the following scenario is fictional - created as a proposal for SMO 641: Business Strategy Course

Background

Suncor is looking for a consulting firm to partner with in order to ensure the completion of the transition by the end of 2021. The consulting firm will be accountable for facilitating Suncor employees, and members of the firm's staff through the activities that will stand up operations under Suncor Energy Inc. All assets and liabilities owned under the Syncrude project and all corporate operations are in scope.

The successful firm will deliver an approach presentation that will clearly describe the methodology and approach used. The approach will be high-level but should consider a breadth of strategic and tactical activities.

Primary Question:

How should Suncor approach the integration of Syncrude's operations and what are the phases/activities Suncor will need to complete?

Supporting questions to support approach :

• How would the approach to operating assets differ from the corporate functions (HR, IT, Finance, etc.)?
• What synergies/efficiencies can be gained from integrating the operations and where can they be found? This is getting at the $300MM target but does not need to be priced out per opportunity
• How does Suncor ensure that business processes, corporate assets, and institutional knowledge at Syncrude that could benefit Suncor are not lost during the transition?
• What resources would be required from Suncor and Syncrude to complete the integration?
• How will decisions be made and what governance structure considerations should be applied?
• What happens to the technology/services/contracts of Syncrude short term/long term?
• How does this integration impact Suncor's strategy/strategic planning?
• What communications will be sent and when (high-level)? consider external and internal parties
• What considerations should be given to the economic environment (low oil prices) and social context (virtual work environment/COVID)?

Guiding Notes:

-Financials do not need to be considered in detail. General guidance around the integration of annual reports and accounting can be discussed. Considerations for costs of the integration can be discussed, but pricing models or detailed financial analysis is not required.

- All information used will be publicly available, so please document any key assumptions you are making

- Suncor will become the long term sole operator of these assets

- Suncor is currently doing a business process and data transformation project (Project Name: Northern Lights), which includes the implementation of SAP S4 and Workday. Workday will go-live July 2021 and SAP will go-live in January 2022

- There are limited available resources and a high volume of transformative activities happening at Suncor

*Please note - Students are asked to compile the approach using publicly available information. Internal documents, employee interviews, and confidential material are not to be used and will not affect the quality of the response requested.