Strategy in Africa

© 2015 ENREAL CONSULTING | STRATAEGOS CONSULTING 1
This article presents seven key factors for successfully de-
veloping strategy in Africa. These seven factors allow execu-
tives and managers to master strategy in this important but
challenging continent.
STRATEGY IN
AFRICA
Dr. Arnoud van der Maas
Owner | Strataegos Consulting
arnoud@strataegos.com
Geoffrey Otieno
Managing Director | Enreal Consulting
geoffrey.otieno@enreal.co.ke

Africa is rising in the world econo-
my. In 2050, 1 in 4 people will be
African. This large and fast growing
population creates enormous mar-
ket opportunities for global and
local organizations. Companies
must develop sound strategies and
build local organizations to capital-
ize on this opportunity. In this arti-
cle we present seven key factors for
successful strategy development in
Africa. These success factors are
based on a survey of 20 African ex-
ecutives and managers with strate-
gy formation and execution respon-
sibilities. Executives and managers
can greatly improve the develop-
ment and execution of their strate-
gies by taking these seven success
factors into account.
WHY AFRICA?
Africa is an increasingly important and
dynamic but challenging continent from
a strategic perspective. However, re-
search on strategy development in Afri-
ca remains limited despite its increasing
importance in the global economy. We
chose to research strategic manage-
ment in Africa due to the following five
reasons.
Africa is rising in the world econo-
my. Over 2.4 billion people will live in
Africa in 2050 according to the United
Nations. The average economic growth
of Africa from 2005 to 2015 was 10
percent on average. The total income of
the African middle class is expected to
rise from $ 680 billion to $ 2000 billion
in 2030, according to the African Devel-

STRATEGY IN AFRICA
© 2015 ENREAL CONSULTING | STRATAEGOS CONSULTING

2
opment Bank. This rapidly expanding
middle class creates a vast market for
companies to tap into. Africa is becom-
ing an important continent in the global
economy.
Africa’s population is increasing
rapidly. Africa has experienced a
marked increase in its population in the
last few decades. Its current population
is five times its size in 1950. And the
continent’s rapid population expansion
is set to continue, with its inhabitants
doubling from 1.2 billion to 2.4 billion
between 2015 and 2050, and eventually
reaching 4.2 billion by 2100. This cre-
ates an enormous but untapped market
for a wide variety of products and ser-
vices.
Future of humanity is increasingly
African. More than half of the projected
2.2 billion rise in the world population in
2015 to 2050 is expected to take place
in Africa, even though the continent’s
population growth rate will slow. On
current trends, within 35 years, one in
every four people in the world will be
African, rising to four in ten people by
the end of the century. Back in 1950,
only 9 among 100 of the world’s num-
ber of inhabitants were African.
Lacking research on strategy in Af-
rica. The strategy literature has always
been focused on Western economies or
developed market economies. However,
executives and managers in emerging
countries have additional challenges
that may require new approaches to
strategy. The aim of our research is to
investigate the reasons for success or
failure in strategy development and
execution in Africa. Africa has received
very little research attention in the field
of strategy. This article aims to fill this
gap by presenting seven key factors for
successful strategy development in Afri-
ca (see Figure). The aim is to better
understand strategy in this increasingly
important but challenging continent.
Strategic challenges for African or-
ganizations. Organizations in African
countries tend to face the following
challenges: political and economic in-
stability; under-developed facilities and
institutions, such as legal infrastruc-
tures that provide the basis for effective
corporate governance; missing institu-
tional features (such as shortages of
skilled labor, thin capital markets, infra-
STRATEGY
SUCCESS
1
STRATEGY
COMMITMENT
2
SOUND
STRATEGIC
ANALYSIS
3
LACKING
RESOURCES
4
VISIONARY
LEADERSHIP
5
ALIGNING THE
ORGANIZATION
6
ADAPT TO
LOCAL
CONTEXT
7
SOUND
OBJECTIVES

STRATEGY IN AFRICA

3
structure problems); lack of (enforce-
ment of) strong legal frameworks which
allows opportunism. The cultural and
language differences only increase the
complexity of the continent’s strategic
focus. Together these challenges make
strategy development and execution in
Africa quite challenging.
7 KEY FACTORS FOR
STRATEGY FORMATION IN
AFRICA
In this article we present seven key
success factors for strategy develop-
ment in Africa. When taken into ac-
count, these practices help executives
and managers to successfully develop
their strategy in the African context.
ACHIEVE STRATEGY
COMMITMENT
The most important factor for
successful strategy development in Afri-
ca is securing commitment from organi-
zational members and external stake-
holders. Middle managers, and employ-
ees are in the end, the ones that have
to execute the strategy and achieve the
results in the marketplace. When middle
managers and employees are not com-
mitted to the strategy they will not be
motivated to execute it well and make it
a success. Research has shown over
and over that this is one of the main
reasons why most strategies fail. This
finding is once again validated by our
research. Our interviews considered
achieving strategy commitment the
most important factor for strategy de-
velopment success. Such commitment
does not only refer to organizational
members but also to key external
stakeholders such as suppliers, custom-
ers, regulating agencies, governments,
international donors and most im-
portantly customers.
Strategy commitment starts at the
top. Most important is the buy-in of the
chief executive officer and the whole
board of the organization. When senior
and top management are not commit-
ted to the development and outcome of
the strategy process, middle managers
and employees will also not be commit-
ted. The leadership team must be fully
committed to the development of the
strategy and its outcome. Employees
can easily perceive when top manage-
ment is not really committed to the
strategy. Top managers can show they
are committed by displaying a thorough
understanding of the strategy, com-
municating it extensively through many
different media, regularly discussing the
strategy and the progress of its execu-
tion with direct reports and by being
thoroughly involved in the execution of
the strategy. Displaying commitment is
done best by actions instead of words.
Secure commitment of employees.
While strategy buy-in starts at the top
of the organization, it is equally im-
portant that employees and especially
middle managers are committed to the
strategy as well. To come up with a
sound and feasible strategy, the exper-
tise and skills of employees at all levels
of the organization must be tapped into.
All business units must be involved in
the development – and later on, the
execution – of the strategy. Mid-level
and lower-level employees often have
crucial operational knowledge about
business processes, market develop-
ments, competitors and customer needs
that must be utilized. Organizations
often fail to tap into this valuable re-
source by employing a top-down strate-
gy development process in which lower-
level employees are not involved.
Commitment requires participation.
Involving key employees, middle man-
agers and stakeholders is the best way
to secure their commitment. Commit-
ment to the strategy can be build by
allowing them to participate in strategy
development and taking their views
seriously. To do this, leaders must
adopt an inclusive strategy development
process that ensures ownership of the
strategy from the top to the bottom
layer in the organization. The aim is to
achieve a collective buy-in of all levels
of staff. Divisions can be represented by
all the direct reports to the group man-
aging director. At the departmental
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STRATEGY IN AFRICA

4
level, all managers in the given depart-
ment should be involved in formulating
the departmental strategy. Ideally,
managers involve key employees to
solicit their views and test the strategy.
Securing such commitment through
participation is not easy and requires
time and energy from top management
and middle management.
When strategies are developed in a
top down fashion with little participation
from key middle managers and key
lower-level employees there is often a
lack of support for it. We found that
strategy development can be rather top
down in international organizations. In
such organizations, strategies are
sometimes developed in a generic man-
ner given the need to remain consistent
across different regions and countries
across the globe.
However, involving employees does
not only apply to the strategy develop-
ment process but the entire strategy
execution process. Our research found
that when participation into the devel-
opment process at the different points
of execution is minimal this is a key
barrier to the success of a strategy.
Involve key stakeholders in strate-
gy development It is not only crucial
to involve employees but external
stakeholders as well. When developing
a strategy, key stakeholders must be
consulted at the early stages in order to
take into account their views on the
strategy and value proposition of the
organization. It is especially important
to involve and convince key stakehold-
ers that can influence the strategy such
as regulatory agencies and donors. In
Africa there are wide variety of active
international donors that provide fund-
ing to a wide range of products and
services. African businesses generally
tend to have a high degree of depend-
ence on foreign sources of finance and
development assistance from donor
countries. Consequently, involving them
and testing the proposed strategy with
them is crucial to gain their commit-
ment. The strategy should answer a real
need of crucial stakeholders. A way of
gaining commitment from external
stakeholders is being very transparent
about the strategy.
REASONS FOR LOW STRATEGY
COMMITMENT
A low commitment to the strategy can
be as a result of the following:
Strategy development is a one-man
show. It occurs when the new strategy
is first and foremost a pet project of the
chief executive officer. When this hap-
pens, the CEO only involves a few sen-
ior staff who he or she knows very well
and trusts or involves external consult-
ants in the strategy process. The result
is that many managers and employees
are not involved in the strategy process
and are not likely to be committed to it.
Such an approach almost always results
in failure.
Leadership team pays lip service to
the strategy. Organizations may want
to develop a new strategy for internal
and promotional purposes. Developing a
new strategy tends to disturb the status
quo within organizations. Even the
thought of a new strategy often threat-
ens established positions within an or-
ganization. As a result, strategies are
often developed without a real drive to
change things. A new strategy is devel-
oped and presented to employees and
stakeholders but most things stay as
they are and most important positions
stay as they are. The new strategy ef-
fectively changes nothing. Clearly such
an approach will not ideally result in
good organizational performance. It
may work in an established organization
with a decent strategy in a stable envi-
ronment. However, such an approach
may result in failure in turbulent envi-
ronments where frequent strategic
changes are required to keep up with
the external and internal changes.
Strategy team is not involved in
execution. It often occurs that the
strategy is developed by a temporary
strategy team that is not involved in the
actual execution of the strategy. For
them it’s just a project that they will

STRATEGY IN AFRICA

5
discard when the strategy has been
developed. This is especially the case
when the strategy is developed by ex-
ternal consultants who are not involved
in the execution of the strategy. This is
problematic due to a number of rea-
sons. First, the strategy team has no
real incentive to investigate and test
whether the strategy is executable and
really works in the marketplace. Se-
cond, developing a strategy is not a
one-time event. Strategies need to be
continuously monitored and adapted to
keep up with the increasingly turbulent
business environment. Third, when the
managers and key employees who have
to execute the strategy are not involved
in its development they are not likely to
be committed to it. Finally, the strategy
is likely to contain flaws when middle
managers and lower level employees
are not involved in the strategy process.
Middle and lower-level employees often
have valuable knowledge about work
processes, customer preferences, com-
petitor and other valuable insights,
which are often not known to senior
management. This is especially the case
in hierarchical organization where a lot
of valuable information is filtered as it
travels up the chain of command.
LACKING STRATEGIC
ANALYSIS AND DATA
Successful strategies tend to be
based on rigorous strategic analysis
that requires relevant and accurate
data. This tends to be a challenge in
African organizations as they tend to
lack data and analytical skills.
Insufficient data. Most sound strate-
gies are based on a thorough strategic
analysis. There are of course exceptions
when visionary entrepreneurs or chief
executive officers have powerful gut
feelings or intuitions about what works
in the marketplace. Such leaders tend
to be very rare. A thorough strategic
analysis involves an in-depth analysis of
threats and opportunities in the busi-
ness environment and an honest as-
sessment of strengths and weaknesses
of the internal organization. Increasing-
ly a thorough understanding of relevant
technological developments is crucial.
Such a robust strategic analysis in
turn is highly dependent on information
which is not always available. A sound
strategic analysis requires a variety of
data on competitors, business process-
es, market developments, customer
needs, demographics and technological
trends and much more. Gathering such
data and information is always a chal-
lenge especially in many African coun-
tries. Our interviewees pointed out that
collecting market information and in-
formation on competitors was a major
challenge in strategy development. Col-
lecting sound data tends to take consid-
erable time, which is often not availa-
ble.
Poor research and analysis. A fact-
based analysis has a great value in
strategy development. However, strate-
gies are often not based on rigorous
analysis but on gut feeling. While a fact-
based strategy is often to be preferred,
a strategy based on an intuition can be
just as valuable. Developing a sound
strategy often boils down to translating
the strategy into a set of hypotheses
that can be tested in the marketplace.
These hypotheses must be based on a
proper and realistic analysis of market
trends. Our research found that a strat-
egy may fail because of poor research
and a lack of feasibility studies. Access-
ing accurate data in Africa is one of the
challenges executives face.
The task of the entrepreneur or ex-
ecutive team is to test these hypotheses
as quickly as possible without losing
sight of the organizations overall vision
and strengths and weaknesses. Such
hypothesis can be based on a gut feel-
ing or intuition just as well. However,
when such hypotheses or intuitions are
not deliberately tested, the organization
may cling to flawed assumptions about
the marketplace, organization or strate-
gy.
Failure to identify organizational
weaknesses. Every strategic analysis
requires a thorough and honest under-
standing of the strengths and weak-
2

STRATEGY IN AFRICA

6
nesses of the organization and external
threats and opportunities. A sound
strategy is built around the strengths of
an organization and aims to reduce its
weaknesses. Managers and analysts can
be blind to the strengths and weakness-
es of the organization if thorough analy-
sis is not done. Lower-level employees
often have a good understanding of the
strengths and weaknesses of their or-
ganization. They are the ones who pro-
duce and deliver the services of the
organization and come most into con-
tact with all employees. However, front
line employees are often not involved in
strategy development. To reduce the
blindness to organizational weaknesses
and external threats, leaders must en-
sure that the strategy team is diverse
and involves critical people who dare to
challenge dominant assumptions and
hypotheses. During the strategy process
it is important to actively seek out the
critical assumptions that underpin the
strategy and about the industry and
organization.
Lack of environmental scanning.
Successful strategy development re-
quires extensive environmental scan-
ning in order to gain an in-depth under-
standing of the business environment.
To stay competitive, leaders must build
outward looking organizations that fo-
cus on customer needs and industry
trends.
Many organizations are inward fo-
cused. The focus of managers and em-
ployees is often on developing and mar-
keting the products of the organization.
Hierarchical organizations with a func-
tional organization structure tend to be
inward looking. In such organizations,
people tend to erect artificial barriers
between organizational units and tend
to focus on the goals and interests of
their own department. When this hap-
pens, their focus shifts from company
goals and customers towards internal
politics. Little time is spent on following
and analyzing developments outside of
the organization. This breeds a “silo”
mentality within the organization. Fur-
thermore, many organizations, and
especially smaller ones, lack depart-
ments or individuals whose responsibil-
ity it is to scan and analyze the envi-
ronment. Consequently, developments
that may have a negative impact on the
organization are often signaled too late
or not at all.
LACKING RESOURCES
No strategy can be developed and
executed without sufficient resources.
While securing sufficient resources is
often a challenge in many nations, it is
even more of a challenge in many Afri-
can nations. We found that there is
often a restriction on the resources
available to deliver the strategy.
Capital markets are less developed.
As capital markets tend to be less de-
veloped in Africa, organizations have
more difficulty in obtaining sufficient
funding for the strategy. As a result,
many strategies do not reach their full
potential due to a lack of resources.
Securing sufficient funding to execute
the strategy is crucial for its success in
Africa. Funding for strategy requires the
development of a well thought out and
thorough business case and extensive
lobbying for funds at the corporate
headquarters or external financiers such
as banks, venture capitalists, develop-
ment funds and international donors.
We found that a lack of funding is an-
other key reason why strategies fail in
Africa. It is key to not only secure
enough resource for the development of
the strategy but also for its execution.
Accurately estimating the costs and
revenues of the execution of a strategy
is a challenge for many organizations.
As result, many strategies are executed
without sufficient funding to execute the
strategy properly. Successful strategy
development and execution requires
adequate budget allocation.
Matching growth and human re-
sources. Organizations in African coun-
tries tend to be rather small. As a re-
sult, successful organizations tend to
grow quickly. A key challenge for execu-
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STRATEGY IN AFRICA

7
tives and managers is to find and hire
the right employees at the right time.
Different capabilities, and thus different
people, are often needed as an organi-
zation grows through different stages to
maturity. This requires careful recruit-
ment, hiring and promotion of people
with the right knowledge, skills and
mindsets. Regrettably this often also
involves demoting or even letting go of
people who cannot keep up with the
growth of the organization.
African firms often lack skilled staff.
Organizations are as good as the people
that work for it. The key challenge of an
organization and its management team
is to ensure the best people are hired,
maintained and appointed to the right
positions. However, finding skilled man-
agers and employees is not easy in
Africa.
Developing a strategy requires ex-
pertise. Not only do organizations need
to make time for strategy development,
they also need the required skills and
expertise to do it. Strategists must have
thorough understanding about strategy
methods, his or her organization, the
business environment and customer
needs and increasingly relevant techno-
logical developments. This requires
considerable strategic planning exper-
tise which is not easy to find in Western
countries let alone in African countries.
We found that a lack of strategy making
knowledge is a reason why strategies
fail in Africa.
Strategists must be able to manage
the strategy process. Strategists
must be able to successfully manage
the whole strategy process from strate-
gic analysis to strategy development
and even strategy execution. We found
that experienced strategists often have
considerable expertise about how to
develop a strategy. However, they often
lack knowledge and skills about strategy
execution and how to manage strategy
development and execution as an inte-
grated process.
Developing a strategy takes time.
Most organizations spend very little
time on strategy. A global survey found
that top management teams spend less
than three hours a month discussing
strategy issues or making strategic de-
cisions (Harvard Business Review,
2004). Developing a sound strategy
takes considerable time and must con-
tinuously be monitored and adapted
when needed. From our interviews it
emerged that organizations struggle to
find the time to meet and develop the
strategy. Organizations tend to focus on
the day-to-day operational issues.
VISIONARY
LEADERSHIP
Visionary leadership is a fourth
key factor for successful strategy devel-
opment in Africa. Successful strategies
are often guided by a vision of the or-
ganization that the strategy aims to
achieve. Our research found that the
organizations who successfully devel-
oped and executed their strategy were
often guided by a visionary leader. The
visionary leader develops and passion-
ately communicates an attractive vision
of the organization and in some cases,
the strategy that outlines how to
achieve it. This role is best filled by the
CEO himself or herself.
The CEO as steward of the strategic
vision. The CEO acts as a steward of
the vision, guides and inspires the
strategy development, and later on the
strategy execution process. One of the
key tasks of top management, and es-
pecially the CEO, is to develop and
communicate the vision and strategy.
The task of top management is not fin-
ished when the vision and strategy de-
velopment are finished. The CEO and
top management must continuously
refine or adapt the vision and strategy
to maintain alignment with the ever-
changing business environment.
Develop a sound vision. Successful
strategy development begins with the
development of a clear vision by the
leaders of the organization. The vision
describes what the organization aims to
achieve. The vision draws an attractive
4

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8
picture of the desired future state of the
organization. The vision guides the de-
velopment of the strategy. The strategy
describes how the organization aims to
achieve the vision. The vision is based
on an honest assessment of where the
organization is at that point in time and
describes what the organization is to
become. This involves being clear on
the organization’s competitive ad-
vantage or disadvantage if any. To
achieve strategic success, it is crucial to
understand what the organization is
good at and what its weaknesses are.
We found that a lack of clarity of the
organization’s vision is a key reason
why a strategy may fail in Africa. People
lack a direction during the execution of
the strategy when there is no clear vi-
sion of where the business wants to go.
Vision, value statements and trust are
often emphasized during formulation of
the strategy but during implementation
they are forgotten.
Communicate the vision. The task of
senior management is to develop such a
vision and communicate it to employ-
ees, customers and stakeholders. A
clear and attractive vision gives guid-
ance to the strategy development pro-
cess. A major barrier to successful
strategy development is the lack of
clear communication of the vision.
When there is no clear vision, members
of the strategy team and involved em-
ployees have no clear direction for their
efforts.
A successful leader inspires organi-
zational members by communicating a
captivating vision designed to motivate
them to achieve ambitious goals. An
attractive vision of a possible future of
the organization gives guidance to the
strategy and its execution. By creating a
vision and communicating that vision to
organizational members, leaders give a
direction to organizational members.
This gives organizational members clari-
ty and security about the strategy. This
has a very positive effect on the com-
mitment to the organization and its
strategy. Effective leaders have the
ability to inspire confidence and enthu-
siasm for the new direction of the or-
ganization. Furthermore, leaders must
radiate confidence in the strategy to the
rest of the organization. By radiating
confidence, management can build the
confidence of organizational members
who have to implement the strategy.
INTERNAL ALIGNMENT
Developing a sound strategy
requires an alignment of the strategy
team, the organization as a whole and
across organizational units.
Strategy requires coordination
across organization units. Successful
strategy development requires a coordi-
nated effort of all organizational units.
Ideally, the strategy capitalizes on the
synergy between the involved functions
of organizational units. Building such an
integrated strategy requires extensive
interdepartmental coordination. Howev-
er, many organizations are organized
into functional departments. As a result,
parts of the strategy are developed
individually without the other depart-
ment understanding how their strategy
interacts with other parts of the strate-
gy. As a result, the strategy is made up
of many individual strategies which do
not constitute an integrated whole. A
sound strategy requires extensive coop-
eration of all the departments involved.
The task of senior management and the
strategy team is to manage the interde-
partmental cooperation and integrate
the contributions of each department
into the strategy.
We found that some strategies are
developed individually without the other
department understanding how their
strategies interact with others. This is
often the result of the silo mentality.
Forge a competent strategy team.
Successful strategy development also
requires a competent and aligned strat-
egy team. A good strategy team con-
sists of a mix of seasoned line manag-
ers, young and ambitious functional
experts and a few key employees. The
strategy team must be able to collabo-
rate well and make full use of its inter-
5

STRATEGY IN AFRICA

9
disciplinary expertise. This requires
constant communication within the
team. To do this, the members of the
strategy team should be made free from
their daily work for the duration of the
strategy development process. Some
organizations even held bonding ses-
sions to improve the cooperation and
knowledge sharing within the strategy
team. Strategy development is team-
work and involves extensive positive
criticism. Such positive criticism can be
organized by setting up a sounding
board.
Align the organization. For a strategy
to be successful it is crucial that the
organization is aligned to it. Even the
best strategy is useless if the organiza-
tion does not support it. When the or-
ganization does not support the strate-
gy – especially top and middle man-
agement – its execution will fail. Study
after study have shown that a lack of
organizational commitment is a key
barrier to successful strategy develop-
ment and execution. Our research found
that this also applies to African organi-
zations. A key task of senior manage-
ment and the strategy team is to gain
commitment to the strategy from the
organization and especially middle
management.
ADAPT THE STRATEGY
TO THE LOCAL CONTEXT
Even the best strategy can be
rendered obsolete by changed circum-
stances. Political and cultural factors
impact the development process and
consequent execution. There are al-
ways external dynamics that are past
the organization’s control. Just as eve-
rywhere around the globe, the external
business environment in Africa is rapidly
changing. Organizations need to contin-
ually monitor the developments in the
internal organization and external busi-
ness environment and how it impacts
the strategy of the organization.
Even the best strategy can become
obsolete. There are always external
dynamics that are past the organiza-
tion’s control. There are always un-
known factors that may come into play:
political unrest, regulatory changes and
ever terrorism among many other
things. Life span of organization’s strat-
egies has continually shifted from 5
years or more to less than 3 years.
Continuously adapt the strategy.
The strategy of the organization and its
execution must be continuously moni-
tored to assess whether it is still work-
ing or not. This requires an annual
strategy management system that de-
velops, monitors and adapts the strate-
gy and its execution.
Use scenarios. Developing a strategy
often involves developing scenarios
about what can happen in the external
environment of the organization. These
possible external developments are then
translated into financial and organiza-
tional consequences for the organiza-
tion. After developing a maximum of
three scenarios several strategies are
developed that allow the organization to
deal with external changes as described
by the scenarios.
Adapt the strategy to local circum-
stances. At times one-size fits all strat-
egies are pushed down by outsiders to
countries that have different realities on
the ground. Strategy developed can be
generic in nature in international organ-
izations given the need to remain con-
sistent across different regions and
countries across the globe. This means
that adoption in the local context, might
not be consistent with the generic cor-
porate strategy, given the differing ma-
turity levels of the local markets that
would need to adopt strategy. With
strategy at the local context somewhat
lagging behind the corporate strategy,
the business objectives outlined at the
corporate level might never be realized
in time in the local context therefore
lowering the average level of strategy
success.
Adapt the strategy to local reality.
For any strategy to be successful it
must be aligned with the local African
reality. From our interviews, it emerged
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10
that this was not always the case. In-
ternational organizations or foreign or-
ganizations tend to adopt a strategy
that has been successful in other, often
non-African, countries. Such a strategy
often fails due to unforeseen local reali-
ties. Such a strategy must be adapted
to local circumstances and even more
important tested in practice. The exter-
nal environment as captured in the
strategy document and what actually is
happening on the ground can be totally
different.
Respect local culture. Culture plays a
great role in how executive teams de-
velop strategy. CEOs in Africa, are
more likely to reject the corporate
strategy if it does not respect the cul-
tural norms of the society from which
the CEO emanates. This is more preva-
lent in SMEs where the CEO is also the
founder. Therefore, issues such as re-
cruitment, market entry, expansion and
product design are all affected to some
degree by the culture of the socie-
ty. For example, at a recent launch of a
world class engineering department of
an institution in West Africa, the plan-
ning and launch could not go on without
the blessings and presence of the local
chief of the clan where the University is
based. Traditional drums and musical
instruments were used to usher in the
chief and this signified his entry and
acceptance of the way forward. The
speakers, who included prominent per-
sonalities, had to first pay homage to
the chief before addressing the issues.
Be careful with language. Different
words mean different things to many
people across Africa. Therefore, its im-
portant that important concepts of the
strategy are properly translated into the
local language. Furthermore, in order to
succeed, cascading the strategy down in
the organization should be based on
experiential learning as opposed to lec-
tures and class based designs on-
ly. When one-way communication
methods are use, it is likely that misun-
derstandings can occur. There is a need
for two-way communication and follow
up in order to ensure that the strategy
that the strategy team has developed,
is understood in the same way across
the regions. When organizational mem-
bers do not have a shared understand-
ing of the strategy and its goals it can
never be successful.

TRANSLATE THE STRATEGY
INTO OBJECTIVES
After the strategy is developed it
must be translated into sound, clear
and realistic objectives that are linked
to departmental, process and individual
goals. It is crucial that the goals are
prioritized and few. Three to five key
strategic objectives work best to priori-
tize the strategy. In addition, progress
measurement points or ‘milestones’
should be established for each objec-
tive. It is important not to just focus on
the end results of the strategy but also
on the intermediate goals or milestones.
Without concrete and measurable
objectives and milestones, it is difficult
to monitor whether the implementation
is on track or whether adjustments
need to be made. This makes managing
and improving the strategy implementa-
tion impossible. Therefore, the imple-
mentation plan needs to contain clear
and measurable objectives or targets.
Unclear objectives leave room for dif-
ferential interpretation and discretion
and can contribute to implementation
failure.
Develop ambitious but realistic ob-
jectives. Ambitious but realistic objec-
tives give the organization a challenge.
This increases the work motivation of
managers and employees. When the
objectives of the strategy are perceived
to be too ambitious by managers and
employees, this will reduce their moti-
vation. Specific and ambitious but real-
istic objectives, that are accepted by
employees result in the best work per-
formance. People who set high goals
perform better than those who set low
goals. People need realistic challenges
to perform well. When organizational
members have decided that it is impos-
sible to reach a goal they will stop try-
7

STRATEGY IN AFRICA

11
ing to reach that goal. Goals that are
too ambitious goals reduce the motiva-
tion of organizational members.
Beware of overambitious strategic
goals. We found that the goals of many
strategies tend to be very ambitious.
While ambitious goals may be very
helpful for gaining support for the strat-
egy, this creates challenges during the
execution of strategy. An ambitious
strategy may create great hope but
tends to result in disappointment. When
organizational members come to the
realization that the strategy and its
goals are too ambitious they are not
likely to make a sincere effort to
achieve them. Furthermore, when or-
ganizational members perceive that the
strategy is too ambitious or not realistic
they will not be committed to it.
Develop clear and understandable
objectives. A strategy can never be-
come a success when it does not have
clear objectives that it aims to achieve.
A strategy with concrete goals is easier
to understand for employees. Concrete
objectives increase the employees’
commitment to the strategy. Without
concrete objectives and milestones,
organizational members do not know
what has to be achieved and where the
implementation effort is going.
Furthermore, when managers and
employees do not understand what the
goals of the strategy are, they cannot
achieve them. It is crucial that all em-
ployees have a clear understanding of
the goals of the strategy. A misunder-
standing or a lack of understanding of
the organizational objectives and goals
is a key reason why strategies fail in
Africa, we found.
Develop concrete goals and objec-
tives. The goals of the strategy must
not only be sound, clear and realistic
but also concrete. Our research found
that vague goals are a key barrier to
successful strategy development. Or-
ganizational members do not know what
to do and achieve when the goals of the
strategy are vague.
Cascade objectives down to de-
partments and individuals. After the
objectives of the strategy are developed
they must be cascaded down into the
organization. This involves translating
the strategic objectives into divisional,
departmental and finally individual
goals. Each organizational unit and indi-
vidual must have concrete goals that
are linked to the strategy of the organi-
zation. These goals must be monitored
during the execution of the strategy.
These goals are not cast in stone and
must be regularly updated to remain
aligned with the strategy. The strategy
and its goals must be continuously up-
dated in order to maintain a fit with the
ever-changing business environment.
ABOUT THE RESEARCH
This article is based on a survey over 20
executives and managers with strategy
responsibilities in Kenya in Africa.
Interviewees. The primary source of
data in this research are 24 semi-
structured depth interviews held with 20
senior executives and consultants (chief
executives, board level directors, or
department heads immediately below)
who had been directly involved in a
strategy implementation across several
countries. Interviews were conducted in
Africa with executives who initiated the
implementation process and monitored
its progress, and sometimes other key
people involved in the implementation.
Of the interviewees, 18 were nationals
from Kenya, one was an expatriate from
the United States of America, and one
was from the United Kingdom. 15 inter-
viewees were male and only five inter-
viewees were female. Strategic Planning
is still a male dominated field in Kenya.
Some of the interviewees have respon-
sibility for more than one countries in
Africa. They stated that the issues cut
across these countries.
Organizations. The organizations con-
sisted of real estate, oil and gas, manu-
facturing and service organizations in
the public, and private. Nineteen or-
ganizations were private firms, and only
one was a public organization. Com-

STRATEGY IN AFRICA

12
pared to American or European
measures most of the organizations in
our sample are of small or medium size.
The average business size of Kenyan
organizations is rather small, with ex-
ceptions such as the food and beverage,
hospitality, and the electricity company.
The companies ranged from a turnover
of USD 1 million to USD 500 million. In
2014, Kenya counted over 18,500 local
companies and a total number of em-
ployees of over 759000, which results in
an average number of employees of 41
employees per organization (Kenya
Association of Manufacturers, 2015).
The size of the surveyed organizations
varied from a very small architectural
firm (eleven employees) to a medium
size food and beverage firm (4200 em-
ployees).
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Arnoud van der Maas (arnoud
@strataegos.com) is a strategy consultant
and author in strategy execution. He is an
international expert in strategy execution.
Arnoud is owner of Strataegos Consulting
– a strategy consultancy with a focus on
strategy execution based in the Nether-
lands. Arnoud received a PhD in Strategy
from Rotterdam School of Management,
Erasmus University – one of the top busi-
ness schools in Europe. Connect with him
on LinkedIn or follow him on SlideShare or
Twitter for articles and presentations on
strategy and strategy execution.
Geoffrey Otieno (geoffrey.otieno
@enreal.co.ke) is an International Strate-
gy and Business Development Consultant
working for Enreal Limited, a company he
founded in 2007, in Nairobi, Kenya. Prior
to fully engaging at Enreal, he worked
during a period of 21 years total at Sproxil
East Africa as Country Director, a Director
of Nokia looking after various African
countries, Microsoft, and Eastman Kodak
in various roles across many countries in
the world. Mr. Otieno has an MBA from
Strathmore Business School and a Bache-
lor of Commerce (Business Administration)
from the University of Nairobi. He is a
Volunteer Business Coach at Stanford
University, USA, and volunteers as a
coach on bidnetwork to help SMEs grow
their businesses. He is also pursuing his
PhD in Strategy. Mr Otieno has served on
several boards in various companies in
Africa.

Strategy in Africa

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