A Case of a case of cases

I haven't had the time to update this blog recently, even though there suddenly appears to be more readers (thanks for dropping by guys!).

In any case, my excuse is that I'm officially in the Hell Week at INSEAD. This week, there're about 6 (or so) assignments due, some big, some small. The biggies have taken up so much time: group discussions take up the bulk of it. I guess the real deal is that group discussions are a function of how well the group works together. For a group that tends to bicker and disagree (i.e. my group) it takes a really long time to get things done.

But a caveat though: that doesn't mean we don't do a good job. The additional time spent usually resulted in well-crafted reports. But well-crafted reports don't often mean the most productivity (the hours spent bickering over the minutest points just rankles me!).

In any case, this period is markedly different from the previous one in terms of the cases: almost every lecture is structured around a case study.

Case studies for dummies

Case studies are the real (or disguised) life examples which typically encompass a business lesson within. The usual structure is a story, some history of the company, miscellaneous blah blah about the personalities in the case (if any), a little too much information about the competition, the problem, and maybe some questions to guide your thought process (if the author is kind). There're also the exhibits attached at the end, which usually is a sign to look out for numbers to do some crunching with.

The thing about cases in P2 as opposed to P1: they're longer. Waaaaaaaay longer. Like 15-20 pages as opposed to the wafer thin 3-4 page lightweight.

So what does this mean in a period already chockful of activity?

Less sleep, little time for anything else. At the end of it all, I have only a case full of cases to show for it, and bleary eyes. No wonder the coffee in INSEAD is free: you'll NEED it.

Yawn.