The hardest and the finest hours: tackling Covid-19

We are facing an extraordinary situation. At the height of civilisation, in a globalized world at the centre of the digital era, a small virus from an ordinary animal has brought humanity to its knees.

The effects of this situation on our health, economy, society and emotional state have been devastating. This isn’t an abstract concept: it’s a real dilemma that is affecting our families, careers, businesses, finances, and our future.

These are the hardest hours we could have ever imagined. But they will also be our finest, characterized by solidarity, ingenuity, gratitude, togetherness, humanity…and leadership.

Leadership is the ability to conjure up energy and use it to move forward in a moment of change.

At ISDI, with our primary concern being the health and well-being of everyone in our ecosystem and the use of our energy to move forward, we wanted to share the measures we have adopted in these hardest hours, which will be undoubtedly be our finest.

These measures are defined by 3 principles:

• Protect everyone within our ecosystem and avoid the spread of COVID-19. Understanding the undeniable importance of social distancing and the quarantine in effect to help contain the virus, our physical campuses have been closed since 10 March. All students, professors and collaborators were instructed to remain at home, and we began remote working on this day.Compared with other work environments or businesses, remote working has not been a challenge for ISDI. This is due to the dynamic work and academic processes our institution has in place, along with the technological resources, collaborative tools, and well-trained faculty and staff at the helm. 
• Uphold our promise of value for students, alumni, teachers and stakeholders. When uncertainty dominates the conversation, ISDI has a duty to bring stability to the situation by maintaining the same standard of quality and excellence in our academic programs and student support services. To do this, we shifted all of our in-person classes to an e-learning format on our existing online education platforms. Our professors continue to lead their classes but from the comfort and safety of their homes, with the support of our EdTech and Program Manager teams with more than 5 years’ experience in this type of format. In just the first week, we moved 15 of our academic programs in Europe and the Americas to an online format, allowing over 400 students and 50 professors and product owners to continue their academic programs without fail. And I am happy to report that last week’s classes received the highest satisfaction ratings ever from our students!Sensing that in the near future many people will want to invest their time into further education via online learning --especially in the area of digital business--, we are putting two of our new online programs front and centre in our academic offering: Online DIBEX and Online MIB.Lastly, we are working closely with our In-Company clients so that their training and education continues in spite of these difficult times. We are adapting to each client’s remote working timetable to provide learning solutions in line with our existing platforms, online learning methodology, and world-class support. 
• Leverage our resources and ecosystem to help be a part of the solution. We are fortunate to have a wide circle of influence in the digital sector, with an ample network of people, platforms, methodologies and ideas at our disposal that can be leveraged to help those who are going through hard times or need some positivity and energy right now. Here is what we are doing:Maintaining a strong connection with our xISDI alumni community by providing more continued education resources. We have recently launched a series of learning tracks called Tackling COVID-19 in our virtual classrooms, allowing for up to 500 students to connect to these sessions. At the same time, the launch of our ISDI Start incubation program reinforces our dedication to help startups and entrepreneurs worldwide. Our online platforms and e-learning technology and know-how are available to any other educational institution or company that needs support in order to switch to remote working.We also have an obligation to channel the innovation and strength of our stakeholders (students, professors, product owners, employees…) to aid in any relief efforts that we can. We are already receiving requests for help from makers, developers, innovators and many others outside the box thinkers who are dedicating their time and effort to help in the fight against COVID-19. In the upcoming days we will publish more information about these initiatives.

Don’t forget – we are all here, connected and present as one. Count on us for whatever you may need. Never walk alone. Together, we can do anything.

Nacho de PinedoISDIteam