Strategic responses to competition at the National Bank of Kenya Limited

Abstract

The environment in which businesses operate faces stiff competition due to the existence of other firms producing and/or selling the same products or services. Businesses have as a result to cope with the competition by adopting strategic responses to it or risk being thrown out of the market by the same competition. In the contemporary world, owing to the increasing need for financial security of money earned by individuals or corporates many banking and financial firms have been established and are increasing being established which call for adoption of strategic responses in the sector. The purpose of the study was to find out strategic responses to competition adopted by National Bank of Kenya. This research utilized a case study design in which an interview guide was used on 10 departmental heads in the NBK Ltd head office in Nairobi. Qualitative analysis on the qualitative data obtained from the interviews was done using content analysis. Findings from the study indicated that National bank of Kenya used customer service, technology and differentiation strategy to a very great extent. Most of the strategies focused on the banks financial performance and technology improvement. Findings from the study also found out that NBK also has appropriate marketing channel that enables it to reach current and potential customers. The study recommends that NBK focus on using providing it services at a lower cost and extensively use differentiation advantage to gain competitive advantage over competitors.