Strategic Planning at the Port of Mombasa

Abstract

In the recent past, the port of Mombasa has experienced persistent congestion that have negative impact to the port of Mombasa users. The operations at port of Mombasa are held back by inefficient cargo clearing process causing delays and rendering the Port expensive and uncompetitive. Sloman and Hinde (2007) in the knowledge-driven economy, innovation has. become central to achievement in the business world. Organizations have to re-evaluate their products, their services, even their corporate culture in an attempt to maintain their competitiveness in the global markets today. The study sought to establish how strategic planning at the Port of Mombasa is done and who are involved in the formulation, management, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the strategic plan at the port of Mombasa. The researcher used case study research design. Case studies present an intensive and descriptive analysis of a phenomenon under investigation. According to Cooper and Schindler (2005), case studies place more emphasizes on a full contextual analysis of fewer events or conditions and their interrelations. The study established that key drivers in the port's strategic planning process should focus on the following; Improving service delivery and customer satisfaction, human resource Complement, increasing cargo through put, infrastructural and capital development, raising investment capital and identifying and managing business risks. KPA deals with various stakeholders from shippers, clearing agents, transporters, government agencies whose interest vary, it is therefore paramount to assess performance from external environment. This study did not focus on the perceptions of Performance by the service users at the Port of Mombasa. Among key recommendations of the study is that the Port of Mombasa in its planning processes, should vigorously provide a step-by-step analyses to the successful service level agreements process. As the service provider, Port of Mombasa and the service recipients should jointly undertake the service level agreements process. The major limitation of the study concentrated on internal assessment of Strategic planning Processes and failed to look at how other firms respond to change initiatives at the Kenya Ports Authority. The study focused and drew conclusions based only on KPA's perspective.