Alignment of strategy to industry critical success factors among commercial banks in Kenya

Abstract

The research report is about the alignment of strategy to industry critical success factors among commercial banks in Kenya. The objectives of the study were, to determine the extent to which commercial banks align strategy to industry critical success factors and the forces that influence the alignment. By aligning strategy to industry critical success factors, commercial banks can streamline its operations and maintain sustainable competitive advantage within the industry. The survey focused on all 43 commercial banks in Kenya and the data was mainly primary data. The primary data was gathered through the use of self administered questionnaires to the CEOs of the respective commercial banks. The researcher used descriptive data to find out the extent to which commercial banks align strategy to industry critical success factors and also determine the forces that influence this alignment. The respondents exhibited a high level of knowledge of the critical success factors as well as alignment of these factors to strategy. The response rate was 83% where thirty six of the forty three commercial banks responded. The findings reveal that majority of commercial banks in Kenya align their strategy to critical success factors in that in every critical success factor, majority of the banks have a strategy to support it. It was concluded that commercial banks that align strategy to industry critical success factors are able to survive and gain a competitive advantage over other commercial banks. From the study, customer service, product range and pricing as well as adoption of ICT emerged as the most important critical success factors. The study also revealed that majority of commercial banks have strategies to support these critical success factors.