Strategic Management Practices Adopted by Unga Group Limited, Kenya

Abstract

Strategic management practices has become more crucial this years. During last century firms have focused on a durable solution on planning for external and internal surrounding which will stay relevant for a while and thus they made plans for the future. The data was collected from eight Unga plants which are spread over in Nairobi, Nakuru and Eldoret. Primary data was gathered using questionnaires given to the CEO, three Plant managers and four line managers through emails. Data was examined use of content analysis. The study found out there were challenges that affected the formulation and implementation of strategies in Unga Limited. They include; increase in the price of raw materials which result to increase in price of the products; under-performing branches which have been unable to compete in the market and organization culture. The other challenges were unavailability of raw materials which affected production; insufficient research and development; poor quality control; government policies and other economic challenges which affect the business environment. The study concludes that Unga limited had laid down strategic objectives which were to provide healthy quality products, and be a market leader in our country and in the east Africa Region. To achieve this, the company conducted and situational analysis and environmental scanning of their business environment. The company conducted situational analysis with an aim of gathering information to study the market trend of their commodities their customers, and also the market share of the competitors to ensure that they remained a market leader. The findings further revealed that the firm did environmental scanning on its internal and surrounding environment. The objective was to identify external opportunities and threats. There is increased changes as businesses have become more aggressive and information from surrounding environment adds on to important component to the success of long-term plans. It is critical to know rivals actions since the environment has become volatile. The study further recommends there should be continuous monitoring and evaluation of strategies adopted by the company. Through continued monitoring and evaluation, they would get informed of the performance of the strategies and therefore take relevant actions at the right time and thus ensure successful implementation of the strategies/practices.