Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , EQT Midstream Partners LP is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of EQT Midstream Partners LP
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that EQT Midstream Partners LP can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the EQT Midstream Partners LP, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which EQT Midstream 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 EQT Midstream Partners LP can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of EQT Midstream Partners LP
2. Improving business portfolio management of EQT Midstream Partners LP
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Natural Gas Utilities sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of EQT Midstream Partners LP
Strengths of EQT Midstream Partners LP | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of EQT Midstream Partners LP are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that EQT Midstream 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– EQT Midstream Partners LP has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. EQT Midstream Partners 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Natural Gas Utilities industry
– EQT Midstream 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Natural Gas Utilities industry
– EQT Midstream Partners LP has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled EQT Midstream Partners LP to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Natural Gas Utilities industry. The sustainable margins have also helped EQT Midstream Partners LP to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– EQT Midstream Partners LP is one of the leading players in the Natural Gas Utilities 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the EQT Midstream 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.
High brand equity
– EQT Midstream Partners LP has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled EQT Midstream Partners LP to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of EQT Midstream Partners LP in Natural Gas Utilities industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of EQT Midstream Partners LP in the Utilities sector have low bargaining power. EQT Midstream Partners LP has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps EQT Midstream Partners LP to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– EQT Midstream Partners LP has one of the best training and development program in Utilities 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– EQT Midstream Partners LP has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Natural Gas Utilities industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of EQT Midstream Partners LP have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Natural Gas Utilities
– EQT Midstream Partners LP is one of the leading players in the Natural Gas Utilities industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Natural Gas Utilities industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled EQT Midstream Partners LP in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of EQT Midstream Partners LP | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of EQT Midstream Partners LP are -
Skills based hiring in Natural Gas Utilities industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at EQT Midstream Partners LP 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, EQT Midstream 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, EQT Midstream 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry using digital technology.
Lack of clear differentiation of EQT Midstream Partners LP products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, EQT Midstream Partners LP needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though EQT Midstream Partners LP has some of the most successful models in the Natural Gas Utilities industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. EQT Midstream Partners LP should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on EQT Midstream Partners LP ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of EQT Midstream Partners LP still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Natural Gas Utilities industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though EQT Midstream Partners LP has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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 EQT Midstream Partners LP supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, EQT Midstream Partners LP is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left EQT Midstream Partners LP vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of EQT Midstream Partners LP is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Natural Gas Utilities industry, but EQT Midstream Partners LP needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help EQT Midstream Partners LP to focus more on services in the Natural Gas Utilities industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Natural Gas Utilities industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, EQT Midstream Partners LP is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the Natural Gas Utilities industry.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, EQT Midstream 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry over the last five years. EQT Midstream 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, EQT Midstream Partners LP has high operating costs in the Natural Gas Utilities industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract EQT Midstream Partners LP lucrative customers.
EQT Midstream Partners LP Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of EQT Midstream Partners LP are -
Loyalty marketing
– EQT Midstream 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for EQT Midstream 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Buying journey improvements
– EQT Midstream Partners LP can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Natural Gas Utilities 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of EQT Midstream Partners LP has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Natural Gas Utilities industry. This can help EQT Midstream Partners LP to build a more holistic ecosystem for EQT Midstream Partners LP products in the Natural Gas Utilities industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for EQT Midstream Partners LP 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– EQT Midstream 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at EQT Midstream 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Natural Gas Utilities industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. EQT Midstream 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.
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 EQT Midstream 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 EQT Midstream 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– EQT Midstream Partners LP can develop new processes and procedures in Natural Gas Utilities 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.
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. EQT Midstream Partners LP can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, EQT Midstream 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 EQT Midstream 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.
Threats EQT Midstream Partners LP External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of EQT Midstream Partners LP are -
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. EQT Midstream Partners LP needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Natural Gas Utilities industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of EQT Midstream 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 EQT Midstream Partners LP.
Consumer confidence and its impact on EQT Midstream 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry and other sectors.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Natural Gas Utilities industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. EQT Midstream 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.
Regulatory challenges
– EQT Midstream Partners LP 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry regulations.
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 EQT Midstream Partners LP business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 EQT Midstream Partners LP in the Natural Gas Utilities sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, EQT Midstream Partners 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 EQT Midstream Partners LP prominent markets.
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.
Environmental challenges
– EQT Midstream 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. EQT Midstream Partners LP can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Natural Gas Utilities industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– EQT Midstream 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 Natural Gas Utilities 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 EQT Midstream Partners LP.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of EQT Midstream Partners LP Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at EQT Midstream 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 EQT Midstream 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 EQT Midstream 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 EQT Midstream 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 EQT Midstream Partners LP needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
