strategic planning for investment clubs in zambia

Strategy Management provides overall direction to an organization and involves

specifying the organization's objectives, developing policies and plans designed to

achieve these objectives, and then allocating resources to implement the plans (Pankaj,

2002). It is critical to the development and expansion of all organizations, as it represents

the science of crafting and formulating short-term and long-term initiatives directed at

optimally achieving organizational objectives (Argenti, 1968).

Henri Fayol included Planning as one of the responsibilities of management, defining it

as an examining of the future, deciding what needs to be done and developing a plan of

action (Wren, Bedeian and Breeze, 2002). Strategic planning helps determine the

direction and scope of an organization over the long term, matching its resources to its

changing environment and, in particular, its markets, customers and clients, so as to meet

stakeholder expectations (Johnson and Scholes, 1999). According to Carpenter and Bauer

(2011) strategy can be intended or emergent.

Lately there has been a huge uptake of the Investment clubs “Chama” concept by many

– the government, youth, men and women in Kenya. There’s a hunger to invest, grow and

succeed and the fastest way to meet these goals is by setting up investment clubs, better

known as investment clubs. Here, members pool financial resources for a greater good. They are

slowly becoming an integral way of performing business and this has required the

informal investment clubs to go through the formal process of registration. They are

registered as welfare’s through the ministry of cooperatives. This is to safeguard

individual interests and that of the members of the clubs, which gives some generalities

for the future and opens for growth and development of the clubs (Kenya Association of

Investment clubs ZANAICA, 2021). As investment clubs grow and diversify, it is crucial that

proper management and strategic planning are implemented from inception so as to reach

their ultimate goal (ZANAICA, 2021)