Change management at Safaricom Limited

Abstract

This management research project is titled Management of Strategic Change at Safaricom Limited. Safaricom Limited is the leading telecommunications company with almost 20 million mobile phone subscribers at the time of doing this research. Safaricom Limited has undergone many strategic and operational changes in the past, all aimed and improving efficiency and effectiveness in discharging its mandate and thereby putting itself at a competitive advantage as far as this is concerned. The objectives of this research were therefore to establish the change management approaches adopted by Safaricom Limited and the challenges in managing change. An in-depth study was done and senior management representing different departments at the company were interviewed and their responses documented for analysis. The study established that Safaricom Limited in the recent years has experienced some strategy changes and has applied change management practices to manage such changes. Most notably were the drastic changes in its top management after the exit and entry of a new CEO who reduced the directors reporting to him by half. The training also observed that Safaricom Limited also faced some challenges during the management of its changes, notably was that senior officers felt that they needed some more financial resources to manage the change and that more people needed to be involved in the development of strategic plans. Other challenges emanated from the external environment from which Safaricom Limited had no control over. The most notable one was from the government regulator, CCK and Central Bank of Kenya. CCK was coming up with new regulations in the telecommunications industry prompting Safaricom to metamorphosize to accommodate such regulations and Central Bank was also on them due to the MPESA system which has revolutionized the banking system in Kenya. The study concludes that Safaricom Limited has managed well her strategic change though not without a few setbacks here and there. It has therefore managed in coping with the changing environment. The subscribers have increased, the MPESA system has improved seeing more people transacting through it and the customer satisfaction increased leading to more subscribers. Staff have also been generally motivated especially those at the operations level. Safaricom Limited has come out as a respected and reputable company in the telecommunications industry not only in Kenya but the wider East African Region.