A Survey of the challenges in the strategic plan implementation in the Co-operative Bank of Kenya Limited

Abstract

The Co-operative Bank of Kenya launched its current Five Year Strategic Plan in the year 2005. The target was to complete the implementation by the year 2009. Companies that undergo the implementation of their strategic plans face challenges both from within and outside it. The Bank has not been exempted from this occurrence and that is why this study was undertaken to find out the challenges that have been faced in the course of the implementation of this strategic plan. The ultimate purpose of implementing the strategic plan was to obtain profitability that ensures to have the best return for the shareholder who is ever demanding higher returns on his investment. The research sought to find out the Challenges faced as a major objective and the Measures taken to counter these challenges were looked into. The respondents were selected from the top management of the Bank like the CEO, the General Managers, and other Heads of Departments. This is where the strategic plan is embedded first before cascading it to the entire Bank in different functional levels. Questionnaires were used to guide in conducting the Personal interviews undertaken. Content analysis was used to derive the information collected from the questionnaires. Most of the responses revealed that the strategic plan is in place and the challenges faced in the implementation were well in control because the various HOD's seemed vigilant to creatively have measures to counter them. It also emerged that the various divisional strategic plan expectations were well known by the HOD's. Under each challenge the strategic plan's way forward is .. stated then from the findings of the interviews done, the challenge faced is elaborately discussed specifically as per the Co-operative Bank scenario. The measures taken to counter this challenge are then discussed. From the findings the Strategic Plan seems to be on track at the Co-operative Bank of Kenya. Finally, the research study recommends the need for further studies in this area in various other organizations and having a wider target group comprising the lower cadre who are the actual people on the ground in achieving these targets that make up the total organizational profitability in the long run also be interviewed. The Branches can also be incorporated in a wider scale to get the broader view from them.