Business Report

How to write a business report (From reading a case study)

1. Approaching case studies

Case studies are descriptions of situations faced by individuals, groups of people, or organisations. They typically include a description of the key people involved, a chronology of events, and summaries of key data (financial, sales, costs, competitors etc). In preparing to write a report based on a case study, there are six key steps.

1. Read the case and develop a familiarity with the material, highlighting the key pieces of information. Allow yourself a break and then re-read the case. What at first struck you as the key issues may at  a second read be incomplete or misleading.
2. Identify the problem or situation that you have been tasked to solve. How does the present situation differ from a desirable situation in this case study?
3. Draw on the major problems and issues and identify lesser problems or issues that will have a bearing on the case. It is important at this stage to be clear that you do identify the problems and not just symptoms of the problem. Also, be careful not to pre-judge the situation or to accept information at face value.
4. Identify solutions to the problems and develop alternative scenarios. The alternative scenarios may emerge from the case study itself and the analysis you have undertaken (including data manipulation and analysis), or further research of the industry from trade journals, periodicals, or newspapers. You can also be creative in generating alternative scenarios and make suggestions based on your own experience, or ideas that have come from books and films.
5. Evaluate the alternative solutions you have developed. It may be useful at this stage to generate a SWOT analysis and this may be presented in your report.
6. Identify your preferred solution and a prepare a defence to possible criticisms of your choice.

2. What are we expected to get out of case studies

Case studies are crucial learning tools for business students as they train us to think clearly in complex situations. Students panic when they use case studies when they don’t immediately spot the solution; practice will tell you that there are often several solutions that are realistic and that can be justified.

Case studies are also invaluable in training business students in sorting out what are the key issues. Not everything presented in the case study is equally important, so part of your report writing preparation is in identifying the key issues, information that will be useful, information that may be useful, and striking out irrelevant information. You should also seek to identify what information is missing as this will also inform your report.

3. Making data relevant

Working with data in cases: many case studies that we use will contain data that needs analysis before it can be utilised in a report. These are some tips for handling data the data that we routinely find in business case studies:

• Data in case studies is not always presented in a clear and rational way. Make sure that you arrange the data so that trends or other significant issues can easily be identified
• Don’t assume that all the information that you are given is relevant. Be prepared to extract, sort or merge data that has been given to you in the case study. The highest marks are for candidates who read carefully what they have been given and then identify and summarise the key information.
• Some basic calculations may be necessary, such as sensitivity analysis, to create new and more useful data
• When presented with financial data, such as balance sheets and income statements, compare these between periods to identify trends. You should also consider whether ratio analysis, cash flow analysis, and break-even analysis will inform your report.

Now that you have started to identify the key information you can make a start on putting together your written report.

4. Structuring your business report

The standard structure for a business report based on a case study is as follows.

• Summary of recommendations: this should summarise your analysis and be thorough enough to inform the reader who doesn’t have time to read your full report
• Body of report: the structure of this section is quite flexible but should cover the background issues, statement of the problem, a logical case analysis, and solution choice which notes the alternatives considered as well as the recommended solution.
• Appendices: key data that has been used to inform the report.

5. Writing up your business report

These are some key tips that will help you write a good quality business report that is based on a case study:

• Prepare an outline of the report before you start writing - this will serve as a roadmap of where you plan to go
• Use descriptive headings that clearly describe the section’s contents to engage and inform the reader
• Tell a coherent story that unfolds in your report. Your recommendations should emerge from the analysis that you have undertaken and not appear as stand alone items at the end of your report.
• Do not let your analysis be simply a restatement of the facts that you have been given.
• Be clear about what information you are using and where you obtained it from. Your credibility will depend on the sources you use to support your arguments.
• Do not allow your own interests to skew your approach to the case and your recommendations. Check the brief you have been given and focus on what is important and relevant to the case.
• Use graphs and charts to convey difficult concepts or show alternatives in a visually attractive and easy to understand way. Ensure that all graphs and charts that you use are relevant, add value to your report, and are clearly labelled.
• Use the right graphics for the concepts you are explaining or illustrating. Bar charts or Gantt charts are appropriate for showing a changing relationship over time, while pie charts are the best way to illustrate proportional relationships. Line graphs should be used to show trends to show trends over a period of time. Remember the key is simplicity in illustrating key points - if you can’t explain what your graphics show then don’t use them.
• Use a clear and consistent formatting style throughout the report - a messy writing style will prejudice the reader against your recommendations while a professional approach lends credibility to your research skills.

Remember that utilising these steps to prepare your business report based on a case study will enable you to submit a high quality and targeted report. The skills involved in generating these reports are highly sought after by employers in business, industry and particularly consulting. Good luck!