On December 4-5, 2023, Shanghai - CEIBS Case Center held the second batch of 2023 Case Master Development Camp, with two classes running in Chinese and English respectively. A total of 135 teachers from 85 universities and institutions at home and abroad, including China Hong Kong and Macao SARs, the United Kingdom and India, participated in the camp.

In his welcome speech on December 4, CEIBS Case Center Director and Professor of Accounting Chen Shimin provided a briefing on case development, publication and teaching at CEIBS while updating participants on the development of the Global Platform of China Cases (ChinaCases.Org). So far, CEIBS has developed about 1,500 China-focused cases. CEIBS Case Center started distributing selected cases through international publication partners of Harvard Business Publishing – Education (Harvard Case Library), Ivey Publishing and The Case Centre, contributing to global education.

The ChinaCases.Org has collected nearly 2,800 cases covering 19 disciplines and 21 industries, serving more than 7,000 teachers from 90 universities in China, with 1 million case copies used. CEIBS Case Center organizes annual training programmes such as "Case Master Development Camp" and " Case Co-creation Community", which build a platform of communication and learning for teachers from different universities and institutions, further bolstering case teaching and development efforts. Professor Chen also introduced the "Global Contest for the Best China-Focused Cases", as well as the latest progress of the publication of China-focused cases at the international case libraries.

During the two-day camp, CEIBS faculty members, including Professor of Accounting Chen Shimin, Professor of Entrepreneurship Wang Taiyuan, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship Guo Wei and Professor of OBHR Byron Lee, shared their wealth of experience on designing, organizing, demonstration of case teaching method across various fields, as well as case development experience.

Through the case of “Alibaba vs JD.com: Strategies, Business Models and Financial Statements”, Prof. Chen Shimin led participants in identifying the differences between corporate strategies and business models through three financial statements and showed how to use cases in accounting class to achieve teaching objectives. Professor Chen then shared his criteria and suggestions on how to develop high-quality teaching cases based on his own teaching practice, case development and contest review experience. Finally, Professor Chen encouraged everyone to practice more so as to make better use of case teaching.

Using the best-selling case at Harvard Case Library developed by himself "Transsion Holdings: Leveraging Disruption in Emerging Markets" as an example, Prof. Wang Taiyuan guided the participants to experience the charm and challenge of case teaching from the five aspects of story, model, impact, logic and engaged (SMILE model), and shared valuable experience in the details of teaching arrangement such as student grouping, summarizing presentation, etc., to help the participants improve their ability to control the case teaching scenarios, which received warm response from the participants.

Starting from the case of "Planet Fitness: No Judgements, No Lunks", Prof. Guo Wei guided the participants to discuss three questions one by one: why it is difficult to make profits in the fitness industry, the strategic choice of Planet Fitness, and whether its model can reach the thousand-store-scale in China. With the heated class discussion, Professor Guo broke down the three core knowledge points in depth and inspired the participants to apply the classic model of strategy in different scenarios.

After that, Prof. Guo shared her experience and skills in case teaching in detail, and communicated with participants on pre-class preparation, design logic, classroom management and other aspects. Her teaching concept of "less is more", "solving students' confusion by application" and "refining the thinking points in cases" was profound and transparent.

Based on the Harvard case "Negotiating Equity Splits at UpDown", Prof. Byron Lee organized the participants to simulate real scenarios for group negotiations, and then presented the negotiation results in groups and analyzed the main causes of the negotiation results in each group. Prof. Lee pointed out that in any relationship that involves constant interaction and many variables, it is important to seek ways to enhance understanding and trust between partners through negotiation, so as to advance the business together. The participants then actively shared their feelings about their role and the role of the negotiating parties, and reflections on the negotiation sticking points, bringing the class atmosphere to a climax.

As the camp concluded, the participants remarked highly on the quality of the lectures.

Wang Shiyu, Soochow University
"I gained a lot from this camp and got a new understanding of case teaching. Compared with other case training courses, the CEIBS courses more directly present the practical process of case teaching organization, rather than just the methodological teaching. In addition, Professor Chen Shimin also shared the whole process of case development and the whole system of teaching case writing and reviewing, which solved many confusions in our previous work."

Mattia Miani, University of Nottingham Ningbo China
"The camp offered me the opportunity to reflect on the use of the case method within a Chinese context, recognizing that there is no single best script to implement case teaching and learning. I also learned numerous tips on how to engage with a professional audience."

Xue Xianfang, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University
"I gained so much and was so impressed by fully experiencing the charm of case teaching. The course design was scientific with rigorous logic and progressive transformation. The lecturers were very skillful by integrating theoretical framework into teaching cases and leading everyone to interact and explore, which is so amazing from cognition to emotion. The program organization and support were professional and thoughtful, which reflects the quality of high-end courses."

Since 2014, CEIBS Case Center has been organizing case method trainings every year, aiming to provide an exchange platform for case teaching and development for teachers from universities, and enhance their interest and competence in case development and teaching. The trainings have attracted 2,300 faculty members from more than 340 schools and universities across over 20 countries and regions around the world. In the future, CEIBS will continue to promote the application of the case method in the field of management learning, education and training.