Strategy Implementation And Challenges Faced By Small Scale Businesses In Kenya: A Case Of Isiolo County

Abstract

A study was conducted to determine strategy implementation and challenges faced by small scale businesses in Isiolo County. The study had one objective to achieve; to determine the challenges faced by small scale businesses in strategy implementation. To achieve the intended objective a case study was carried out to gain an in depth understanding of the challenges. A total of sixteen respondents were interviewed by the use of an interview guide. Some limitations encountered during the study included loss of institutional memory as a result of high turnover. The research was limited to important information since most of the respondents did not know what strategy implementation was about. There was consistence between the research findings and the literature review carried out. The major challenges as revealed in the study highlighted frequent change in leadership, lack of succession planning, high employee’s turnover, lack of financial resources, lack of a strategic plan, lack of employee training, inappropriate organizational culture and lack of skills and competence. The research established that at least 98% of small scale businesses owners did not implement strategy since most of them did not understand what strategy was about.2% of respondents who had an idea what strategy was were reluctant to implement it. Most employees interviewed were form four leavers while a few others had certificate courses. Most employees in small scale businesses were not contented with the job but instead stood there searching for greener pastures. The researcher recommends further research in a County similar to Isiolo in terms of size and operate in areas of intervention that are close to Isiolo County so as to establish if the challenges faced by small scale businesses in strategy implementation are similar to those of Isiolo County. The study recommends there should be a budget allocation for the strategic planning process and implementation. The plan should be communicated to all, monitoring the strategy implementation process should be done by a team. This will be important for the strategic planning process to be owned by the stakeholders. It is also recommended for these small scale businesses to have resource mobilization strategy to implement the strategic plan. The limitations of this study are that most of the current employees in the organization were not there during the planning process and a large part of the implementation period. Therefore most of the information they had was from observation and colleagues. The researcher would have wished to interview more of the staff who had been involved in the strategic planning process and implementation but due to time constraint and accessibility this was not possible. This study was also limited to an in depth case study of Isiolo County hence the findings are unique to this organization and cannot therefore be generalized to be a representation of similar organizations in the industry.