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DMI case studies are helping both educators and professionals understand
how companies actually manage their design resources; how design
relates to other functions like engineering, marketing, manufacturing,
and corporate communications; and how design decisions affect many
facets of an organization.
Together the cases demonstrate the importance of design as an integral
part of a company’s business strategy and competitiveness.
The case development process involves extensive field research;
a careful, iterative writing process; professional design work for
pedagogically effective layout; trial teaching, and collaboration
with both company participants and instructors from a variety of
disciplines.
The “teaching case” is, in DMI parlance, an empirical,
field-based document that represents a slice of reality—a particular
time and place in the life of a real organization. Unlike lectures,
printed materials, and television, which are mostly passive learning
media, the case study cannot be properly understood—indeed
it is incomplete, veritably crippled—without active participation
by students in the learning process. A good case study draws students
(whether MBA candidates, postgraduate executives, or any other reader)
directly into a problem and challenges them to analyze the situation
and grapple with decisions that must be made.
Organizations participate in case study research because of several
benefits. The case development process itself encourages a rethinking
of the project or problem under study and fosters learning within
the company on such issues as company communications, decision-making,
strategic planning, and leadership. A second case study benefit
is visibility: companies invest resources in case development because
they know that good cases reach hundreds if not thousands of students
and other readers over a number of years. A third benefit is that
case study companies know that through helping educate future managers,
they are investing in their own future and in the future of their
industry.
If you are interested in having your organization participate in
the DMI case study program, a complete set of guidelines for DMI
cases is available upon request from dmistaff@dmi.org.
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