Kenya Airways is East Africa's Most Respected Company for the second year running.
Nairobi , 2 December 2006: Kenya Airways has again this year been chosen by its peers as the winner in the 7th annual PricewaterhouseCoopers' East Africa 's Most Respected Companies Survey.
Kenya Airways has also emerged as the Most Respected Company in Kenya , with Tanzania Breweries and MTN taking the honour in Tanzania and Uganda respectively.
Also awarded, were East Africa 's Most Respected Companies in industry sectors. Homegrown for the third consecutive year lead the Agriculture sector. Standard Chartered Bank took top honours in the Financial Services sector for the second year running and Serena Hotels came out on top in the Hotels & Tourism sector, East African Breweries lead the Manufacturing sector with Nakumatt Holdings leading the Services sector. For the third year running, Safaricom maintained its lead in the Telecommunications and ICT sector.
New entrants into the rankings were Precision Air whick took third place in the Services sector. Mumias Sugar moved from third place in 2005 to second place this year in the Agriculture sector. The Mukwano Group took third place in the Manufacturing sector.
In the seventh East Africa's Most Respected Companies survey, more than 300 CEOs across East Africa took part in the survey, more than any year in the past.
At the awards dinner held at the Safari Park Hotel, Charles Muchene, Director for the Survey and Country Leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers , Kenya said, “This is the seventh time that Nation Media Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers are recognising excellence in the region and I am very pleased with the continued interest of the business community in these awards which has made them one of the most prestigious in East Africa. “
Mr Muchene also gave some insight into how the reasons for respect this year were similar to previous year's however, the order of importance has shifted . “The companies attracting the strongest respect are those that have a focused expansion strategy into new markets or product/services, strong leadership and solid financial performance. “
The Theme for this year's awards is “Winning, what does it take?”
Companies who participated in the survey and are presently competing in the global market place, were asked what they felt was their competitive advantage. 60% said it was superior products/services, 39% mentioned employee support to compete globally, 27% said a strong brand and 23% mentioned strong leadership.
Those companies surveyed who felt they could not compete successfully in the global marketplace identified the following impediments:
- Lack of appropriate business strategy
- Unfavourable Laws and regulations
- Limited access to capital
This is the type of information that the survey uncovers and can be used by the business community to support business development.
