Strategic Responses to Environmental Changes at Minetec Limited, Kenya

Abstract

Organizations are environment dependent and environment serving. Organizations are in constant two way interaction with the environment. They receive inputs from the environment, transform or add value to them, and return the outputs in form of goods and services back to the environment. They therefore affect and are affected by what happens in the external environment, which is beyond the organizations’ control. Environmental change creates pressure for change in the organization and this means that they have to respond to relevant change to ensure that they survive. The study sought to determine the strategic responses to environmental changes at Minetec Limited, Kenya. This research adopted a descriptive approach on the strategic responses to environmental changes at Minetec Limited, Kenya. The respondents were composed of the top management of Minetec Limited specifically, the Managing Director, the Chief Operations Manager and the Chief Financial Officer. An interview guide was used to gather primary data from these executives. Data collected was then analyzed using content analysis and findings were presented in form of brief discussions on the environmental changes and key strategic responses identified. The study found that Minetec Limited has a strategic plan which is reviewed annually that describes how it promotes use of bulk emulsion to the market, competes effectively and strengthens distribution channels. It was clear that Minetec Limited faces challenges in both the internal and external environment. Internally challenges included huge resources required for strategic responses, politics and mismanagement, inefficient internal communication, and inability to maintain employee morale. Externally, the challenges included political-legal factors, the economy, socio cultural factors, technological changes and efficient flexibility of competitors. It was deduced that Minetec Limited has pursued some strategies to cope with the changing environment. These include maximizing our long term financial performance, restructuring in terms of products, services and management in order to conserve resources and reduce costs of production. The study therefore concluded that the challenges posed by the environmental turbulence both internally and externally have led Minetec Limited to come up with a strategic plan in order to cope.