How to identify and manage stakeholders

Fancy a career in juggling? For any organisation good stakeholder management is essential. I wrote my MBA thesis on this over two decades ago and it is just as relevant today.

For PR professionals the skill of identifying and understanding stakeholders is fundamental to managing reputation. It is the art of the juggler.

That bit in reputation about what others say about you is where stakeholders come into their own. How you treat them will play heavily on whether a stakeholder will publicly defend you, recommend you or tell people to avoid you like the plague.

In different decades management gurus have told us that we should put a particular stakeholder group above all others - shareholders, customers (anyone remember ‘customer is king’?) and employees.

Stakeholders can vary in importance depending on circumstances but you ignore any of them at your peril. And publicly putting any one stakeholder head and shoulders above others gives short term gain but long term pain.

Managing stakeholders

My work in the public sector has emphasised the need to map, understand and manage stakeholders. A statue, a building, a tree, a piece of land or a river - they are all important to different stakeholders and that can vary.

We have seen time and again not understanding the stakeholder dynamics  had a huge impact on reputation particularly for organisations with a political dynamic such as local and central government.

A decade ago I doubt we would have imagined a former punk singer becoming the face of an increasingly irate public over water quality, and it becoming a key election issue. 

Major charities have become embroiled in complex issues with sponsors and donors over abuse of employees and sometimes the people they are founded to help.

But private companies are not immune. The pressure brought to bear over environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues has had major impacts on share price for manufacturers, oil companies, banks, water companies and many more.

We live in a highly social and interconnected world where reputations are hard to build and maintain. 

Stakeholders can be your best friends or deadly foes. I know which I’d choose.

Chartered PR practitioner Mandy Pearse is a PR strategist, consultant, trainer and former CIPR President, who delivers the CIPR’s Stakeholder Engagement training course.

Don't miss this training course

Join Mandy to learn more about effective stakeholder engagement at the CIPR's upcoming training course on 8 October.