Skip to content

IAI Actuarial Core Principles · Business Management · Communicating strategy; culture and structure in decision making; strategy case studies

Kaveri Mutual Life, a mid-sized Indian insurer, studies a competitor that grew quickly by selling simple term plans through a mobile app at low cost. Kaveri's strategy team wants to use this case to learn something useful. Which approach to the case study is most appropriate?

The best approach is to identify why the competitor succeeded, compare those conditions with Kaveri's own resources, customers and market, and then adapt only what fits. Blind copying ignores context differences, while ignoring the case or using narrow evidence gives poor strategic learning.

  1. ACopy the competitor's product and channel exactly, since success in one case guarantees success elsewhere
  2. BIdentify the conditions behind the competitor's success, compare them with Kaveri's own resources and market, and then decide what can be adaptedCorrect
  3. CReject the case because a competitor's results cannot inform another firm's strategy
  4. DFocus only on the competitor's sales figures and ignore its customers and capabilities
  5. Use only the competitor's own press releases as the evidence base

Explanation

A case study is useful when the drivers of success are analysed and tested against the firm's own context. Copying exactly ignores differences in capabilities and customers. Rejecting the case wastes useful learning, and relying on sales figures or press releases gives a narrow, biased view.

Did you get it right without looking?

One question tells you little. A timed set on Communicating strategy; culture and structure in decision making; strategy case studies shows your real accuracy, how long you take and where you lose marks.

Practise Communicating strategy; culture and structure in decision making; strategy case studiesFree diagnostic mock

More Communicating strategy; culture and structure in decision making; strategy case studies questions