El Paso Energy Capital Trust I (EP_pc) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for El Paso Energy Capital Trust I (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , El Paso Energy Capital Trust I is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that El Paso Energy Capital Trust I can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the El Paso Energy Capital Trust I, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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 El Paso Energy Capital Trust I can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I
2. Improving business portfolio management of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I
Strengths of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I are -
Organizational Resilience of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing El Paso Energy Capital Trust I does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– El Paso Energy Capital Trust I has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – El Paso Energy Capital Trust I staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– El Paso Energy Capital Trust I has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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.
Ability to lead change in
– El Paso Energy Capital Trust I is one of the leading players in the industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled El Paso Energy Capital Trust I in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in industry
– El Paso Energy Capital Trust I has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled El Paso Energy Capital Trust I to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the industry. The sustainable margins have also helped El Paso Energy Capital Trust I to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– El Paso Energy Capital Trust I is one of the leading players in the 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– El Paso Energy Capital Trust I has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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.
Training and development
– El Paso Energy Capital Trust I has one of the best training and development program in industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I in the sector have low bargaining power. El Paso Energy Capital Trust I has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps El Paso Energy Capital Trust I to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management in the industry
– El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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 El Paso Energy Capital Trust I | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, El Paso Energy Capital Trust I needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on El Paso Energy Capital Trust I ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though El Paso Energy Capital Trust I has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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. El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, El Paso Energy Capital Trust I has high operating costs in the industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract El Paso Energy Capital Trust I lucrative customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, El Paso Energy Capital Trust I needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that El Paso Energy Capital Trust I needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at El Paso Energy Capital Trust I can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as El Paso Energy Capital Trust I is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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.
Need for greater diversity
– El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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.
Employees’ less understanding of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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.
El Paso Energy Capital Trust I Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I are -
Buying journey improvements
– El Paso Energy Capital Trust I can improve the customer journey of consumers in the 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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 El Paso Energy Capital Trust I to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects El Paso Energy Capital Trust I can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. El Paso Energy Capital Trust I can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help El Paso Energy Capital Trust I to increase its market reach. El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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 industry.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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. El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– El Paso Energy Capital Trust I can develop new processes and procedures in 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for El Paso Energy Capital Trust I in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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. El Paso Energy Capital Trust I can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for El Paso Energy Capital Trust I to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Threats El Paso Energy Capital Trust I External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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 industry.
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 El Paso Energy Capital Trust I business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, El Paso Energy Capital Trust I may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of sector.
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 El Paso Energy Capital Trust I.
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 El Paso Energy Capital Trust I in the sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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 industry and other sectors.
Environmental challenges
– El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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. El Paso Energy Capital Trust I can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the industry.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for El Paso Energy Capital Trust I in industry. The 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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 El Paso Energy Capital Trust I prominent markets.
Increasing wage structure of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I
– 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 El Paso Energy Capital Trust I.
Regulatory challenges
– El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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 industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of El Paso Energy Capital Trust I Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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 El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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 El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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 El Paso Energy Capital Trust I 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 El Paso Energy Capital Trust I needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.