Turnaround Strategy at Eveready East Africa Limited

Abstract

Many firms experience deteriorating performance due to market erosion and maladaptive decisions by management. When a company starts to experience "declining profits, increased debts, there has to be an intervention to return the company back to profitable state otherwise it will eventually fail. Managers react by selecting corporate strategies that redirect their attempts to improve the position. Turnaround strategy is a form of retrenchment strategy which focuses on operational improvement. when the state of decline is not severe. The study aimed at determining the turnaround strategy adopted at Eveready East Africa Limited and some of the challenges it faced. This study was conducted through a case study where an interview guide was used to collect in-depth information from the senior management at the company. Content analysis was used to analyze data collected. The findings were that both internal management and rapid changing eternal environment played a key role for its performance downfall. The management failed to adjust to the changing operating environment that included competition, economic factors such as inflation. that resulted to high costs of operation. Eveready adopted five key strategies in turning around the company namely cost management, financial restructuring, new marketing thrust, product and organizational realignment. However, the implementation had challenges of resource scarcity, general resistance to change, and exit of key players among others. The study concludes that firms should constantly scan its operational environment and responds to changes in the environment appropriately. It further recommends that policy should be put in place to aid troubled firms restore their healthy life. For turnaround implementation to be successfully, the study comments that there is need to adopt a combination strategy that does not only stabilize the business but also set base for future growth and long term stability. Turnaround requires a holistic approach to be effective and it should touch all aspect of the organization.