Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter?
In early 2012, the chair of the board of directors of Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) had to determine how to respond to demands made by the company's largest shareholder, Pershing Square Capital Management (Pershing), an activist hedge fund. Pershing's chief executive officer (CEO) claimed that CP was underperforming, and expressed his desire to replace two board members and appoint a new CEO. The chair of the board of directors had to determine the best means to fight the proxy battle and serve the interests of shareholders. Pershing was not likely to back down easily. With a shareholders' meeting expected to occur in the next few months, the chair had to resolve the matter quickly. Because shareholder activism was relatively new in Canada, the outcome of this conflict would send a message to other activists interested in Canadian organizations.
Swot Analysis of "Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter?" written by Murray J. Bryant, Karin Koopmans includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Pershing Chair facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate communications and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pershing Chair, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pershing Chair operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pershing Chair
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Pershing Chair
Strengths Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pershing Chair in Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Pershing Chair has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Pershing Chair has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Training and development
– Pershing Chair has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Pershing Chair is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Pershing Chair has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Pershing Chair has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
High brand equity
– Pershing Chair has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Pershing Chair to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Pershing Chair digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Pershing Chair has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Pershing Chair is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Pershing Chair is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Pershing Chair in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Pershing Chair
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Pershing Chair does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Pershing Chair has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter?, in the dynamic environment Pershing Chair has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Pershing Chair has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Pershing Chair products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Pershing Chair needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Pershing Chair is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter?, it seems that the employees of Pershing Chair don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Need for greater diversity
– Pershing Chair has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Pershing Chair, firm in the HBR case study Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Pershing Chair needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Pershing Chair has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Pershing Chair is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Pershing Chair needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Pershing Chair to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? HBR case study mentions - Pershing Chair takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Pershing Chair has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Opportunities Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? are -
Loyalty marketing
– Pershing Chair has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Pershing Chair in the consumer business. Now Pershing Chair can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Pershing Chair can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Pershing Chair operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Pershing Chair to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Pershing Chair to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Pershing Chair to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Pershing Chair has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Pershing Chair to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Pershing Chair can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Pershing Chair can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Pershing Chair is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Pershing Chair can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Pershing Chair to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Manufacturing automation
– Pershing Chair can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Pershing Chair in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Pershing Chair can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? are -
Regulatory challenges
– Pershing Chair needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Pershing Chair business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Pershing Chair will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Pershing Chair in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Increasing wage structure of Pershing Chair
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Pershing Chair.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Pershing Chair has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Pershing Chair needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Pershing Chair high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Pershing Chair can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Pershing Chair can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Pershing Chair can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Pershing Chair is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Canadian Pacific Railway (A): Border Skirmish or Nuclear Winter? is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Pershing Chair needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.