Stakeholders are all those groups of individuals or companies who may have an interest on the mentees’ business or may be affected by their activities. At the same time, those groups can also affect their project, therefore we are talking about a reciprocal relationship.
There are different types of stakeholders and they can be divided in two groups depending on their relationship with the business:
- Internal stakeholders: those who have a direct relationship with the economy and activities of the company as investors, employees, etc. They have a direct effect and interest in the business.
- External stakeholders: those who have not a direct relationship with the activity of the company but can either affect or be affected by it, as for example: competitors or providers.
It is very important for mentees to identify those stakeholders to ensure the proper operation of their business. A key methodology or exercise to do this identification and categorization is the stakeholders’ mapping. This exercise consists on developing a visual map where all the stakeholders of the business should appear and will help to develop plans or make appropriate decisions. Mentees need to complete the following steps to create a stakeholders’ map:
- Identification: brainstorming to list all the stakeholders of your business.
- Categorization: analyze the listed stakeholders bearing in mind two concepts, their influence and interest.
- Distribution: develop the map placing the stakeholders according to the analysis done.
Once mentees have made this analysis, they will see the multiple benefits of studying their stakeholders. They will be able to identify key stakeholders to their business, distribute better their resources, reduce the potential negative impact, improve their productivity, etc.
