J. David M. Wood

Faculty in Operations Management at the Ivey Business School

• 1

  CRC: Why, according to you, is the case method of teaching so popular in Management education?

  David: The case method continues to gain popularity among both faculty and students because it offers an opportunity for students to acquire knowledge and more importantly an opportunity for students to develop wisdom. Knowledge can be acquired through the course content, readings, lectures, and videos. But wisdom is developed through experience. Through the case method, students analyse complex problems, work in teams, communicate with impact, and apply judgement to make decisions. The experience of repeatedly addressing the decisions faced by the protagonists in a case is what develops wisdom for our students.

• 2

  CRC: Last year, you won the very prestigious Outstanding Case Teacher award at the Case Centre Awards & Competitions. What advice would you give to fellow educators who want to be effective case teachers?

  David: Be yourself. Too often I see faculty emulate the teaching style of a successful colleague only to find it comes across to the students as inauthentic. Successful case teachers need to first be comfortable with themselves. We all have limitations, be it our odd sense of humour or poor hand writing, and there will always be someone in the class that knows the industry in any particular case better than you. Recognizing your limitations will enable you to have the confidence to let the students take control. Leverage their experience, their case knowledge, and their analysis. Let the students provide the answers and correct each other’s work. Don’t get me wrong, as faculty you still need a robust teaching plan for every class, but confidence in yourself will let the students take a more meaningful role in the case discussion.

• 3

  CRC: How important is case writing to effective teaching of Management subjects, in particular, Operations Management?

  David: I am sure that you have all heard that ‘case writing will make you a better case teacher’ and it is very true. Having an appreciation for how to write a case, what to include and what to leave out of a case will enable you to better prepare your case teaching plan. A great deal of thought goes into the structure of a case. Sometimes there are subtle clues in a case that are not obvious until you become an experienced case writer yourself. Case writing also helps to promote your expertise in the class when you teach your own cases. The insights that you gain from the field research during the writing process and the ability to include the protagonist in the class discussion make the case learning experience more realistic and rewarding for your students.

• 4

  CRC: In addition to tutoring others, you are a prolific case writer yourself? Tell us about your favourite case and why it works so well.

  David: My favourite case is somewhat dependent on the intended audience. It is hard to narrow this to only one case, but there are certainly some common themes. First, students need to be able to relate to the company or protagonist. Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-Engineering is a very popular case because most know the company and industry, but a successful case is not always about name recognition. I wrote Benevento Foods and almost no one recognizes the name, but students can relate to the protagonist -- it also helps that the company makes cake, who doesn’t love talking about cake? Second, the case needs to be short. Short cases are not to be mistaken as easy or light on content. It takes a great deal of effort to write a short case. My goal is to have three to five pages of text or at most seven if the case is about strategy. Students lose interest after a few pages so carefully ask yourself what is the purpose of every fact in a case. A good guideline should be, if you do not address the case fact in your teaching note, you likely don’t need this fact in your case. One of my best-selling cases, CRP Products, is only four pages of text and yet is often taught over a three-hour class as there is a wealth of information to analyse in the case. Third, the case needs to have a meaningful insight that is evident only after a facilitated discussion. Cases are teaching materials and students should always leave your class having learned something new as a result of the class discussion. If students can solve the case effectively on their own, the class will have little meaning and they won’t retain the lessons from the case. Upper Canada Insurance is one of the first cases I wrote and is still used today because the students, and the protagonist, often focus on the labour productivity in the case. The real issue is lost revenue and profitability from an inefficient process, but this rarely reveals itself without proper facilitation from the faculty.

• 5

  CRC: Do you think the case method will undergo change due to the Covid-19 pandemic? If so (not), how and in what way?

  David: The value that the case method offers has never been more important. Faculty and students are quickly realizing that content can be learned asynchronously. Therefore, dedicating synchronous class time to delivering content is leading to disengaged students. Instead, progressive faculty are recording their lectures for students watch on their own and dedicating class time to the case discussion. By having students learn the content asynchronously through videos, readings, and other activities; more synchronous class time is dedicated to the case discussion.

• 6

  CRC: Please share your tips on how one can use the case method effectively in the online mode.

  David: Historically faculty would assign a reading and a case, provide some questions to help students prepare for class, and hope that the students might take a few minutes to meet with their learning team before coming to class. Class time would be used to review the reading materials and address any questions that students had before starting the case discussion. The case discussion often began with a review of the issues and an analysis of the current situation. In the end, only a small portion of the class time was dedicated to discussing the implication, making a decision, or developing an implementation plan.
  
  With online learning we are now seeing how technology can enhance the case discussion by helping students be better prepared. Faculty can assign a short activity or reflection after each reading, ask students to complete a portion of the case analysis online, and provide learning teams with a discussion forum to share their insights from the case or even submit a short answer on their decision before coming to class. Technology enabled learning allows faculty to interact with students, provide corrective feedback early, and learn about the struggles of their students before class begins. Faculty can adjust their teaching plan to address areas of concern or move more quickly through the case analysis so that more time is dedicated to discussing the implications, decision and implementation of a case. As a result, students learn more through the case method and develop greater wisdom.

• 7

  CRC: Anything else you would like to say.

  David: Too often faculty become obsessed with the content we teach. But our goal should not be measured by what we teach, but by what our students learn. There is no doubt that lecturing will enable faculty to teach more, but sadly most of the content we provide is quickly forgotten by our students. Instead we should be rededicating ourselves to the case method. Cases enable our students to take the lead, make mistakes, and learn from each other. As a result, these case experiences will be retained by our students many years after they graduate.