Strategies Used by Ecobank Kenya to Gain Competitive Advantage
Abstract
Organization being environmental dependent have to constantly adopt activities and
internal configurations to reflect the new external realities since failure to do so, may
put future success of the organization in jeopardy.The study aimed at establishing
how Ecobank is achieving sustainable competitive advantage. To achieve this two
research objectives were used to determine the basis of achieving sustainable
competitive advantage at Ecobank .The research was conducted through a case study;
The interview guide was developed in accordance with the objectives. Content
analysis was performed with the information obtained. The study established that
most of Ecobank branches are located in strategic locations, and offer a variety of
products at affordable prices. The findings also revealed that when focusing on
market, they begin by selecting a market niche where buyers have distinctive
preferences. Ecobank Limited has adopted a low cost leadership basis to gain
competitive advantage in order to lower overall costs than competitors. The study
concludes that pricing strategy was used to a great extent adopting a cost conscious
organizational culture, intolerance of waste, intensive screening of budgets and broad
employee‟s participation in cost control efforts. The study also concludes that
differentiation strategy approach was used to focus on developing a reputation for
superior quality products. From the findings and conclusions, the study recommends
that in order to keep up with completion, firms must constantly search for competitive
strategy that will ensure competitive advantage in the long term and yield market
leadership and that the management should engage various strategies to survive in a
dynamic and highly competitive business environment. The research study was faced
by resistance from target respondents fearing that the information requested would be
used for other purposes, apart from academic. The study recommends that further
research should be done on other organizations in the public sector so also get
comprehensive information on how the other players in the sector have responded
towards competition in their quest to achieve Sustainable Competitive Advantage.
Publisher
University of Nairobi