DCH case study. Health, Medicine & Nurcing Research Paper

Written Case Guidelines - Houston In preparation for writing cases, students should follow these guidelines. • A written case analysis involves conducting a thorough evaluation of the industry and the company, identifying strategic issues facing the company, evaluating alternative approaches to addressing those issues, making a recommendation to the company for strategic action, offering insight into how the recommendation should be implemented, and projecting anticipated results. • The component parts of a written case analysis are: o The Executive Summary (5-pages double-spaced) is focus of the written case analysis. It includes all the strategic findings from the full case analysis, along with robust options and recommended actions. The Executive Summary should be able to stand alone as it makes a case for recommended action with details, fact, and figures. o The Appendices follow the Executive Summary and support every claim made in the Executive Summary. The appendices should be fact-filled, thorough, and easy to read. • The appendices are to be completed first. Students should do each analysis as a separate appendix, identified by a distinct capital letter (e.g. Appendix A, Appendix B). Each appendix should be on a separate page. o The appendices should follow the Executive Summary in the written case and should be in the order listed on the Written Case Grading Rubric. o The analyses in the appendices should be conducted and presented as detailed in class, to allow the findings to be both accurate and clear, employing bullet points, charts, tables, graphs, etc.. o Beneath the analysis of each appendix, students are to list the SWOT factors which emerge in that analysis (Strengths & Weaknesses for internal analyses and Opportunities & Threats for external). The SWOT factors should be just a few words (weak profit margins, no sustainable competitive advantage, etc.) not complete sentences. o In addition, students are to craft a brief (2-3 sentence) summation of every fact which emerges from the analysis done in that Appendix, and students should include that summation beneath the SWOT factors. The fact-filled summary should NOT tell what the analysis is, but what the analysis reveals about the industry and/or the company. Be sure to include data in the summary (e.g. Company XYZ’s Revenue grew at a 13.45% Compound Annual Growth Rate between 2015 and 2018, with its growth in 2018 exceeding the CAGR at 23.57%.) Do not use general statements, unsupported facts, colloquial style, or historical accounts in the appendices’ supporting sentences. o Students should note that external analyses are about the industry as a whole (not the company), and factors out of the company's control, while all internal analyses are about the company and its decisions. o Students should copy the SWOT factors from each analysis and paste them into the SWOT analysis. o Beneath the SWOT analysis, students should identify strategic issues facing the company in bullet-point format by using the following progression.  Irresistible Opportunities  Debilitating Weaknesses  Existential Threats Students are to rank the issues in terms of which ones most greatly affect the company's growth, profitability, and/or sustainability over the ensuing five years. o The final appendix(ces) should relate to the strategic issue(s) identified:  If a student determines that the key strategic issue includes a significant investment, the student should include a return on investment and/or break-even analysis.  If the student determines the identified strategic issue calls for retrenchment strategy, a BCG or 9-cell portfolio analysis should be included to clarify the products, divisions, etc. which should be kept and the ones which should be divested.  If, as is often the case, the identified strategic issue relates to growth, a growth analysis (product/market growth matrix) should be included with clear applications to the firm’s situation. Students should produce at least one growth option from each of the four growth strategies. These 4 options should be well reasoned and should be written in complete sentences. They will be copied and pasted into the Executive Summary as the 4 options. • Students should use their analysis to craft a beautifully written EXECUTIVE SUMMARY of not more than 5 pages, as if directed to the company’s CEO. o Students should use the section headings from the grading rubric to organize their executive summary. o Students should use the sentences from the external appendices (typically appendices A-F) to provide the content for the "Industry Overview" section in the Executive Summary. Extensive editing should allow the student to craft a beautifully written, evidence-based, insightful analysis of the industry in two or so paragraphs. o Students should use the sentences from the internal analysis appendices (typically appendices G-K) to provide the content for the "Company Overview" section in the Executive Summary. Extensive editing should allow the student to craft a beautifully written, evidence-based, insightful analysis of the company in two or so paragraphs. Students should refer to the company in third-person singular (it). o The SWOT analysis (typically Appendix K) should reveal strategic issues facing the company. These issues, identified in bullet points beneath the analysis in the appendix, should be crafted into a compound-complex question in the Executive Summary, which should begin, “How can (the company) (sustain its growth or return to positive revenue growth or improve its revenue growth) and take advantage of (strategic opportunities), in (the industry) which faces (existential threats), and given that the company has (debilitating weaknesses)? o The Options emerge from the Prescriptive Analyses (typically Appendix M).  If the Prescriptive Appendix is a Product-Market Growth Analysis, the options should include at least one from each of the four generic growth strategies (i.e., Market Penetration, Product Development, Market Development, Diversification) and should be considered, crafted, and applied to the company’s context. o The Recommendation should be the option, which aligns with the company’s strengths, most fully addresses the strategic issue, and passes the fit test, the competitive advantage test, and the performance test. o The Recommendation section of the executive summary should express in a paragraph or two how this option aligns with the company’s strengths, responds to the strategic issues, passes the tests listed above, and is preferred over the other options. o Students should include an Implementation strategy for their recommendation, including both the general approach, such as organic or inorganic strategy, and more specific implementation aspects. o Finally, students are to express the results they project to emerge from their recommendation on every aspect of the strategic issue (even if it has a limited effect on a particular issue) and should include a revenue projection in one of the following categories: incremental growth (10% or so over what period of time), robust growth (50% or so over what period of time), or disruptive growth (more than 100% over what period of time). • The case is to be submitted through the turnitin.com link on blackboard on or before the due date. Students are advised that all case work in GBA 490 is individual effort. An originality score will be determined by turnitin for each paper, referencing it with all other papers and internet sites. Any student with an overlap score exceeding 20% will be subject to receiving a 0% on this case and will be reviewed to determine if the student should be charged with academic misconduct.