Diversification Strategy the Case of Nation Media Group
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DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGY // THE CASE OF NATION MEDIA GROUP. 1 PRESENTED BY: NJOROGE THJLIO A MANAGEMENT PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, FACULTY OF COMMERCE, UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI DECLARATION This is my original work and has not been submitted for a degree in any other university. Date - 11 - The project has been submitted for examination with my approval as the university supervisor Date. 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I feel duty bound to acknowledge the many people who were instrumental in the completion of this project. I wish to thank and acknowledge my supervisor, Prof. Evans Aosa for his enduring guidance, support and inspiration. I wish also to express my thanks to the Faculty Commerce MBA lecturers who without their contribution in class sessions, this work would have not been possible. Others including, my lecturers at Daystar University, and teachers at other levels, I am grateful. Mrs. Muturi, whose work can be traced on every alphabet of this paper and I am truly indebted. Judy, Kamathi, Hilda, Wakhisi, Suzanne, Lillian, Maggie and others whom I have shared classes with, your contribution and critique as friends and colleagues in college is immense. Not to forget Nicholas Gichiri who provided me with the computer facilities and Florence Koros, for your assistance, I couldn’t be more grateful. The help accorded to me by Mr. Wilfred Kiboro, the chief executive of the Nation Media Group (NMG) and other staff members cannot go unappreciated. I am grateful to my family, particularly my parents who denied themselves so much to for the sake of my future. I am also grateful to my siblings who gave me a chance to advance this far. Ngugi, Kamau and Wambui you are the greatest. iii Lastly and certainly not the least, I wish to acknowledge and be grateful to God Almighty, in whom I live, I move and have my being. DEDICATION To my parents, who besides providing, challenged me in the way of excellence. To Ngugi, Kamau and Wambui who were pillars of my psyche and inspiration. Lastly to Evanson Njoroge Wa Gutu. ABSTRACT The study was undertaken to investigate and document the experiences of a diversified firm. This stems from the fact that here have been a number of studies that have been conducted in the past and have yielded mixed results. The study took the Nation Media Group as a unit of study. The research problem was therefore to document the experience of Nation Media Group with diversification. To be able to derive this information, a case study design was used. This is because of the very probing nature of a case study that would help achieve the objective of the study. The study results gave indications to the extent of NMGs diversification, the reasons for diversification, the implementation of the said strategy and the performance of the firm in the light of this strategy. The extent of diversification was looked at from the perspective of diversification by breadth, diversification mode and geographic diversification. Diversification by mode established that the company largely used internal diversification or start-ups in Kenya with an exception of a few and went for external diversification for all the international ventures. For geographic diversification, it was established that the company has entered so far to all the countries in East Africa but so far to none to the central African region despite the desire to be the leading multi-media company in the East and Central African region. It was established that choice of diversification was mainly due to the strategic intent of the company. In implementation, the major structures included the board and the executive committee. The process, that the strategy was planned and the chronology of diversification since 1998 is given. vi The performance indicators of the firm have also been presented. These indicators include the financial, internal as well customer perspective. The indicators present an all rounded perspective on diversification and why NMG may be considered successful with diversification. The limitations of the study included; the company policy on information outflow, significant use of secondary data, other factors contributing to performance other than diversification and the policy of consolidating the accounts. For further research, it was recommended that there should be a study on a firm that has had disastrous results with diversification; a study on a number of firms in the same industry and find out their experiences with diversification; a study on competitive advantage derived from diversification and a study impact of diversification on the different business units in a diversified firm. Vll TABLE OF CONTENT_________________________________________________ Page Declaration........................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................iii Dedication...........................................................................................................................v Abstract..............................................................................................................................vi Table of contents.............................................................................................................viii List of tables..................................................................................................................... x List of figures.....................................................................................................................xi List of appendices............................................................................................................. xii CHAPTER ONE: BACKGROUND......................................................................1 1.1 Statement of the problem......................................................................................5 1.2 Objective of the study............................................................................................6 1.4 Importance of the study.........................................................................................6 1.5 Overview of the study report presentation............................................................7 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................................8 2.1 The Corporate Strategy.........................................................................................8 2.2 Diversification......................................................................................................12 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.............................................23 3.1 Research Design...................................................................................................23 3.2 Data Collection 23 viii 3.3 Data Analysis 24 CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS........................25 4.1 Introduction.........................................................................................................25 4.2 The Organization’s profile.................................. ..................................................25 4.3 Extent of diversification.......................................................................................26 4.4 Implementation..................................................................................................... 37 4.5 NMGs Performance.............................................................................................46 4.6 Discussions...........................................................................................................51 CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS........................................ 53 5.1 Conclusions......................................................................................................... 53 5.2 Recommendations..............................................................................................54 5.3 Limitations of the study.......................................................................................55 5.4 Suggestions for further research........................................................................ 56 REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................59 APPENDICES............................................................................................................................ 62 IX LIST OF TABLES________ _________________________________________ Page Table 1: Products and services ofNMG.....................................................................27 Table 2: Company/ Division Diversification...............................................................33 Table 3: Product/ Service diversification....................................................................34 Table 4: Five-Year Financial Summary......................................................................46 Table 5: Percentage Marginal increase in the financial figures..............................47 Table 6: Return on Shareholders Fund.......................................................................47 x LIST OF FIGURES_________________________________________________ Page Figure 1: Strategy - Capability Environment Link......................................................... 8 Figure 2: Cross business benefits.....................................................................................50