Barriers to Corporate Strategy Implementation in Real Estate Companies in Kenya: a Case of Villa Care Company Limited in Nairobi County

Abstract

The Kenyan real estate industry plays a pivotal role in driving the economy of the country by being instrumental in giving rise to about 5.8% of the country’s GDP. Despite crafting robust strategies, the performance of real estate companies in Kenya has been on a downward trend. Theoretical literature suggests that strategic planning and implementation generates positive outcomes for organizations. Additionally, empirical studies indicate that more strategies fail at the point of implementation not at the formulation phase. The failure rate is more than 70% and in some cases at more than 90%. In the developing countries little attention has been given to study the management perception of barriers to strategy implementation and almost none existent empirical study in the real estate sector. Therefore, this study sought to determine the management perception on barriers to corporate strategy implementation in real estate companies in Kenya. It sought to determine the effect of resource availability, organisational structure, organisation culture and managerial skills/leadership on strategy implementation. Significant difficulties in relation to the strategy implementation process are faced by a lot of organizations as poor implementation is the number one cause of the failure of most strategies ability to produce superior performance. The justification for the investigation was to determine the barriers to corporate strategy implementation. The study objective was to establish the barriers to corporate strategy implementation among real estate companies in Kenya and determine the possible solutions in relation to the barriers. The research utilized a Case study design. Data was collected from 4 senior employees within the organization. An interview guide was used as the data collection tool and content analysis applied as the qualitative research technique. From the findings, it was determined that the greatest barriers to strategy implementation at Villa Care Company Limited included inadequate resources, poor communication, wide organizational structure, lack of employee motivation and commitment, a divergent organizational culture and complex administrative systems. The study established that the barriers facing the implementation of strategies adopted by Villa Care Limited would be better resolved for performance to improve to a great extent. Research further established that most of the respondents were in agreement that the barriers facing the implementation of strategies adopted by the company for effective performance required custom mitigation methods if they were to be applied to various firms across the industry. This study therefore recommends that in order to avoid many impediments, Villa Care Company Limited should make sure that strategy implementation techniques are inviolable so as to strengthen administrative, credit and financial management.