How to pass ICAN Case Study

Start here, in this order

1. 1

   Scenario Requirements 26% of the paper

   Informed business judgement · Social issues · Efficiency, economy and effectiveness · Managing shareholders' and other stakeholders' interests · Globalisation issues · Business sustainability issues, including sustainability reporting · Responsible investments and equator principles · Application of technology strategies, including block chain, artificial intelligence and digital communications · Soft skills, including originality and initiative, creative thinking, critical thinking, integrated thinking, persuasion and negotiation, cognitive flexibility, multiple capitals, leadership, emotional intelligence, social thinking, project management, and technology design, strategy and business modelling · Managerial judgement · Professional skepticism · Professional ethics · Business ethics · Risk assessment · Due diligence · Corporate social responsibility · Governance

2. 2

   Analytical Tools 20% of the paper

   Strategic tools: PESTEL, SWOT, Porter's five forces, benchmarking, Porter's value chain analysis, Porter's generic strategies, Porter's diamond, BCG model, Ansoff's matrix, gap analysis, business capacity analysis, resource audit and business process model · Advice on investment proposals appropriate to the objectives of a given business organisation · Performance management tools: critical success factors, key performance indicators, balanced scorecard, value for money and economic value added · Tools to analyse a set of financial statements (profit or loss and other comprehensive income, financial position, cash flows and supporting notes): trend analysis, ratio analysis and common size analysis · Tools used with management information, such as budgets and forecasts · Tools for management short term decisions, such as marginal costing and contribution analysis · Financial engineering assessment tools · Business valuation tools · Analyses and evaluation of key types of business risks and assessment of their implications within a given scenario · Appraisal and evaluation of financial reconstruction proposals in a given scenario

3. 3

   Ethical and Professional Skepticism Consideration (not more than 15% of contents) 15% of the paper

   Identification and evaluation of professional and business ethics issues and dimensions in a contextual and broad way · Professional issues, how businesses are conducted and sustainability (environmental, social and governance) impact · Ethics in the context of regulations, regulatory oversight, professional duties, public interest and reputation · Professional skepticism as an underlying requirement in complex scenarios: provenance of information and potential for bias

The remaining 5 areas share 40% between them. Worth knowing. Not worth the weeks that the three above deserve. Full weightings for this paper.

Then write, by hand, against the clock

Case Study is written by hand. Marks are earned by the reasoning — stating the principle, applying it to the scenario, concluding — so an answer that jumps to the figure loses most of them even when the figure is right. Practise full answers on paper, timed at roughly 1.8 minutes per mark.

The part nobody does

Almost every candidate writes practice answers. Almost none of them ever find out whether those answers would have scored. You write, you feel it went reasonably, you move on — and the first real feedback you receive is the result, months later, when the diet is gone.

That gap is the whole reason preparation fails for people who worked hard. Not knowledge. Feedback.