Stakeholders are a fundamental figure in the structure of any company, as they condition and mark the course of its actions. In fact, they have great power over the company and not paying attention to them can seriously damage the company. However, few people know this technical name and this means that they are not given the importance they really have.
The word Stakeholder comes from the English word "stake" and the verb "to hold". In other words, a Stakeholder is someone who holds an interest, but what are they interested in? In our company. Over the years, it has also been speculated that the word stake could be the union of two other English terms that are also related to this group: "stock" and "share".
Stakeholders are all those people, institutions or groups that have an interest in our business insofar as our actions affect them in one way or another. They are an example of how a company interacts with the environment in which it operates and of the interdependence of a business with any external (and internal) element.
Specifically, "a stakeholder is any group or individual that can affect or is affected by the objectives of a company". It is a term popularised in 1984 by the philosopher Edward Fremman, but coined by Eric Rhenman, Robert Stweart and Igor Ansoff in 1963. Although it is mostly used in economics, it is also studied from a sociological, political and philosophical perspective, among others.
If we take into account globalisation and the interdependence of the company and its environment, we could say that the actions and decisions of an organisation affect each of the people in an environment, a society or a market. For this reason, the term must be relatively limited. The main stakeholders are:
Organisationally, stakeholders can be grouped in different ways according to certain criteria. For example, there is a distinction between external and internal, primary and secondary stakeholders.
An internal stakeholder is a stakeholder who is part of the company, e.g. investors or employees, while an external stakeholder is an individual who is affected by the decisions of a company but is not part of the group or the organisational structure. In this case, we are talking about customers, the market, etc.
From another perspective, a primary stakeholder is someone who has a direct link with the company, even if he or she is not part of it. They are usually the first to be affected by the company's actions: shareholders, employees, customers, etc. And, in the same way, those who are affected in a more collateral way, such as competitors or suppliers, belong to the secondary stakeholder group.
It is easy to conclude that not all companies have the same stakeholders. For example, a potato producer has no suppliers but is accountable to the government and may also have investors interested in his fields.
Before making any decision, think about how it will affect each stakeholder. Not all stakeholders are impacted equally when a decision is made, and this inadvertently creates a hierarchy that needs to be addressed.
Being aware of who the key stakeholders are is a great strategy that has important benefits. For example, situating how a change in management will affect staff and customers can tip the balance in favour of one side or the other when making a decision. Depending on the organisational structure and financing of our company, we may need to have prior approval from some of them (investors and institutions) and therefore need to turn to them and think about these groups as a first step.
It follows, therefore, that there is no specific formula for addressing each one of them, but that there must be the most appropriate strategy for each one, and for each moment. Furthermore, looking at who makes up the internal and external stakeholders, it can be seen that interaction with them is a transversal action in the business skeleton. Interaction with the media stakeholder depends on the communication department; with customers, on the marketing department; and with human resources workers.