During the Third Asian Invitational Conference on Family Business, hosted by the Indian School of Business (ISB), held on February 4, 2011, participants were exposed to the nuances and challenges of writing cases on Indian Family Businesses by Professor Charles Dhanaraj, Head and Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Leadership, Innovation and Change (CLIC), ISB, and Associate Professor of Management, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University.

The participants were mostly from academia and the session triggered insightful discussions on case writing methodology. Professor Dhanaraj in his presentation took the audience through the entire value chain of case writing – how to initiate a case idea, what is the importance of setting definite learning objectives, where does one close or cut a case, what comprises a teaching note etc.

During the course of the day Professor Dhanaraj along with Professor S. Ramnarayan, Member, Management Council, CLIC and Clinical Professor of Business, Indian School of Business, conducted a workshop titled, “Case Method – Writing Cases and Teaching Notes” for Case writers at the ISB. During the first part of the workshop, Professor Dhanaraj made a presentation on writing and teaching cases. The second part of the workshop was conducted by Professor Ramnarayan who discussed the theoretical underpinnings/frameworks in relation to case studies. This was followed by case draft presentations by CLIC case writers who presented cases that they were working on. Some of the areas that the cases covered were Innovation, Public Administration, Change Management etc. The case writers received valuable guidance from the professors who helped them deconstruct their idea, draft, and writing approach. They also developed the future plan of action for their cases with definite timelines. The aim of the workshop was to help the researchers understand how to position and structure their cases in a manner that these could be successfully used in management education internationally as well as in India.