CAST
(B.A. International Management)
Course Syllabus
“There is nothing as practical as a good theory” (Lewin 1944)
This course builds on approaches from earlier studies. By analysis various case studies, we will not only understand the covered organizations and their challenges, but students will develop and discuss their ideas and recommendations. The course prepares for later managerial situations and their complexity in problem analysis, evaluation, and decision-making.
The case companies include classical ones like Southwest Airlines or General Electric but also recent cases on Apple or AxelSpringer, and the cases cover a broad range from operating decisions to strategic options.
Be prepared for interactive sessions, team discussions, and get to know some classics as well as recent cases.
Organizational
The module is an elective in the cluster “International Competences” and values 5 ECTS credit points, which represents a workload of 150 hours. As a guideline, your workload could be split to synchronous time in classes (40h), asynchronous time for preparation and reinforcement (80h) and final preparations (30h).
Course material and lecture slides will be available via Moodle. The Moodle key will be communicated in the first online session.
Readings
- Ellet, W. (2018) The Case Study Handbook: A Student’s Guide. Boston: Harvard Business Press. Revised Edition
- Ellet, W. (2007) The Case Study Handbook: How to Read, Discuss and Write Persuasively About Cases. Boston: Harvard Business Press
- case studies e.g. from Harvard Business School, IMD, Stanford authors will be distributed in the course
Evaluation
The course grade is composed of continuous contributions in class, which is accompanied by your preparation (one third). You select 6 cases for which you will write a case analysis prior to class, the best 5 scores count for another third of the grade. The final third comes from a final term paper, wherein you analyze an unknown case.