Strategies employed to achieve competitive advantage by wananchi group in the telecommunication industry in Kenya

Abstract

Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long term, which achieves advantage in a changing environment through its configuration of resources and competences with the aim of fulfilling stakeholders‟ expectations. The objectives of this study was to determine the strategies employed to achieve competitive sadvantage as well as the challenges faced by Wananchi Group to achieve competitive advantage in the telecommunication industry in Kenya. The study targeted top management and the middle level management employees working at Wananchi Group. Primary data was through interviews which were used as the research instruments for data collection from the top level management and middle level management team. The data was collected and analyzed using qualitative techniques. Secondary data was obtained from journals and Wananchi Group database. Data collected was analyzed using the NVivo software. From the findings, it can be concluded that majority of the respondents agreed that efficiency is enhanced by embracing value innovation while others indicated that value creation is the real breakthrough for high performance. Accountability is enhanced in value innovation while others indicated service delivery becomes better in value innovation. A majority of the respondents indicated that marketing strategy leads to opening up of new markets. Marketing innovations addresses customer needs better as customer focus is enhanced by market innovation. Market oriented firms perform better financially than other firms and market innovation enhances effectiveness in decision making. From the findings it can also be concluded that development of new product-market combinations and more cost efficient production processes to some extent are the challenges faced in handling competition in the telecommunication industry. Development of new venture ideas, new product development, and development of new markets are also challenges faced to a large extent