Are Case Studies Really the Best Way to Learn Business Lessons?

The case study method of learning is seen by many as the ultimate way to teach business lessons to MBA candidates. In an article for HBR, former Harvard Dean Nitin Nohria outlines seven specific arguments for why the case study method works. They make sense, yet as he writes: “most cases are meant to stimulate a discussion rather than highlight effective or ineffective management practice.” Unfortunately, that's not the way case studies are generally used in the real world outside of business schools.

Instead of creating an opportunity for learning and debate, case studies are too often treated as a permission slip to innovate (or to not innovate). Change-fearing managers justify decisions to avoid risk by noting the lack of a case study of someone else having done the same thing before. Yet innovative ideas, by definition, cannot be justified with an existing case study because no one has done them before.

So case studies hold this interesting place in business where they can hold some organizations back even as they are used in business schools to continue learning. In that sense, they are a bit like history. You can either look truthfully at the victories and mistakes of the past and learn from them. Or you can skip the debate and remain stuck where you are.