Enbridge Energy Partners LP (EEP) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Oil Well Services & Equipment
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Enbridge Energy Partners LP (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Enbridge Energy Partners LP is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization,
increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Enbridge Energy Partners LP
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Enbridge Energy Partners LP can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Enbridge Energy Partners LP, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Enbridge Energy Partners 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 Enbridge Energy Partners LP can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Enbridge Energy Partners LP
2. Improving business portfolio management of Enbridge Energy Partners LP
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Oil Well Services & Equipment sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Enbridge Energy Partners LP
Strengths of Enbridge Energy Partners LP | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Enbridge Energy Partners LP are -
Organizational Resilience of Enbridge Energy Partners LP
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Enbridge Energy Partners LP does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Oil Well Services & Equipment industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Enbridge Energy Partners LP digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Enbridge Energy Partners LP 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Oil Well Services & Equipment industry
– Enbridge Energy Partners LP has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Enbridge Energy Partners LP to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Oil Well Services & Equipment industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Enbridge Energy Partners LP to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Enbridge Energy Partners LP 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Enbridge Energy Partners LP in Oil Well Services & Equipment industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Enbridge Energy Partners 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 Enbridge Energy Partners LP is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Enbridge Energy Partners LP emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Enbridge Energy Partners LP in the Energy sector have low bargaining power. Enbridge Energy Partners LP has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Enbridge Energy Partners LP to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Enbridge Energy Partners LP has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Enbridge Energy Partners LP to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Enbridge Energy Partners 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Enbridge Energy Partners LP is one of the most innovative firm in Oil Well Services & Equipment sector.
Diverse revenue streams
– Enbridge Energy Partners LP is present in almost all the verticals within the Oil Well Services & Equipment industry. This has provided Enbridge Energy Partners 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Oil Well Services & Equipment industry
– Enbridge Energy Partners LP is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses of Enbridge Energy Partners LP | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Enbridge Energy Partners LP are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Enbridge Energy Partners LP is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Oil Well Services & Equipment industry, but Enbridge Energy Partners LP needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Enbridge Energy Partners LP to focus more on services in the Oil Well Services & Equipment industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Enbridge Energy Partners LP 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 Oil Well Services & Equipment industry using digital technology.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Enbridge Energy Partners LP is one of the leading players in the Oil Well Services & Equipment industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Oil Well Services & Equipment industry in last five years.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Enbridge Energy Partners LP is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Enbridge Energy Partners LP to provide better information regarding Oil Well Services & Equipment products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Enbridge Energy Partners 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Enbridge Energy Partners LP 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Enbridge Energy Partners 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 Well Services & Equipment industry over the last five years. Enbridge Energy Partners 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Enbridge Energy Partners LP needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Oil Well Services & Equipment industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Enbridge Energy Partners LP can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Enbridge Energy Partners LP is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Enbridge Energy Partners LP has high operating costs in the Oil Well Services & Equipment industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Enbridge Energy Partners LP lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Enbridge Energy Partners LP needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Oil Well Services & Equipment industry, Enbridge Energy Partners LP needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Enbridge Energy Partners LP Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Enbridge Energy Partners LP are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Enbridge Energy Partners LP has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Oil Well Services & Equipment industry. This can help Enbridge Energy Partners LP to build a more holistic ecosystem for Enbridge Energy Partners LP products in the Oil Well Services & Equipment industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Enbridge Energy Partners LP can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Enbridge Energy Partners LP 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Enbridge Energy Partners LP can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Oil Well Services & Equipment industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Enbridge Energy Partners LP can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Enbridge Energy Partners LP 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 Enbridge Energy Partners LP to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Enbridge Energy Partners LP has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Oil Well Services & Equipment sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Enbridge Energy Partners LP to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Enbridge Energy Partners LP to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Enbridge Energy Partners LP 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Enbridge Energy Partners 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 Well Services & Equipment industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Enbridge Energy Partners LP 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Enbridge Energy Partners 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Enbridge Energy Partners 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 Well Services & Equipment industry.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Oil Well Services & Equipment industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Enbridge Energy Partners LP in the Oil Well Services & Equipment industry. Now Enbridge Energy Partners LP can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Enbridge Energy Partners LP External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Enbridge Energy Partners LP are -
Increasing wage structure of Enbridge Energy Partners LP
– 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 Energy Partners LP.
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 Enbridge Energy Partners LP business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Oil Well Services & Equipment industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Enbridge Energy Partners LP can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Enbridge Energy Partners 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 Well Services & Equipment industry and other sectors.
Environmental challenges
– Enbridge Energy Partners 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. Enbridge Energy Partners LP can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Oil Well Services & Equipment 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. Enbridge Energy Partners LP 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Enbridge Energy Partners 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Enbridge Energy Partners LP in Oil Well Services & Equipment industry. The Oil Well Services & Equipment 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 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. Enbridge Energy Partners LP needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Oil Well Services & Equipment industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Enbridge Energy Partners LP may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Oil Well Services & Equipment sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Enbridge Energy Partners 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 Well Services & Equipment industry.
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 Energy Partners LP.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Enbridge Energy Partners LP is facing in Oil Well Services & Equipment sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Enbridge Energy Partners LP Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Enbridge Energy Partners 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 Enbridge Energy Partners 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 Enbridge Energy Partners 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 Enbridge Energy Partners 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 Enbridge Energy Partners LP needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.