Strategic alignment as a source of competitive advantage at equity bank(k)Ltd

Abstract

The growth and diversity in the international business has brought about new challenges and heightened the competitiveness of firms across the globe and to remain relevant, firms have been forced to re-examine themselves internally in order to improve their performance. Organization need to create a customer experience that keeps customers coming back, a strategy which will ultimately separate one’s firm from the competition. There is need for a strategic fit among many activities in the organization in such a way a way that it results in organizational competitive advantage. The purpose of the study was to determine the role of strategic alignment as a source of competitive advantage at Equity bank (K) Ltd. The study adopted a case study research design in which an interview guide was used to collect data and content analysis was used in analyzing the data. The result findings show that the bank has identified three key pillars for alignment and these includes its process, products and human resource base. By alignment of these three core pillars, the bank has been able to gain a competitive advantage in the market. This advantage has come in form of increased profitability, customer numbers, customer deposit, product range, a flexible IT system and a management team that is able to identify and capture opportunities. The bank has however faced a number of challenges in the course of aligning its operations for strategic purpose and this include, high turnover of the staff in key sections, in adequate finances to finance the all alignment process and in some cases a culture that tended not to be accommodative to new challenges.