The Centre for Teaching, Learning and Case Development at the Indian School of Business (ISB) organised a four day Case Writing and Case Teaching Workshop between November 24 -27, 2010, on the MDI Gurgaon premise.  The intent was to train high-potential Indian faculty and case writers in the case writing and case teaching process, and to develop a case writing and case teaching culture inside Indian management schools.

The workshop was conducted by Professors Ariff Kachra and Nicole Haggerty from Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario.  “Our primary goal is to inspire you to use more cases in your teaching and to give you the necessary tools to begin writing cases for the Indian business context,” said Professor Kachra to the participants, who comprised  senior  faculty, researchers and case  writers  from institutions like the  IIMs, MDI Gurgaon, Narsee Monjee ,etc.

The workshop included  modules like ‘mapping your case teaching, writing and learning experiences’, ‘defining the key skills associated with case writing and case teaching’, ‘preparing for your first interview with the case lead ‘etc. The mentors also delved  into the different facets of case  teaching and held  sessions on how  to deconstruct best practices related to case teaching, how  to prepare to teach a case, etc. Participants were handed out prior reading of some of the globally best selling cases and asked to come to the class to “discuss this case as though it were being discussed in an MBA classroom.”

By the end of the workshop, they were familiar with the characteristics of a best seller case. They also identified some of the barriers to writing a case and  the key success factors of a good case. The faculty mentors also imparted the know-how about how to build a research plan, and finally how to come up with the first draft.  Participant Himanshu Joshi recalled his key take away, “The workshop gave me insights into the background tasks needed while writing cases and about how to do an interview effectively.” Another participant Shilpi Jain commented, “I realised the importance of being selective towards inclusion of information and about how to write a teaching note.”

Professor Haggerty concluded, “The  purpose of these  four days  was to  take  participants from the idea phase to the final draft phase; to share  with them practical tools and advice that will allow them to immediately start their own case writing projects.”