A THESIS SUBMITTED TO ST. MARY’S UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (GENERAL)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the level of strategic sourcing process implementation and to identify the gap and to recommend improvement areas in the case of ethio telecom. In this study both primary and secondary sourcing of data were employed. Primary data was collected through questionnaire (structured and semi-structured) and interviews. Questionnaires were distributed to 59 participants from ethio telecom’s Sourcing and Facility Division officers, Sourcing department managers, supervisors and specialists and Requester units. Interviews were conducted with 4 Sourcing committee members including ethio telecom Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Secondary data were also extracted from related literature from studies conducted in area, company manuals and reports in the area of the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (percentage & mean). The descriptive statistical analysis including opinions and suggestions obtained from open ended and interview questions of the study demonstrated that the seven steps strategic sourcing processes were not been properly implemented. Regarding the support of ERP in the implementation of process, the study result showsthat respondents were somewhat agreed, but ethio telecom has not been utilized in its full capacity. The research resultabout the Suppliers Relation Management is disagreement. This tells us that the one and the major part of the strategic sourcing processes “Suppliers Relation Management” in ethio telecom has been poorly managed. The other construct of this study was interdepartmental integration in implementing the strategic sourcing processes. The result of this variable was also negative which is somewhat disagreeing. The last but not the least construct of this study was challenges that hinder ethio telecom to implement the seven steps strategic sourcing processes. The findings of the research were: sourcing function has not been the focus area of the company and not seen as a strategic function, challenges hinder ET to implement the strategic sourcing process are the influence of Public Procurement policy which at country level assumed trustworthy, ET’s sourcing policy, procedure and seven steps lack clarity and contradict each other, negative attitude on the procurement function and since the strategic sourcing process is new for the country, ethio telecom has not been providing competency and skill developing trainings, benchmarking and experience sharing programs in house or from external sources. Finally, from the above findings the research concluded that the seven steps strategic sourcing processes have not been implemented in ethio telecom. Thus, to achieve the objectives and to become a world-class company ET has to implement the strategic sourcing processes properly