Case study format and template (for US business school courses)
The 6-part case study structure US MBA and undergrad business courses expect, with a downloadable template framework.
Case studies are the workhorse assignment in US business courses, and most students lose grade points to format rather than analysis. Here's the structure that works for almost every case prompt.
The 6-section structure
(1) Executive Summary, (2) Problem Statement, (3) Situational Analysis, (4) Alternatives, (5) Recommendation, (6) Implementation Plan. Length varies, short cases run 5–8 pages, capstone cases run 15–25.
Executive Summary
One page, written last. State the problem, your recommendation, and the expected outcome. A reader who only reads this section should understand your entire argument.
Problem Statement
One or two paragraphs. Be precise, 'the company is losing market share' isn't a problem statement; 'the company has lost 12 percentage points of market share in the premium segment since 2021 due to a stalled product roadmap' is. The specificity drives the rest of your analysis.
Situational Analysis
Use an explicit framework: SWOT, Porter's Five Forces, PESTEL, or the case-specific framework from your course. Apply it rigorously. This is where most students underperform, they describe the case rather than analyze it.
Alternatives
Three alternatives minimum. For each: brief description, pros, cons, and a feasibility assessment. The point of this section is to show you considered options before picking one, graders penalize a paper that jumps straight to the recommendation.
Recommendation
Pick one alternative and explain why it beats the others on the criteria that matter for this case. The recommendation should follow logically from the analysis, if it doesn't, your analysis or your recommendation needs to change.
Implementation Plan
Concrete steps, timeline, resource requirements, and metrics for success. This section is where strong cases separate from average ones. A vague 'launch a new marketing campaign' loses points. 'Allocate $2.4M Q1 to a digital campaign targeting the 25–34 premium segment, measured by quarterly net-new customer acquisition' wins them.
The grader's checklist
Did the analysis support the recommendation? Did the recommendation address the problem statement? Are the alternatives genuinely distinct, not three flavors of the same idea? Is the implementation plan specific enough to act on? If your case study answers yes to all four, it's a B+ minimum.