Category winner: Meat Puppets. Ethical Dilemma in a Restaurant Setting

Alexander Korchagin and Vera Cherepanova

Alexander and Vera discuss the challenges of writing a good case and the importance of a powerful teaching note.

Fantastic feeling

Alexander said: “This award is the recognition of all the effort we have put into our case, and it feels absolutely fantastic. This means that hard work pays off – we look at our fellow winners and feel honoured to be on a list featuring prestigious schools like Harvard Business School and INSEAD. It is very motivating to be rewarded for a top-quality job.”

Setting the case apart

Vera explained: “Although the case is focused on an ethical dilemma, it has a very unusual context. Often the cases with ethical dilemmas describe a workplace situation faced by an employee in the office. Our case stands out from that crowd with an appealing restaurant setting.

“The case has a huge potential for discussion. Our protagonist’s original Facebook post received almost 8,000 comments, confirming the interest within broader audiences.”

Writing process challenges

Alexander commented: “We were very lucky to have unequivocal support from our protagonist, and, therefore, we had access to all the information and data we needed for the case. That made our life a lot easier.

“Our main challenge was centered around the writing process itself. Although we are not new to academic writing and do quite a lot of publication for professional blogs, a case study requires a very different writing style. You have to tell a story and do it in an engaging manner, so that your readers would want to read it all the way to the end. It wasn’t easy to master that (and we are not sure we actually ‘mastered’ it), but we certainly did our best to write an easy to read and well-structured case with a personal touch.”

Power of the teaching note

Vera added: “It may sound counter-intuitive but start with a teaching note. It helps you look at your case through the eyes of your target audience, filter out the unnecessary and focus on what’s essential, keeping the case short and concise.”

Tutor guidance

Alexander concluded: “This award would not have been possible without The Case Centre’s Writing Effective Cases Workshop and its tutor Trevor Williamson. He is absolutely brilliant and we would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank him.”

About the authors

Alexander Korchagin was a Research Fellow at Moscow State University when the case was written.
e Sasha.Korchagin@gmail.com

Vera Cherepanova is an Ethics & Compliance Consultant at Studio Etica.
e Vera.cherepanova@studioetica.com