1. What was Harrison's most important competitive priority?

2. Relate the above seven actions to the nine strategic decision categories.

Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) is one of the two major railways in Canada and its history goes as far back as Canada itself does. However, it is second to Canadian National Railway (CN) in terms of size, and was having a hard time competing with CN before 2012. In 2012, a major institutional investor, unhappy with its performance, removed its head and some of its directors through a proxy contest, and brought in Hunter Harrison (the exCEO of CN) as the new CEO, despite a legal challenge by CN. 

In less than six months, Harrison turned CPR around by accomplishing the following tasks:

a. Closed four of the five hump yards ( classification yards using gravity) in Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, and Chicago; combined the pair of inter-modal yards in each of Chicago and Toronto into a larger one; converted the Winnipeg yard to a local switching yard; and closed Milwau.kee inter-modal yard.

b. Increased train speed by 15 percent and reduced yard dwell time by 12 percent, allowing CPR to reduce the number of its locomotives, rail-cars, and workers, and to offer a fast four-day inter-modal service from Vancouver to Toronto or Chicago, which is faster than CN's.

c. Negotiated five-year collective agreements with major CPR • unions.

d . Moved the CPR HQ from downtown to Ogden rail yard in Calgary.

e. Taught 700 managers how to run locomotives and rail yards.

f. Reduced the number of customer service staff from 800 to 200.

g. Lengthened some of its trains from approximately 2 km to 3-4 km.