Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL SWOT Analysis / Matrix

Business Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that can be used by Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL managers to do a situational analysis of the company . It is a handy technique to map out the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL is facing in its current business environment.

The Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL is one of the leading companies in its industry. Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL maintains its dominant position in market by carefully analyzing and reviewing the SWOT analysis.  SWOT analysis an immensenly interactive process and requires effective coordination among various departments within the firm such as – marketing, finance, operations, management information systems and strategic planning.


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The SWOT Analysis framework facilitates an organization to identify the internal strategic factors such as -strengths and weaknesses, & external strategic factors such as - opportunities and threats. It leads to a 2X2 matrix – also known as SWOT Matrix.

The Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis / Matrix enables the managers of the Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL to develop four types of strategies:

  • SO (strengths-opportunities) Strategies
  • WO (weaknesses-opportunities) Strategies
  • ST (strengths-threats) Strategies
  •  WT (weaknesses-threats) Strategies
Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL swot analysis / matrix

SWOT Matrix Strategies Objective

The main purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that an organization can use to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL – Internal Strategic Factors


As one of the leading organizations in its industry, Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL has numerous strengths that enable it to thrive in the market place. These strengths not only help it to protect the market share in existing markets but also help in penetrating new markets. Based on Fern Fort University extensive research – some of the strengths of Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL are –


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  • Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
  • Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.
  • Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.
  • Strong dealer community – It has built a culture among distributor & dealers where the dealers not only promote company’s products but also invest in training the sales team to explain to the customer how he/she can extract the maximum benefits out of the products.
  • Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
  • Good Returns on Capital Expenditure – Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL is relatively successful at execution of new projects and generated good returns on capital expenditure by building new revenue streams.
  • Strong Free Cash Flow – Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
  • Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.


Weakness of Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL – Internal Strategic Factors


Weakness are the areas where Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL can improve upon. Strategy is about making choices and weakness are the areas where a company can improve using SWOT analysis and build on its competitive advantage and strategic positioning.


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  • High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
  • The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL are below the industry average.
  • The marketing of the products left a lot to be desired. Even though the product is a success in terms of sale but its positioning and unique selling proposition is not clearly defined which can lead to the attacks in this segment from the competitors.
  • Investment in Research and Development is below the fastest growing players in the industry. Even though Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL is spending above the industry average on Research and Development, it has not been able to compete with the leading players in the industry in terms of innovation. It has come across as a mature firm looking forward to bring out products based on tested features in the market.
  • The company has not being able to tackle the challenges present by the new entrants in the segment and has lost small market share in the niche categories. Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
  • Organization structure is only compatible with present business model thus limiting expansion in adjacent product segments.
  • Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work culture.

Opportunities for Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL – External Strategic Factors


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  • New customers from online channel – Over the past few years the company has invested vast sum of money into the online platform. This investment has opened new sales channel for Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL. In the next few years the company can leverage this opportunity by knowing its customer better and serving their needs using big data analytics.
  • Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL to capture new customers and increase its market share.
  • Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL.
  • Government green drive also opens an opportunity for procurement of Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL products by the state as well as federal government contractors.
  • Organization’s core competencies can be a success in similar other products field. A comparative example could be - GE healthcare research helped it in developing better Oil drilling machines.
  • Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL’s products thus providing an opportunity to the company - either to boost its profitability or pass on the benefits to the customers to gain market share.
  • Stable free cash flow provides opportunities to invest in adjacent product segments. With more cash in bank the company can invest in new technologies as well as in new products segments. This should open a window of opportunity for Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL in other product categories.
  • The new technology provides an opportunity to Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL to practices differentiated pricing strategy in the new market. It will enable the firm to maintain its loyal customers with great service and lure new customers through other value oriented propositions.

Threats Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL Facing - External Strategic Factors

  • Liability laws in different countries are different and Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL may be exposed to various liability claims given change in policies in those markets.
  • New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
  • The demand of the highly profitable products is seasonal in nature and any unlikely event during the peak season may impact the profitability of the company in short to medium term.
  • Growing strengths of local distributors also presents a threat in some markets as the competition is paying higher margins to the local distributors.
  • Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL’s product especially in the emerging markets and low income markets.
  • No regular supply of innovative products – Over the years the company has developed numerous products but those are often response to the development by other players. Secondly the supply of new products is not regular thus leading to high and low swings in the sales number over period of time.
  • Intense competition – Stable profitability has increased the number of players in the industry over last two years which has put downward pressure on not only profitability but also on overall sales.
  • Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL   in those markets.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL

Although the SWOT analysis is widely used as a strategic planning tool, the analysis does have its share of limitations.

  • Certain capabilities or factors of an organization can be both a strength and weakness at the same time. This is one of the major limitations of SWOT analysis . For example changing environmental regulations can be both a threat to company it can also be an opportunity in a sense that it will enable the company to be on a level playing field or at advantage to competitors if it able to develop the products faster than the competitors.
  • SWOT does not show how to achieve a competitive advantage, so it must not be an end in itself.
  • The matrix is only a starting point for a discussion on how proposed strategies could be implemented. It provided an evaluation window but not an implementation plan based on strategic competitiveness of Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL
  • SWOT is a static assessment - analysis of status quo with few prospective changes. As circumstances, capabilities, threats, and strategies change, the dynamics of a competitive environment may not be revealed in a single matrix.
  • SWOT analysis may lead the firm to overemphasize a single internal or external factor in formulating strategies. There are interrelationships among the key internal and external factors that SWOT does not reveal that may be important in devising strategies.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL

In light of the above mentioned limitations of the SWOT analysis / matrix, corporate managers decided to provide weightage to each internal strength and weakness of the firm. Organizations also assess the likelihood of events taking place in the coming future and how strong their impact could be on company's performance.

This method is called Weighted SWOT analysis. It is better than doing simplistic SWOT analysis because with Weighted SWOT Analysis Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL managers can focus on the most critical factors and discount the non-important one. It also solves the long list problem where organizations ends up making a long list but none of the factors deemed too critical.

Limitation of Weighted SWOT analysis of Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL

This approach also suffers from one major drawback - it focus on individual importance of factor rather than how they are collectively important and impact the business holistically.

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Example of Weighted SWOT Analysis

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SWOT Worksheet & Template

If you like to do your own SWOT analysis or want to make your own Weighted SWOT SWOT matrix then feel free to download Fern Fort University SWOT Analysis Template.


References / Citations & Bibliography

  • M. E. Porter, Competitive Strategy(New York: Free Press, 1980)
  • A. D. Chandler, Strategy and Structure (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1962)
  • O. E. Williamson, Markets and Hierarchies(New York: Free Press, 1975);
  • L. Wrigley, Divisional Autonomy and Diversification (PhD, Harvard Business School, 1970)
  • R. E. White, Generic Business Strategies, Organizational Context and Performance: An Empirical Investigation, Strategic Management Journal7 (1986)