Mission Can be Defined as the Purpose for Existing Company

Mission can be defined as the purpose why the organisation exists.(please refer appendix-5) .The mission of the organisation is of a long term with intention to give a sense of purpose, sense of direction and focus. The mission describes the values of the organisation, the aspirations and the reasons from being. (Daft,R 2000) The mission gives an organisation a broad view of its scope of the business. For example an organisation that has a view to be a leader in producing detergents will tend to have a narrower scope compared to a business with mission to create clean and healthy society. The mission is the basis where the vision, goals and objectives are established.

The importance of a mission statement.

The company's mission is normally expressed in the form of mission statements. The mission statement is a generalised statement of the overriding purpose of the organisation' (Johnson G ,Scholes K, ,1999).An example of mission statement for the New Zealand Dairy Board 'To be the world's leading marketer of dairy produce.' The reason to have a mission statement is to answer the following questions (Kotler,1980) :- What is our business? Who is the customer? What is value to the customer? What will our business be? What should our business be?

 Elements of a strong mission statement.

An organisation is said to a have strong mission statement when it has the four elements contained and described in the Ashridge Model. (Please refer to appendix-5)The four elements are:- the purpose an organisation exists the strategy it is going to adopt behaviour standards it sets and the values.

Mission statement of SIS Institute.

The mission statement of the SIS Institute states "by exceeding customer's expectations, the SIS Group will become a global leader in providing quality life long learning services". (Please refer appendix-2)The strength of the mission statement can be evaluated in terms of the four elements in the Ashridge Model.

A description of the Organisation's purpose.

The organisation purpose as stated by the Ashridge model is 'what is the company for? For whose benefit is all the effort being put in? Why should a manager or employee do more than required?' (Wit D.B, Meyer R. 1998) The purpose of the organisation can be divided to satisfy only the shareholders needs, all the stakeholders' needs or something greater than the combined needs of the stakeholders for example, something that the stakeholders can be proud of contributing to. At SIS Institute the purpose is to satisfy and benefit their customers' by exceeding the customers expectations. This view is aimed towards a higher ideal which is further enforced in the core values of the firm.(please refer appendix-2.) This falls under the third category of the purpose the organisation exist where the stakeholders contribute to something which they feel satisfied and excited about, that is the future of the business depends on the customers'.

 The strategy is going to adopt.

The strategy is to define what business the company is going to compete in, the position that the company plans to hold in the business it has defined and the distinctive competence or competitive advantage that the company plans to create. The SIS Institute mission states the business it is going to compete in is life long learning services. This is to be achieved by providing life long learning services for all ages. The position SIS Institute intends to hold is to be a global leader .SIS Institute plans to adopt a strategy in having a wide range of distribution networks round the globe through franchising business and virtual learning services through e-learning mode That is to provide a learning platform round the globe anytime anywhere. The quality is stressed on to achieve distinctive competence or competitive advantage.

 Behaviour Standards.

The behaviour standards of an organisation is explained by Bob de Wit and Ron Meyer using the Ashridge model that the mission statements should provide some philosophical or moral rationale to determine behavioural standards and at the same time to run alongside the commercial rationale that will capture the emotional energy of the organisation. As for SIS Institute the behaviour standards are centred towards exceeding customer satisfaction and providing quality life long learning which is morale rationale. The commercial rationale is by serving the customer well and providing quality product that will bring in more revenue.

Values

These are the beliefs and moral principles that guides the organisation's actions or forms a culture. Values are the basis to give meaning to the practices and behaviour standards in an organisation. That is what the senior management believes in. (Wit D.B, Meyer R. 1998) The core values of SIS Institute (please refer appendix-2) are centred to exceed customer satisfaction and provide quality life long learning services. These are expressed in terms of core values of SIS Institute. These values intent to provide moral rationale and as well as the commercial rationale. The values related to moral rationale are total customer satisfaction, people, community service, professionalism, innovative culture and speed. The values intent to provide commercial rationale are speed, stretched goals, profit and growth.

Recommendation.

SIS Institute mission statement has all the four elements stated in the mission statement However since SIS Institute is dealing in services and employees are involved in providing these services, the contribution of the employees providing these services plays a very important role in satisfying customers. Therefore the employees behaviour and values expected should be reflected in the mission statement to determine how valuable their contribution towards quality and exceeding customer satisfaction. In view to this the mission statement could be suggested as follows:- " To be a global leader in providing quality life long learning services, by using all our members and the employees' talent to exceeding customer's expectations."

 PESTEL analysis

The PESTEL analysis is to carry out an appraisal of the external environment. An organisation is an 'open system'. It's operations are affected and influenced by the changes taking place in the environment. Hence in order for an organisation to remain fit it should adjust to these changes. Therefore the PESTEL analysis is inevitable to provide an insight of what is happening in the environment that effects the organisation and the industry a particular firm is in. The acronym 'PESTEL' stands for :- Political Factors Economic Social /demographic Technological Environmental Legal This analysis will help the firm to identify its opportunities and also threats. Where by it can take early steps to exploit any opportunities and counter the threats. Such an analysis is important for the firm to shape its future direction.

The PESTEL analysis of SIS Institute.

SIS Institute is currently providing higher education and corporate training in Information Technology and Business. Therefore SIS Institute is registered as a Private Education Institution of higher learning under the Ministry of Education Malaysia. This industry had and is facing a lot of challenges in this country. They are affected by the changes in the political and legal, economic, social and demographic, technological, environment-ethical issues.

Political and legal

Government policy in education

The Government of Malaysia has played and is playing a role to support and establish the higher education sector in this country by setting up and giving approval to Institution to provide higher education such as private universities and colleges. The Intention of this is to create Malaysia as a centre of educational excellence and become a hub to provide education round the globe. This is an opportunity for SIS Institute to set up new centres in the region where there is a market and perhaps setting up an IT University.

Government as a provider of finance

At the same time the government of Malaysia has provided allocation of funds through scholarships example National Social Security(SOCSO), educational loans from various political bodies example the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO),Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), Malaysian Indian Congress(MIC). Various banks also extend loans without collateral for local students to continue their education for example Standard Chartered Bank The working groups are all compulsory contributors of the Employees Provident Fund. The government has given the levy to use these funds for those who intent to enrol in these institution to further their studies.

Government policy in foreign students recruitment

The government has given approval to certain colleges including SIS Institute to recruit foreign students. However the government has made a recent announcement that the licences to recruit students will expire in six months for all Private Education Institutions and they have been given a grace period of six months to re apply. This was enforced as certain quarters had abused the foreign students visa to bring in foreign workers in this country i.e. instead of studying they are working and further some institutions do not meet the minimum standards of a status of a college. This has tarnished the image of the country as an education provider. Therefore SIS Institute

Government policy in training the retrenched workers

The government had made announcement to provide training to graduates who are unemployed and retrain workers who are retrenched from their jobs due to economic slowdown.

New Education Act 1996

The change of Law under the new education act where all Private education institutions of higher learning must be registered as a limited company with a minimum paid up capital RM200000. All the approvals to operation such Institution prior to 1997 will be expired and all Institution of higher learning are required to reapply for approval to continue its operations for every course which is conducted a fee is imposed and other stricter regulation with regard to operations has are stipulated and imposed. This regulation has been met with the SIS Institute for all the 20 centres around the country

National Accreditation Board

The national accreditation board requires all institutions to conduct courses which have met minimum standards set by this board. The board will have a panel to decide on the quality of courses provided. This board act as an agent body to the Ministry of education to report on the courses applied for by the operators have met the minimum standards and recommend approval to conduct the courses. However SIS Institute has not got approval for most of its courses is from the National Accreditation Board and therefore it is illegal to conduct courses which have not got prior approval from the ministry and gone through the National Accreditation Board.

Economic factors

The economic factors includes the rate of growth in the economy, the interest rates, the fiscal and monetary policy , exchange rates and so forth. These effects the level of demand and the cost of capital. The economic factors that influences the SIS Institute are as follows :-

1998 Crash

The devaluation of the Malaysian currency crisis in the year 1998 had caused almost all courses provided by SIS Institute to increase the fees as they were paid in foreign currency. This caused students to drop out and also led to breaking up of ties with foreign Universities. This caused the SIS Institute to renegotiate with its foreign universities partners and also look for new strategic alliances. Until now the effect of the 1998 crash still exist for SIS Institute as it has only a limited partnership with foreign universities. The pegging of Ringgit to US Dollars has not helped.

 Conclusion.

The SIS Institute has got a sound system in place and a lot of good opportunities to exploit. These opportunities can only be exploited if SIS Institute brings major changes in their operation strategies, managing style and value of people.

SIS Institute was set up with a mission to be a centre of excellence for training and education in Information Technology in the region. Today, through the support of our dedicated staff, we have accomplished what we set out to achieve. Growing by leaps and bounds from its humble beginning a single centre in 1984, SIS Institute now operates 20 CitiCampuses in 20 locations in Malaysia. SIS Institute offers courses covering Information Technology and engineering, and ranging from evening classes for computer application packages to degree twinning programmes. SIS Institute has allied itself with International software developers through appointments as the Authorised Training Centre for Autodesk and many others. As a result of these alliances, SIS Institute is able to provide the latest software and courses to benefit students from the general public and corporations. SIS Institute also has alliances with universities to offer degree programmes for professionals seeking to upgrade their knowledge and qualifications. SIS Institute has established exclusive links for programme validation and certification with renowned universities, such as conduct the Diploma in Computer Studies programmes, to conduct the Advanced Diploma in Computer Studies. With his collaboration, graduates of Diploma and Advanced Diploma in Computer Studies are eligible for further studies in many universities in the US,UK and Australia In order that our standards of delivery remain high and constant, we must have certain standards. A total quality management is already part of our present culture.

SIS Institute is currently embarking on a nationwide ISO 9002 certification and this should spur an even higher level of professional service among staffs. The certification is annually reviewed and this ensures that all levels of participation is necessary to make it a success. SIS Institute aims to continuously provide its students with the best educational programmes, through academic partnerships with world-renowned universities and global technology holders.. To further extend its global reach, SIS Institute had embarked on an ambitious regionalisation plan using international franchising programme and strategic acquisitions which eventually leading to set up its present global network training and education centres. The launching of online learning and educational programmes and cyber-campuses to complement course deliveries to students and to reach out to the world market through the Internet.SIS Institute' core business activities are IT training and education, business training, education and IT-related services and franchise operations. Products of SIS Institute.

 

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