Case Study Description of Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A)
In 2010, approximately 20,000 barrels of oil being shipped south by Enbridge spilled into Michigan's Talmadge Creek, contaminating wetlands around Battle Creek and the nearby county seat of Marshall, including a stretch of the Kalamazoo River. The timing of the incident could not have been worse. The pipeline had been carrying controversial tar sands oil at a time when Enbridge and its competitors were seeking to greatly expand their pipeline networks across North America. Moreover, the pipeline failure came on the heels of BP's much larger oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, amid a period of heightened public intolerance toward oil spills. As a result, Enbridge faced massive public relations (PR) and regulatory challenges. Enbridge's reputation was clearly at risk since the company had promoted itself as a true believer in corporate social responsibility, which had raised the stakes when dealing with the industrial accident. The CEO of Enbridge faced an almost impossible challenge. He needed to prove to American citizens - and to industry regulators, market watchers, company shareholders and Enbridge employees - that his company deserved to be judged on its own merits, not as a Canadian version of BP. To meet this challenge, he needed to demonstrate that Enbridge was run by people who not only wanted to make amends but could be trusted to do so.
Swot Analysis of "Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A)" written by Gerard Seijts, Thomas Watson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Enbridge Oil facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Enbridge Oil, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Enbridge Oil 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 Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Enbridge Oil
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 Enbridge Oil
Strengths Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Enbridge Oil in Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Enbridge Oil is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Enbridge Oil
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Enbridge Oil does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Enbridge Oil is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Enbridge Oil 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Enbridge Oil digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Enbridge Oil 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Enbridge Oil in the sector have low bargaining power. Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Enbridge Oil to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Enbridge Oil in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Enbridge Oil 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.
Learning organization
- Enbridge Oil is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Enbridge Oil is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Enbridge Oil has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Enbridge Oil has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Enbridge Oil 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Enbridge Oil 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 Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Enbridge Oil 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Enbridge Oil is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Enbridge Oil needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Enbridge Oil to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Enbridge Oil 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) HBR case study mentions - Enbridge Oil 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Enbridge Oil 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Enbridge Oil, firm in the HBR case study Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Enbridge Oil is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Enbridge Oil 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. Enbridge Oil 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Enbridge Oil 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 Enbridge Oil 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 - Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A), is just above the industry average. Enbridge Oil needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Opportunities Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) | 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 Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) are -
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. Enbridge Oil can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Enbridge Oil 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 Enbridge Oil 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, Enbridge Oil 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Enbridge Oil 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, Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Enbridge Oil 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.
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. Enbridge Oil can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Enbridge Oil to increase its market reach. Enbridge Oil 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.
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 Enbridge Oil in the consumer business. Now Enbridge Oil can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Enbridge Oil is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Enbridge Oil 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 Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Enbridge Oil to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Enbridge Oil can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Enbridge Oil has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Enbridge Oil to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) case study. Enbridge Oil can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Enbridge Oil can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Enbridge Oil operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Threats Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Enbridge Oil 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.
Environmental challenges
– Enbridge Oil 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. Enbridge Oil can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Enbridge Oil 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 Enbridge Oil
– 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 Enbridge Oil.
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 Enbridge Oil in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Enbridge Oil has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Enbridge Oil 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Enbridge Oil 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Enbridge Oil is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Enbridge Oil 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 Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) .
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 Enbridge Oil.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A), Enbridge Oil 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.
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. Enbridge Oil 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) 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 Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) 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 Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) 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 Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) 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 Enbridge Michigan Oil Spill: Patrick Daniel's Challenge (A) 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 Enbridge Oil needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.