DoMS Indian Corporate Case Study Development Centre

Description

The long-term Vision for the Case Study Development Centre is to develop an independent Indian corporate Case Study Development Centre that will serve the needs of B-Schools in Asia and Africa with contemporary case studies that will enhance the learning of students, across all management disciplines (functional areas); to be a repository of Indian, Asian and African management case studies.

Why Centre?

In most educational institutions imparting management education to aspiring students, pedagogy usually comprises academic / theoretical inputs (lecture mode), case study discussions / learnings and finally, project work of varying durations. The emphasis on the case method varies widely, with some institutions using the same quite extensively, while others rely on the “lecture” mode, embellished with examples to relate theory with practice. Formal management education in India was launched in 1964 with the admission of the first batch of MBAs at the two Indian Institutes of Management (Ahmedabad and Calcutta) – over the decades, while Indian case studies have been developed, there has been greater dependence on case studies from universities, elsewhere abroad.

Over the last few decades, apart from IIM Ahmedabad, which was the first to establish a Case Centre, a few other institutions have also established case centres. There is ever increasing need to understand and relate concepts of management with contextual examples from India; further, the technological developments of the last two decades have brought about a sea-change in most aspects of conducting business and running an organization; the most recent developments in generative AI including tools such as ChatGPT/Bing and Bard to name a few, are likely to irrevocably change the way business is conducted as well as the manner in which management education is imparted.

In the Indian context, there is also a clear need to focus on the MSME and start-up sectors. With this background, the Department of Management Studies of IIT Madras plans to set up a “Case Study Development Centre” to create a knowledge bank of case studies across various domains of management studies, keeping in mind the evolving changes in the business environment.

Being part of the IIT ecosystem, Technology Management case studies- (the First- of- its- kind in India) will be developed.

Mission & Objectives

To instill a culture of developing case studies focusing on Indian companies - enabling academia to relate management concepts to the Indian growth-story
To enhance relationships and interaction with the Indian Industry with a view to developing contemporary and contextual case studies
To set up a repository for case studies

The purpose is to develop

A. Case study

A Case study is generally a 10 to 20 page document that describes a sequence of events from the perspective of an organization or the organizations’ representative(s). The events put forth the issue(s) that the organization face / faced or the representative(s) face / faced, backed with data and other related information. Case studies usually have a protagonist who is central to the theme. Case studies are used for developing the analytical skills of students as well as to evaluated their understanding of concepts. A Case study may be created through:Secondary/published data: The case study’s is built around the information that is easily accessible through published sources or through internet research.Live cases: The case study is built based on the interactions with an organization’s representative(s) and using the information provided by them (with support from the organization being studied).

B.Caselet

A caselet is a shorter version of a case study, generally 3 to 5 pages in length. Caselets may describe a sequence of events or put forth an issue or a specific problem that requires decision making. Caselets are usually written based on secondary/published material. Caselets are intended for class discussions.

Types of Cases and Sectoral Focus

Broadly, the cases may be grouped as :

Multi-functional area case studies developed in collaboration with a Company
Single functional area case studies developed in collaboration with a Company
Case studies and caselets based entirely on published material

IITM-DOMS could join hands with other departments of IITM as well for this case study centre – focus on multi-functional areas for case writing.

The case studies to be developed at the centre will initially focus on:

Large Indian conglomerates
Indian MSME companies
Indian Start-ups

Case Contributions

The Case Study Centre shall focus on developing case studies through following resources:

- Faculty of DoMS
- Research scholars and other department of IIT Madras
- Faculty from other universities/institutes across disciplines
- Industry consultants
- Industry stakeholders
- Industry associations

The Case studies will become a strong resource for various business schools as a teaching and learning material and develop their skills in Problem solving, analytical tools, quantitative and/or qualitative, depending on the case and better decision making in complex situations.

Fund would be required for setting up the Centre for the following activities: