Braun Collection Business Stories Now Available at, and Featured by, the Case Centre

April 21, 2021

Cleveland, OH – April 21, 2021 – Braun Ink announces that its Braun Collection of business books and cases is now available at the Case Centre as a collection. Business educators, including corporate trainers and professors, can access the books and comic books individually and together at the Case Centre. Additionally, they can access related materials that allow for teaching the products in the classroom, including Teaching Notes, Video Shorts, Quick Notes, and Presentations.

The Case Centre is the world’s only not-for profit organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the case method in business education. Educators who want to use a case study can search by topic, time period, geography, company, and more, and find cases for their specific purposes. Educators can easily preview cases and teaching notes, create course packs, access a link to offer students for them to purchase materials, and much more. The Case Centre offers cases published esteemed educational institutions and corporations globally.

“I have admired the Case Centre since before I launched the Braun Collection, and I’m thrilled that they chose to make our story-type and visual cases part of their suite of content,” explained Braun Ink president and co-founder, Becca Braun.

The Braun Collection specializes in the stories of business as told by and about businesspeople. Its True Business Adventure Tales, comic-book case studies, and BizBio® conversation cards go deep fast to uncover the real business issues and opportunities executives face as they grow their companies. Some products also come with the option for the author-CEO-protagonist of the story to do a LIVE video visit into the classroom. Together, the format, style, and add-ons of the products enable storytelling as education in the business classroom.

“It’s an immersive and experiential classroom,” Braun said. “Our products cover strategy, finance, leadership, management, entrepreneurship, and more.”

As longtime business biographers, Braun Ink launched its Braun Collection in 2019 to fill a gap in the topics, businesses, and formats found in traditional business stories and classrooms and to offer content that drives intense discussion, reflection, and communication among students and businesspeople.

Additionally, Braun Ink announces that the Case Centre recently interviewed Becca Braun and featured (among its thousands of cases) one of Braun Collection’s True Business Adventure Tales—Billion or Bust!: Growing a Tech Company in Texas. The story, which the Case Centre calls a “complex case,” follows the former CEO of Rackspace’s journey to grow a tech company and create thousands of jobs in San Antonio, Texas. In the interview with Braun, which is available here, she explained, “Our books are short and can be read in two to three hours. They offer as much information about the leader who is making varied decisions—and their many considerations and stresses as relates to the decision—as on the decision itself. Some people say that business consists of decisions. But that’s not accurate. Business consists of people making decisions. Trees don’t make decisions. Lollipops don’t make decisions. People do. And so, understanding varied aspects of people who make decisions is important.”

“Capitalism is a capitalist with a narrative,” she said.

About Braun Collection

Developed for a mass audience of business students, business professionals, and business enthusiasts, the Braun Collection offers books, comic books, and conversation cards for a spectrum of attention spans. Topics covered include leadership, general management, strategy, entrepreneurship, and finance. Braun Ink knows that learners remember facts 20 times better when told in the form of stories, and that learners also gain competencies through the use of stories in the classroom, including fact finding, developing arguments, personal reflection, and curiosity—essentially, the skill of informed conversation. The immersive stories are available as short books with action-packed chapters, comic books that are visually engaging, and BizBio ® conversation cards. Check out the full product suite at BraunInk.com.

 

  • Braun Ink, News & Updates

Using Comic Books in the Classroom

When using a comic book, business educators have the opportunity to develop these business competencies in students. Such competencies are in high demand in the business workplace.

Ask students to:

  • SUMMARIZE and SYNTHESIZE the actions, images, people, and topics.
  • DEVELOP ARGUMENTS about and CRITICALLY APPRAISE key actions and decisions made by executives.
  • OFFER SUPPORT for their arguments using text and facts.
  • REFLECT ON how the comic book characters’ views and actions compare and contrast to their own.
  • SHOW CURIOSITY about business leaders through asking questions of the main subject/CEO, if the LIVE VIDEO VISIT option is chosen by educators.

Using CEO Memoirs & Biographies in the Classroom

Memoirs and biographies combine the case method with more immersive and experiential learning because readers are immersed in the story and narrative. Narratives are arguably the most effective way to teach and learn in general. Studies have shown that students consistently recall information tied to storytelling better than material presented without storytelling. Organizational psychologists have found that learning from a well-told story is remembered “far longer” than learning derived from facts and figures and that facts are 20 times more likely to be remembered if they’re part of a story.

Braun Collection books and comic books enable business educators to use narrative to enhance the learning experience of their students. Further, it seems that people who read narratives that “oscillate” (i.e., the narratives do not offer a story of clear ascent or descent but rather a story of oscillating successes and failures) have better resilience later in their own lives and careers when making their own decisions. This is because they have reference points (the prior narratives) that consist of patterns of oscillation as opposed to clear-cut ascent or descent2. As we know in real life, decisions rarely involve clear-cut ascent or descent situations. Braun Collection materials do  show neither deeply flawed heroes nor perfect decision makers, rather people who deal with the ups and downs of the issues and
opportunities in their lives and careers.

When using a True Business Adventure Tale (CEO memoir or biography), business educators have the opportunity to develop these business competencies in students. Such competencies are in high demand in the business workplace.

Ask students to:

  • SUMMARIZE the actions, people, and topics and SYNTHESIZE all the information into the theme of the book. Synthesizing key topics and themes is important in business.
  • DEVELOP ARGUMENTS about and CRITICALLY APPRAISE key actions and decisions made by executives. Being able to develop and appraise various actions is important in business.
  • OFFER SUPPORT for their arguments using text and facts as opposed to pure opinion and conjecture. Knowing how to offer factual, even if not scientific, evidence is important in business.
  • REFLECT ON how the subjects and authors views and actions compare and contrast to their own. A level of appropriate reflection is shown to build a level of warmth and relationships that matter for business.
  • SHOW CURIOSITY about business leaders through asking questions of the authors, if the LIVE VIDEO VISIT option is chosen by educators. Asking good questions is a vital business skill.