Factors Affecting Strategy Implementation at Trademark East Africa Strategy Implementation

A Project Report Submitted to the School of Business in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Degree of Global Executive Masters in Business Administration (GEMBA)Strategies help provide direct organizational operations on a day to day basis over a period of time. Time, energy and resources are invested into formulating strategy which in most cases may not involve all key stakeholders as is the case in implementation. The implementation phase has been found to have significant effect on the appropriateness and feasibility of the strategies formulated. Implementing a strategy requires sustainable change and focus toward common objectives by all employees within the organization. The purpose of this study was to evaluate factors affecting strategy implementation at Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA). The study was guided by the following research questions: What are the models applied by TMEA in strategy implementation; what are the effects of internal resources on strategy implementation at TMEA? How do stakeholders influence strategy implementation at TradeMark East Africa? An explanatory research design was employed to assess the factors affecting strategy implementation at TMEA. The sampling frame of the study included the staff of TMEA as the respondents of the study. In this study, the sampling frame was drawn from the 138 employees at TMEA as at December 2015. This was used so as to ensure that the sampling frame is current, complete and relevant for the attainment of the study objective. The study grouped the population into 7 stratus based on position in the organization. From each stratum, the study used simple random sampling to select the sample size from the population. Random sampling was used to select individual members to be subjected to the study. A sample size of 103 employees was selected. The research instrument adapted in this study to collect primary data was questionnaires. The questionnaires was structured and closed ended to enable the researcher create data that is easily quantifiable. The questionnaires were divided into four sections covering the demographic information and the three research questions that the study had chosen to cover. Data from questionnaires were summarized, coded, tabulated and analyzed. Editing was done to improve the data quality for coding. Coded data was entered into the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 23 for analysis. Results of the study were presented in tables and charts. The study established that TMEA had successfully applied the models as a tool to communicate and clarify strategy and directions within the organization, gain consensus and therefore bring together the organizational members. The models were performance measurement tool that used a strategy plan to connect day-to-day processes to its organizational goals at TMEA. Rather than capture how an organization currently operates, it is concerned with creating a strategy to drive future direction, building in cause and effect linkages while simultaneously taking into account both financial and intangible resources that can determine success or failure. The study concluded that the success of TMEA in the turbulent and competitive business environment included: proper training of employees, adequate financial support, organization structure and democratic style of management was key to effective strategy implementation. Despite the challenges from the internal and external resources, the organization need to formulate, implement and evaluate strategies in order to survive. For the best practices in the financial sector, organization needs to benchmark the best practices with global firms for strategic advantages locally and internationally. The findings indicated that TMEA make an effort to achieve some competitive advantage over their competitors in such a stormy environment by striving to implements strategies formulated. The study conclude that for successfully strategy implementation to be attained, the strategies in the organization plan must be translated into guidelines for the daily actions of the organization's stakeholders and managers must direct, control and adjust theses strategies with the ever changing environment. Strategy implementation can be whitewashed, if the attitudes and habits of stakeholders are at crossroads with the needs of the strategy and if their culture of doing things obstructs strategy implementation instead of facilitating it. This study recommends that management should restructure the organization in order to promote a culture of open communication among workers and participatory decision making practice. The study further recommends that the management should to expand financial budgets in areas that support implementation of the organization strategies. The organization need to ensure that the future strategy formulation should made participatory by ensuring that it includes all staff as well as other stakeholders. For an effective strategy implementation, TMEA needs to make the process of implementation all inclusive where the junior staff, customers, stakeholders are accommodated for each to feel part and parcel of the process