Case Instructions, Guidelines & Preparation

Remember, the case is graded per the rubric. The BoD would want your recommendations with the proper support.  Any analysis details should be covered in an appendix. Do not go to the Internet to find, for example, a SWOT or external analysis analysis and use it for your case.  Do your own research and develop your own strategic analysis.

In doing your case you will need a minimum of five references outside the case I give you. Use current business websites to find out about recent developments. Certainly do not use websites that develop term papers or do strategy analysis on this case and publish them.  This could lead to charges of plagiarism and the associated consequences.

The case study analysis allows you to apply your knowledge to the real world. Your goal is to identify the major problem confronting the subject company and provide a strategic solution for the problem. You will need to collect data and interpret it. You must also isolate the critical issues that the company faces.  Remember that in the words of Lord Kelvin, "anything that cannot be expressed in numbers represents knowledge that is of a poor and uncertain kind."

After identifying the critical issues you can generate alternatives to address the company's competitive situation. Evaluating these alternatives allows an organization to select one course of action. With a course of action defined the strategic manager can then provide a plan for implementation this is what you are to do on the case studies. Always refer to the rubric for the critical points to cover.

The format for the case study should be as follows.

1. APA cover page,
2. One-page, single spaced Executive Summary for the case as noted below. This is a summary of your report and, therefore, must be done after you finish the report. This one-page report must use headings and subheadings indicated in the following format to identify the critical issues. Begin with your understanding of the situation in a problem statement. Follow this with a concise presentation of your analysis and the alternatives you see. Recommend one course of action and support that recommendation with facts and other information, such as competitor’s moves. The last item is presents a plan for implementation –a sentence or two is sufficient. A sample of the Executive Summary is available with all this material.
3. Body of your report (4-5 Pages). The summary page should encapsulate your understanding to the problems facing the company, a brief summary of the strategic analysis, financial analysis, the alternatives considered and a single recommendation with an implementation plan.

After the executive summary page, you are to use standard APA formatting for a 5-page report. Tables, charts, graphs, etc. are to be put in the appendix and referenced from the body of your paper. Deductions may be taken for papers where the body is longer than five pages. Remember, in management you must get your thoughts across quickly if you expect your work to be read. Long reports generally wind up in a stack awaiting reading at some future date (which never comes).

Case Study Report Format:

Your report must include:

1. NSU Cover page (1 page in length). It will present the name of the case and the author(s) of the report.
2. Executive Summary (1 page in length).

           The Executive Summary is a concise overview of the report.  The Case Study Report should be written from the perspective of an outside consultant, writing to the Board of Directors of the firm.  It notes the essential points of the report and must have the following sections:

1. Problem Statement: State the main problem facing the firm (or industry) in one, succinct sentence.
2. Analysis: Summarize the main findings of your analysis. You may use bullet points, bold, italics – any means to convey and highlight the key factors you have determined based on your analysis. Don’t repeat items from the body of your report like the SWOT.  Summarize the major issues.
3. Alternatives: State briefly (one sentence or a bullet point each) 2 or 3 alternative courses of action that could be implemented
4. Recommendation: Choose one course of action and support your choice.
5. Implementation: Briefly (1 or 2 sentences are sufficient) present how the plan would be implemented.  This tests the viability of the choice.  For example, your plan would demonstrate that the company has the people, financial resources and time to implement your recommendation.

These bullets should appear in your paper. The following is a precise format for the Case Study. 

Formatting for Executive Summary:

• Single-space
• One inch all margins
• Use bullet points, lists, or other means to convey information briefly. Further explanation can be found in the main body of the report.
• Use headings and subheadings to organize the material in an easy to read and understandable manner that highlights the essential points of your analysis.
• Do not include a summary or overview of the firm in your report. The Board of Directors are knowledgeable and need no background presented.

The body of your paper should be in standard APA format, double-spaced, with appropriate references, but not exceeding five pages. You may attach Appendices for tables, charts, anything useful that is referred to in body of the case report.

Remember that cases are graded per the rubric. The Case Study rubric can be found here or in the in the Course Instruction Tab and should be added at the end of your submission.

Case Study Preparation

The preparation of the case in this course is different than the cases you have written in the past. These will require substantial investigation into case company’s strategies, competitive positions and actions, problems being faced, the company financials, ratios and trends. The case study is about a real company's current position in the industry, the external competitive environment, the current strategies being used, and recommendations for strategies the company should use going forward. The case should identify a problem faced by the company, using the strategic management tools highlighted in the text and a quantitative analysis. You then generate realistic solutions, evaluate and select one, and then provide recommendations and the timeline to implement your recommendations. Remember that you are working to understand the company's current strategy and future direction that offers a solution to the problem of meeting the company’s shareholder requirements. Again, remember that you are fulfilling the requirements of the rubric for the cases.

By analogy, in the BSG you have a set of prescribed goals to attain and a set of reports issued weekly to assist you in understanding how your company is doing relative to the competition and giving you an opportunity to revise your operational plans for the next period. However, in the Vail Resortss case you have to look at a company’s performance over the past few years and understand how their performance is changing and identify underlying problems. You are to identify trends in performance, problem areas, and how the company is performing using all of the tools that you have learned throughout your MBA program. Remember that you are working to meet or exceed the shareholder expectations.

The perspective for your report analysis should be directed to the company’s Board of Directors (BoD). Remember that the BoD is familiar with the company’s history, its management structure and the strategies deployed in the past. Recycling old history about the formation of the company, its previous management, etc. will not be looked upon favorably by the BOD (or your instructor). Remember that your case study must be brought up to date with the most current 10K report or financial information. Get at the critical issues and report on them. Remember that in business, situations do not come with a set of questions. The questions sometimes have to be generated and then researched to find solutions to those questions. Success in the case is important to your final grade in that the case constitutes 10% of your course grade.

 

Vail Resorts Individual Case

The case will build on previous work in the course so your report will include:

1. Analyzing the internal environment (Chapter 3)
2. Analyzing the external environment (Chapter 4) and a few more considerations from the later chapters.
3. More comprehensive examination of the financial situation of the company (Chapter 4)
4. Consideration of other strategy choices (Chapter 6), or competing internationally (Chapter 7) or adding a diversification strategy (Chapter 8).

With your knowledge of these later chapters, your strategic recommendation for Vail Resortss can be more sophisticated than the basic five generic business strategies. Use the material in Chapters 6 -9 to develop strategic solutions that can involve global expansion, mergers and acquisitions, alliances, backward or forward integration.

For the financial analysis:

Present one or more ratios to represent each of the four areas of financial analysis:

Profitability (more than Gross Profit Margin)

Liquidity

Leverage (what I call Risk)

Activity (what I call Efficiency)

Then, present a minimum ½ page discussion of the company’s financial situation, using ratios to evaluate the company’s profitability, liquidity, leverage and activity. 

Of course, most of these ratios are meaningless by themselves; they only have meaning as a comparison.  You must therefore compare the Vail Resortss ratios to one of three choices:

1. Where the company is now versus where it has been over time (last two years), or
2. The industry averages for the ratios, or
3. A significant rival’s ratios

The ratios and financial information should be in the Appendix so you have all the five pages of the report for your analysis and recommendation. The financial analysis should be a significant part of your internal analysis – What could be more important about a company’s strengths and weaknesses?

You are a consultant hired by the executive leadership of Vail Resortss's. Based on your analysis, you recommend to the company’s leadership what they should do strategically. Then, support your strategic recommendation. Why is it the best solution to the significant problem you have identified? Your recommendation should have as foundation at least 1-2 internal factors and at least 1 -2 external factors.  You can mix and match – what strengths should Vail Resortss's use to take advantage of an opportunity; or what opportunity should they take to solve one of its weaknesses.  What strengths could the company use to mitigate a threat; or what weaknesses must the company address so they do not fall victim to the threats facing the industry?

Yes – this is a SWOT analysis.  And the true payoff of SWOT analysis is learning enough to develop a strong strategic approach to gaining competitive advantage.

 Rubric

Performance Criteria

Basic

Developing

Proficient

Accomplished

Exemplary 

States Problem Effectively

Does not identify the problem.

(0 pts)

Identifies a symptom.

(4 pts)

Identifies a significant problem.

(6 pts)

Identifies a critical problem.

(8pts)

Effectively identifies the crucial problem

(10pts)

Analyzes the Situation using Tools and Concepts of Strategic Management

Does not present analysis.

(0 pts)

Vaguely analyzes material.

(12 pts)

Generally analyzes the situation.

(16 pts)

Analyzes some key strategic factors.

(24 pts)

Insightfully analyzes key strategic factors.

(30 pts)

Analyzes Quantitative Factors

Does not present quantitative analysis.

(0 pts)

Presents irrelevant quantitative analysis.

(4pts)

Generally analyzes the situation.

(6 pts)

Analyzes some key quantitative measures.

(8pts)

Insightfully analyzes key quantitative measures.

(10pts)

Generates Realistic Strategic alternative Solutions

Provides no realistic strategic solutions.

(0 pts)

Provides ambiguous strategic solutions.

(4 pts)

Provides strategic solutions.

(6 pts)

Provides realistic strategic solutions.

(8 pts)

Provides realistic strategic solutions related to the problem.

(10 pts)

Evaluates Solutions/Selects Optimal

Selects without evaluation.

(0pts)

Selects with little evaluation.

(8 pts)

Evaluates alternatives and selects one.

(12 pts)

Evaluates alternatives and explains rationale for selection.

(16pts)

Evaluates alternatives, provides rationale, and selects optimal Strategic solution for the main problem.

(20 pts)

Generates an Implementation Plan

Provides no plan.

(0pt)

Provides cursory plan.

(4 pts)

Provides an implementation plan.

(6 pts)

Provides realistic implementation plan.

(8pts)

Provides implementation plan considering major factors.

(10 pts)

Writes at the Graduate Level

Does not use designated format or standard.

(0 pt)

Uses designated format, but does not write clearly or in an organized fashion.

(4 pts)

Uses designated format, style, grammar, punctuation, and references.

(6 pts)

Uses designated format and writes at the graduate level.

(8 pts)

Uses designated format and writes at the publishable level.

(10 pts)