Challenges Of Implementation Of Growth Strategies At The University Of Nairobi

Abstract

We are living in a dynamic world which is undergoing rapid change. An organization as a whole works to survive within a larger system thus advocates that all organizational components to be interrelated and integrated. Businesses are therefore open system since they interacts with the external environment. Business interaction with the changing external environment poses challenges to the organizations and therefore it has to adopt strategies to grow the business. An organization can survive and grow only when it continuously and quickly adapts to the changing environment. Strategy is an outline of how a business intends to achieve its goals. The goals are the objectives; the strategy sets out the route to that objective. An effective strategy allows managers to use their organization‟s resources and capabilities to exploit and limit threats in the external environment. Growth is a multi-faceted phenomenon that is commonly associated with firm survival, achievement of business goals and success or the scaling up of activities. Growing the business can be taken to mean crafting and implementing strategies that will bring profit to the business, attracting and pleasing customers, competing successfully with other competitors in the industry, conducting operations and improving the company‟s financial and market performance Growth strategies are therefore important in practice and strategic decisions are crucial to the growth of the organization. The concept of strategy involves the formulation, the implementation and the evaluation stages. After the strategy formulation, the strategic plan has to be implemented if the goals and objectives are to be realized. The importance of strategy implementation should never be underestimated because the best formulated strategy is virtually worthless if it cannot be implementation effectively. A badly designed strategy for pursuing growth will never achieve its goals. Likewise, a well-designed strategy that is badly executed will falter. The University of Nairobi is arguably the biggest and most vibrant university in Kenya with its student population growing tremendously. Due to this vast growth, the institution is facing challenges in implementation of its growth strategies. This has been as a result of rapid increase in the number of students and inadequate infrastructure. University of Nairobi is the oldest university in Kenya established in 1956 to offer education and training in technology and business. It offers a diverse range of academic programs and has a variety of disciplines. Faced with challenges of increasing competition, rapid increase students‟ population and inadequate infrastructure, the University can survive and grow only when it continuously and quickly adapts to the changing environment. In this regard the university has adopted growth strategies to counter the challenges posed by the changing environment. This study sought to determine the growth strategies used by University of Nairobi in Kenya and to determine the challenges of implementing growth strategies. Ansoff Corporate growth strategy matrix consisting of Market penetration, market development, product development and diversification growth strategies was adopted by the university. Despite the challenges of decline in government funding, increased student population and inadequate physical infrastructure, University of Nairobi had been growing its business to counter those challenges that have been posed by the ever-changing environment.