Factors influencing competitiveness of the Aga khan University Hospital, Nairobi

Abstract

The world is now changing and according to Onyango (2005), all organizations lend themselves to the external environment which is highly dynamic and continually presents opportunities and challenges. Organizations being environment dependent have to constantly adopt activities and internal configurations to reflect the new external realities failure to which may put the organizations future success in jeopardy(Aosa,1998). The above writings signify competitive advantage as the ability to stay ahead of present or potential competition, thus superior performance reached through competitive advantage will ensure market leadership. It also provides the understanding that resources held by a firm and the business strategy will have a profound impact on generating competitive advantage. The study focused on factors affecting competitiveness of the Aga Khan University Hospital Nairobi. The study Justification arose from the fact that to date no study has been conducted to study the factors affecting competitiveness of the Aga Khan University Hospital. The Research utilized Both Primary and secondary Data. The interviewees in this study were the members of the organizations senior leadership team and a total of ten senior leadership team members were interviewed. The raw data was edited and content analysis employed. The study concluded that there were several factors affecting competitiveness of the Aga Khan University Hospital this includes core competencies like a strong brand name, highly skilled human resource and incumbent capabilities that had been developed over time. The study also concluded that the organization had made major investments in technology and infrastructural development that had significantly influenced its competitiveness. The study also found out that the organization had highly differentiated their services and were offering highly specialized care at a premium price that their customers were willing to pay. This is alongside rapid and expansion and marketing strategies that had an overall influence on the organizations competitiveness. The study recommends that AKUH-N embarks on formulation of strategies and that will ensure sustainability of the competitive advantage. Data for this study was collected via personalized interviews with members of the organizations senior leadership team. The report for this study is presented in five chapters. Chapter one deals with introducing the concept and context of the study as well as the purpose of the study. Chapter two gives the literature review while chapter three explains how the research was designed. Chapter four gives the findings and their interpretations. Chapter five gives recommendations ,in depth analysis and puts forward the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.