Reference no: EM133771402

Case Studies are what communication scholars would call "rich texts," full of complex information, technical data, and other details that flesh out the scenario. Even short cases are at least 15 pages of text. If you read that aloud, it would yield about a 20-minute speech! You get to present it in approximately 4 minutes.

Your task is to develop an informative speech of 4 minutes (with a 30 second grace period) that summarizes your chosen/assigned case study in a way that is informative to your audience of junior-level business school classmates. In a way, your task is to teach them one key element of this case study. Keep in mind that what you emphasize may not be the "thesis" or "this is why the company made a good decision" element that is often present. Instead, you should focus on providing a concise and clear synthesis of one major aspect of the case. With the Amazon case from our sample speech, for example, you might make the company's evolution and strategic development the major focus of your speech. That will be most of what you talk about, but you'd still want to briefly note/provide a basic explanation of the focus on long-term cash flow growth. Alternately, you might make that long-term cash flow choice the main focus of your speech, but you would still provide a very basic synthesis of the background/evolution of the company.

Your speech should have the normal components (introduction, conclusion, transitions, and a clear organizational structure) and should also do three key things: 1) Provide the necessary background information about the case study, 2) define key terms and concepts, and 3) provide a coherent and clear overview of at least one aspect of the case. You'll necessarily have to select some things to emphasize and some things to pass briefly over. A strong clear thesis and preview will help your audience follow along.

Practice, synthesis, and summary are crucial here. If you just try to present the whole case but cut it down to 4:00, you will struggle to complete the assignment and to reach the time limit. Instead, think of this informative speech as a new distinct thing that you are creating. With 4 minutes, what are the key ideas of the case? What terms or concepts does your audience need to know to understand it? What background information is needed to grasp the case? What shared knowledge can you expect your audience to have and which terms will you need to explain? What quantitative data is crucial to the case and how can you present it verbally?

Purpose:

The assignment is designed to help you exercise several different skills at once. Your audience no doubt has some shared knowledge and experiences you can draw on, but they have likely not read your case nor studied the technical or quantitative information. You must summarize the case but also synthesize its key points. These skills are related but distinct, together pushing you to decide what information is most valuable and to present it effectively. In addition, this assignment asks you to effectively use carefully-prepared visual aids. Many people create visual aids as their speech. That is, they open up Google Slides or PowerPoint and then create their whole speech by making slides. This makes for unclear speeches and ineffective visual aids! You'll also need to teach certain terms or ideas. This assignment seems deceptively simple. Good summary is challenging, and it takes time and revision to do it well. We're going to take that time with this assignment and the next one.

In addition, case studies like the MIT ones we're using are the "coin of the realm" in many industries. Being able to talk about a case study or how to apply a given scenario to a new one is valuable in your professional life. This assignment gives you an excellent set of resources both from being a speaker and as an active audience member. A single day of class can give you 15 different talking points for potential employers! These are the studies used at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

The task links to the following course-level learning objectives:

Determine when to effectively use visual technologies and speaking aids.
Habitually revise and edit work before making a presentation.
Produce examples of spoken and visual communication that are engaging, clear, professional, evidence-driven, ethical and persuasive

Evaluation:

The speech will be evaluated using the accompanying rubric. As the rubric indicates, there are three key things being assessed here: 1) Clarity-is there a clear thesis statement/view of the case, is the organization evident and sensible, and are background terms/ideas explained well?

2) Concision-does the speech fall within the time limits, carefully select what to focus on instead of trying to summarize everything equally, and cut out extra information? 3) Delivery-does the speech show careful practice, strong use of visual aids (including effective physical delivery of slides), extemporaneous speaking, good eye contact?