Drivers of strategy execution among insurance companies in Kenya

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to explore the drives of strategy execution among Insurance companies in Kenya. The study sought to rank of the drivers of strategy execution among insurance companies, to assess the effect of strategy execution drivers based on size of the of insurance companies and identify the contribution of each department to the strategy execution process among insurance companies. The population was the 53 Insurance companies regulated by the Insurance regulatory authority. The population was stratified in terms of their market share with companies in the top half of IRA ranking categorized as group 1 and those in the bottom half categorized as group 2. Simple random sampling was used to reach a total of 60 respondents, 30 in group one and 30 in group two. This study clustered the departments into three: business development, operations and support services. The respondents were the heads of these departments and their assistants. To achieve the research objectives, the study used a self-administered questionnaire as the data collection tool. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and the findings were presented using tables, graphs and correlation matrix. Major research findings indicated that people are the main contributor to strategy execution gap, followed by alignment, systems and structure in that order. The second finding was that the bigger companies face system challenges while executing strategy while their smaller counterparts face challenges around people. Lastly, the human resource department contributes the most to the strategy execution gap, with the claims department contributing the least. Based on the findings, the study recommends adoption of more innovative strategies to manage human capital in insurance companies. Secondly, insurance companies need to investment in operational systems to match company growth. Lastly, insurance companies should enlighten their external customers on the claims processing cycle so as to manage the client’s expectations. The researcher suggests further studies be carried out how the human resource function can bridge the ‘people’ gap, why large companies with sufficient resources suffer ‘system’ problems and lastly how to manage the expectation gap between the insurance practitioners and customers on claims processing.