Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray
In the midst of massive growth in the oil sands, Suncor's chief executive officer (CEO) is growing concerned about the local government's inability to cope with unprecedented growth of oils sands development in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Crime, prostitution, drug use, social inequality and ecological deterioration have begun to cripple Fort McMurray and the surrounding area largely because the local government has been unable to support the massive growth with appropriate public services and environmental protection. As part of a major oil and gas company in the region, the CEO is aware of the harsh lessons learned by Shell in Nigeria in 1995, where the company's reluctance to get involved in political activities led to a massive boycott and tarnished reputation. The CEO is concerned that inaction may hold Suncor complicit in the social and ecological issues in the region. The case illustrates the need for companies to take on political responsibilities, in this case through the active engagement of addressing public service gaps. Written for courses in business and society, stakeholder engagement, public administration, public-private partnerships, strategic management, and negotiations, the case chronicles the motivations of companies such as Suncor to address public service gaps to avoid negative impacts on the firm. Students engage in a role-play representing six different stakeholders, the objective of which is to begin a process of engagement to collectively address the social and ecological issues plaguing the region. The case helps students recognize the growing prevalence of private sector involvement in political affairs and the difference between stakeholder management of and stakeholder engagement with seemingly adversarial stakeholders, the latter of which is critical to collaboratively respond to the complexity of sustainable development.
Swot Analysis of "Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray" written by Michael Valente includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mcmurray Fort facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Government and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mcmurray Fort, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mcmurray Fort 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 Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mcmurray Fort
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 Mcmurray Fort
Strengths Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mcmurray Fort in Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Mcmurray Fort
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Mcmurray Fort does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Mcmurray Fort is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Mcmurray Fort has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Mcmurray Fort to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Mcmurray Fort is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray 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
– Mcmurray Fort 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 Mcmurray Fort in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Mcmurray Fort has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Mcmurray Fort 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Mcmurray Fort in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Mcmurray Fort is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Mcmurray Fort 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 Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mcmurray Fort in the sector have low bargaining power. Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mcmurray Fort to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Mcmurray Fort are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Training and development
– Mcmurray Fort has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray 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.
Weaknesses Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Mcmurray Fort 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 - Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Mcmurray Fort is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Mcmurray Fort has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Mcmurray Fort has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Mcmurray Fort has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Mcmurray Fort 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray, it seems that the employees of Mcmurray Fort 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Mcmurray Fort has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Mcmurray Fort even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Michael Valente suggests that, Mcmurray Fort is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Mcmurray Fort, firm in the HBR case study Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray | 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 Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray are -
Buying journey improvements
– Mcmurray Fort can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Mcmurray Fort is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray 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.
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. Mcmurray Fort 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. Mcmurray Fort 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mcmurray Fort can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Developing new processes and practices
– Mcmurray Fort can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing 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 Mcmurray Fort in the consumer business. Now Mcmurray Fort can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Mcmurray Fort can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Mcmurray Fort to increase its market reach. Mcmurray Fort will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Mcmurray Fort can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Mcmurray Fort 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.
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 Mcmurray Fort 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Mcmurray Fort 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.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Mcmurray Fort can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray are -
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Mcmurray Fort.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Mcmurray Fort with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Mcmurray Fort 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.
Increasing wage structure of Mcmurray Fort
– 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 Mcmurray Fort.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Mcmurray Fort 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.
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. Mcmurray Fort 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.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Mcmurray Fort in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Mcmurray Fort business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mcmurray Fort 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray, Mcmurray Fort may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
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.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Mcmurray Fort demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray 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 Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray 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 Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray 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 Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray 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 Suncor's Political Role in Fort McMurray 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 Mcmurray Fort needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.