Is the MBA Case Method Passé? asks the the current edition of Forbes.
The question is a good one and deserves more than the case proponent's (my) insolent defence that any identifiable weakness in the case method is actually, were the critic only insightful enough to realise, a strength. Thus, judo-like, we overcome our opponents by using their own strength to unbalance them.
The pressure of too many cases results in naive and superficial analysis? It's how the world works. We all take decisions based on too little time and understanding.
The data used for case analysis are limited to what is supplied? So? We're talking exercising technique and classic management skills here. The facts may change but the fundamentals go on for ever. We're not actually running the company, you know, it's a classroom.
There is no 'right' answer. Ain't that the truth.
And so on until either the opponent or the defender grows to weary or bored to continue the argument, leaving the dojo, honour intact, to fight another day.
But I want to raise not a defence but a variation on the theme raised by Ronald Yeaple in the Forbes article. Which is that the alternatives he proposes and illustrates in his own teaching practice are themselves developments, improvements, improvisations on the theme of the case method. That what he is proposing is not that the case method is passé but that the prescriptive approach to how the method is captured and expressed (it must be written like this, taught like this, and so on) constrains innovation and restricts the full expression of its strengths in an age of universal, portable access to digital information and communication.
The question is, what do we talk about when we talk about cases? Is the classic case format the only possible expression of the ideal? If we don't draw a distinction between the method itself (the approach, the pedagogy) and the means by which the ideal is captured and expressed (the written case, the physical classroom) then I think there is a real threat that the method will become more easily dismissible by students coming to it for the first time, "- leaving them wondering what are the takeaways from the exercise."
This is something that concerns us at ecch, which is why we've added to our Awards this year a competitive category recognising innovation in case teaching
I'm looking forward to writing another blog about how much innovative case teaching we've been able to uncover and share as a result.
