Maria Katia Filomeno
Project Director APOYO Comunicación Corporativa
In a context where companies are starting to notice that they are not isolated, stakeholders mapping has become a very useful tool. Stakeholders are those players who have a real power or potential influence in the organization. Knowing them is, plainly, another way to achieve corporate sustainability.
So, why is it important to elaborate a stakeholders map? Basically, because we can get three kinds of key information for our company: it can tell us which bonds we should seek or strengthen, which players we should track in order to prevent crisis situations, and what should be said to improve those relationships in the long term.
In most cases, organizations - specially those sensitive to the attack of their opponents - value to know their main stakeholders in depth. However, all companies should have a global vision of the influential groups that can twist, in any way, the rules of their business. On the other hand, stakeholders mapping has become a requirement to those organizations that seek to define corporate social responsibility policies that take into account the needs and concerns of all the players.
Nevertheless, the emphasis in investigating the perceptions of stakeholders has caused that many companies overlook a vital step: which are those players that really matter?
Many organizations look for the answer to this question in external sources, without noticing that a great part of this information is already present in the collective memory of the company. If this scattered information could be integrated, the company will have a more realistic and useful map of their stakeholders, assigning each one their real importance.
Which are the risks of not identifying clearly our relevant stakeholders? We could easily focus in the "fake positives" and neglect the "ghosts".
The fake positives are those stakeholders which are considered to be important, but in fact they aren’t. Having a special strategy for them implies that the organization is wasting resources in a player that doesn’t deserve that kind of attention.
On the other hand, the ghosts are usually considered as irrelevant stakeholders, but they aren’t. A false independence feeling causes many organizations to feel isolated from the players that surround them. However, denying that certain players may have a real or potential influence over the company, is a mistake that could result in relevant and unexpected expenses. The risks of this happening are clear: the company may become vulnerable to unforeseen attacks, waste synergy opportunities with key audiences, etc.
Knowing the main influence groups is a step that prevents rush decisions and strictly defensive strategies. It is a way to establish beneficial relationships in the long term. The challenge is substantial, but the information is closer than we think.
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