Turnaround Strategy at Eveready East Africa Limited
Abstract
Many firms experience deteriorating performance due to market erosion and maladaptive
decisions by management. When a company starts to experience "declining profits, increased
debts, there has to be an intervention to return the company back to profitable state otherwise it
will eventually fail. Managers react by selecting corporate strategies that redirect their attempts
to improve the position. Turnaround strategy is a form of retrenchment strategy which focuses on
operational improvement. when the state of decline is not severe. The study aimed at determining
the turnaround strategy adopted at Eveready East Africa Limited and some of the challenges it
faced. This study was conducted through a case study where an interview guide was used to
collect in-depth information from the senior management at the company. Content analysis was
used to analyze data collected. The findings were that both internal management and rapid
changing eternal environment played a key role for its performance downfall. The management
failed to adjust to the changing operating environment that included competition, economic
factors such as inflation. that resulted to high costs of operation. Eveready adopted five key
strategies in turning around the company namely cost management, financial restructuring, new
marketing thrust, product and organizational realignment. However, the implementation had
challenges of resource scarcity, general resistance to change, and exit of key players among
others. The study concludes that firms should constantly scan its operational environment and
responds to changes in the environment appropriately. It further recommends that policy should
be put in place to aid troubled firms restore their healthy life. For turnaround implementation to
be successfully, the study comments that there is need to adopt a combination strategy that does
not only stabilize the business but also set base for future growth and long term stability.
Turnaround requires a holistic approach to be effective and it should touch all aspect of the
organization.
Citation
Walingo,S.,October,2013.Turnaround Strategy At Eveready East Africa Limited.Publisher
University of Nairobi