New Challenges Bring New Opportunities in a New Era of Business: Keeping your Stakeholders Happy
Jul 22, 2010 2:51 PM ET
(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) July 22, 2010 - Key stakeholders are impacted by the activities of any organization and include, among others, individual consumers, suppliers, employees, investors, regulators, the community and media. Stakeholders are internal and external, with primary or secondary importance for the organization, stemming from diverse backgrounds and accompanied by different needs, conflicting expectations, objectives and demands.
Understanding and reflecting on stakeholder concerns is mandatory for an organization to develop a more effective business strategy and requires considerable recourses, expertise and insight. For such an assessment to be effective, along with the resulting strategy built around it, international guidelines and frameworks must be followed to ensure that all non-financial activity benefits the financial performance of the company. Organizations must rely on the support of experts in the field or must attain accredited training on Sustainability that covers the critical tools needed. Recent research conducted by the Centre for Sustainability & Excellence (CSE) confirms that issues of stakeholder engagement need to become a priority when doing business in a sustainable manner. Organizations that have adopted sustainable practices are becoming more visible to their shareholders. In addition, the study showed that:- Communications and reporting remain a priority and deliver business value
- Public pressure in the form of consumer activism will continue
- Prospect employees would choose an organization that is practicing sustainable business to a conventional one when applying for a job