PwC’s Global Crisis Centre deals with crises every day. But as the COVID-19 outbreak has worsened, the volume of calls fielded has noticeably increased. By the end of February, the phones were ringing off the hook. Business leaders are concerned, and rightly so, for the welfare of their people and their organizations.
No crisis is an isolated, neatly contained incident, and the COVID-19 outbreak is exceptional by any standards. It comes with extreme scope and levels of uncertainty. It’s a situation that is well beyond the experience of most business leaders — the median tenure of a CEO is five years, and the last epidemic that approached anything near this scale was the SARS outbreak in 2003. SARS infected more than 8,000 people and lasted nine months. In much less time than that, COVID-19 has already infected more than ten times as many people, and is spreading fast.
Estimating the virus’s effect on the global economy is hard. The SARS outbreak is believed to have cost about US$40 billion; the economist who made that calculation says COVID-19 could cost three or four times as much.
Business leaders see managing a crisis as an inevitable part of their role. According to PwC’s most recent Global Crisis Survey, nearly seven in 10 leaders (69 percent) have experienced at least one corporate crisis in the last five years in their companies, and the average number of crises experienced in these firms is greater than three. COVID-19 will test many business leaders to the limit.
The key to managing any crisis is preparation and competition. (PWC, 2020)
This assignment contains of two parts:
Part 1: Write a proposal-500-1000 words-Deadline
Choose a company, research it, comments on the company’s competencies, competitiveness, business strategies before Covid-19 era. Briefly explain the challenges (i.e. British Airways)/opportunities (Amazon.com) as a result of Covid-19.
The paper will count for 20% of the student’s course grade. The paper should be 500+/- words. A copy should be submitted electronically to Safe Assign via Blackboard.
Part 2: Individual assignment-3500 words
Write a paper commenting on competitive strategies the business (your chosen company) has taken/should take as a result of pandemic.
Did the company strategy change in the last few months? If so, explain how, use the appropriate audits and frameworks to showcase the changes and implications?
What do you consider were the main competitive and market factors that had most impact on the business performance over the six months and explain why?
What did you learn about the task of defining and implementing strategy?
The paper will count for 80% of the student’s course grade. The paper should be 2000+/- words.
A copy should be submitted electronically to Safe Assign via Blackboard. Any papers submitted late will
Separate Part one from part two and use the same company for both part
NO plagiarism!