HOW TO WRITE MANAGERIAL MEMORANDA

HOW TO WRITE MANAGERIAL MEMORANDA
A Guide to Principles and Application, including assessment details
If you never change your mind on any topic, then it is a safe bet that you are not learning.
Richard C. Benson, President, The University of Texas, Dallas
Principles
Each memorandum is an exercise that helps you develop essential skills: Identifying the right framework for a managerial situation, distinguishing between important facts and fluff, deriving nonobvious conclusions and credibly delivering them.
The memoranda are limited in length. This is because readers’ attention is limited. Writing a short but complete and convincing memo is an important skill. References make your argument credible, signaling that you are relying not on your opinion (or hunch) — but on verifiable facts. For that, you should provide references and you should provide them in a common format, as detailed in the study guide.
We often provide comments through questions, to encourage deeper thinking. We may also suggest a reading to correct misunderstanding.
Our aim is to point out what you can do better and how you may get to do it. The comments, orally or in writing, will help you identify some of the pitfalls in your answers (for which points have been deducted), as well as general comments to improve writing, for which points have not been deducted.
How the Principles Are Applied and Assessment is Performed The requirements for a timely submission, concise style, and clear references are unchanged, and so are the expectations for analysis and application. Here is how they are applied in the memoranda, each graded on a scale of 0–100.
How to Become the Richest Person in America (Case: John Jacob Astor, 1763–1848)
1. Trace Astor’s career: Identify challenges and how he successfully overcame them. Employ the case analysis tools and The Five Whys to hypothesize on the roots of these successes. You receive up to 20 points for listing factual challenges and Astor’s response to them.
When you provide a good application of the case analysis tool and The Five Whys, you receive up to 40 additional points.
2. What can you personally learn from his example, including ethical or unethical behaviors? How can you change your behavior to increase chances of success? You are awarded up to 15 points for identifying commonalities between Astor’s challenges and your own, up to 15 points for describing specific course of action to change your own behavior, and up to 10 points for providing examples of ethical and unethical behaviors.
TEMPLATE FOR A MEMORANDUM
Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time.
Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard. It’s one of the hardest things that people do.
Different people have different working styles, and this template is meant to offer you one option. It walks you through the process of developing and delivering a managerial memorandum or an analytical paper.
1. Before reading the material or even gathering data, start by reviewing the question or the instructions, listing it at the top of your draft. Note that it may include multiple tasks. You may want to list them separately, so that you miss none of them. For example, this question asks for five sub-tasks (underlined)
Trace Astor’s career: Identify challenges and how he successfully overcame them. Employ the case analysis tools and The Five Whys to hypothesize on the roots of these successes.
2. Develop a brief plan to respond to each element. In the example above, the first two tasks ask simply for a description. Make a note to look for these descriptions when you review the written material.
3. The next two tasks ask you to use specific tools to analyze the written material and reach an answer. Review Edition: 4. The final task asks you to conclude the description and the analysis by identifying root causes of success. This would not be obvious from the written material — this is the result of gathering evidence and analyzing it.
5. Now, turn to the written materials. Follow the method detailed in How to Crack a Case, which you may find on Professor Levine’s website.
6. Begin sketching an answer: aim to write quickly, just to get your thoughts on paper, and later revise for accuracy and review for completeness.
7. When you think that you have a good answer, go back to the task.
a) Did you address all of the subtasks?
b) Did you make it clear that you performed analysis, not simply wrote your opinion?
c) If you performed analysis, did you indicate which data used? Did you provide a reference to the source of the data?
d) If you made assumptions, did you clarify which assumptions you made? Did you explain why these assumptions are plausible?
e) If you were asked to reach a conclusion or commendation, did you provide it?
8. Finally, turn to your writing:
a) Is there anything that you can remove or simplify? Are there any half ideas that can be deleted? Not many people enjoy boring documents or tedious presentations. And if people do not read your work or listen to your presentation, you will have no impact. Hence, make it precise and concise.
b) Spelling errors are easy to catch, but did you check for grammatical errors?
c) Can you ease the burden on the reader by putting separate arguments in separate paragraphs? If you are conducting tests, such as the six forces, you may number them.
d) When you describe data, be sure to provide clear reference to the source of the data. This is how you build credibility in your data.
Use a standard format, such as that that of the American Psychological Association.
9. Before sending your response, take one final look at it. Try to put yourself in your reader’s chair: Would you like to receive it as a reader? Would you find it complete? Would you find it convincing? If so, you’re done. If not, go back and revise.
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