The process of strategy development in Kenya Bus Services Limited

Abstract

It has been observed that though several approaches to strategy development process in organisations have been advocated by various authors and scholars, individually, the approaches only offer partial explanation about strategy process. The ways that managers approach their strategy development in organisations differ, and is determined both by the environmental and company factors. This study set out to establish what approach(s) that Kenya Bus Service Limited used to formulate their current strategies that are in the implementation stage. The study was also to establish what factors that have influenced the Kenya Bus Service strategy development process. In carrying out the study, data was collected through the administration of a questionnaire and an in-depth interview with the CEO and all the managers of the company. From the research findings, it is clear that there exists a process of strategy development in the company, which is highly formalised. The strategy formulation process is a logical, deliberate and proactive. This is due to the fact that the strategic decisions made by managers are outcomes of deliberate planning efforts and rational analysis of the company undertaken by the managers. The strategic decisions made by

the managers are then communicated to the rest of the staff in the company. The findings also established that the formal process of strategy development that prevails at Kenya Bus Services Ltd., has been influenced by contextual factors:- the environment which is turbulent and uncertain, the ownership of the company which is indigenous Kenyans, the leadership style which is participative and the type of organisational structure which is a formal structure.