Steps 1-3 – The Problem Identification Stage

Step 1 – Review the case and identify the relevant facts
Problem situations or cases often include extraneous information or irrelevant ‘stuff’. Therefore, when you are trying to find a solution to a situation or to answer a case question, the first step is to identify the key facts so that you can figure out what is going on before deciding how to answer or solve the problem. In advanced courses, this usually involves extensive research but in an introductory or foundation level course, you will typically only use the information in the case. However, to do well in any case study assignment, it is important to read the case carefully and also to make sure you fully understand what the assignment and/or case questions are asking for. As you review the case, this will help you to identify what you need to pay attention to and what to ignore. That’s what relevance means – eliminating ‘stuff’ and identifying the important facts in a situation.

Let us assume that you have just read a case entitled XYZ company and are trying to answer the following question:

What are the current challenges facing XYZ company?

You must identify and list the key facts which, for the purposes of our example, are those listed below:

* The government has recently deregulated the industry to stimulate competition. * Telecommunications advances have led to increasing internet use. * More and more users are comparison shopping on the internet * Price competition in the industry is increasing and average net profit margins have fallen 1% in the past two years. * XYZ recently laid off 10% of its workforce in an effort to lower costs and remain competitive. Management believes that this is enough to allay the effects of competition for the next 3 years. * Many companies in the industry are now forcing their employees to make a contribution to healthcare benefits. * The company’s employee survey indicates that morale among employees is at an all time low. * The management believes that low morale is the cause of the recent 2% fall in productivity. * The employee survey also indicates that employees would be willing to pay a contribution towards healthcare if it stopped job losses. * Although the company remains profitable and made over $11,000 000 last year, net profit decreased by $1,000 000. * The company’s net profit margins also decreased by 1% last year. * The company advertises regularly and its overall marketing costs are in line with its competitors. * The company estimates that if employees pay 50% of their healthcare costs they can save $1,500 000 per annum.

Step 2 - Determining the Root Problem & Step 3 - Identifying the Problem Components
To identify the root or cause of the problem and the purpose of each question, consider how past experience or the concepts in this or previous courses may be useful. Bear in mind, that end of chapter cases in introductory or foundation level classes are generally assessing your understanding of the concepts discussed in that chapter. Also, not every concept will be relevant to every case or case question. However, you must decide what evidence or facts in the case are contributing to the problem and/or are symptomatic of the concept. Ranking each fact or item of evidence will help you to decide how important it is and the order in which it should be addressed.

Working through steps 1-3 is sometimes all that is required to answer case questions, such as:

Case Question: “What are the current challenges facing XYZ company?”

Continuing with the example from step 1, let us assume that the chapter concepts include the external forces that affect an organization such as political/legal, economic, socio-cultural, technological or competitive and also the internal forces such as management problems, staffing problems or financial problems. From reading the case, the key facts indicate that there are some external legal, technological and social forces that are causing competition to increase and are having an effect both outside and inside the organization. As you write up your answer, you should state the cause of the problem, describe the components you have identified and the effects they are having. So, an answer to this type of case question and our example might look something like this:

The current challenges facing XYZ are how to remain competitive and profitable, improve productivity and maintain good employee relations. A number of factors are contributing to this situation. First, the government has recently passed laws to deregulate the industry. This is causing competition in the industry to increase. Second, widespread adoption of telecommunications and the internet means customers are finding it much easier to shop around and compare prices. This is also stimulating competition and is driving down prices industry-wide. Lower prices have led to lower profits in the industry and the 1% fall in XYZ’s net margin is reflected in the $1,000 000 decline in net profit. Consequently, XYZ has been downsizing and recently laid off 10% of its workforce in an effort to cut costs. A recent company survey indicated that downsizing has adversely affected employee morale which the management believes is responsible for the 2% decline in productivity. (XYZ, pp 214-215).

The Karolinska Hospital Case Study

By: Meranda Sutberry

MGMT 312 Creativity and Innovation

Davenport University

Step 1 Identify the Relevant Facts.

Other parts of the world are not as fortunate as the U.S. when it comes to health care. Many are getting upset about the new laws and the cost of health care but there are many other countries that are not getting even half the health care benefits that we do. Things such as high costs of treatment and greater demand have proven very bad for them. There are several things that are being done to fight this growing problem. Some things are the use of information systems, using more generic drugs, as well as lowering cost of services which means lowering the quality of them. The cost of healthcare is rising while service gets worse and healthcare professionals are being paid to wait around for things to happen. One hospital in Sweden named the Karolinska hospital knows all about these problems and the need to overcome them.

Step 2 Determine the Root Problem

The root problem in this case is the amount of money spent on people doing nothing. The fact that surgeons and people are waiting around to do surgeries or be treated is wasting so much money. The Karolinska hospital found that they only spend about 25% of their total time actually helping the patients. That means that 75% of the time is spent waiting for things to happen because everything isn’t prepared or done when it should be.
Step3 Identify the Problem Components

Like most hospitals the Karolinska is facing the growing demand to cut costs while trying not to cut service. Even with these high demands for change they want to be able to give the patients the quality of service that they need. Things such as using advanced information systems and using the generic drugs have helped but they need to do more in order for them to be able to still give the amount of care to the patients they want. With the amount of time still spent standing around waiting for things to happen, the people getting paid could be doing things for patients if things were in better order.
References
Bessant, Pavitt, and Tidd (2005). Karolinska Hospital: Organizational Innovation in Studies. From Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Retrieved from; http://www.iande.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Karolinska-Hospital.pdf