Whenever the business position is estimated, it is very essential to assess their working environment. This is the most important area that was to be considered when formulating the position of the Safaricom Business (Ferreira, Li, Guisinger, & Serra, 2009) As indicated prior; the company has opposite placed in the country’s investment. This position provides a degree of assurance the company has easy reach to vigorous business features. The marketing environment of an organization consists of different elements of business, including; the microenvironment, external and internal environment and the macro-environment.
By using the PEST analysis, the general environment and segments of the general environment that are relevant to Safaricom could be determined quickly. A PEST analysis indicates how the Safaricom Corporation is affected by the social, environmental, political and technological (Wright et al., 1991).The business is influenced by the following political factors. Conversely, the state enjoys an excellent political stability with a few cases of instability infrequently reported. The significant political influence on the business is the involvement of government in tax regulation. The company charges high rates for their services. Conversely, some of them are regulated by the country’s Bureau standards. Moreover, the government has maintained several positions on market principles (Vighi & Feldner, 2010) However; the company appears to be affected by a smaller amount by this as it is between the top significant corporations in the state.
There are also economic factors which bring positive effect on the company. By considering the trading economy of the state in the long and short terms, the company appears in stable interest rates because of the stable economy (Wright et al., 1991), from social perspective, the company experiences few influences from social-cultural elements but the Christian religion is dominant, and this contributes advantage to the enterprise.
The company’s external environment shows Opportunities and threats which the company faces. By the use of SWOT analysis, opportunities and threats of Safaricom can be determined (“(Shankleman 2009). Swot analysis – Google Scholar,” n.d.). There are different opportunities available for the company in the marketplace. For example, the corporation can make the partnership with local banks and introduce the platform which enables consumers to get access to their bank accounts with their phones. Likewise, the company can associate their m-pesa accounts and bank; this is meant to be that they can operate their bank accounts through their mobile phones and take out cash from their bank accounts through their mobiles.
The company has faced different types of threats. The furthermost unresolved threat is the rivalry from comparable businesses in the state. Despite the better response, the company has very high rates. This has frightened for the enterprise because of the green consumers away from subscribing to the business. There is another factor that affects the business is that further same companies in the nation have introduced same programs of money transfer with also fair rates in comparison to the Safaricom this indicates the threat of competition from these echo companies.
Analyze the competitor environment and identify the competitors. Has Safaricom done enough to outperform its competitors?
The biggest competitor of the Safaricom is Telkom Kenya and Celtel Ltd. the operators try to outsmart with each other. The main factors of rivalry in the industry place rotate among retention of consumers and building the subscriber base. Each service provider takes part in the industry by adopting different products approaches by copy the servicing and marketing strategies of one another to maintain the position in the market place. The purchaser is highly educated, more nosey, well aware and demanding while the environment of marketing has changed therefore nosing severe challenges to existence and success of the firm.
The Safaricom Limited is using several types of strategies to overcome competition or outperform than their competitors including product choice, differentiation strategy, pricing strategy, cost leadership, market penetration strategy and focus strategy. The policies and procedures are formulated to use these strategies which improve the strategy, made on cost effective strategy, business campaigns, and continuous invention of advance consumer friendly product. But on the other hand, a company is experienced several challenges in the implementation of these strategies. These elements include leadership, administration, organizational structure, corporate culture and insufficient resources (Njuguna, 2012).
Evaluate Safaricom’s CEO, Robert Collymore’s strategic leadership? Has he been able to fulfill his responsibilities and continue to grow Safaricom as a company?
The CEO of Safaricom Robert Collymore has titled the International Business Leader of the Year of 2016 at the 9th Annual Africa Investors (Ai) CEO Investment Summit in New York.
The Director’s board of Safaricom extended the tenure of the Collymore by 2 years from August 2017 because of their diligent performance towards the company The Nicholas Ng’ang’a Chairman of Safaricom says the board is assured that Collymore will remain to grow to shareholders’ wealth and take the business to bigger heights (“Collymore gets two more years at Safaricom – Capital Business,” n.d.). Ng’ang’a spoke stakeholders on Wednesday, “Bob has made a large contribution to become successful a company at their tough times even through exploring new areas of growth and business expansion including establishment of various advanced products and services including the M-Shwari mobile banking facility associated with Commercial Bank of Africa, Lipa na M-PESA payment service for wholesalers along with the Okoa Jahazi disaster airtime solution. He has realized that company’s net profits move from Sh20 billion ( 2010) to Sh45 billion ( 2017).”We are pleased to assure Bob that he has provided complete support to the board hence that we both together continue to increase shareholder’s wealth,” Ng’ang’a said.
Describe Safaricom’s next move regarding growth and expansion. Based on your analysis, what additional recommendations would you make to help Safaricom achieve its goals?
Support your responses with examples.
In 2017 according to the company’, voice, data and m-pesa continuously show growth while we have seen a minor decline in SMS revenue. So The Safaricom must continue to focus on business that can endure the economic and governing forces currently shaping the commercial environment & The company should believe to cope up with the change in technology because the company operates in a dynamic environment to understand or satisfaction of the customers. And the company must introduce new SMS cost effective bundle packages to retain the revenue of SMS.
