Solve a management case example with a solution. History and description of the concept of a case in business, instructions for writing and solving

The question is asked, as a rule, by students who have encountered this term for the first time. However, this concept is becoming popular in business communities. Before answering the question of what cases are and giving examples of their solution, let's delve into the history of the origin of the term.

The emergence of cases

The concept first appeared in 1924. Professors at a prestigious university realized that the textbooks of previous years were not capable of preparing graduates for modern professions. The manuals and manuals that are relevant at this point in time have not yet been created, and the previous ones are already outdated. Then the professors thought out business cases - the actual tasks of our time that graduates had to solve. To do this, business owners were invited to Harvard, who instructed graduate students in detail. Entrepreneurs at the seminars talked about the real problems that their companies faced. After that, graduate students had to find their own solution to these problems. The peculiarity of such training is that there are no correct answers. You just need to find the best way out of the current situation. In other words, everyone chooses the solution of cases individually.

The innovation of Harvard professors proved to be effective. Graduates already at the exit actually had a semblance of experience. They knew the problems and tasks of successful companies, they could easily cope with the tasks. In fact, the solution of cases by the student gave him real practice within the walls of the university. Therefore, since the middle of the twentieth century, this method has become widespread throughout the world.

Appearance in Russia

In our country, even with the collapse of the socialist system in the nineties of the last century, the education system for a long time existed on the knurled. The country no longer exists, but there are USSR textbooks. Even textbooks on the history of the CPSU with Lenin on the covers finally disappeared only by the mid-nineties of the twentieth century, not to mention other disciplines.

And only Messrs. management cases began to appear in the leading universities of our country. Today this method is actively developed in Russia. In addition, thematic case-clubs are opened. Particularly popular with schoolchildren and students are the MSTU club. E. Bauman, NUST MISIS Career Center, etc.

So what are cases? Let's move on to the concept itself.

concept

Case (from Latin casus) - an extraordinary situation, a problem whose solution cannot be found in textbooks. A more accurate interpretation of the term "casus" is a problem that needs to be solved, however, this term came to Russian from English, in which the Latin word casus is pronounced as "case".

Students simulate a problem situation that is as close as possible to the real one, and they must find a solution. The bottom line is that there is no right answer. There is only the opinion of teachers and a real way out of this situation, if the case, of course, was taken from life. Solution methods, reasoning, collective discussion, etc. are evaluated.

So, what is a case, we explained, now let's move on to the goals.

Goals

Although the topics of the cases may differ from each other, the modeling itself, as a rule, has common goals:

1. Validate student intelligence and analytics.
2. Develop an argument for your position.
3. Developing resilience to stressful situations.
4. Teaching time management skills.
5. Development of communication

Cases during the interview

This method is used not only in educational institutions. Today, many firms use it during interviews. Every day, the employer looks less and less at the resume of the applicant, at the level of his education, work experience, etc. It is enough to offer a candidate for a position a few cases, and everything becomes clear about a person better than various pieces of paper and recommendations.

Of course, this does not mean that education and experience do not matter. Without them, you may not get to the stage of solving the case at all. However, it is the last stage that becomes the decisive factor when choosing an employee. In this regard, Google stands out, which develops its own case modeling techniques. They are specific to each job. Work experience, level of education will not help the candidate if he cannot solve cases. And they sometimes amaze the imagination with their deceptive simplicity.

Case examples

Let's take an example. The company faced the problem of the efficiency of employees in the sales department. Three people work. The first works with 70% of clients, the second - with 20%, and the third - with 10%. With these indicators, the second one shows the highest sales, but it only works with regular customers. The third, on the contrary, works only with new clients, while the first works with both new and regular ones. The task for the manager is to increase the sales plan and redistribute the flow of customers in such a way that the company receives maximum profit.

To solve this problem, you need to answer the following questions:

• What are the possibilities for improvement in this situation?
• What standards can help improve the results of each salesperson and the sales team as a whole in the long run?

Perhaps the first seller works best with new buyers, or with regular ones. It is also worth trying to swap the second and third seller. Those. the second one will only work with new ones, and the third one will only work with permanent ones. Perhaps they have a professional crisis, and a change of scenery is needed.

Second example

An interview is underway for the position of Head of Human Resources. The candidate must have such a quality as the ability to be flexible and avoid unnecessary conflicts. It is proposed to solve the following case: the CEO insisted that the firm take the daughter of an influential person. The previous manager gave her the position of assistant secretary. The girl herself did not show herself in any way, she did not identify herself with the company, and she had no desire for career growth. To this is added the lack of experience in other enterprises.

During her work, her main skills have become: receiving incoming documents, keeping records, packaging documentation in folders. Six months later, the position of a leading document management specialist was vacated. The CEO insisted that this girl take the position. However, the company has many other employees who deserve a promotion. In this task, the applicant must make a choice: either go against the general management, or work with a disgruntled team.

Perhaps the candidate will find an acceptable option for both the CEO and the team. Case examples do not have correct solutions. Each case is individual.

There are not only business cases, but also cases in other areas: pedagogy, medicine, jurisprudence. In every profession, you can simulate a problem situation.

Publication date: 05/14/2012

Problem

In the current economic situation, a large number of surprises are presented to the manager not only by the wayward actions of employees, but also by the intrigues of competitors, and the “innovations” of the authorities, and in recent years, global crises.

But the intellectual capabilities of man are developing poorly. This is especially true of managerial competencies in terms of making the right decisions. As the author's experience since 2005 shows, university courses such as "Development of management decisions" do not provide such competencies.

In Western business schools, the case method is used, but very inefficiently. Cases are usually large in volume and require time to study. And there is no methodology for making the right decisions. It is believed that the discussion of the problem situation is already enough for the student to gain experience in finding solutions.

Can be formulated problem: the need for the right decisions is increasing in all areas of activity, and the human capabilities and training systems remain the same. An "upgrade" of decision-making in all spheres of human activity is required - a transition to more advanced technologies for the development, adoption and control of the correctness of decisions.

The need to improve the efficiency of decisions is already recognized in the highest authorities.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy initiated the creation of the Commission on measuring economic efficiency and social progress under the leadership of Nobel Laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen.

The head of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, Sergei Stepashin, defined "assessment of the effectiveness of the activities of executive authorities" as the most important area of ​​work his institutions.

In the Message of the President of the Chuvash Republic for 2011 it was said:

“in difficult economic conditions, it is important to take timely, competent and effective management decisions».

Thus, it can be argued that the need for the right solutions that guarantee the efficient use of resources has already been formed. It remains to find ways to satisfy it.

Solution to the problem

The successful use of the Technology for Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) since 1946 by the specialists of the International TRIZ Association in Russia and abroad convinces that it is possible not only to search for solutions by trial and error, but also to “calculate” them, approximately in the same way as square problems have been solved for more than 400 years. equations by Cardano's formulas.

The algorithm includes 7 steps:

1. Description of the situation as the first step to its analysis.
2. Identification of "actors" (subjects and objects)
3. Identification of connections, relationships between "actors"
4. Problem formulation
5. Determining the cause of the problem
6. Setting goals and objectives to eliminate the cause (actual solution)
7. Checking the solution for correctness according to the criteria.

A distinctive feature of the algorithm is the introduction at step 3 of graphic symbols that allow classifying the connections (relations) of actors as:

Useful;

Weak (insufficient);

Harmful;

Essential but missing.

Thus, graphics have been introduced into the practice of developing managerial decisions, similar to how it is done in engineering and scientific activities. Graphical models allow you to "disassemble" complex situations into simpler ones and more accurately determine the causes of problems that arise, as well as set goals for their elimination.

Algorithm test

In the process of teaching students of the specialty "organization management" it was found that the use of an algorithm and a system of increasingly complex cases allows you to quickly find the right solutions - and, importantly, check them according to the criteria:

- economy(for compliance with the laws of housekeeping);

- environmental friendliness(for compliance with the laws of Nature);

- ethics(for compliance with the laws of human relations).

Thus, students get the opportunity not only to “create, invent, try” by trial and error, but also to develop a decision according to the rules and evaluate it according to the criteria of reasonable activity. The further development of their decision-making skill depends only on the intensity of the algorithm application and the criteria for evaluating the solution.

The analysis of the results showed that a stable skill is developed in 20% of students after 4-5 solved cases.

Continuation of work

At the next stage, it is necessary to test the algorithm in the field, in the real practice of existing managers and specialists. This requires collaboration with leaders of organizations who recognize the need for the Right Decisions for the prosperity of the organization and who strive to put advanced technologies into practice.

Possible forms of cooperation with organizations:

Joint formalization of situations of employees and managers (formation of a mini-case) and application of the Algorithm to find the right solution (examples of mini-cases are given in the Appendix);

Teaching managers to use the Algorithm through the training "Right Decisions in Management".

Expected results

It can be expected that the widespread introduction of technology for the production of Right Decisions in the activities of organizations and society will contribute to the solution of many problems, both global and local.

ATTACHMENT 1

Examples of mini-cases

Three "good" mini-cases are given. A good case has the following characteristics:

1. small in volume (printed text is about half of the A4 format);
2. contains enough information to obtain a decision, or part of the information can be obtained in the process of analyzing the situation;
3. the description is made without a large number of special and rarely used terms, or they are explained;
4. the description of the text indicates an undesirable phenomenon directly or it can be detected during the analysis;
5. from the description it is clear who exactly is interested in obtaining a solution.

The professional content of the situation is practically irrelevant, since most emergency situations occur "at the junction" of specialties.

1. Case “Ice chipping in the port”

Storms often occur in the port in autumn. Water fills the mooring wall, freezes. And the pier is covered with a thick layer of ice. This makes it impossible to moor the ship to the wall.

The port administration tried to send workers to break the ice. But it ended sadly - the workers are injured, and one worker almost died. Then we decided to make a machine for chipping ice. She proved to be ineffective.

Before the head of the port again the question arose - what to do?

A comment

The situation is interesting in that it demonstrates two “wrong decisions”. It is typical for everyone - the costs are incurred, but there is no result. Moreover, the costs are growing, but there is no progress towards a solution. This situation refers to “emergency situations”: something must be done, but “experience” and “common sense” cannot suggest anything.

The problem that has arisen is difficult to attribute to any specialty. It is clear that the chief engineer of the port was assigned to deal with it. But he was not taught to deal with the effects of storms.

The situation is real and the solution proposed by the TRIZ Master G.I. Ivanov has been implemented. The costs were "penny".

The use of the case in the practice of teaching showed that it is impossible to find the right solution here without preparation. According to popular classification, this is an “unsolvable problem”.

2. Case "Sustained drop in income"

The company "Obmen" exists in the market for the provision of intermediary services in real estate transactions since 1995. Since the foundation of the company, the branch network has been developing and the number of employees has increased.

Currently, the branch network of the department of secondary housing has 28 branches throughout the city and occupies about 25% of the market in terms of transactions. Each of the departments is practically a separate company, with its own administrative, technical and production departments.

Since September 2008, there has been a decrease in profits in all departments of the department. The peak of the decline in income came in December 2008 and so far there has been no positive trend.

The administration of the company conducted an analysis and revealed that there is a decrease in the number of newly concluded service agreements and an increase in the number of terminations under newly concluded agreements in all branches.

The question arose: what to do?

A comment

A competent analysis of the situation should, first of all, answer the question: what and at what moment was not done in a timely manner by the Administration, which led to a problematic situation.

The situation can be classified as abnormal, since the Administration has not previously encountered such a thing and does not have “experience” in solving such problems.

3. Case of Norbit company "Modernization of the sales department"

You have headed the sales department of a company that has been operating in the market for a long time and has a formed sales department, which has three employees. One of them works with 70% of the company's clients, the second - with 20%, and the third - with 10%. Sales results are highest for the second employee (50% of the total), and the worst for the third (10%). At the same time, the first employee has the most new clients (he attracts 70% of all new clients to the company), while the third one does not work with new clients at all.

For the management of the company it is obvious that this team of salespeople could achieve better results, and it has set this task for you on the condition that you will not drastically change the existing rules of work, redistribute customers between sellers and retrain salespeople by sales stages - now they are all are engaged in work with the client from the first call to the shipment of products.

It is required to answer the following questions:
. What improvement opportunities do you see in this situation?
. Establishing what standards would help in the long run to improve the performance of each salesperson and the sales department as a whole?

About starting your own business or you just decide to make some money. Regardless of the purpose, this text will replenish the vocabulary of business words with one more concept of "business case".

A business case, in simple terms, is a small story from life. Only she does not describe adventures, but a business situation and a solution found.

For example, you can come across a business case with the following content: some entrepreneur has lost the main supplier, and the goods are about to be sent to customers.

A business case is a situation and its resolution

All possible outcomes of events and risks were calculated. If the payback appeared on paper, the idea was applied in reality. This helped to avoid unforeseen situations and save the budget.

Business case used to present your product

Business cases are used not only by large companies and schools. They are also used by people who are just taking their first steps in business.

There are many online professions that can become the main income. For example, a marketing specialist, designer, copywriter, and so on.

Case and portfolio for many professions are the same

For them, the business case serves as a kind of job application.

Let's take design for example. If the contractor is looking for a customer on various exchanges, then most likely there will be many applicants for a highly paid task.

In this case, the customer chooses a person with a business case better than others.

In the case, the performers upload their examples of work. For example, if you want to create a design for a group, the business case contains the groups that were designed by this artist.

The customer can contact the community administration and find out the quality of the work performed, whether there were any problems with the execution of the order. Based on these data, a choice is already being made whether to take this person as a performer or to select another.

Also, in this type of business case, an exemplary one for completing the task can be given. If this is customer acquisition, you can build ways to attract customers and calculate the approximate cost and number of orders, and so on.

But you should not "open all the cards." It is necessary to give only an approximate description, otherwise the work will lose its meaning. Proper design of a business case also plays an important role along with the skills of the performer.

Many at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey take a few simple tasks and do them for free. This helps to win over customers and next time, in addition to one more example, there will be a person in the business case who will recommend the contractor.

This type of business case is mainly used by more experienced entrepreneurs. There are people who come up with something new. Some kind of business idea that is not yet widespread and no one uses it. They can tell their business story by making a case out of it.

It will outline the ideas of what was done to achieve the result, what risks exist, the initial investment, how much it turned out to earn and whether it worked out at all.

A case can be the story of your business

Thus, people who stumble upon this case will receive a business plan. But this plan has its upsides. For example, you do not have to test the idea yourself by investing money.

It is enough just to project the situation on your capital. You can also get advice and learn about all the pitfalls of this niche.

In fact, this is a ready-made plan that requires only desire and determination from a person. However, it is worth remembering the saying "what is good for a Russian is bad for a German."

If something worked out for one, it is not a fact that the same steps will help the rest to achieve the desired success. It is necessary to check the business case before applying it.

It's best to just borrow an idea and learn about the possible obstacles to its implementation. You need to calculate the initial capital and profit yourself.

It is also worth noting that there are people who create business cases. In this case, the customer does not need to calculate anything, but simply perform the described actions.

Business case for attracting investments

The last type of business case is used by entrepreneurs who have an idea that is likely to bring in a lot of income. However, investments are not enough or they do not exist at all. In this case, a business case is created with a description of the idea and it is presented at various congresses of businessmen or forums.

Those who like the business plan give theirs for initial development with subsequent interest. For example, by investing 1,000,000 at 20%, in the end they will receive 200,000 net profit.

A temporary partnership is also possible. That is, the sponsor will receive a previously agreed percentage for a certain period of the company's operation. However, no one wants to lose their money, even if investing in the project will not greatly affect the investor's budget. In this case, a full or partial refund is provided.

Creating this type of business case is a very responsible step that requires the use of analysis and risk calculation skills. However, if a person has all these qualities, why not take advantage of the opportunity?

So, there are 4 types of business cases: a case for a solution, a case for product presentation, a case as a business story and a case for finding investors.

Business cases are often solved in order to improve the analytical abilities of a person. There are 5 steps to solve any business case:

Now we will analyze business cases and try to solve it. Imagine that you came to get a job and the introductory task is to solve a business case.

Let's do it based on the algorithm. So the situation. You are the owner of the plant and decided to go there for one day to see how the work is going and whether everything is fine.

From the personnel department they bring you a statement that indicates that one of the employees (let's call him Vasily) does not produce enough parts and does not have time to complete the task on time.

You need to fix this problem, otherwise the plant will suffer heavy losses, since a batch of parts must be manufactured in the near future. So, let's sort it out in order.

First, let's analyze the case and identify the main problem. The first thing that comes to the mind of an inexperienced person is to fire Vasily and find a new employee. However, not all so simple.

The task of the manager is not only to resolve the issue with the disobedient employee, but also to hand over the required number of parts to the customer within a certain period.

If you act drastically and simply fire Vasily, it is likely that you will not be able to find a replacement for him in time and fulfill the order. Therefore, everything needs to be well thought out.

First, let's take into account that we have not yet had a personal conversation with the employee, in which it would be possible to reveal his refusal to fulfill the plan. You can start with a conversation.

Suppose that, after talking with Vasily, we can conclude that he believes that he is doing everything right and that the amount of work that he is informed about is new to him. This is a very important detail.

If Vasily hears about the new norm for the first time, it can be concluded that he was not aware of the changes in the amount of work. Most likely it is his fault that the plan is not fulfilled, no. However, it is worth checking further.

Let us assume that the foreman must inform the workers about any changes in their work. In this case, the conversation must be conducted already with him. From a personal conversation, it turns out that he does not know about any new norm. Let's stop at this point.

None of the staff members are aware of the changes. It's about something. We remember where we learned about the problem. The first link was a person from the personnel department. We ask for documentation that could confirm the change in the norm of work performed.

It turns out that there are no documents confirming the words of this person. We have a conversation with him behind the closed doors of our office. During the conversation, it turns out that this employee and Vasily are well acquainted and live in the neighborhood.

The usual human factor - they didn’t share something, and one, since he occupies a higher position, decided to teach the other a lesson by firing or at least reducing his salary.

The method of revenge is strange, but it would work with an inexperienced manager. There was no new performance standard. There was just a random check by the boss at the wrong time. What to do with such an employee further is another question.

You can ruthlessly dismiss, while losing a valuable employee who has a good mindset, once he figured out how to do such a thing. Or make a strict reprimand with deprivation of bonuses or salary cuts.

The only thing that cannot be done is to turn a blind eye to such an incident. After all, only in this case it was possible to convict the employee of deceiving the authorities. Perhaps such incidents have happened before, they simply did not reach the attention of the management.

It is better to choose a more loyal one, because it will help maintain at least some cohesion in the team.

Let's now consider the second option for the outcome of events. There was a layoff. The plant is losing a valuable employee, Vasily, and the management has little time to find a replacement for him, because work has stopped.

Will there be a quality selection of specialists in this case? Ultimate no. You have to take the first one that comes along. As a result, the company will lose time and the person will lose his job.

In conclusion, let's summarize. The article analyzed business cases and their types. The scope of each of them was also described and a good example of one of the tasks was presented.

In this video you will learn about solving business cases:

This material presents some successful management cases and assignments for evaluating managers (management skills cases). Including tasks for evaluating sales managers.

1. There is an employee in your department who has gone through all the stages of career development. At the moment, no one knows better than him the specifics of the unit's activities. However, you understand that after a while he will get bored working here. What will you offer him?

2. The specialist came to you to discuss the situation: he was offered to move to another department, he is interested, he sees the prospects, but he understands that the situation on the labor market is difficult and finding a replacement for him even within a quarter is not an easy task. How will you do it?

3. After the training you gave, it became clear that one of the subordinates was unable to put the course material into practice. Find a way to tell him about it.

4. Your subordinate is an aged lady, so she prefers to do a lot of things sedately and with an arrangement, which, in your opinion, does not always correspond to the rhythm of the company's activities. How will you tell her about it?

The answer to the first 4 cases:

Such cases allow managers to consider in detail the difficult situations often encountered in management practice:
. associated with the formation of motivation or career management of an employee (situation 1);
. concerning the solution of issues of retaining a specialist in the company for a long time (i.e., work with counter-offers) or for the period of searching for a replacement (situation 2);
. consisting in the search for a method of transmitting information and choosing a channel for data perception (situation 3);
. requiring a clear identification of the problem and the provision of feedback by the manager to subordinates (situation 4).

5. Appearance.

The secretary comes to work in an overly short skirt and bright makeup. You understand that the appearance of the subordinate does not correspond to the dress code of the company. Your actions?

Answer: Desired answers: “I will make an oral remark”, “I will ask you to re-read the requirements for the dress code in the company.” After answering the first question, you can ask the following: “What will you do if the subordinate does not respond to your remark?”. Desired answer options: “I will make a second remark”, “I will apply a disciplinary sanction”. But the answer “I will complain to the higher management” should alert, it may indicate a lack of managerial and communication skills.”

6. Delegation of powers.

We invite you to consider an example of a case, with the help of which you will evaluate the ability of a manager to delegate authority, the skill of organizing work and the ability to rationally use working time.

Plot. The head of the design department went on maternity leave. Victoria D. was appointed in her place. Her duties, among other things, included checking the reports and calculations of the department's employees. In addition, she had to submit a statement for the payment of bonuses every month. By nature, Victoria was very responsible and scrupulous. She carefully checked all the reports and calculations of employees to the point. And even knowing that some of them do not make mistakes, I still studied all the data in detail. It was time-consuming, she did not have time to perform other duties and often stayed up late. The leading specialist suggested that she give part of the reports for verification to him, and the calculations and drawings to the chief engineer. But Victoria disagreed. As a result, several times in a row she did not draw up a statement and the employees did not receive a bonus, which worsened the atmosphere in the team.

The task. Are such scrupulous checks of the work of employees necessary? How to organize Victoria's work in the department?

7. Interaction in the team.

An example of a case that will help you assess the skill of interaction in a team and conflict-free communication, as well as the ability to discuss a problem that has arisen.

Case "Annoying Newbie"

Plot. A new employee, Irina M., came to the HR department. The head of the department introduced her to her colleagues, gave her a tour of the office, showed her where to get sample documents, and set tasks for the week. After some time, the girl asked for help from an employee of the department, Yulia D., who explained to her in detail all the nuances. A few hours later, Irina again asked about what Yulia had already told her in detail. But, despite this, Yulia calmly repeated everything that was said, once again explained where to get the necessary documents. A few days later, requests for clarification were repeated, and then it got to the point that Irina began to pull Yulia on any very insignificant issue. Once Julia could not stand it and was rude to a new employee, and Irina complained to her manager that she was not helping her adapt.

The task. What should a leader do in such a situation? What did Yulia need to do when Irina began to pester her with constant questions?

Interpretation of the answers to the case "Annoying Newbie"

8. Focus on career growth.

A case variant with which you can assess whether an employee is aimed at career growth, his readiness to perform more difficult work if circumstances require, the ability to take responsibility and diligence.

Case "Deserve a promotion"

Plot. Olga F. has been working in the marketing department for several years. Recently, she began to feel that job dissatisfaction was increasing and that she was ready to take on more difficult work. She realized that she could well take the position above, and turned to the head with a request to consider the possibility of increasing it. The boss suggested that she perform the work of a leading specialist along with her duties for three months. The salary will remain the same, but she will receive a bonus based on performance. After three months, a decision will be made on its increase.

Interpretation of the answers to the case "Deserve a promotion"

9. Honesty.

And this case will help you evaluate such personal qualities as financial decency, honesty, lack of a tendency to kickbacks.

Case "Personal reward"

Plot. Inna is the head of the secretariat of a large holding. Among other duties, she was engaged in the search for suppliers to ensure the life of the office. The head of the company was not satisfied with the former supplier of stationery and asked Inna to find the best replacement. She studied the needs of the departments, approved the budget. Based on demand and allocated funds, I chose two companies - "P ..." and "K ..". They had a similar assortment and comparable prices. The P… organization offered Inna a personal reward. In the end, she opted for this company. After the first delivery, she conducted a survey, which showed that all departments were satisfied with the quality of the stationery. A few months later she ordered again. But this time the quality was worse. Dissatisfaction reached the leader. Inna was reprimanded and asked to change the supplier. She got into a difficult situation, as she had already taken a reward for the third order.

Interpretation of answers to the case "Personal reward"

10. Communication skills.

To identify communication skills in the process of managing a team, the following competencies are assessed:
- self-confidence, ability to independently solve work tasks;
- the ability to be flexible and avoid unnecessary conflicts;
- the ability to make a rational decision and act in an unusual, stressful situation.
Case (management skills):
The head of a small company asked the HR manager to hire the daughter of a very important partner for the company. The partner's daughter had not worked anywhere for many years and wanted to be among people more. She did not show any ambitions for a career in the company. The main goal was to make the girl feel in demand. The HR manager did not propose her candidacy for line divisions and accepted the girl to her position as a personnel specialist. She was offered to master the simplest functions and perform them as far as possible. As a result, the main, most high-quality skills that she acquired during her adaptation were: receiving incoming documents, entering an account, packing corporate documents into folders. Within a few months everyone was happy and the work went on as usual. Six months later, the position of a leading document management specialist was vacated. While they were deciding to find an outsider or choose from their own, the director called the head of the personnel department with a proposal to promote the recently adopted daughter of a partner, at his request. Knowing that there are employees in the department who are more suitable for the position of a leading specialist, the personnel manager could not give this position to a new employee, but she could not put the general director in an uncomfortable position in front of a partner.

Questions:
What do you think the head of human resources should do in this situation?
Could this problem have been avoided?
How will the promotion of the partner's daughter affect the team if the CEO insists on this decision and the head of the personnel department has to comply with this order?
Case assignment: Suggest your solutions to the problem.

Answer options

1. The applicant takes the side of the CEO and explains this by the fact that all the same in companies, everyone below the head of the company does not decide anything. As management says, so everyone does. It was impossible to avoid such a situation.

2. The applicant is of the opinion that it would still be fair to think about those who have been working in the team for a long time and offer an alternative solution to the partner's daughter. For example, he suggests that it is possible to promote someone from the team, and put her (daughter) not in the place of a leading specialist, but in the place of a simple specialist who was transferred. It was hardly possible to avoid it, since it is impossible to predict how events will develop.

3. The applicant assumes that the grounds for refusal may be the rules of the selection policy, which prohibit the employment of relatives of the founders or partners of the company. But now that the head of the department has already faced this problem, she needs to make a decision taking into account all parties and promote someone from the more qualified ones, and the daughter of the partner should offer something else. Otherwise, a decision in favor of only one side can spoil the relationship between the team and the leader.

Once the answers are formulated, it is necessary to interpret them and draw conclusions about how they meet expectations.

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Working a lot with different performers, we selected the best and created our own team of project managers who know how to work and love their work, have strong business and consulting experience. The level of project managers is our calling card.

Acceptable price

We also work with expert practitioners, bringing in in-house, remote or project workers with the right expertise to meet your specific needs. At the same time, we do not incur unnecessary fixed administrative costs that affect the price of the service.

Large-scale projects

In the case of complex and related projects, we are ready not only to select and involve, but also to control the work of teams. We know experienced performers in every field, we have unlimited opportunities to attract them and our own standards for evaluating and monitoring their work.

To be successful in the 21st century, you need to constantly learn something new. Education is no longer limited to school and university: useful skills and knowledge must be acquired throughout life. The business sector is no exception. To succeed in your business, it is important to constantly improve, as well as study the experience of competitors and successful people. One of the most effective ways to do this is with a business case.

A business case is a description of a problematic situation in entrepreneurship, methods for solving it and useful experience that the author has learned. A business case is a collection of information; it does not exist materially. Can be formatted as text, video, image, presentation, infographic, video or podcast. The most common is the expanded text description. A case is often a story: how a businessman started, what goals he set for himself, what difficulties he faced and how he overcame them.

To better understand what we are talking about, look at the cases of participants in the Business Youth project. These are the stories of successful entrepreneurs about their journey in business.

A business case is formed as a response to a challenge for an entrepreneur. It is based on the problem that the businessman faced and the methods by which he solved it (or used, but failed to solve it). Cases are useful for students and undergraduates of economic faculties, various managers, beginners and experienced entrepreneurs. Information about how to solve a problem situation can be both an instruction for use and a basis for developing your own strategy.

The concept of "business cases" has gained popularity in Russia over the past few years, but the world has been using it for almost a century - since 1924. Then the teachers at the Harvard Business School realized that it was impossible to teach graduate students from textbooks - they needed practical knowledge. Therefore, they decided to invite business practitioners to the classes and asked them to talk about their daily work. They described in detail what problems they had to face, and the students offered solutions. This is how cases appeared - a set of data in the format " Q&A" or "challenge-decision".

Solving a business case will help to study someone else's entrepreneurial experience

Goals

What questions are business cases devoted to:

• personnel Management;
• business development;
• increase in income;
• entering new markets;
• customer acquisition;
• optimization of work processes;
• management optimization;
• expansion of the range;
• diversification;
• identifying and overcoming risks.

Varieties of business cases

Business cases are usually divided into 2 categories:

1. Structured. It is a systematized data, which gradually reveals the essence of the problem, the methods tested and the results achieved. There is usually one specific answer. The most convenient to study and use in practice.
2. Unstructured. They represent a large amount of information, not always systematized, presented inconsistently. These are all cases at the initial stage of development and cases devoted to problems that have not yet been fully resolved. They suggest several answers or the possibility of a non-standard way out of the situation.

Another classification option based on the reality of the events described in the case:

1. Real. Based on real events. Credibility gives them great value.
2. Virtual. Fictitious, hypothetical situations. They are used for the purpose of forecasting and learning, stimulate entrepreneurial thinking and a creative approach to business.

Examples and Solutions

How to solve business cases? Solving a problem in business never involves a universal technique. The answer is found in dozens of ways. What will be the choice depends on the businessman: he prefers to overcome difficulties on his own, seeks to find a ready-made solution, or appreciates discussion and creativity.

In general, the sequence of solving the case can be described as follows:

• analysis, detailed consideration of the situation, description of the problem;
• establishing cause-and-effect relationships - what led to the problem and what negative consequences it can provoke if it is not eliminated;
• assessment of the complexity of the situation;
• collection of information - the experience of those who have already overcome this or a similar problem;
• offer options for solving the case;
• evaluation of options, forecasting their effectiveness;
• practice, implementation of the proposed option in the work.

Example

Let's analyze the solution of business cases using an example.

Entrepreneur: Ekaterina, 27 years old, opened a hairdressing salon 3 months ago.

Problems: few customers, not enough money to rent a room.

Description of problems: while developing a business plan, Ekaterina indicated that she would serve 15 clients daily. She did not calculate these data, but indicated at random - they seemed real to her. Based on them, she calculated the expected profit and agreed to a rent of 25 thousand rubles a month. But no more than 6 clients come a day, revenue is 2.5 times lower than expected, and it is difficult to pay rent.

Goals: attract customers and increase revenue so as not to experience rental difficulties.

Possible negative consequences: rent debts, a threat to the existence of the business.

Joint solution of business cases helps to find several profitable options for overcoming problematic situations

Solution 1: advertising and promotion. Ekaterina suggests that in order to increase the popularity of her popularity, she will attract new customers. She registers profiles on three social networks and begins to regularly publish posts inviting her to visit her hairdresser. The number of guests increases by 3-4 people per day. Good, but not enough.

Solution 2: promotions and discounts. Ekaterina reduces the cost of services by 40-50%. This is a dangerous method for this situation - the number of customers will increase, but revenue will increase slightly. This means that the second problem - rent debts - will not be solved. The number of customers increases, but the profit almost increases, because the discounts are made by reducing the markup.

Solution 3: loyalty program. For each referred client, the guest is entitled to a discount on the following service. This allows you to increase the number of visitors without compromising revenue, as well as encourage customers to return to the establishment.

Option 4: raise prices. A risky option that will allow you to earn more without working on customer acquisition and loyalty. However, it is likely that this approach will reduce the number of visitors who will prefer competitors with more moderate prices.

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of solutions - there are other options. However, in this case, a combined approach would be a good solution: combining social media promotion, loyalty programs and moderate discounts.

Conclusion

A business case is a collection of information about solving a problem in entrepreneurship, presented in the form of a question-answer, like a story or a set of theses. It can be text, presentation, video, image, but most often it combines several data presentation formats. The case helps the creator to generalize and fully understand his experience, other users - to learn from someone else's experience, to extract useful information for themselves.