TO  advance this topic, today, we look at a few business trends that have unfolded in the recent past in Zambia.
These trends include business regulation, volatile competition and business desire to respond to opportunity through growth which disastrously resulted in corporate failure.
Other trends include lack of businesses to craft their own credible strategies resulting in “me too” strategies.
These situations ultimately highlight the role that a business consultant could play to enable a client business to sustain itself in the face of fierce competition and achieve sustainable growth and consequently prosper.
We discussed in our second article that the business consultancy and development practice is gaining a significant place world wide as business is increasingly becoming competitive and complex.
There are a lot of factors causing the business environment to be increasingly volatile, competitive and complex.
These factors include the increased mobility of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs), mergers and acquisitions, demergers, privatization of state owned enterprises to create private enterprises and the growing importance of stock markets as well as the significance of venture capital and private equity funds.
Changes in laws and regulations including forecast and desired growth directions in monetary regulatory requirements can result in increase in business costs in some sectors as has been the case with micro financial institutions in Zambia.
For now let us look at the trends in the micro- finance institutions in Zambia.
You will see various micro- financial Institutions on the market such as Microfinance (now Banc ABC), CETZAM Microfinance Opportunity Company Limited,  FINCA, and Bayport among others.
You will agree with me that there appears to be stiff competition in this business sector.
Until January 3 2013 when Bank of Zambia (BoZ) capped lending rate, the non- bank microfinance institutions were charging interest rates of even higher than 42 per cent.
According to a BoZ the rates before the restriction were exorbitant.
Association of Microfinance finance Institutions (AIMZ) official Webby Mate, later lamented that the restriction of interest rates had a telling effect on microfinance institutions and some institutions had closed branches and laid off workers.
The second case study that we can look at is the money transfer and bill payment systems currently on Airtel money, MTN money, Swift Cash, Western Union, ZOONA and Shoprite stores.
The money transfer business has recently undergone intense competition especially with the Shoprite stores recently diversifying into this business and charging K6 per transaction.
The competition has of course resulted in price reduction to customers in form of lower transaction fees but the intense competition may have a telling effect on businesses that have been longer in the trade.
The earlier entrants may have now given away a portion of their market share to their competitors.
Companies that came on the money transfer business scene earlier now have to defend their first mover advantage.
Other new entrants appear to be using micro – giant strategies, like the David – Goliath battle strategy.
In applied business strategy, depending on how the new entrants position themselves and how the first movers respond, the market share and profit margins in the industry could be split either way.
In any case, this is an applied case scenario where the business strategy consultants can be of great help to assist craft credible strategy and sometimes offer a disruptive service by overseeing the strategy implementation process.
For now, let us look at corporate failure in Zambia.
There are companies which started well several years ago and have found themselves faced with stiff competition from cheaper imported products and increasing cost of production.
Some of these firms have aggravated their situations by embarking on ambitious growth plans while at the same time failing to make decisions of either losing control of their companies in return for increased financing from other sources such as the Lusaka Stock
exchange.
In some cases some companies have had glaring opportunities to expand their business but what should have been a success story subsequently resulted in inevitable corporate failure.
Latest global research indicates that a large number of firms are family-owned businesses.
These companies need to appreciate strategic management and the importance of knowledge as a critical asset to the business.
The knowledge needs to be transferred and should evolve among the company’s leadership cadre and also the need to craft credible business strategies for their firms to survive and prosper.
In conclusion, we see the critical role that business consultants can play in the strategic setting of businesses in a competitive environment.
One can also see that companies have adopted various business strategies which appear credible in the short run but may not be compatible to the strategic architecture of the company in the long term.
Business strategy consultants could provide invaluable business strategy solutions to such businesses to enable them survive competition, achieve sustainable growth and consequently prosper.
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