Strategies Adopted by Postal Corporation of Kenya to Achieve Competitive Advantage

Abstract

With the explosion of personal use of Information and Communication Technology over the past two decades, Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) has been operating in a rapidly changing environment. A strategy links a firm to its environment and makes it easily adopt to its environment. It is the blue print of the set of actions that the firm employs employ for it to realize its objectives. Through strategy adoption a firm can achieve competitive advantage which is point at which the firm outperforms its rivals in its industry to defend or even penetrate new markets. The point at which a firm experiences superior profits than its competitors is one which the firm should defend at all costs. However the firm should defend its position while within the confines of the law and avoid unethical practices. It is for this reason that PCK responded by adapting strategies that have been aimed at enabling it not only survive but ultimately remain competitive in the postal sector. This study’s objective was to find out strategies adopted by PCK to achieve competitive advantage. The study was designed as a case study involving the interview of three heads of strategic business units and the head of the department responsible for strategy in PCK. The study found that PCK had adapted revenue growth, market share growth, innovations, diversification, cost-cutting, automation, staff rationalization, employee placement, strategic partnerships as well as human resources capacity development as strategies for achieving competitive advantage. The study also established that PCK faced challenges when it came to implementing, monitoring and evaluating these strategies. These challenges were universal service obligation, bureaucratic corporate culture, inadequate use of MIS, high wage bill, restrictive legal frame work, insufficient resources, inadequate regulation of the postal sector and resistance to change. The study, however, could not and did not establish the extent to which these strategies had succeeded in gaining competitive advantage for PCK. The study has recommended actions that could be taken by PCK that could lead to enhancing competitiveness. The study proposes studies aimed at quantifying the level of competitive advantage achieved by PCK or comparing the strategies adopted by the different players in Kenya’s postal sector.