Customer Service at Kenya's Uchumi Supermarket, 1999-2006

This case study uses the Business System analysis framework (an adaptation of Alter's (1999) Work Centered Analysis)to look at factors that possibly contributed to the collapse of a giant supermarket chain store in Kenya, the Uchumi Supermarket. In its final analysis, the study draws the conclusion that when a business collapses, it is often for several different reasons rather than for a single cause but that customer service is often a major factor. Uchumi makes a particularly rich case study because of its long history of success in the regional economic arena. Among lessons learned, the case study conveys the message that there is no impunity in the game of business management where even giants will come stumbling down in the wake of new vulnerabilities brought about by competition from the savvier, younger, new IT-aware organizations. It posits that an organization needs to continually adjust itself to changes within it and in its environment, thereby abating failure. By reverse logic, when an organization fails to identify its work systems, such as customer service, it is unlikely to be prepared to confront problems adequately and successfully when they do occur.