms the furniture business.

 

 

Meanwhile, John, who is sitting next to James in class jumps in. He too has never been to ‘ You Never Know Where, Newfoundland ‘. But that doesn’t stop him.He makes a clever point or two and gets that coveted Harvard MBA. This gets him into a ‘ prestigious consulting firm ‘(surprise..surprise), where as in those case study classes, he leaps from one situation to another, each time making a clever point or two, concerning issues he recently knew nothing about, always leaving the firm before implementation (action) begins.

 

 

As this kind of experience rolls in, John doesn’t take far too long in becoming the CEO of a major appliance company.(He never consulted for one but it does remind him of that MegaCorp case study). There, after downsizing( it’s fashionable you see) a few thousand unsuspecting Human Resources, he formulates a ” glitzy high-tech strategy “, which is implemented so to speak, through a dramatic program of acquisitions.  What happens to that? Guess again!!

 

 

Readers (of the book ‘ What they Really Teach You At Harvard Business School ‘by Philip Delves Broughton) are probably asking , ‘ Read the case and do that analysis in two to four hours?’ Harvard’s answer is YES. Students need to prepare two to three cases each day..so (they) must work toward getting their analysis done fast as well done well.

 

 

Some years back, HBS ran an ad in The Economist for its executive education programs. It had a dapper, uber smart looking executive-woman saying, ” We studied four companies a day. This isn’t a theory. This is an experience.”

 

Sorry. This is nonsense.

 

 

There was a book released in 1990 called ‘ Inside the Harvard Business School ‘ by David Ewing, for long, an insider. The first line of the book makes a sweeping statement ” The Harvard Business School is probably the most powerful private institution in the world “.  The book listed 19 Harvard alumni who had made it to the very top, the school’s superstars as of 1990.If you took a look at the post 1990 records of all 19, to see how they fared, there was only one word to describe it- BADLY. 10 of them clearly seem to have failed(meaning their company went bankrupt), they were forced out of the CEO chair or a major merger backfired, or the like. Performance of another four appeared to be very questionable. The other five seem to have done fine.

 

 

To conclude, most MBA students enter the prestigious HBS or similarly profiled hallowed Ivy Leagues smart, determined, aggressive. There, case studies teach them how to pronounce clearly on situations they know little about , while analytic techniques give them the impression that they can tackle any problem- no in-depth experience required. With graduation comes the confidence of having been to a proper business school, not to mention the ‘ old boys ‘ network that can boost them to the top. Then what??

 

Begs the question!! Case Study or Case Unsteady? Ready. (Case) Study. Go !!

 

ENDS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being An Employee Of Our Own Myth!

We are all frauds.

 

Creating is hard for every last one of us( including those from the allegedly superior Aryan race). Yes!

 

Coal mining is harder. Do you think the miners stand around all day thinking about how hard it is to mine for coal? Certainly not!  They simply dig.

 

Throughout life, you collect data points or dots. And you probably don’t have a clue as to how these dots will connect in the future. As Steve Jobs said, you can connect these dot only by looking backward. But you have to collect them moving forward.

 

Without the mistakes we make, the decisions we regret, and the experiences that didn’t live up to our expectations, we would be woefully short of material and ammunition for our creative work. These things are all ingredients for your soup, material for making meaning and creating art.

 

The creative life, just like the creative process isn’t linear. We don’t know how each of our life experiences will impact us down the road. With each step forward, the landscape differs, the view changes, and the most insignificant experiences of our lives at the moment can serve as the most informative ones in our future.

 

Our creativity is not something that someone can give to us or take away. It’s always something within us. Happily domiciled. Whether it’s the degree we earn or the job we hate,  every experience provides us with seeds to plant for the stories we tell.

 

Life doesn’t pause to make room for our precious creating time.

 

” There is an unknown room in the soul that is constantly turning the stuff of daydreams into myths for us, helping us to get at meaning we can’t get to through the front door “- Phil Cousineau

 

ENDS

FIED and TESTED!

If judging others constitute full time employment, most of the world is a well employed place 😄.

 

‘ Fied ‘ can fall into these three buckets.

 

Qualified means that you have done the work, earned our trust and get invited to join us. You get a seat at the table. More than ever, our current technology and the lack of gatekeepers mean that your body of work could earn you the benefit of the doubt and give you a chance to speak up.

 

Disqualified is what happens when you over promise and under deliver. Or, if you expose intent that is not in alignment with what the rest of the world needs or expects.

 

Unqualified is rare. It’s at a premium. As in ” you have our unqualified support ” . Getting the benefit of the doubt long after most people would lost our trust is a hard-won privilege. It’s hard to earn unqualified support, but, if you do, make sure and be careful that you do not waste it.

 

The worrying trend is that too often even before we begin looking at skill, we’re judging people for other reasons. That’s wrong and wasteful as well. Being confused about what makes someone qualified or not perpetuates injustice.

 

That’s a race to the bottom.

 

“Judging others is easy because it distracts us from the responsibility of judging ourselves.”

 

Stop judging how far people still have to go. Start celebrating how far they’ve come.

 

 

ENDS

A Sorry Tale!

Sorry comes in two variants. Choice architecture anyone?

 

And often times, we ‘ miss the wood for the trees ‘.

 

” I am sorry your dog died ” does not mean that you killed the dog. Not at all.

 

” I am sorry I tripped you ” does mean that you tripped some one.

 

In creating connection and trying to make amends, we often get confused by the two kinds of sorry, and hence don’t apologize because we think that the problem wasn’t our fault.

 

” The homepage of our relationship cannot be currently displayed because of a server error. Can we please click on the refresh button and start all over again? I am sorry “.

 

Sorry doesn’t take things back, but it pushes things forward. It bridges the gap. Sorry is a sacrament. It’s an offering. A gift.

 

One of the hardest things you may ever have to do in life is to deliver an apology. A true and sincere apology offers real regret and remorse for our actions, and carries a promise that we won’t do it again. It means acknowledging our faults, taking responsibility for the things we have done wrong, and opens a dialogue between two people. An apology, when correctly given and sincerely meant, can create deeper and more trusting relationships.

 

An apology is a good way to have the last word. And the first to move things forward. And make a relationship last.

 

The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway–Henry Boye

 

ENDS

Distress Sail!

Apparently, there is ” Wisdom of the Crowds “..” A Collective Bias “.

 

Though not sure with wisdom and bias– can the twain meet?

 

Since decades, marketers and politicians have been working to exaggerate cultural distress, a hack on our emotions.

 

Mind you, it’s not about the emotional distress of not having a roof, or not being able to care for your kids or deal with trauma..
..but the manufactured cultural distress of ‘ modern advanced societies ‘.
Like the invented shame of not having the latest smartphone or a new suit for the party..
It’s the dissatisfaction of knowing that something ‘better’ is available, and the invented discontent that comes from the peer pressure of being left out or left behind.
A vocabulary called FOMO(Fear of Missing Out) – like the social shame of not having enough presence on social media..
or the FOMO that watching other people presenting nothing but happiness online can create..
Fear of this sort of cultural distress pushes us to simply spend money to avoid it..Making a budget is hard, paying for not making one is easy.
It turns out that selling an easy and convenient way to avoid social pain is a nearly boundless formula for corporate growth..
We humans are always going to find moments of cultural distress, and it’s up to each of us to decide what to trade (in the short run and the long run) to deal with it.
Perhaps it makes sense simply to acknowledge that it’s present. That would be a good starting point, isn’t it?
People like us do things like this..ready, steady..set sail!

AWEptimism V PAUSEmism

Ideally, conventional phonetics would have called this out as Optimism V Pessimism. That being said, ideal is only wishful thinking. Better get used to shock and awe.

 

A posture. A stance. A position. About what to expect.

 

A response(or reaction) to external events or triggers.

 

Sensing the reality on the ground, an obligation to make a decision based on what to expect.
That does not though explain why different people, similarly informed, adopt an optimistic mood or a pessimistic one.
In fact, that mood is a choice. And it’s one that determines how we will behave.
Optimism is a tool that permits us to solve problems more effectively. If used wisely, it brings enthusiasm, inspiration and hope to projects that benefit from them.
And pessimism(believe it or not) is a tool as well– it can help you with budgeting, scheduling and other projects. If it works for you, that’s great.
Choose your tools wisely. 

That said, either mood will lead to misguided energy and poor decisions.

But if we can be thoughtful about optimism as a tactic, the focus and energy it brings can solve problems that others might simply walk away from. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

 

Our pessimism might not be an accurate diagnosis of the past. Baggage carried forward. It might simply be a way we’re using to produce a future we’re not happy with.

 

“What people forget is a journey to nowhere starts with a single step, too.”

 

BEGINS

 

 

 

 

 

WANTED: Editor-in-Chief: For LIFE!

I was never even mediocre at either math or arithmetic. Hence, if this fails to add up, I am completely at home with it.

 

” So the writer who breeds more words than she needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads ” – so said Dr. Seuss.
Every year at the Oscars, the award for Best Picture gets all the fanfare( last year, of course Will Smith had other ideas). That may be stating the obvious. What might be not so obvious is in contrast, the award for film editing flies under the radar. But you may be surprised by the correlation between these two awards.
Since 1981, only three films have won “Best Picture” without also being nominated for “Best Film Editing”.
Why is editing so crucial in filmmaking?
A good film editor removes distractions by eliminating trivial or irrelevant things. She uses deliberate subtraction to add life to the ideas, setting, plot, and characters.
 
 
The best films are exceptional not because of what we see but because of what we don’t see.
We can draw parallels here. And use the same principles to edit our own lives. We might be from Mars or Venus but on Mother Earth our never ending to-do list need not be a perennial match for our Herculean, Machiavellian competence and calibre that we seem to have been willy nilly blessed(cursed?) with. Probably there is a space to begin by ‘ separating the vital few from the trivial many ‘.

The over ignored practice of essentialism.
Mind you, this is no easy task. To distill and rein in our incorrigibly elastic task list. How will we answer our ego? Or camouflage our insecurities? We find comfort in “keeping our options open”. But having too many options leaves us without direction. Having a few focused options gives our life a clear direction and makes decision-making easier.
Eventually, every cut ​we​ make brings joy. Maybe not in the moment, but soon ​we​ will realize the time ​we have​ gained can now be spent on something better.
We, as people, ​systematically overlook subtractive changes, instead following ​our​ instincts to add. There is nothing inherently wrong with adding. But if it becomes a default path to improvement, that may be failing to consider a whole class of other opportunities​.
The paltry rate of subtraction in our ​life or ​organizational-improvement​ journey is appalling.​ To improve a redundant piece of writing, few produce an edit with fewer words. To improve a jam-packed travel itinerary, ​we hardly remove events or places to​ allow ​us​ to savor the ones that remained. To improve a Lego structure, ​we hardly take​ pieces away. Whether ​we​ ​are changing ideas, situations, or objects, the dominant tendency i​s to do so by adding.
In an increasingly attention starved​, attention craving economy, subtraction ​has a ​noticeability ​​​​problem​. When we add things, apparently it gets noticed. But when we subtract..we seem to miss the point.
Life has a way of taking over. We start running on auto-pilot especially when we are overwhelmed, in over our heads, or simply worn out from all that life is throwing our way. And this past couple of years, life has been throwing more than ever our way.
After a while of trying to keep all the balls in the air, we stop paying attention and simply start reacting. Amidst all the chaos, we know something has to change, but we don’t know what or how.
When was the last time ‘ nurturing our heart and soul ‘ was part of our to-do list? It hardly makes​ the list of things to take care of during the day. If ​we​ prioritize the nurturing of our heart and soul, by taking time to listen to what they want, by engaging in soul-soothing activities and by using them to guide our actions, ​we​ ​can​ get our life back. ​We​’ll remember who ​we​ are​(otherwise in the stage called life​,​ we are all practicing ‘ selective amnesia ‘)​ and begin to attract people and projects that are a perfect fit for the real ​us​.
S​o what is the take away? ​Yes, you guessed it, take away, to make way!
BEGINS

Hope is more than a four letter word

Making a Cape  sorry..Case of Good Hope!

 

We all know 2020 has been quite the decade (and we all have the stress wrinkles to prove it), so here’s hoping that this blog on hope is a boost.

 

Wisdom of the crowds.

 

Collective bias.

 

Herd mentality.

 

Birds of the same feather flocking together.

 

All of the above exemplifies the force and velocity of a human collective.

 

Why not add hope to the mix? The power of collective hope.

 

Unabashed capitalism has never been a great ally of either faith or hope. But our hopes, not our hurts, shape our future.

 

If we can combine accepting finite disappointment without losing infinite hope, we would all be in clover.

 

Writer and essayist Lu Xun has this to share on the power of collective hope:

 

” Hope is like a road in the country side..where there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence “.

 

It’s not too late. The space of possibilities is endless. The most interesting terrain remains unexplored. Hope is like the sun. Never fails to rise.

 

Hope is a powerful four letter word. And collective hope is a fource to reckon with.

 

ENDS

 

How Steep Is Your Love?

Please pardon me if the caption of this blog post sounds comfortingly familiar to the Bee Gees classic single ” How Deep Is Your Love “. Inspired? Yes, absolutely.

 

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

 

It shouldn’t be such a difficult thing to do, but, yet it is.

 

How to love yourself.

 

One of the best guides to how to be self-loving is to give ourselves the love we are often dreaming about receiving from others.

 

There will be times when you will be feeling lousy about your state of mind, your over-fifty body, your hair, you see yourself as too fat, too this or too that..it’s a rabbit hole that we all go into.

 

Yet you fantasise about finding someone who would give you the gift of being loved as you are. Contrarian, isn’t it?

 

It is silly, isn’t it, that you would dream of someone else offering to you the same acceptance and affirmation that you are voluntarily withholding from yourself.

 

The word ‘ love ‘ is most often defined as a noun. But, it is worth altering the trajectory. We would all love better if the word love is used as a verb, rather than a noun.

 

The ask here is: could we proactively offer a new ethic for a society bereft with lovelessness– not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, unity ?

 

People are divided by our society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love.

 

Should we be razing the cultural paradigm for a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for individuals and society?

 

Definitely so. Count me in!

 

As Katrina Mayer puts it, ” Loving yourself isn’t vanity, it is sanity “.

 

ENDS

 

 

The New Year and Resolutions, I tell you..

“What the New Year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the New Year” – Vern McLellan.

 

It is said that you may be whatever you resolve to be. Nothing relieves and ventilates the mind like a resolution.

 

As we say adios to another year and get ready to welcome another, let us take a look at some potential resolutions that we will bravely (or tamely) bring to fore.

 

“I want to laugh more, the laughter that makes you cry and makes your sides ache.” Now that is worth a standing ovation.

 

“My intention for 2023 is to replace mean thoughts with kind and patient ones.” Keep the applause going.

 

I stay resolved to take “everything (especially politics) and everyone less seriously and try to be the best person I can.”

 

Going further, another one can go like this..
“I resolve not to take anything personally or overthink or politicize any comments … just play dumb and not engage, like a robot, like I’m Siri.”
A more succinct one would be..
“I want to be better at understanding others.” That’s a great starting point.
And a perennial one for a lot of us would be: “talk less, listen more”.
” To live with gratitude and an acceptance of our mortality is a fine realization not only on New Year’s Day, but every day “.  Give this the cult status.
Will be speaking for many of us when you say, “Less screen time, more real-world time.”  
How about ” from time to time, send handwritten snail-mailed notes/letters to family and friends.” Definitely worth the ink that will be used.

 

How about some idiosyncratic resolutions? Like “I intend to eliminate very and really from my vocabulary”. That is really a very good idea. Oops. Sorry.

 

 

I heard about a resolution from a friend which was to have “someone repair the wristwatch his dad bought him for his high-school graduation in 1985, so he can wear it again.” This is truly timeless.

 

 

Here’s one with a purpose ” I would like to continue and increasingly support biodiversity in urban areas “.  Enrollments are open. Let’s go for it.
That seems a lot more complicated than my big idea of going back down one pants size, but a plan’s a plan.

 

 

Some of us are charging right at 2023 with angry-rhino determination. Keep the fire in the belly burning.

 

 

“Good resolutions are like babies crying in church. They should be carried out immediately.” ― Charles M. Sheldon
So, let’s Begin Again!
ENDS