| dc.description.abstract | The process of strategy development in an organisation is often less understood and taken for
granted. This is probably because many organisations assume that strategy will be automatically
developed by management and passed down for implementation. The way. that managers
approach their strategy development in organisations differs and is determined by both the
environment and organisational factors.
The research was undertaken in order to understand the strategy development process of
Bamburi cement Limited because of its continued good performance despite the ever changing
business environment the world over. The objectives of the study were three the first one being
to determine the strategy development process of Bamburi cement limited. The second one was
to establish the factors influencing Bamburi' s strategy development process and the third one
was to establish the challenges faced by Bamburi cement in its strategy development process.
The study employed the case study design which facilitated the collection of complete and
corroborative information from several sources within the organisation. The study primarily
involved personal interviews using an interview guide and the secondary data from the existing
company documents.
From the research findings, it is clear that there exists a process of strategy development in the
company, which is highly formalised. The strategy development process of Bamburi is logical,
deliberate and proactive. This is due to the fact that the strategic decisions made by managers are
outcomes of deliberate planning efforts and rational analysis of the company undertaken by the
managers. The strategic decisions made by the managers are then communicated to the rest of
the staff in the company. The findings show that the strategy development of Bamburi has for the
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most part been a combination of planning, design and emergence. Bamburi' s strategy
development process includes defining the corporate mission, specifying achievable objectives,
developing strategies and setting policy guidelines.
The findings established that the formal process of strategy development that prevails at Bamburi
has been influenced by the following contextual factors: ownership structure, vision, mission and
scope of the organisation, the turbulent environment and the stakeholder expectations. All these
factors contribute in the determination of strategy to be adopted by Bamburi at anyone given
time.
The major challenges as revealed by the study are: the high cost of production due to frequent
fluctuations of fuel and oil prices, stakeholder expectations whereby they exert a lot of pressure
hence influencing the decision making process within the organisation. Competition,
stockholding costs, high labour turnover and the environmental turbulence are also cited as
posing a great challenge to the strategy development process of the firm. Finally the study has
come up with discussions on the findings about. the objectives, a summary of the findings,
conclusions, suggestions for further research and recommendations for policy and practice. | en |
