India, being one of the fastest growing developing nations in the world, is increasingly receiving interest for India-specific case studies from global business communities. Having huge market potential, business opportunities for many sectors, and its recent reforms which allow foreign direct investment (FDI), the country is now emerging as a leading investment destination in the world. In an interview with Itishree Samal, Richard Ivey School of Business associate professor (managerial accounting and control) David Sharp shares how India has a fascinating story to offer for the business community in the west.
Why is a 'case' important in teaching? How is the demand for teaching through 'case methods' catching up in India?
Teaching from the cases makes the classroom exciting. Cases are the most useful resource to teach the management students and it is widely used in major global universities and teaching programmes. While, the trend is new in India, some top B-schools have now started using cases in their classroom.
Why is the demand for India-specific cases increasing globally?
Managers in the west who want to do business in India are looking forward to know the business culture, business norms and business environment in the country, and to understand the targeted customers. As India is emerging as the fastest growing developing nation in the world, so, the demand for India-specific cases is increasing globally.
For example, we have recently done a case method on FINO (Financial Inclusion Network & Operations Limited), a financial technology & operations firm enabling financial institutions in India, which provides banking solutions to around four million rural Indians. India has 600,000 villages and 400 million people live in those villages. For a manager in west it is difficult to understand the situation, so a case helps.
How do you select a company / trend to write a case?
Cases are selected on any interesting and innovative ideas, companies, new trends, etc, and it is a study and mini research on the development. A good news story is interesting to read but you can not teach the class from that news piece. So, a case is written to provide a better perspective on the development.
What are the key challenges one faces in writing a case?
Case writing is a lengthy and complicated task. And the key challenges are access to company's confidential data and co-operation and support of the management, along with logistics, customers, competitors. Sometimes most of the companies do not allow access to their confidential records and do not share internal challenges. And the company has to approve the case before it goes into public. And also writing the case with correct data is very important as it should not carry any contradictory information. Sometimes the writer faces with ethical dilemma and disguises the name of the company.
How is the case writing ecosystem emerging in India?
Most of the case studies have a limited shelf-life of about less than a decade. So, case writing is an ongoing process. India is relatively new to writing cases. Professors from leading B-schools including XLRI and IIM are showing interest in writing cases. Ivey also holds workshops on case writing. Overall, there is a great interest buzzing around on developing a case in the country.
How does the Ivey and ISB collaboration work?
Ivey has expertise in writing and developing case studies, while ISB has access to the large Indian corporates in India. The partnership helps in leveraging each other's expertise and develop more cases. Also, this partnership allows for exchange of faculty members and collaborative research. Richard Ivey and ISB, which entered into partnership three years back, also organises case study competitions. So far, more than 40 cases have been published under the partnership.