Reference no: EM132428429

What, historically, have been Apple's competitive advantage?

Here are some important guidelines for your written case analysis:

1. You should not conduct outside research for the case analysis. In fact, you should pretend that you are facing exactly the same situation and information presented in the case.

2. Think of your case analysis as a consulting assignment that you are performing for the case firm. Thus, your audience for the case analysis is your client (an executive in the case firm) and your analysis should take the form of an executive briefing. Think about who your client is and what he/she would like to see in your report. The analysis must be professionally written and presented. If you need help with the writing, please use the campus-writing center.

3. Do not summarize the case. The audience (your client) is very familiar with the situation and requires further analysis that goes beyond the information presented in the case.

4. Avoid laundry lists. Focus and organize your analysis. Look for frameworks from the readings or class that help you organize and present your analysis. (In emphasizing frameworks from this class I don't mean to discourage using ideas from other classes, lessons learned from personal experience, lessons learned from previous cases, or common sense.)

5. The best structure for your case analyses depends on the particular issues raised in the case that you analyze. The assignment questions for each case are a useful starting point for your analysis. In addition, the strategic case analysis framework that will be handed out in class is a useful guide for structuring your analysis. More detailed analysis on how to prepare for a case analysis and discussion and how to maximize YOUR learning from the case method is available on the course Blackboard site in the ‘Case Analysis' folder.