dc.description.abstract | A nicely drafted strategic plan, prepared through a sophisticated process by a team of
accomplished management consultants or a group of top managers, is hardly likely to fail by
itself. Failure, when it occurs, almost always happens during the implementation of the strategic
plan. Yet, strategy formulation hogs most of the attention of management and strategy thinkers
while strategy implementation is sidelined. The apathy to strategy implementation can be
ascribed to several reasons, among them: greater likelihood of failures in implementing
strategies; higher complexity in the process of strategy implementation; strategy implementation
being considered to be less glamorous than formulation; and practical difficulties in research
involving middle-level managers.
The aim of this study was to determine practices and challenges of strategy implementation at
Cooperative Bank of Kenya Limited. This was a case study design where primary data was
collected using interview guide. The data obtained from the interview guide was analyzed using
qualitative analysis.
The study found that the strategy implementation practices employed by Co-operative bank
include allocation and management of resources; establishing a chain of command or some
alternative structure; assigning responsibility of specific tasks or processes to specific individuals
monitoring results and taking advantage of supportive implementation instruments like the
balanced scorecard and assessing the obstacles to strategy implementation.
The study concludes that the management should be efficient so as to ensure good strategy
objective setting, and manage resistance to strategy implementation. The study also concludes
that early involvement of firm members in the strategy process helped members understand
super-ordinate goals, style, and cultural norms and thus become essential for the continued
success of a film strategy implementation. The study recommends that although Cooperative
bank has been successful in the strategy implementation, in order to remain profitable and
competitive in the market, the bank should continuously train its employees on how the strategy
should be implemented, involve staff in decision making and employ efficient communication
that avail information on strategy to all stakeholders. | en |