Cases and Assignments
 
Students will be required to engage in a complete analysis of a set of  six cases during the quarter. They are all available in the course packet. I have selected these cases so that they relate closely to the subject matter in the lectures. Before each case assignment, I will provide a series of questions on which the discussion and written reports will focus.

Presentations. I will arrange to have two separate study groups present their findings before the class on a subset of questions. Discussion time will also be allotted for questions and general discussion about the key issues in the case. These presentations will factor into the final grade. Several groups will satisfy this course requirement not during the case presentations but for their portfolio performance reports.

 
 

Written Reports. Each study group will also prepare a written report on the case. This will involve answers to the series of questions discussed above for the presentations. The report will be graded on the basis of the quality of the research, as well as of the professional presentation (neatness, clarity of exposition, etc.). I would encourage you to submit this report via email in Word with appended Excel graphs/charts in order to save paper. I will strive to give you feedback in the form of a memo, also via E-mail, which will record your grade. I will assign the same grade to each member of the group, unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise. HERE you can find more technical details re. report.

 
What is good case analysis (for me, anyway).  May be, the best way to describe it is to describe what case is NOT. Case analysis is NOT the copying exercise from a book into MS Word. It is not exercise in history of Finance (If you are spending precious space to inform me that Markowitz got Nobel Prize, you deserve to be punished). Case report is similar with consulting recommendations. As such, you require to take a position and argue this position well. Your conclusions should be supported by firm (i.e., analytical) arguments. Possible criticizm should be explicitly addressed. Look at attachments for the case. Normally they contain wealth of analytical information to look through. In many cases you have more info than you need. Try to understand what is important and what is not. It is important part of case challenge. Normally I give you the list of questions that are designed to guide you through analysis. I am not insisting that you have to follow my template.  But all relevant issues have to be covered.  You are welcome to go to the web and to find more relevant information. However, do not try to kill me with your intellect. It is more important for me (and your grade) that you inderstand what you wrote than that you demonstrate that yoiu can use search engine. Finally, try to be brief.