Growth Strategies and Performance of Safaricom Limited in Kenya

Abstract

Firms use growth strategy to outline the fundamental steps that they plan to follow in order to accomplish their objectives. Organizations can have a single strategy or many strategies, and that these strategies are likely to exist at; corporate level; business level and functional level strategies. Although the literature suggests that strategies are developed at the three different levels, theoretical and empirical studies of the relationship between strategy and organizational performance have mainly emphasized on growth strategy. The objectives of this study were to identify the growth strategies of Safaricom Limited and to establish how the growth strategies influence performance of Safaricom Limited. This research was conducted through a case study. A case study is preferred because it enables the researcher to have an in-depth understanding of adopting growth strategies. The nature of data to be collected was qualitative and was analyzed using content analysis technique. Content analysis is a tool for measuring the content of communication. The study concludes that Safaricom Limited has adopted various growth strategies to enhance the Safaricom performance. In addition, the study concludes that Safaricom considers competition as an impetus toward enhancing products and services and improving performance. The study recommends that firm should make use of technology growth strategies among other growth strategies to increase their competitiveness in terms of product innovation, customer satisfaction and market orientation. The study also recommends that Safaricom can enhance product innovation by investing more in research and design.