Atlas Energy LP (ATLS) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Oil & Gas - Integrated
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Atlas Energy LP (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Atlas Energy LP is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Atlas Energy LP can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Atlas Energy LP, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Atlas Energy LP 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 Atlas Energy LP can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Atlas Energy LP
2. Improving business portfolio management of Atlas Energy LP
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Oil & Gas - Integrated sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Atlas Energy LP
Strengths of Atlas Energy LP | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Atlas Energy LP are -
Organizational Resilience of Atlas Energy LP
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Atlas Energy LP does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Atlas Energy LP is one of the leading players in the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry in United States. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in United States. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Atlas Energy LP has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Atlas Energy LP 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Atlas Energy LP is present in almost all the verticals within the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry. This has provided Atlas Energy LP 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.
High brand equity
– Atlas Energy LP has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Atlas Energy LP to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Atlas Energy LP is one of the most innovative firm in Oil & Gas - Integrated sector.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Atlas Energy LP 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Oil & Gas - Integrated industry
– Atlas Energy LP has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Atlas Energy LP to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Atlas Energy LP to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Atlas Energy LP in Oil & Gas - Integrated industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Atlas Energy LP has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Oil & Gas - Integrated industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Atlas Energy LP have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Atlas Energy LP comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Oil & Gas - Integrated 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.
Learning organization
- Atlas Energy LP 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 Atlas Energy LP is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Atlas Energy LP emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses of Atlas Energy LP | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Atlas Energy LP are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Atlas Energy LP is just above the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry average. It 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Atlas Energy LP has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry over the last five years. Atlas Energy LP 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Atlas Energy LP, in the dynamic environment of Oil & Gas - Integrated industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Atlas Energy LP has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Atlas Energy LP is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Atlas Energy LP to provide better information regarding Oil & Gas - Integrated products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Atlas Energy LP is one of the leading players in the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry in last five years.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Atlas Energy LP needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Atlas Energy LP 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Atlas Energy LP, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Oil & Gas - Integrated industry. 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 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 Atlas Energy LP supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Atlas Energy LP is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Atlas Energy LP vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Atlas Energy LP has high operating costs in the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Atlas Energy LP lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Atlas Energy LP is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry, but Atlas Energy LP needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Atlas Energy LP to focus more on services in the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Atlas Energy LP Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Atlas Energy LP are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Atlas Energy LP can develop new processes and procedures in Oil & Gas - Integrated 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Atlas Energy LP can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Atlas Energy LP operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Oil & Gas - Integrated sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Atlas Energy LP 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 Oil & Gas - Integrated industry.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Atlas Energy LP in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Atlas Energy LP has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Oil & Gas - Integrated industry. This can help Atlas Energy LP to build a more holistic ecosystem for Atlas Energy LP products in the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Atlas Energy LP 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 Atlas Energy LP to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Atlas Energy LP is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Atlas Energy LP can utilize new technology in the field of Oil & Gas - Integrated industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Oil & Gas - Integrated industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Atlas Energy LP in the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry. Now Atlas Energy LP can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Atlas Energy LP can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Atlas Energy LP 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Atlas Energy LP has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Oil & Gas - Integrated sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Atlas Energy LP to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Atlas Energy LP to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Atlas Energy LP can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Oil & Gas - Integrated sector. 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Oil & Gas - Integrated industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Atlas Energy LP can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Atlas Energy LP External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Atlas Energy LP are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Atlas Energy LP 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 Oil & Gas - Integrated industry and other sectors.
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 Atlas Energy LP.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Atlas Energy LP 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 Oil & Gas - Integrated industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Atlas Energy LP in Oil & Gas - Integrated industry. The Oil & Gas - Integrated 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.
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 Atlas Energy LP business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Oil & Gas - Integrated industry are lowering. It can presents Atlas Energy LP with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Oil & Gas - Integrated sector.
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. Atlas Energy LP needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Oil & Gas - Integrated industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Atlas Energy LP can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Atlas Energy LP is facing in Oil & Gas - Integrated sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Atlas Energy LP 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.
Environmental challenges
– Atlas Energy LP 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. Atlas Energy LP can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Oil & Gas - Integrated industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Atlas Energy LP 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 Atlas Energy LP prominent markets.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Atlas Energy LP Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Atlas Energy LP 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 Atlas Energy LP 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 Atlas Energy LP 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 Atlas Energy LP 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 Atlas Energy LP needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.