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Chapter 3: Don't Solve the Case Until You Understand the Case

Chapter 3: Don't Solve the Case Until You Understand the Case

Video: How to Read a Case the Right Way: Stop Wasting Time and Start Seeing What Matters

Central Question

What is this case really about?

Before you reach for a framework, stop. Ask what this case is really about. A case may involve declining sales, a new competitor, unhappy employees, changing customer preferences, financial problems, operational challenges, technological disruption, sustainability concerns, and dozens of other factors, but the case rarely asks you to solve all of them. Your first job is to decipher the case.

Why This Matters

Case writers deliberately give you more information than you need. That is part of the challenge. A case may contain:

  • Historicalhistorical informationinformation;

  • Financialfinancial statementsstatements;

  • Customercustomer informationinformation;

  • Employeeemployee perspectives

  • Competitorcompetitor informationinformation;

  • Marketmarket datadata;

  • Operationaloperational detailsdetails;

  • Industryindustry trendstrends;

  • Strategicstrategic opportunitiesopportunities;

  • Risksrisks and constraintsconstraints.

The temptation is to analyse everything. Don't. The objective of case solving is not to demonstrate that you can analyse every piece of information. The objective is to determine which information matters to the decision. This is one of the most important distinctions between information and insight. Information tells you what is in the case. Insight tells you what matters.

What Does "Decipher" Mean?

Deciphering means turning a large amount of information into a clear understanding of six things:

  1. What is happening? What is the current situation?
  2. Why does it matter? Why should management care?
  3. What is the real problem? What issue needs to be addressed?
  4. What decision needs to be made? What does management actually have to decide?
  5. What constraints matter? What limits the possible solutions?
  6. What does success look like? What must happen for the recommendation to work?

These six questions create the foundation for everything that follows.

The Deciphering Questions

Before beginning detailed analysis, work through five areas.

1. The Organisation

Start by understanding the organisation. Ask:

  • Who are we advising?

  • What does the organisation actually do?

  • How does it create value?

  • How does it make money or create impact?

  • Who are its most important customers?

  • Who are its most important stakeholders?

  • What capabilities does it depend upon?

You are trying to establish the organisation's economic and strategic context before you start diagnosing its problems.

2. The Situation

Next, establish what is happening. Ask:

  • What is happening now?

  • What has changed?

  • When did the change occur?

  • What is driving the change?

  • What evidence supports that conclusion?

  • What happens if nothing changes?

This is where you begin separating symptoms from causes. For example: Sales are declining. That is information. The more useful question is: Why are sales declining?

  • Perhaps customers are leaving.
  • Perhaps prices are too high.
  • Perhaps a competitor has entered the market.
  • Perhaps the product has become less relevant.
  • Perhaps distribution has changed.

The declining sales are the symptom. The cause is what you need to understand.

3. The Problem

Now identify the central challenge. Ask:

  • What is the central problem?

  • What is the symptom?

  • What might be causing it?

  • Which issue matters most?

  • Which problem must management actually solve?

  • Which issues are consequences rather than causes?

A case may contain ten problems. You may only need to solve one or two. The Key Question: If we could solve only one thing, what would make the biggest difference? This question forces prioritisation.

4. The Decision

Cases are ultimately about decisions. Ask:

  • What decision must management make?

  • What are they deciding between?

  • What alternatives are available?

  • What constraints exist?

  • What criteria should determine the decision?

This is critical because the problem and the decision are not always the same thing. For example:

  • Problem: Profitability is declining.
  • Decision: Should the organisation increase prices, reduce costs, change its product mix, or enter a new market?

The problem establishes what needs to change; the decision establishes what management must choose.

5. The Future

Finally, think beyond the immediate decision. Ask:

  • What happens if the organisation succeeds?

  • What happens if it fails?

  • What would need to be true for the solution to work?

  • What resources would be required?

  • What risks could prevent success?

  • How would success be measured?

This begins connecting diagnosis to implementation.

Deciphering Case Characteristics

Not every case should be solved the same way. A major case-solving skill is recognising the case's characteristics and determining what kind of thinking it requires. You don't need to label the case perfectly; you need to recognise where your analytical attention should go.

Is this primarily a growth problem? You may need to investigate:

  • Customerscustomers;

  • Marketsmarkets;

  • Productsproducts;

  • Channelschannels;

  • Pricingpricing;

  • Competitivecompetitive positionposition;

  • Marketmarket sizesize;

  • Customercustomer acquisitionacquisition;

  • Customercustomer retentionretention.

The central question may be: Where can the organisation find profitable growth?

Is this primarily a profitability problem? You may need to investigate:

  • Revenuerevenue;

  • Pricingpricing;

  • Volumevolume;

  • Costscosts;

  • Marginsmargins;

  • Operationsoperations;

  • Customercustomer mixmix;

  • Productproduct mixmix.

The central question may be: Why isn't the organisation generating the profit it should?

Is this primarily a strategic choice? You may need to focus heavily on:

  • Alternativesalternatives;

  • Decisiondecision criteriacriteria;

  • Strategicstrategic fitfit;

  • Capabilitiescapabilities;

  • Competitivecompetitive positionposition;

  • Riskrisk;

  • Financialfinancial impactimpact.

The central question may be: Which option creates the greatest value for the organisation?

Is this primarily an implementation problem? The analysis may be less about finding the idea and more about determining how to make it happen. You may need to investigate:

  • Resourcesresources;

  • Capabilitiescapabilities;

  • Timingtiming;

  • Ownershipownership;

  • Dependenciesdependencies;

  • Risksrisks;

  • Changechange managementmanagement;

  • KPIsKPIs.

The central question becomes: How can the organisation successfully execute the decision?

Is this primarily a stakeholder problem? You may need to understand:

  • Stakeholderstakeholder interestsinterests;

  • Competingcompeting objectivesobjectives;

  • Powerpower;

  • Influenceinfluence;

  • Incentivesincentives;

  • Relationshipsrelationships;

  • Trade-offstrade-offs.

The central question may be: How can the organisation create a solution that manages competing stakeholder interests?

Is this a crisis? In a crisis, the priorities can change dramatically. You may need to focus on:

  • Speedspeed;

  • Riskrisk;

  • Liquidityliquidity;

  • Reputationreputation;

  • Immediateimmediate actionaction;

  • Businessbusiness continuitycontinuity.

The central question may be: What must the organisation do now to stabilise the situation? Long-term optimisation may have to wait.

The Deciphering Principle

A case can contain elements of all of these characteristics; that's okay. The objective is not to force a case into a single category; it's to recognise what kind of thinking this case requires. That recognition should influence the frameworks you select, the analysis you perform, and ultimately the recommendation you develop.

The Case-Solving Rule

Don't start with a framework; start with a question. Then select the framework that helps answer that question. This principle will appear repeatedly throughout the Discover Your MAD Skills manuals. A framework is useful because it helps you answer a question; it's not useful simply because it is familiar.

A Practical Deciphering Test

Before your team starts detailed analysis, see if you can complete these statements:

  • The organisation is:
  • The situation is:
  • The most important change is:
  • The central problem appears to be:
  • The decision management must make is:
  • The most important constraints are:
  • Success would mean:

If your team cannot answer these questions, you aren't ready for detailed analysis.

Discover Your MAD Skills Principle

Don't analyse everything.everything; Analyseanalyse what matters.

The best case solvers are not necessarily the ones who process the most information. The best case solvers identify the right information and determine what it means.

The Bottom Line

Don't Solve the Case Until You Understand the Case
  • Your first job is not to solve the case. Your first job is to decipher it.
  • A case may contain dozens of problems, facts, symptoms, stakeholders, and opportunities. They don't all deserve equal attention.
  • Before beginning detailed analysis, establish:
    • What is happening?
    • Why does it matter?
    • What is the real problem?
    • What decision needs to be made?
    • What constraints matter?
    • What does success look like?
  • Distinguish between a symptom and the root cause. Solving a visible symptom without addressing its cause can produce an attractive but ineffective recommendation.
  • Decipher the case's characteristics. Growth cases, profitability cases, strategic choices, implementation challenges, stakeholder problems, and crises require different analytical approaches.
  • The objective is not necessarily to label the case perfectly; it is to determine:

What kind of thinking does this case require?

  • Don't automatically apply familiar frameworks because you have used them before. Start with the question you need answered and then determine which analysis will help answer it.

Don't start with a framework; start with a question.

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