Now Assumption University's Faculty of Communication Arts in cooperation with training company Knowedge Co Ltd is holding a Case Research and Writing Workshop on April 23-25 to provide 25 master's degree students and company representatives with the necessary guidance and techniques to produce effective case studies.

"Most case studies feature businesses in Europe and the US, some in Korea and Japan. They would be good lessons for Thai businesses, except that Thailand doesn't have the same culture as those countries," said Chalit Limpanavech, dean of communication arts at Assumption.

He called for effective case studies about the success, failure and salient issues of Thai companies or companies that are run in this country, which would tell both Thai companies and foreign investors how to make decisions in Thailand.

He said those currently available, written by university lecturers, were mostly novelistic in style instead of going straight to the point in the international manner.

"Efficient case-study style

starts with company history, followed by in-depth key-player profiles, then a delineation of the company giving rise to points for discussion. Some also give solutions to company problems," Prasert Thawatchokethawee, managing director of Knowedge Co Ltd, explained.

The keynote address of the Bt25,000-a-head workshop, at Best Western in Chon Buri province, will be by Professor Dr Clifford E Darden, an award-winning case-study writer with a BSc from the University of Southern California and an MBA and DBA from Harvard.

Chalit hopes to set up a 25-strong case-study writers' club after the workshop. Details have yet to be discussed, but he foresees beginning with companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

"If we eventually have case studies of all 500-odd of them, it will greatly improve the next generation's business and economic understanding," he said.

Prasert said good case studies could have an economic knock-on effect. He cited Starbucks, which led to the emergence of coffee-shop chains and related businesses such as coffee-making equipment now worth billions of baht in Thailand.

He conceded that companies' unwillingness to share deep information was a major deterrent to effective case studies.

He pointed out, however, that among the benefits of sharing information were good business ideas generated by master's-degree students' discussions, the efficacity of case studies in attracting outstanding students to the workforce and above all the role of case studies as tools to build company awareness.

Chalit suggested the government employ them as a policy tool, using for example case studies of catering firms to promote the "kitchen of the world" project or of tour agencies in helping the South recover from the tsunami.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation