Strategy development at Kenyatta International Conference Centre Corporation

Abstract

Organizations operate in a dynamic environment; they are thus environment dependent and environment servicing. The dynamism is propelled by globalization, the internet revolution, hyper competition and liberalization. In order for an organization to remain focused under such circumstances, the long term direction must be clear. The long term direction of an organisation is defined through the process of strategy development. Strategy development seeks to guide executives in defining the business their company is in, the aims it seeks, and the means it will use to accomplish these aims. Practicing managers embrace divergent views and approaches to strategy development. Such views and approaches are often the consequence of their unique business realities. Such realities are determined by their type of business, internal organisational factors such as resources, product and size and external factors such as market dynamism, market size and industry uniqueness. Various theories have been advocated to explain the development of strategies III organisations. The most prominent of these schools are the planning and design school and the emergence school. None of these views may operate in isolation. Strategy development is a complex process shaped by various forces. The best process is ultimately that which is sensitive to all the market forces, intricately balancing them and yet not loosing focus on the primary objective of pleasing the customer and increasing the bottom line State Corporations is often used to refer to corporate bodies in which the government holds at least 50% of the equity and those enterprises whose operations are otherwise controlled by the state. Kenyan State Corporations operate in an intricate business environment where an elusive balance must be achieved on how to satisfy the politics of the day and still make business logic. It is against this background that in the year 2001, the government of Kenya developed and launched the Strategy for Performance improvement in the Public Service. This Strategy was anchored on the need to develop a result based management and was heavily anchored on strategic planning. v This study sought to establish how strategy is developed at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre Corporation (KICC) and the challenges of the process. The KICC is a State Corporation established through the KICC order, 2004 contained in Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 45, Legislative Supplement No. 26 (Legal Notice No. 77) dated 9th July 2004. Case study design was used to establish how strategy is developed at the KICC and challenges faced in the process. Primary data was collected through personal interviews with the respondents who are responsible for strategy development at the KICC. Secondary data was obtained from manuals and books about the KICC. The data was then analyzed qualitatively in order to arrive at a conclusion and make recommendations. The study revealed that, strategies at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre Corporation are formulated by the management team. The process of developing the strategies is systematic and structured. The KICC has a mission statement and clearly defined corporate directions in the form of vision statement and set core values to position KICC for future opportunities. There is a systematic approach and deployment of employee empowerment in which employees recite the vision, mission and core values in staff baraza in both English and Kiswahili. The study established that brainstorming and suggestion systems are the most common participatory tools used to obtain views. The study identified organizational structure, inadequate resources, Lack of title to the envisaged Corporation's land, national politics and government decisions, alignment of organisational strategy to government strategy and poor communication as the main challenges facing strategy development practices at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre Corporation.