strategic responses to the environmental changes in the sugar industry: sony sugar company limited

Abstract

Recent history shows that Sugar Companies are producing sugar at a high cost, cannot pay all the farmerspromptly, at times harvest over mature canes in farms and are at rivalry with other firms notforgettingthe COMESA pressure. The research was seeking to examine the strategies which thesesugar industries are adopting from now and beyond in order to remain competitive in the sugarindustry. The objective of the study was to identify strategic responses used by Sony Sugar Companyto remain competitive within the sugar industry. The study will be significant for it willprovide pertinent information to stakeholders on how to respond to the ever changing businessenvironment and remain stable. The research was a case study of Sony Sugar Company aimedat identifying strategic i~ponses it is using in order to remain competitive in the industry. Theresearcher used the questionnaires to collect the data. The company has the population of onethousand two hundred and eighty three working in nine departments. However, the study focusedon four departments with a population of six hundred and eighty seven from which the respondentswould be sampled. The sample size was sixty nine respondents. The data collected wasqualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statisticswhile qualitative was analyzed using content analysis. The analyzed data was presented usingcharts, graphs and tables . Among the key findings established in the study was that there wasvarious marketing, human. resource, production and Information Technology strategies that SonySugar used as strategic responses towards changes. Among the marketing strategies that the companyused were; market segmentation, road network communication, packaging and local media advertisement. Human resource strategies included employee motivation through promotions, training, career developments, job evaluation, salary awards and fridge benefits. Production strategies included having enough workers, adequate equipments and enough land andmaterials. The study recommended that the company improve on its marketing strategy by adoptingother modes of communication instead of over relying on road network. It was also recommended that salary disparity among-: '€'mployees should be addressed as well as improvement on overreliance on internal promotions in recruitment. Research on quality, new developments and technological innovations should be done to enable the organizations in the sugar industry to be more responsive to environmental changes. Further research should be carried out in other similar organization in the sugar industry. It should also be done on administrative strategic responses, fmancial management strategic responses and agricultural strategicresponses which were not covered in this study.