General Introduction to the GITTA case studies

Introduction

"Success in business comes from experience and knowledge, from the ability to analyse and reflect, from observing and interacting with others, and learning from these encounters." (Harvard Business School 2003).

Based on these principles, the Harvard Business School developed the so-called "Case Study Method" in 1908. The aim of this method is to create a realistic learning environment and confront students with real, complex economic and business challenges of an enterprise. You, as a learner, take on the role of a decision maker who has to base decisions on information that may be incomplete, limited or incorrect. Thus, through hands-on, interactive experiences, you learn the skills and proficiency that you need to successfully realize an entrepreneurial task (Harvard Business School 2003).

The aim of the GITTA case studies is to use realistic problem settings to prepare you to deal with current professional requirements in the best possible way. You are given the opportunity to think and work in a holistic, practice- and goal oriented way and to work self sufficiently on complex topics.
GITTA offers case studies of varying levels of difficulty which fit the learning contents of the "Basic" and "Intermediate" modules.

Overview

In this introductory lesson you will be given all necessary information and basics on how to work on a GITTA case study. In this lesson, you will learn:

• how a case study is defined
• how a GITTA case study is structured in a sequence of phases and how these phases work (didactic model)
• why you are required to keep a learning diary