Question

(a)     Is it viable for organizations to change their mission and/or strategy in order to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic? Why?

(b)    What are the key challenges associated with devising a new mission/strategy?

(c)     If American University of Sharjah plans to offer online programs, will it require making changes to the mission and/or strategy of AUS? Recommend suitable changes.

Answer 1

a) Organizations should not change their missions as these are long term goals and temporary issues won't change that. Strategy could be changed to adapt to prevailing conditions and make changes in the way one's operations are run to mitigate the loss in business and reduce the impact of these events.

b)The key challenges associated with devising a new strategy/Mission is to find out the key variables and factors which will affect the business. Pestle factors must be analysed and also internal factors of business. SWOT must be performed to know the strengths and weaknesses of the company and then devise a new strategy. Manpower requirement must be measured and talent requirements must be specified and recruitment done. Strategies and mission require adequate study of the competitive structure of the industry, the competitors, suppliers ,vendors etc,

c)The American University of Sharjah must provide adequate IT infrastructure to provide online training programs. Connectivity must be smooth and continuous and this requires a good back end support. There should not be changes to any mission but strategies might need a change. First of all, the target customers have changed from students to full time working people and part wine working people who want to update their knowledge and skills.The students must be connected with the professors. Since these people can only meet online, conference call support needs to be in place. These students must be provided with access to digital library which can be accessed online and pdf notes of lectures.