Strategic management practices in flower firms in Kenya

The conditions of the business environment within Kenya have been very volatile \nespecially in the last eleven years. The influencing factors include political, economic, \nclimatic and technological factors. All the business organizations and individuals have a \nstory to tell. Those in the floricultural industry have not been spared. Their woes have \ngone as far as those of any other industry if not worse. A good number of them have gone \nunder while some are still in receivership. However, these conditions not withstanding, a \nnumber of them seem to be holding on and in fact flourishing, prompting the desire to \nestablish the strategic management practices they have adopted in this environment. \n- This •study had one mam objective. This was to establish the strategic management \npractices within flower firms in Kenya. \nAll the cut flower growing and exporting firms registered with Fresh Produce Association \nof Kenya (FPEAK) formed the population of the study. All the firms (101) were \ncontacted. 16 companies returned the questionnaires duly completed. These 16 formed \nthe achieved sample ofthe study. \nData was collected through a questionnaire that was posted to the respective firms. Both \nclosed as well as open-ended questions were used to gather data. \nThe results indicated that strategy is largely informal in flower firms in Kenya. Strategy \nwas found to exist in the minds of the top management, usually a single individual. The \nresulting strategy was thus intuitive, creative, -original and limited. This may be attributed \nto the nature of competition in flower firms. In any industry, competition, a key factor of \nthe environment of organizations is a critical driver and influencing factor of strategy \nformulation. The competition in flower farming for export is global. Thus, flower firms \ndo not perceive themselves strictly as competitors. Many of them use agents in their \nmarketing. Once the produce reaches the auction in Holland, which is the main market, \nindividual firms constitute very small units of the whole market as produce pours in from \nmany other countries. In deed many firms indicated that they were too small to bother \nwith strategic management. \nThe study concluded that the practice of strategy in flower firms in Kenya is largely \ninformal. The management of most of the firms have the strategy existing in their minds. \n- There is little formality involved and strategies are seldom documented. Future studies in \nthis area can get more in depth information by adopting the case study approach.