TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector
In October 2013, future prospects for TransCanada's pipeline project were uncertain, as the company had to find ways to establish and manage relationships with Aboriginal communities along the proposed Energy East pipeline in Canada, particularly in the province of New Brunswick. Following Supreme Court rulings that reinforced the "duty to consult and accommodate," Aboriginals came to have a powerful voice in the development of energy infrastructure, creating new requirements for companies wishing to expand into areas subject to Aboriginal title and treaty claims.
Authors :: Guy Holburn, Bruce Anderson, Andre Wilkie
Swot Analysis of "TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector" written by Guy Holburn, Bruce Anderson, Andre Wilkie includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Aboriginal Transcanada's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Public relations and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Aboriginal Transcanada's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Aboriginal Transcanada's 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 TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Aboriginal Transcanada's
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 Aboriginal Transcanada's
Strengths TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Aboriginal Transcanada's in TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Aboriginal Transcanada's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
Analytics focus
– Aboriginal Transcanada's is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Guy Holburn, Bruce Anderson, Andre Wilkie can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Aboriginal Transcanada's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Aboriginal Transcanada's 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 TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Aboriginal Transcanada's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector 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.
Organizational Resilience of Aboriginal Transcanada's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Aboriginal Transcanada's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Aboriginal Transcanada's 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 Aboriginal Transcanada's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Aboriginal Transcanada's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Aboriginal Transcanada's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Aboriginal Transcanada's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Aboriginal Transcanada's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector 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 Aboriginal Transcanada's 's lucrative customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Aboriginal Transcanada's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Aboriginal Transcanada's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Guy Holburn, Bruce Anderson, Andre Wilkie suggests that, Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Aboriginal Transcanada's 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 - TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector, in the dynamic environment Aboriginal Transcanada's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Aboriginal Transcanada's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector, 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector 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 TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Aboriginal Transcanada's is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector HBR case study mentions - Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Aboriginal Transcanada's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Aboriginal Transcanada's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Aboriginal Transcanada's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector | 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 TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Aboriginal Transcanada's 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 TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Aboriginal Transcanada's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Aboriginal Transcanada's 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 Aboriginal Transcanada's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Aboriginal Transcanada's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Aboriginal Transcanada's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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. Aboriginal Transcanada's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Aboriginal Transcanada's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector 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.
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 Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
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. Aboriginal Transcanada's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Aboriginal Transcanada's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Aboriginal Transcanada's 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. Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
Threats TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector are -
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Aboriginal Transcanada's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Aboriginal Transcanada's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Aboriginal Transcanada's.
Environmental challenges
– Aboriginal Transcanada's needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Aboriginal Transcanada's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Aboriginal Transcanada's is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector, Aboriginal Transcanada's 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 .
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Aboriginal Transcanada's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector 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 TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector 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 TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector 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 TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector 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 TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector 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 Aboriginal Transcanada's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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