Business is not a sport where some stakeholder has to lose or fare badly for others to do well. Building an atmosphere of trust and transparency between all stakeholders will help companies retain them even during adverse times.
It is an undisputable fact that your stakeholders have an interest in your success. They have a stake, and that is why you consider them as your stakeholder. Your success would translate into healthy returns for investors, quality products and services at affordable rates for customers, increase in business for suppliers, and growth with better pay for employees. However when fortunes tumble and you face a ‘Nokia moment’, customers desert you, investors give you a thumbs down, and smart employees jump ship before it is too late. Managing stakeholders when the going is good is easy. You know it better than anyone else. However, when the going gets tough, when your industry disrupts, do you know how to ensure they stay loyal or help you disrupt the market and become the leader again?
The interesting aspect of our times is that every industry and every company is in the midst of disruption. During the transition phase, when an industry is either fading away or passing the baton to a new one, no organization can be sure about how to interpret what is happening in the market right now, or what it might lead to. However, each stakeholder may have a few cues to solve the puzzle. If all the stakeholders engage with the organization, share market cues, hunches and unusual data points, connect the dots, gain insights, and together decide to change—the incumbent organization can rise like a phoenix from the old industry’s ash dumps. But why should the stakeholders take all the trouble when it is easier for them to just walk away and align with the new stars of a brand new industry?
They will, if you know how to nurture invested stakeholders’ who care for your future as much as you do. Luckily it is not all that difficult. You just need to bust a few assumptions about stakeholder management and initiate simple new ways of working.
assumptions to bust
Denne historien er fra March/April 2017-utgaven av The Smart Manager.
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Denne historien er fra March/April 2017-utgaven av The Smart Manager.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Building A Quality Culture
A strong company culture defined by its values, beliefs, and behaviors, has a profound impact on its products and services. More so in today’s VUCA world, where to stay relevant and maintain a competitive edge, it is critical for organizations to build a culture that focuses on quality. Suresh Lulla, author of Quality Fables, elucidates through significant examples how creating a culture of quality is imperative to driving success and productivity.
Customers For Life
The history of General Motors in India can be traced back to the 1920s, when it became the first automotive company to set up an assembly plant in the country. The relationship since then has not been as fruitful as GM would have hoped. GM’s flagship brand, Chevrolet, was introduced in India to build upon the success of the popular Opel marque. However, success has been fleeting at best—an issue that GM India is determined to rectify. It aims to do so by adopting a two-pronged approach: using customer feedback to influence product development, and delivering a superior sales-to-service experience.
The Digital Shift
… technology will radically disrupt HR in the near future. Indeed, it is already changing the way HR works and the role it plays and opening the door to a new type of “digital HR” function.1 The rise of digital and social media is changing the dynamics of HR and creating new ways of hiring, engaging, and retaining employees.
The Story Of Telling
“The best brands are built on great stories,”* this remark by Ian Rowden best captures the strategy of diligent brand building. Much more than attractive logos or the products themselves, what builds a brand is how successfully a story is woven around it. Brand marketers have to be good storytellers indeed.
Complexity Is Simpler Than You Think
Kay Kendall and Glenn Bodinson, authors of Leading the Malcolm Baldrige Way, shatter myths about excellence models such as Baldrige and EFQM.
Proponents of Isolation Never Become Victors
Multilateralism in the political and economic space has always led to frameworks that favor the mighty. WTO was no exception. With agriculture kept out of its purview, it could never become a truly fair and free trading system. China was the only large emerging economy that exploited relative openness in low-cost manufactured goods to take full advantage of the system. Other emerging economies could at best garner minor gains.
A History Lesson (From Year One) for Trump and the Brexit Crowd: Isolationism Has Never Worked!
Professor Stephane Garelli on growing isolationism.
A Win-Win Game
Business is not a sport where some stakeholder has to lose or fare badly for others to do well. Building an atmosphere of trust and transparency between all stakeholders will help companies retain them even during adverse times.
A Sustainable Model
With a total market value of $4.3 trillion and an employment base of at least 1.3 million direct employees and millions of others indirectly employed, platforms have become an important economic force.*Companies today are constantly looking for ways to build platforms—Infosys Ltd announced its plans of monetizing its platforms to make them a $2 billion business by March 2021. But are all platform businesses successful?
Custom Made
…three in four consumers said they receive too many emails from brands, and one-fifth said they could not handle the current volume…69 per cent have ‘unfollowed’ brands on social media, closed their accounts or cancelled subscriptions.*In these times, when the market is flooded with products and services, the most efficent way to engage customers is to offer them customized content. To achieve this, brands need to focus on observing the nuances of individual preferences.
