Business as unusual

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Save & Share Article

What’s this?

Digg	My Yahoo	Fark
del.icio.us	Newsvine	Reddit

Rate This Article

Rating:  0

and Lata Dhir was used to draw parallels between performance on the cricket field and in the corporate sector with focus on team dynamics, change in leadership and conflict management.

Explains Lalwani, “When you draw parallels from real life situations, it’s easier to relate to it. This case can be used to demonstrate the importance of team spirit and leadership issues.” Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, agrees that offbeat case studies have become an interesting addition at business schools. “Out of the box ideas always click. So yes, if it’s for training at B-schools as well, why not? In the end it’s contextuality that matters. Sadly, there haven’t been too many Indian case studies but the ones that are around, I think, always have that extra edge simply because you can relate to them better.”

And if arts and cricket have made it to case studies, can Indian movies be far behind?

The making of the 2006 blockbuster Krrish was taught in major B-schools in India and abroad as a case study. The film selected by the Indian Institute of Management-Indore in collaboration with Asia Case Research Center, University of Hong Kong, was chosen to be taught in B-schools across Europe, Asia and Latin and North America.

In fact, Indian movies have been interesting B-schools for the past few years. The trend started with Aamir Khan starrer Lagaan, which was used by IIM-Indore as a teaching aid in its module on leadership. IIM- Ahmedabad reached out to national award winning director Madhur Bhandarkar for making a case study on his film Corporate. The man behind the idea, Tejas A Desai of IIM-Ahmedabad is writing a paper on how movies like Guru and Corporate are relevant to today’s times. He explains, “Guru was a movie that looked at India while it was undergoing a huge change. There are lessons to be learnt from how Gurukant Desai dealt with socialism at that time. Corporate looks at corporate India and how people at the top can sometimes make things difficult for others. There are management lessons there.”

Ishan Gupta, who is pursuing his MBA from Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, agrees. “An interesting case study provides a detailed description of the world, encourages meaningful discussion among the participants and makes a student aware about a problem he may not have thought about before.”