Assignment on Entrepreneurship (MGT602)

MGT602, Group Assignment
Introduction
Olympic Games is an international multi-sport event that occurs every 4 years in different host city
with the decision of International Olympic Committee (IOC). The latest Olympic event was scheduled
to happen in 2020 , Tokyo being nominated as host city which was however been postponed due to
unfavourable situation caused by COVID-19. Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has been scheduled to
begin on 23rd of July and end at 08th of August 2021 , with featuring of 339 medal events, 33 sports
and 42 venues (Kano,2020).More than 10,000 athletes and 206 National Olympic Committees (NOC)
are expected to participate in 2021 Olympics; and this shows the need of health care service to
prevent spread of COVID -19 during the event.This report aims to analyse the COVID situation in
Tokyo and challenges faced by Japanese Government and International Olympic Commission in
making decisions to run revised Olympic games. The report will further discuss issues and the
decisions with some alternative approach. The report will evaluate the situation and provide some
recommendations to make the event successful and avoid possible consequences.
The key decision makers of the Olympic event are Japanese Government; Prime Minister of Japan
(Yoshihide Suya), Thomas Bach (President of International Olympic Committee and Seiko Hashimoto
(Games President ) in Japan.
Risk to Athletes of COVID infection
The Japanese government and the International Olympic Commissions (IOC) have several decisions
to make for the already postponed Tokyo 2021 Olympics and whether they go ahead, as the world
tries to navigate its way through a global pandemic.
Tokyo will host the Olympics Games this month. Where athletes will be flown in from every corner
of the globe to compete against one another.
Society has succumbed to the words ‘Corona Virus and Covid-19’ and realised the education and
importance of the health system for humans. Covid is a virus which is spread through contact.
Meaning that there is a clear risk that an outbreak could occur, and the Olympics could be deemed a
‘super spreader event’. The health risks for not only the athletes but also staff and volunteers are so
high, key stakeholders will need to use decision-making models to put all the correct risk mitigating
plans in place to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks and keeping the athletes safe. (Dalton, C.B.)
TIME magazine reported, in early 2021, that there is belief the risk of staging the Games might
outweigh the reward. An ex-athlete and a professor who studied the Olympics, Jules Boykoff, said
that "The decision to press ahead with the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 is truly a matter of life and
death," and that "We're talking about an optional sporting spectacle, not some essential service to
humanity, and when you throw public health into the mix, the calculus can become uncouth pretty
quick." With that being said it has helped my personal view and recommendations discussed in this
report.
For the Olympics to get the go ahead, the International Olympic Committee must review all risk
mitigation processes for the events staff, athletes, volunteers and media outlets to be as safe as
possible. According to Hellewell, he came up with a model that assesses how effective case isolation,
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MGT602, Group Assignment
and the contact tracing model is during a virus breakout. The model is simple as it is based on
different scenarios of transmission.
The difficult part in all of this for the Olympic Committee is the Covid situation is rapidly changing
every day. As seen in Appendix 1, the new daily cases in Tokyo have been constant throughout the
whole pandemic. With 3 clear viruses ‘waves’ and at its current point today, there looks to be a
steep incline where the city may be heading into its fourth wave with it rising dramatically each day.
Decisions have been made and communicated to the Olympic athletes that they are to supply their
own face coverings and are encouraged (but not required) to be vaccinated against Covid-19 and will
undergo testing at unspecified intervals after they arrive in Japan. Further to this vaccination
information there is also the sensitive issue around worldwide supply of the vaccination and human
rights. Pfizer and BioNTech have offered to donate vaccines for all Olympic athletes, but this offer
does not ensure that all athletes will receive vaccines before the Olympics. According to The IOC’s
playbook, “they are not built on scientifically rigorous risk assessment, and they fail to consider the
ways in which exposure occurs, the factors that contribute to exposure, and which participants may
be at highest risk. To be sure, most athletes are at low risk for serious health outcomes associated
with Covid-19.”
After taking all into account using the rational model, (see appendix 2), whereby I assessed the
problem that is the Olympic Games event being held during a pandemic. Then followed by
establishing the decision criteria and what is relevant to making the decision. During this step of the
rational decision-making model, it brought me to weigh up the criteria to make the correct priority in
the decision which is the health of many athletes and staff over a historic sporting event and
financial gains for television and media networks. Looking into alternative in the next step didn’t
take long, as mentioned above, the IOC stated there is no option to postpone the games again my
opinion that the Olympics be cancelled. The current risk to so many people does not outweigh the
reward of having the Olympic Games go ahead. As per the IOC report that the games cannot be
postponed due to the Winter Olympics next year, this has put that option to bed, so it leaves
cancelling the event as the only option. This is unfortunate as the history of the Olympics Games is
so important for so many people around the world and the time that athletes have dedicated is
always astounding, but the health risk is not worth it.
Managing international Visitors
One of the key issues of 2021 Tokyo Olympic event , managing international visitors has been a
major concern for Tokyo Government and International Olympic Committee.The safety of Athletes,
citizens of Japan and all the concerned departments is a key criteria to make any decisions for the
committee and it require an in depth research of current situation all around the world. The surge of
COVID cases in world has forced concerned departments to make a strict decision of restricting
international visitors for Tokyo Olympic Event and the department has decided to deduct number of
national visitors as well. The Tokyo Olympic event was expected to increase foreign tourism and
event construction investment with 920,000 visitors anticipated to participate in the event each
day ( Osada,Kurachi,Ojima,Miura, Kawamoto, 2021 ). However, it has now been crucial to restrict
visitors due to travel restriction and increasing COVID cases of several variant. According to Kiuchi,
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MGT602, Group Assignment
2021),As a result of Governments decision , ban on overseas visitor has already produced the loss of
150 bn Japanese currency which is expected to increase further.
The issue of managing international visitors is discussed with the rational decision model focused on
developing alternative and selecting best alternative for decision making process.
Step 1: Define Problem
The main decision problem for Tokyo government and IOC committee is to allow international
visitors to the event, and if allowed , necessary precautions to control the spread of virus.
Step 2:Data Collection
The collection of all necessary information related to number of cases, covid infected athletes ,
health services available is a key step to make decision.
Step 3:Objective & Goals
The main objective of the decision would be to ensure the safety of people living in Japan and
contain the virus to possible extent.
Step 4 :Generate Alternatives
The alternatives to decision of foreign visitor restriction could be allowing people to participate with
requirement of quarantine and COVID Test. However, the possibility of containing the virus and risk
associated with it is very limited. To decrease economic loss from visitor restriction, government can
allow foreign visitors with their covid injection job completed. Additionally,another initiative could
include allowing family members of athletes to visit the event with health safety check and
requirements. The risk and uncertainty of COVID spread remains in all the circumstances , which
requires for the best alternative selection.
Step 5: Select best alternative
The best alternative to suit the situation would be to postpone the event until the whole world is
vaccinated against the COVId-19. It is highly recommended that both Tokyo government and IOC
committee should reconsider the decision of allowing Olympic ; as there is the high risk of worsening
the COVID situation post event.
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