Strategies adopted by hire purchase companies to gain sustainable competitive advantage in Kenya: a case study of Amedo centres Kenya Ltd

Abstract

The objective of the study was to investigate the strategies developed and adopted by hire-purchase companies and in particular, Amedo Centres Kenya Limited to gain sustainable competitive advantage. This study was based on the premise that Organizations today face a turbulent and fast changing business environment and since they are environmental dependent, they need to understand and make sense of the turbulent environment. An organisation needs to outsmart its competitors in such an environment in order to generate competitive advantage. When a company adopts strategies that cannot be easily copied by its competitors, competitive advantage is prolonged hence becoming sustainable. To achieve the objective of the study, a content analysis of the relevant documents concerning strategy at Amedo Centres Kenya Limited were reviewed. Interviews with executive staff were carried out to get an in-depth view of strategies adopted to gain sustainable competitive advantage at the company. The study established that the company had responded to environmental challenges by adopting a series of strategies meant to generate and sustain competitive advantage. The study found that various strategies had been adopted include diversification, re-aligning the organisation structure to market conditions by restructuring the organisation, collaborating with foreign suppliers to save on research and development costs and also to enable the company to adapt fast to changing customer needs and preferences, human resource management strategy, cost reduction, market penetration and market development, and involvement of the company in corporate social responsibility. Of utmost importance, the company had realized that to achieve its objectives, all employees need to be well equipped with knowledge and skills. To reflect the importance the company has placed on developing and sustaining competitive advantage, a strategy committee has been set up by the Board of Directors to monitor the development and implementation of strategies