Strategic Planning and Performance of Enablis East Africa

Abstract

Strategic planning is an organizational management activity that is used to set goals, focus energy and resources, strengthen operation and ensures that employees and other stakeholders are working towards the common goals, assess and adjust the organization's direction in response to a changing environment. For of an organization to achieve effective performance, there has to be well defined strategic plans that are consciously communicated to all stakeholders to be effectively implemented. The relationship between strategic planning and organizational performance needs analysis to get a better understanding on how strategic planning is applied in practice to improve performance thus survival of the organisation. Primary data sources were used in this study where data was obtained through interactive interviews. The main instrument of data collection in this study was an interview guide. The nature of data collected was qualitative and was therefore analysed using content analysis technique. The study found that Enablis East Africa has a Vision which is “Empowering ideas. Empowering people”; while its Mission is “To create employment opportunities by supporting and financing the expansion of entrepreneurial ventures in East Africa. Monitoring and evaluations outcomes and reports are shared with staff and stakeholders to generate continuous programme adjustments necessary to keep the strategy implementation on track. The study also found that strategic planning is a team effort which involves all levels and functional units of the Organisation top executives, middle managers and supervisors, and employees. EEA’s strategy development steps involve intensive participatory driven processes. EEA sees planning as means to support accountability and performance, to contribute to impact at regional and global level goals, and most importantly as a fundamental process to its vision and mission; logical frameworks are used to cascade and track the extent to which the milestones as stipulated in the Contribution Agreement and strategy are achieved and Enablis East Africa monitors inputs, outputs and outcomes. Enablis addresses products, markets, resources, and technologies over an extended period of time. The study concludes that strategic planning is an essential instrument for planning and forecasting which positions the organization to meet demands and changes which might come up in the course of discharging its services. Enablis’s strategy reaffirms is ultimate mandate to provide small and medium sized enterprises with access to business support products and services to increase economic development in the region thus solve the unemployment challenge in East Africa. Strategic planning can directly contribute to organizational performance. The study recommends that Enablis should ensure that strategic planning is effectively put in place to reap the full benefits of effective implementation. Enablis East Africa should optimize on its huge investment in reviews and reflection, and use outcomes and results for operational improvement or changing strategic priorities. The management of Enablis should offer continuous training to the employees on strategic planning adopt clear communication of strategy so as to equip them with skills that will help them in their mandates. With regard to practice, it is apparent that non-governmental organizations operating in Kenya depend on their operating environment for their survival and with changes in the operating environment, the business unit need to adapt to the same. With regard to policy, the non-governmental organizations in Kenya as well as the private firms would use the findings of this study to lobby for amendment of regulations that inhibit the strategic planning process and performance such firms in their operations. In theory, the academia and business researchers in strategic management may borrow from the findings of this study to support literary citations as well as develop themes for further research