Mwananchi Wood and Roofing Products Limited (MWRPL) started its operations in the year 2011 as a partnership
business run by Peter and Patrick. Both partners were accomplished entrepreneurs and were officials of the County
Chamber of Commerce which greatly assisted its members in generating business ideas. The partnership converted into a
private company in the year 2015 as a result of significant business growth. Peter and Patrick were the first directors of
MWRPL. When the partnership converted into a private company, the directors moved their head office from
Murungaru, a small town in Nyandarua County to Nairobi City.
The two were involved in the day to day running of their company though they were board members. Peter was the
chairman of the board of directors while Patrick was the chief executive officer (CEO). Patrick was responsible for
operations in the company, Peter was responsible for leadership, marketing and human resource in addition to carrying
out the chairman’s role. This at times brought about confusion in the company leading to bad decisions.
Due to the complexities associated with the shift from partnership to a company and the confusion in decision making,
MWRPL hired the services of Mamlaka Management Consultancy (MMC) to assist in establishing working structures
and recruitment of relevant key personnel. Before the consultants came on board, the business had a workforce of 67
employees, a few working on permanent basis while majority were engaged on temporary contracts.
The Consultants analysed the defunct partnership business to establish strengths and weaknesses and recommended a
divisional structure. They also advised that all the employees who were retained by the business after conversion into a
company for them to change their mindset. MMC also recommended to MWRPL to recruit new employees in order to
fill identified skills gap. The consultants insisted that the staff recruited be apt in intuition, technology, data collection,
analysis and dissemination of information to ensure decisions in the company were mainly arrived at scientifically. The
new employees were to focus on both internal and external matters affecting the company.
The company’s main objective as stated in its Memorandum of Association was to offer wood and roofing products in
the country. MWRPL segmented its market by offering tailor made solutions to two classes of customers; furniture for
home owners and roof construction for the construction industry. The company adopted diverse marketing as its primary
marketing strategy.
Most of the company’s operations took a job shop approach. For each segment, the company worked on one project at a
time before moving to the next project. Project scheduling skills were necessary to the production managers so as to
ensure customer orders were completed on time. This ensured high levels of customer satisfaction.
To continuously improve the quality of its products, MWRPL invested heavily in technology and customer service. A
slogan was devised and circulated “think and delight the customer”. Improved quality of its products and services has
resulted into lowering of the production cost. As compared to the competitors, the market now prefers MWRPL’s
products due to quality and affordability.
The company diversified its services to capture new customers and markets. In year 2021 and after carrying out an
environmental analysis, MWRPL noted an opportunity through its research and marketing department and included solar
appliances in its products offering. This targeted low-income earners in rural areas who were not connected to the
national electricity power grid.
By mid-2022, the demand for the wood products and roofing services had exponentially expanded with the company’s
clientele being spread in all the 47 counties in the country. MWRPL has since expanded its operations and services and
has opened branches in all East African Countries. The company has future plans of opening branches in West African
countries.
Required:
(a) Explain why the following are important to MWRPL:
(i) Internal analysis.
(ii) External analysis.
(b) The County Chamber of Commerce assisted its members in generating business ideas.
Discuss FIVE techniques that could have been used by the members to generate business ideas.
(c) Analyse FIVE characteristics of the organisational structure recommended by Mamlaka Management
Consultancy (MMC).
(d) Despite being board members, Peter and Patrick were involved in the day to day running of their company
leading to bad decisions.
With reference to the above statement, analyse FOUR inhibitors to effective decision making.
(e) MWRPL adopted diverse marketing as its primary marketing strategy.
Propose to MWRPL, SEVEN strategies that they could use while developing a diverse marketing campaign.
(f) MWRPL’s production managers were expected to possess project scheduling skills in order for them to be
effective.
Highlight SIX contents they could have included in their project schedules.
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