History of AMA University

AMA Computer College

Prepared By: Ronaldo P. Zurbano MBA

A Gentle Reminder: Best practice in writing up a
case study report

Writing a case study report involves following a few rules. These are as follows:

A case study report is not an essay: it is a call for action, to be read by the company’s
managers and executives. Thus, it is of the utmost importance to state immediately, in the
introduction, the report’s conclusion (the action to be considered). This will avoid lengthy
argument and digression. The report should then set out the reasons for this recommendation,
rather than being written in an “investigative” mode which only identifies the solution at its
conclusion.
A written report is a means of communication: to facilitate this, it should include a table of
contents, page numbering, and all the other basic requirements of a properly formatted
document.
 A case study report should follow the structure: “This is the main problem of the case
study [...] The secondary problems are these [...] To solve these problems, this is what we
recommend [...] and here are the reasons why [...]”
 SWOT and PESTEL Analysis should be all concise and direct.
 Strength
 Weakness
 Opportunities
 Threat
 PESTEL
 Political Factors
 These are all about how and to what degree a government intervenes in the
economy. This can include – government policy, political stability or instability in
overseas markets, foreign trade policy, tax policy, labour law, environmental law,
trade restrictions and so on.
 Economic Factors
 Economic factors have a significant impact on how an organisation does business
and also how profitable they are. Factors include – economic growth, interest
rates, exchange rates, inflation, disposable income of consumers and businesses
and so on.
 Social Factors
 Also known as socio-cultural factors, are the areas that involve the shared belief and
attitudes of the population. These factors include – population growth, age
distribution, health consciousness, career attitudes and so on. These factors are of
particular interest as they have a direct effect on how marketers understand customers
and what drives them.
 Technological Factors
 New ways of producing goods and services
 New ways of distributing goods and services
 New ways of communicating with target markets
 Environmental Factors
 These factors have only really come to the forefront in the last fifteen years or so.
They have become important due to the increasing scarcity of raw materials, pollution
targets, doing business as an ethical and sustainable company, carbon footprint targets
set by governments.
 Legal Factors
 Legal factors include - health and safety, equal opportunities, advertising standards,
consumer rights and laws, product labelling and product safety. It is clear that
companies need to know what is and what is not legal in order to trade successfully. If
an organization trades globally this becomes a very tricky area to get right as each
country
Finally, some pitfalls to avoid:

 A case study report should not simply paraphrase the text provided. Avoid at all costs
rewriting the case word-for-word, or copying figures, tables or graphs already included in
the case study.
 Recommendations should be clear and unambiguous, and supported by as much
corroborative data as possible.
 The presentation style of a document is as important as its content: both elements affect the
reader’s perception of the analysis proposed. The report should be written in a simple,
direct and concise style.
 Finally, subjective phrases such as “it seems”, “I (we) believe”, “in my (our) opinion”, and
“it is obvious that” should be avoided.
The End