Business Reality
Falling sales. Customers not paying. A competitor just arrived. What now?
Textbook cases are chosen because they resolve neatly. These are chosen because they did not. Students work a real situation to a recommendation, and then hear what the business actually did and what it cost.
Explore this page6 sections
The problems a business actually has are messier than the ones in the book.
Sales are down and nobody agrees why. A large customer is ninety days late and is also a third of revenue. A competitor has undercut you and your costs have gone up in the same quarter. None of these arrive labelled with the chapter they belong to.
Working them with the person who lived through it is the closest a classroom gets to the thing itself — including the part where the obvious answer turns out to be unaffordable.
The situations students work
41 topics across 8 areas. Eight kinds of problem. The practitioner brings one they actually faced.
Sales Are FallingAnd everybody has a different theory.5 topics
- Is it the market, the product, the price or the team?
- What would you measure first?
- How long do you have?
- What do you stop doing?
- Who do you talk to before deciding?
Customers Are Not PayingRevenue that has not become cash.6 topics
- How overdue, and how concentrated?
- What is the relationship worth?
- What are the terms, and were they agreed?
- How hard do you push, and when?
- What changes for the next customer?
- If the customer is a larger buyer and you are a micro or small supplier, what the 45-day payment cap gives you to point to
A Competitor Has ArrivedCheaper, newer, and taking your calls.5 topics
- Do you match on price?
- What do they not do well?
- Which customers are actually at risk?
- What can you change quickly?
- What should you refuse to change?
Should We Reduce the Price?The decision that is hardest to reverse.5 topics
- What does it do to margin?
- Will volume actually rise?
- What does it signal?
- Can you get the price back later?
- What else could you change instead?
Marketing Spend Is Rising, Sales Are NotSomewhere between the two, something is broken.5 topics
- Where does the pipeline stop?
- Is it the leads or the follow-up?
- What are you measuring?
- What would you cut first?
- How would you know if it worked?
Should We Hire?The commitment students underestimate.5 topics
- What work is actually unowned?
- What does the person cost, fully loaded?
- How long until they contribute?
- What if revenue dips?
- Could this be outsourced or postponed?
Complaints Are IncreasingUsually a symptom.5 topics
- What changed recently?
- Is it product, delivery or expectation?
- Which complaints repeat?
- What does each one cost?
- What is the fix, and what is the workaround?
Growth Is Outrunning OperationsThe good problem that kills businesses.5 topics
- What is breaking first?
- Which promises are you failing?
- Do you slow the sales or fix the delivery?
- What would you write down?
- What do you refuse to take on?
How students work a problem
- What is actually happening, separated from what people think is happening
- What you would measure before deciding
- Two or three options, with costs named
- A recommendation, and what would make you change it
- What you would do in the first week
What makes it different from a case study
- The person who faced it is in the room
- The information is as incomplete as it really was
- The obvious answer is often unaffordable
- The outcome is revealed only after students commit
- What it actually cost gets discussed honestly
How the session runs
A business owner or manager presents a situation they genuinely faced, with the information they had. Students work in groups to a recommendation and defend it. The practitioner then says what they did, what happened, and what it cost — including where the students' answer was better than theirs.
What your students leave with
- Practice separating the symptom from the problem
- The habit of asking what to measure before deciding
- Options stated with their costs rather than a single answer
- Exposure to how much information is genuinely missing
- An honest account of what the real decision cost
- Better instincts for which function a problem actually belongs to
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Start a conversation
Ask for this session
Tell us who you are and what you have in mind. A person reads it and writes back, usually within two working days.
- Tell us what you need
A topic or a question is enough to start.
- A person replies
Usually within two working days.
- Agree the next step
We work out the details together.
Textbook cases resolve. These did not.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.