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 - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices,
there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, 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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Training and development
– Aboriginal Transcanada's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector 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.
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.
Strong track record of project management
– Aboriginal Transcanada's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Aboriginal Transcanada's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector 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.
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.
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 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.
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 -
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.
Need for greater diversity
– Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Aboriginal Transcanada's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Aboriginal Transcanada's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Aboriginal Transcanada's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector, it seems that the employees of Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
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 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Aboriginal Transcanada's 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
Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
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.
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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Aboriginal Transcanada's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Aboriginal Transcanada's 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, TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Aboriginal Transcanada's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Aboriginal Transcanada's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector case study. Aboriginal Transcanada's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. 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.
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.
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.
Buying journey improvements
– Aboriginal Transcanada's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector 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.
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 -
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Aboriginal Transcanada's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
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.
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 Aboriginal Transcanada's in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Aboriginal Transcanada's 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Aboriginal Transcanada's
– 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 Aboriginal Transcanada's.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Aboriginal Transcanada's 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 TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector .
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.
Feel free to connect with us if you need business research.
You can download Excel Template of Case Study Solution & Analysis of TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline: Managing Aboriginal Relations in the Energy Sector