A study to determine and provide recommendations concerning the possible strategic gaps in Amalahle Maintenance Services.

Abstract

This study was concerned with determining and providing recommendations for the possible strategic gaps of Amalahle Maintenance Services. This company is a small to medium enterprise offering maintenances services within the Power Generation industry of Eskom. During the study, an in-depth literature review was done to analyse the 21 st century strategy trends, the impact of these trends on small to medium enterprises such as AMS, the reasons for failures among small to medium enterprises, a comparison of strategy theories appropriate to AMS current situation and a review of maintenance and safety management techniques. This review was performed to determine the importance of strategic management for small to medium enterprises in the new economy. The review also determined the importance of strategic management in the new economy for the survival of companies large and small. A case study research strategy was chosen due to the unknown strategic gaps. The research was both qualitative and exploratory as the study concentrated on finding the possible strategic gaps. A literature review was also performed on the strategic management process in order to develop a framework to determine the current situation faced by the firm and to evaluate the current situation to determine the strategic gaps and also to provide recommendations. The strategic management process developed by Johnson and Scholes (1998) was adapted to determine and provide recommendations concerning the possible strategic gaps. The management process included three categories of strategic analysis, strategic choice and strategic implementation. These three categories were utilised to determine the current strategic analysis, that is, the external and internal environment of AMS, current business level and functional level strategic choices made by the firm, and the current strategic implementation, which included the firm's structure, controls, culture and leadership. The three categories of strategic analysis, strategic choice and strategic implementation were thereafter evaluated to determine the possible strategic gaps. The evaluation process was also broken up into the three strategic management processes. The strategic analysis included the STEEP, industry, competitor, stakeholder, functional capability and resource, and the SWOT analysis techniques. The SWOT analysis technique was also utilised to determine the current strategic options for AMS. The strategic choices made by the firm, together with the strategic options determined by the SWOT analyses were evaluated by the following techniques: SWOT interaction matrix, industry life cycle, positioning, value chain, grand strategy matrix and the grand strategy cluster to determine the possible strategic gaps and provide recommendations for strategic choices. The strategic implementation was evaluated by comparing the theories in Chapter Two to the current situation of the strategic implementation represented in Chapter Three. The evaluation of the strategic implementation determined the strategic gaps between the strategic choices and implementation. The final step included the recommendations for each of the evaluated strategic analysis, strategic choice and strategic implementation categories and their respective subcategories. Since the strategic gaps were unknown it was appropriate to utilise the entire management process as a strategic fault finding tool.