A survey of business growth strategies used by Commercial banks in kenya

Businesses in the real world are faced by a challenge to either grow their portfolio or \nshut down due to the state of competition in many industries. The shareholders also \ndemand value for their investments. Managers in these organizations have to craft and \nimplement strategies that will spur growth. This study focused on the basic growth \nstrategies being used by Commercial Banks in Kenya and especially in the last ten \nyears up to year 2010 to grow and maximize return to their shareholders. \nThe study adopted a descriptive census survey of all the commercial banks in Kenya. \nThe population of interest was all the commercial banks in Kenya. The type of data to \nbe collected was both primary data and secondary data. The researcher collected \nprimary data by the use of questionnaires, which contained both open-ended and close \nended questions. Secondary data was collected from the respective banks financial \nreports and management reports on performance especially the business growth \nstrategies in use in their banks. Descriptive analysis which aims at finding out what, \nwhere and how of a phenomenon was used mainly to summarize the data collected. \nThe data was presented using statistical measures such as bar graphs, frequency tables \nand graphical presentations. \nThe study concludes that commercial banks in Kenya have employed business growth \nstrategies. These include product development as the main strategy, market \ndevelopment and diversification strategies. The study further concludes that there \nwere various factors that influence growth strategies adopted by commercial banks in \nKenya. These included better performing economy, improved technological factors \nand management changes in senior management leading to better strategy \nimplementation and hence increased growth \nThe study recommends that commercial banks in Kenya need to employ various \ngrowth strategies in order to stay competitive and increase productivity and growth. \nLow performing commercial banks need to merge with better performing banks to \nboost growth of their operations. In addition, commercial banks in Kenya need to \ninvest in technology and market penetration methods such as increasing number of \nbank branches in various locations to target more customers and hence boost growth