The goal of IIMA is to prepare participants for the challenges of management and leadership. IIMA makes extensive use of the case method. The case method is a most powerful way to learn the skills required to manage, and to lead.

Analyzing cases forces students to grapple with exactly the kinds of decisions and dilemmas managers confront every day. Instead of the traditional educational dynamic, inherent in lectures, for example, in which the professor dispenses knowledge and students passively receive it, the case method creates a classroom in which students succeed not by simply absorbing facts and theories, but also by exercising the skills of analysis, synthesis, leadership and teamwork in the face of real problems. Under the guidance of a faculty member, students work to analyze and synthesize conflicting data and points of view, to define and prioritize goals, to persuade and inspire others who think differently, to think through situations, take decisions with incomplete and uncertain information, and to examine the implications of decisions. The case method comes closest to ‘action learning.’ Increasingly it is also employed by recruiters to screen candidates.