Question

Using the firm Coles (Australian Supermarket) as an example, give an example of a marginalized stakeholder, overlooked stakeholder and a underestimated stakeholder.

Answer 1

Coles is an Australian Supermarket which operates around 807 supermarkets in Australia employing over 100,000 employees and represent one of the key players and was owned by Wesfarmers from 2007 until 2018, .Thereafter it was spun-off to be listed as a public company in the Australian Stock Exchange.

A marginalised stake holder are the those minority shareholders within the firm whose concerns are not addressed due to their lack of resources and have less rights on the decision-making within the company. In the case of Coles supermarket, the general public who owns small quantities of shares of the company and are not involved in the regular running of the company & have little role to play in the day to day operations.

Overlooked Stakeholders are stakeholders of the company who are frequently overlooked. There are stakeholders within the company who influences the effective running of the business but are overlooked. These could be the internal stakeholders like volunteers, paid/unpaid staff, temporary staff etc.

Underestimated Stakeholders are those stakeholders within organisation whose relevance and worth are not really understood by the business owners but they bring value to the business. In the case of Coles supermarket, the sales & marketing department, the social media team is sometimes underestimated as the positive impact of the real business coming in from the store visit by the customers, the work done by the social media team are underestimated.