A Survey of Key Success Factors for Firms in the Insurance Industry in Kenya

Abstract

The researcher set out to survey the Key Success Factors for firms in the insurance industry in Kenya. A descriptive research design was used and the population of interest comprised all the insurance companies in Kenya registered with the Commissioner of Insurance. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire which was administered to the respondents by the researcher using personal interviews. Where they were not available a drop and pick method was used. The data was summarised using an Excel spreadsheet and analysed by the use of descriptive statistics including percentages, mean sores and standard deviation. Findings were presented in tables for discussion and interpretation. The findings revealed that insurance companies use marketing strategies that are relevant to the industry in order to succeed in the sector. The key success factors that the companies considered to be important included core competencies as a company, marketing strategies, product attributes, company resources, positioning in the market and claims settlement willingness and ability, supported by strong insurance systems for effective service delivery. The respondents exhibited a high level knowledge of their market and customer requirements and emerging trends in the market. The companies must ensure that their competencies are centered on the key success factors for them to remain relevant in the highly competitive marketplace. This study dealt with the Key Success factors for firms in the insurance industry in Kenya. The researcher recommends that in future, further studies could be done on the individual factors to establish how they could be addressed so that we have a thriving industry in Kenya. The factors are also bound to change with time, in response to the operating environment. The findings of the research can also be used as a source of reference for research on key success factors for other sectors of the economy such as hospitals, the insurance brokers, re -insurance companies and other financial services organizations. The researcher had difficulties getting adequate responses from some of the targeted managers who were not willing to participate due to their company policy. This was a limitation of the study.