Name: Nimca Ismail Hassan
[Link] is a Stakeholder Analysis?
When it comes to any organizational project, all of the internal people and teams
who the project will involve or affect are called its stakeholders.
A stakeholder analysis is a process of identifying these people before the project
begins; grouping them according to their levels of participation, interest, and
influence in the project; and determining how best to involve and communicate
each of these stakeholder groups throughout.
[Link]’s the Purpose of a Stakeholder Analysis?
Project managers, program managers, and product managers alike may conduct a
stakeholder analysis for several strategic reasons, including:
1. To enlist the help of key organizational players.
By approaching company influencers, executives, or valuable
stakeholders for help early in your project, you can leverage the
knowledge and wisdom of these key players to help guide the project to
a successful outcome
2. To gain early alignment among all stakeholders on goals and
plans.
Because your stakeholder analysis will help you determine which people
to involve in the project, you will then be able to bring these people
together for a kickoff and early-stage meetings to communicate the
project’s strategic objectives and plans.
3. To help address conflicts or issues early on.
Without a stakeholder analysis, you and your team could be well into a
company project before you realize a key person in your organization—
perhaps an executive—does not see the value of your initiative, or would
prefer to redeploy some of your resources to other projects.
[Link] of stakeholder analysis
1. Business Experience
Internal stakeholders with a large vested interest in a business often sit
on the board of directors.
This stakeholder's value is partially his business experience and
partially his book of business relationships.
The business acumen an experienced business leader has is highly
beneficial for a business owner.
Not only can the stakeholder offer mentoring advice, but the
stakeholder can also help guide the company to grow properly and not
make costly mistakes along the way.
[Link] Potential Problems
The importance of stakeholders becomes apparent when stakeholders
help a business owner anticipate things that might go wrong.
Stakeholders often come from a variety of backgrounds and levels of
experience, which help them see a bigger picture that a business owner
might not see.
This is one reason that some small businesses owners bring an
accountant or an attorney onto the board of directors so that the
accountant or attorney might be able to foresee potential legal or
financial issues.
It is also possible that a stakeholder has experience with a potential
vendor the company needs and can provide valuable first-hand
testimony to working with the vendor.
This type of stakeholder insight often proves invaluable.
[Link] of stakeholder analysis
1. Representing Own Interests
There are times in which stakeholders are focused on their own
interests. Often, external stakeholders are community groups or
political appointees who might not act in a company's best interest if
the company is not offering anything that helps the stakeholder with his
constituents. However, while situation crops up often for external
stakeholders, it's not exclusive to them.
According to Forbes, even an internal stakeholder, such as an
inexperienced investor, might vote against a proposal for growth in fear
of losing money.
He is focused on his own financial needs and not on the needs of the
business. Stakeholders who weigh their own interests over their
companies' may disadvantage the companies in question.
2. Block Progress
When stakeholders operate for the sake of their personal interest over
the interest of their companies, they may block progress.
According to the Construction Industry Institute , Blocking progress is
particularly at-issue when external stakeholders fear that a business'
actions will harm their interests.
A school might not want a medical marijuana center within a specific
proximity to the campus. The school is the external stakeholder and
might be able to petition to block business permits for the business.
Business owners should anticipate problems like this and have a plan to
appease external stakeholders that have concerns about the business.
[Link] vs. External Stakeholders
There are two primary categories of stakeholders for any company:
internal and external. Both have a reason, some "stake" in the success
and direction of the company.
*Internal stakeholders generally have a financial stake and a direct
relationship with the company.
Internal stakeholders include owners, investors, stockholders and
employees who have a direct or indirect financial risk tied to the
company's success.
Employees may or may not have a profitability stake or financial risk
stake, they do have their financial livelihood at stake. If the company
fails, the employee is out of a job. Thus, the employee has every
interest in seeing the company succeed.
An employee who has potential growth opportunities with the company
has an even bigger stake. Some companies offer company stock plans
and profit sharing, adding to the employees' interest in doing well at
work. As such, employees are considered internal stakeholders.
*External stakeholders are those who do not have a direct tie to the
company. They are not employees and do not have any direct financial
interest in the profit or loss of the company.
Instead, they have an interest in how the company affects the
community or a part of the community.
External stakeholders include government entities such as city councils,
local schools, other businesses and residents in the area where the
company conducts business.
6. Difference in a Market & Non-Market Stakeholder?
Stakeholders are people who have an interest in the success and
potential failure of a company. The interest may be internal by owners,
management and investors.
It can also be external with political and community interests.
Stakeholders operate in either the market or non-market environment,
meaning an internal stakeholder operates as an internal component of
the company and non-market stakeholders operate in an external
capacity.
Stakeholders are individuals, groups, communities or other businesses
that have an interest in a company.
The interest may be cooperative or adversarial. Usually, those with
financial interests are cooperative, working with company leaders to
ensure the profitability, growth and overall success of the company.
When a company doesn't do well, internal stakeholders experience
financial loss, either on paper or in actuality.
Adversarial stakeholders often oppose some initiative the company has
and makes its voice heard.
While external, non-market stakeholders are not always adversarial,
they are usually the group that internal stakeholders need to romance to
help facilitate growth in the external marketplace.
The non-market stakeholders are based outside of the organization and
have no vested financial interest in the company.
These stakeholders may be affected by the economic impact of the
company's success or failure. These stakeholders include political
groups, media outlets, the general public and other businesses. All
activities are designed to provide input, facilitate or block the economic
exchange between companies and consumers.
[Link] should product managers conduct a stakeholder analysis?
Conducting a stakeholder analysis can be strategically valuable when
kicking off any type of complex company undertaking.
The more stakeholders you can identify early on and the more you can
tailor your communication to win approval and support from various
stakeholders, the more likely your project is to succeed.
[Link] Do You Conduct a Stakeholder Analysis?
Step 1: Determine who your stakeholders are.
Start by brainstorming with your team a list of all possible stakeholders
for your project. Of course, you can reduce this list later, but you don’t
want to miss a potentially pivotal stakeholder at this early stage.
The list of potential stakeholders could include:
Executive staff
Marketing
Sales
Finance
Product
Development/engineering/manufacturing
Procurement
The heads of all affected business units
Consultants
Operations/IT
Step 2: Group and prioritize these stakeholders.
After you’ve completed your brainstorming session above and
determined which people and teams will indeed be stakeholders, you
should start categorizing them in terms of their influence, interest, and
levels of participation in your project.
As you can see, you will group stakeholders into four categories:
1. High power, high interest: These are your most important
stakeholders, and you should prioritize keeping them happy
with your project’s progress.
2. High power, low interest: Because of their influence in
the company, you should work to keep these people
satisfied. But because they haven’t shown a deep interest in
your project, you could turn them off if you over-
communicate with them.
3. Low power, high interest: You’ll want to keep these
people informed and check in with them regularly to make
sure they are not experiencing problems on the project.
4. Low power, low interest: Just keep these people informed
periodically, but don’t overdo it.
Another approach, popularized in the book Making Strategy:
Mapping Out Strategic Success, groups stakeholders into four
different but similar categories:
1. Players: These are the high-power, high-interest
individuals with whom you will want to collaborate and
keep fully engaged.
2. Subjects: These are the low-power, high-interest
stakeholders who can offer great insights and ideas for the
project but whom you don’t need to always say yes to.
3. Context-setters: These high-power, low-interest
stakeholders (heads of departments, for example) can have
a lot of influence over the project but don’t want to be
involved in the details. Keep them up to date.
4. Crowd: Finally, the low-power, low-interest stakeholders
are called the crowd. These individuals will require some
ongoing communication about the project’s progress but
probably the least of all stakeholders.S