| dc.description.abstract | The growth and diversity in the international business has brought about new challenges and
heightened the competitiveness of firms across the globe and to remain relevant, firms have been
forced to re-examine themselves internally in order to improve their performance. Organization
need to create a customer experience that keeps customers coming back, a strategy which will
ultimately separate one’s firm from the competition. There is need for a strategic fit among many
activities in the organization in such a way a way that it results in organizational competitive
advantage. The purpose of the study was to determine the role of strategic alignment as a source
of competitive advantage at Equity bank (K) Ltd. The study adopted a case study research design
in which an interview guide was used to collect data and content analysis was used in analyzing
the data. The result findings show that the bank has identified three key pillars for alignment and
these includes its process, products and human resource base. By alignment of these three core
pillars, the bank has been able to gain a competitive advantage in the market. This advantage has
come in form of increased profitability, customer numbers, customer deposit, product range, a
flexible IT system and a management team that is able to identify and capture opportunities. The
bank has however faced a number of challenges in the course of aligning its operations for
strategic purpose and this include, high turnover of the staff in key sections, in adequate finances
to finance the all alignment process and in some cases a culture that tended not to be
accommodative to new challenges. | en |
