Strategic responses by Mwalimu sacco society limited to challenges of competition

Abstract

The competitive environment is largely uncontrollable and very wide in scope. This is significant to an organization because changes brought by the external environment are uncontrollable and require to be responded to otherwise the organization will experience a strategic misfit and success will be difficult. The success of every organization is therefore determined by its responsiveness to the environment. Organizations have to adequately and promptly respond to challenges of competition in the environment for the organization to be successful. Ansoff (1999) brought out the need of organizations to match their strategies to the level of competitiveness in the operating environment. 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. The study aimed to establish the strategic responses of Mwalimu Sacco to competition from other financial institutions and to determine the challenges that Mwalimu Sacco face from competition. This research was conducted through a case study. The researcher used Interview guide as primary data collection instrument. Data collected was purely qualitative and it was analyzed by content analysis From the findings, the study concludes that Mwalimu Sacco has effectively been responding to challenges brought about by competition from other Saccos and other financial institutions. The study further concludes that strategies Mwalimu Sacco use to respond to the challenges of competition include repackaging/rebranding of the loan products, training of staff, continuous research and development, aggressive promotion, regular review of interest rates, sourcing for cheaper sources of funds and benchmarking with other competitors. From the discussions and conclusions, the study recommends that although Mwalimu Sacco has been successful in neutralizing the challenges brought about by competition, Mwalimu Sacco should engage in more interest reduction as a response to its competitors strategies whose products and services are much cheaper.