Strategic postures and action evaluation in the Kenya oil industry

A Project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Masters of International Business Administration (MIBA)The oil industry plays an indispensable role in fulfilling Kenya's energy requirements. Simply put it is a prime mover to the country's economy. The objectives of the study were: 1. To establish the strategic postures for each of the major players in the Kenyan oil industry. 1. To determine the generic strategies of the respective firms and whether such strategies were approporiate. The appropriateness was evaluated from the individual player’s core competencies. The population of interes cibsusted of six major players in the industry namely: Shell/British Petroleum,. Caltex, total, Mobil, Agip and kenol/kobil. Data was collected through questionnaires and personal interviews with at least four managers in each company with an exception of AGIP whose managers did not respond. The data was then analyzed and comparisons made with similar studies in different sectors. The method used in the study was SPACE-matrix that is a tool for calibrating competition. It was established hat all the players analyzed fell in the same quadrant posture ie aggressive. The appropriate generic strategy was therefore cost leadership. However some companies had a distinctive advantage in the cost leadership strategy than others illustrated later in this chapter. For the latter group the action evaluation was to change to the relevant posture-competitive that may give them an edge over the former. The appropriate generic strategy for competitive posture would then be differentiation. The major implication of the study to the managers in each of the oil companies is that they need to understand their postures and determine their strategies based on the individual firm’s posture. Failure to do this may result in strategic misalignment that may cause demise of the organization