Whether you are Fortune 500, mid-size, growing firm, or a Fortune Wannabe, talking about (but not necessarily effecting) stakeholder capitalism is the current vogue.
But, there’s a problem. We have lots of stakeholders- clients/customers, suppliers, vendors, staff, investors, and community. And, the interests and needs of each don’t always mesh; wait- they often are in direct conflict.
And, in theory, every issue is important. But, in real life, every potential issue is not equivalent.
What to do?
Sure, these issues are material to each of our companies, but some are far more relevant to our success- our business model and strategy. So, we need to discern those relevant factors and focus upon them.
Oh, wait a minute. These decisions are not just ours- the executives- to make. We need to involve our staff- sales, marketing, investor relations- and our customers. Probably some key folks in our community, as well. (Yes, this is like a focus group.)
Then, once we have the framework. It’s time to prioritize!
One process that can help us prioritize? Use the conventional four quadrant matrix.
Post the internal priorities on the Y (dependent) axis and the external priorities on the X (primary) axis.
Those items that are in the bottom left are the lowest priority. That means they are of interest- but NOT critical to our staff or our outside stakeholders.
When we move up to the top left quadrant, we are dealing with our primary internal initiatives- yet they don’t often excite our external stakeholders.
The bottom right items aren’t strategic priorities for our firm- but they are of value to our outside stakeholders. And, they can blow up in our faces if we don’t recognize that instrinsic value to our external stakeholders.
Now, we move to the top right quadrant. We need to exercise our leadership to ensure these are always paramount in our planning and actions.
Let’s keep the focus on what really matters. For all of our stakeholders.
