Strategic Planning at Grant Thornton Kenya

Abstract

The environment in which organizations operate in is highly turbulent. Organizations face strengths and weaknesses internal to them as well as opportunities and threats external to their environment. In order to survive, the organizations are supposed to take advantage of the strengths and opportunities accessible to them while mitigating the weaknesses and threats facing them. Strategic planning is the cornerstone for success in the ever turbulent environment. Professional services network industry also faces these challenges and hence need to undertake strategic planning so as to meet the set objectives of any firm operating in the industry. Grant Thornton an International firm specializing in advisory, assurance and tax services is not exempt from the challenges. Grant Thornton is a leader in the industry that it operates in. The study was on strategic planning at Grant Thornton Kenya and the study objective was to determine strategic planning at Grant Thornton Kenya. It sought out to add on to the existing knowledge on strategic planning by investigating strategic planning as practiced by Grant Thornton Kenya. The study adopted a case study research design in order to specifically research on strategic planning at Grant Thornton Kenya. It enabled the researcher to have a thorough understanding of the behavior pattern of Grant Thornton Kenya. Primary data was collected using interview guides administered to the respondents who were senior management at the corporate level which comprised of; the managing partner, senior partner and the audit partner. Content analysis was used to analyze the data through describing phenomena, classifying it and seeing how the concepts interconnect as indicated by the respondents. The study found out that Grant Thornton Kenya has adopted a global strategic plan where the vision, mission and the strategies are developed globally and cascaded to the regional levels by the umbrella entity Grant Thornton International. The global strategic plans are then cascaded to Grant Thornton Kenya corporate level management which is entrusted with overseeing the strategic planning process at the firm. The corporate level then formulates and cascades the global strategic plan which they align along with local strategies which cannot conflict or negatively impact the global strategy. The strategic process is an all inclusive process as it also involves input from the employees of the firm in setting the objectives of the firm. The main challenge faced by the firm is changes in technology as it relies much on computers and software in service delivery to its clients. The study recommends that Grant Thornton Kenya should continue focusing on its people both client and employees so as to survive in the competitive industry. The study also recommends that the firm should invest in research to investigate on ways to improve its way of doing things and not to rely much on the umbrella entity.