Identifying key success factors of strategic planning in retail branches of a South African bank

Abstract

This study focused on identification of success factors of strategy implementation in retail branches of a bank. The objective of this study was to identify and investigate the possible factors which influence successful implementation of strategic plans in a retail banking environment. In doing so, establish various factors that inhibit successful strategy implementation and explore approaches or best practices that could be adopted to facilitate effective implementation of strategic decisions. The data was collected through questionnaires distributed to the branch managers of the institution. 153 respondents out of a population of 615 participated in the study. The results showed that understanding one’s local market, knowing your customer, communication, leadership, culture-strategy alignment, resources-strategy alignment, rewards and tactical plan are the top success factors of strategy implementation within branches of this bank.