How to do a case study of a business – Progress

I first looked at tutorials on business case studies in english – the following is the knowledge -or bullet points – acquired.

1. Look at financial singularities of the of the company.
2. Look at adversaries in the same market
3. Look at different departments of the company

Reference : [면접관도 감탄하는 기업분석 하는 방법 | 캐치 (catch.co.kr)]

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Since it wasn’t sufficient, I decided to search in english, and found an article from Adobe. the Following are the bullet points.

1. Definition – A case study is the detailed story of a customer’s experience with a product/ service. A business is essentially a bundle of the cases, therefore it is useful.
2. Best Practices – A good case studies demonstrate the following
   • Make the customer the star of the study
   • Have a specific target audience in mind
   • Easy to read an engaging
   • Follow a standardized format – like a database!
   • Support all the core claims with hard data – in the form of numbers and testimonies.
3. Importance : Notably, 89% of consumers read reviews before deciding to buy, and 79% view case study content as part of their purchasing process. When it comes to B2B sales, 52% of buyers rank case studies as an important part of their evaluation process. (Copy & Pasted from original article)

This seemed to be referring to case studies for services, but I thought that it would still hold some valuable information, therefore decided to continue.

The following are bullet points on how to conduct a case study(Services).

1. Identify the goal
2. Choose client/ subject
3. Conduct research/ compile data
4. Choose the right format
5. Write the case study

Formats :

• Challenge – solution – result format
• Data driven format

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Insights Acquired

1. While this was an article for case studies in services, the idea that a case study should serve a specific purpose was a refreshing insight that I wouldn’t have had access to unless I read this article. This can be applied to business case studies, as we can concentrate on a specific turning point we can focus the research on.
2. Also, the fact that the case study should have a target audience is an important point that I almost swooshed over. Since I am writing for my own sake right now, it might be unimportant for the case study to serve a purpose, however when I get in the business environment, it would definitely serve some purpose, and therefore it should have a target audience in mind.

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Then I decided to switch articles, and found an article from the University of Arizona. [Writing a Case Study Analysis | UAGC Writing Center]

Here is an excerpt on what a case study analysis is :

“A case study analysis requires you to investigate a business problem, examine the alternative solutions, and propose the most effective solution using supporting evidence.”

the steps are :

1. Read and examine the material
2. Focus the analysis
   • Identify Key Problems
   • Identify the causes
   • Identify the impacts
   • Identify the Person responsible
3. Search for possible solutions
4. Select the best solution

I left out the parts that are related to Best Practices in Writing – this will be covered in later articles. [Link]

However, I have some points to disagree in this article

1. Identifing the person responsible might not be best pratice in real world environments.
2. Trying to be definitive in an article might cause unnecessary pressure for the writer that and cause the result to be skewed.

I still have insufficient information, therefore I decided to go further in research.

[Guidelines to the writing of case studies – PMC (nih.gov)]

1. Case studies are the record of the practices of a profession.
2. They help us to refine our practice.
3. They serve as teaching material for new practitioners

I found out that I had the wrong keyword in mind, and proceed later.

The right keyword was Business Analysis