Strategies Adopted To Achieve Competitive Advantage In An Organization: A Case Of Doinyo Lessos Creameries Ltd In Eldoret, Kenya

ABSTRACT

A company must respond strategically to competition for it to achieve competitive advantage and long-term profitability. “This normally involves the devising and implementation of strategies that are superior and sustainable to those of competitors. There has been the emerging trend where milk producer based organizations are getting into processing. These firms compete against each other and therefore need to adopt competitive strategies with the aim of performing effectively and efficiently in the market. Doinyo Lessos is among the few milk processors and they specialize in cheese making among other products in Kenya. The challenges at macro-level has been understanding the dynamics of the dairy sector as milk production levels are highly seasonal and unreliable. This study sought to examine the strategies adopted to create a competitive advantage, specifically to determine the Cost Leadership, evaluate the Differentiation and assess the Focus Strategy to create a competitive advantage in Doinyo Lessos Creameries Ltd. The researcher used survey research design. The researcher collected information that describes, explores, and quantifies social phenomena, particularly issues, conditions and problems that are prevalent in the society at a particular point in time; it is also a way of describing and explaining aspects of the identified population. The study targeted 108 company employees using a census on all targeted staff. A questionnaire was prepared for the employees to obtain primary data. After collecting data from the different groups and getting different information, the same were sorted out, coded and analyzed with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Scientists. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics involved mean, percentages, and standard deviation. Inferential statistics involved correlation and multivariate regression analysis. The analyzed data was presented using tables and their associated explanations. The findings showed that differentiation competitive strategy and focus competitive strategy had statistically significant effect on competitive advantage of Doinyo Creameries limited. However, the effect of cost leadership on competitive advantage was not statistically significant. The study recommends that the firm should concentrate on differentiation and focus strategies as they have significant effect on competitive advantage. The Future studies should carry out the same study topic with more competitive strategies including, best-cost provider strategy, focused low-cost provider strategy and market share dominator strategy that were not within the scope of the current study.”