Question

Involving stakeholders might be a must to boost sustainable business success. Discuss the factors determining the types of stakeholders who should be involved in the decision of
sustainable business. Explain the possible strategies of promoting sustainability to gain stakeholders’ support. Support your answer with examples

Answer 1

Who all are the stakeholders for the business?

Everyone who is a part of the business environment whether internal or external constitute stakeholders. Following are the types of stakeholders in the company:

1. Business Owners

2. Shareholders

3. Creditors

4. Board of Directors

5. Managers

6. Employees

7. Suppliers

8. Customers

9. Government & Regulators

Challenges in engaging stakeholders

1. Lack of unified scheme

2. Conflict of interest

3. Lack of capabilities

4. Too Many different stakeholders

5. Stakeholders fatigue and cynicism

6. Barriers in a direct dialogue with some stakeholders

7. Later stage of stakeholders’ engagement

Though there are many challenges in stakeholder’s engagement but we can still achieve sustainability in business by minimising the effect of these challenges. So, following are the factors to determine the stakeholders who should be involved in decision making to achieve sustainability

• · Most responsible stakeholders, i.e. who are directly involved with legal and operational duties in the organisation
• · The Influencers, people who can influence a larger group in the organisation to achieve its goals
• · People being involved with the organisation for a long time should be included for making strategic decision as they are most familiar with the values and systems in the organization
• · Dependency is one of the factors to identify crucial stakeholders, i.e. person who are directly responsible for organizational success (Customers, Suppliers etc.)
• · Representatives of each community and stakeholder groups inside as well as outside organisation

In order to avoid conflicts among different stakeholder groups while in decision making process following steps should be taken: Strategies for Effective Engagement

• · There should be complete alignment with goals and objectives and that should be communicated in advance to the meetings
• · Clarity on roles and responsibilities leads to low conflict and increased efficiency and hence helps in achieving sustainability
• · Clarity on timelines and rules helps in maintaining discipline and thus keeps the processes on right track with maximum efficacy.
• · Stakeholders Mapping should be executed to identify right set of stakeholders required for the particular goals and objectives
• · Identifying triggers and coming up with suitable measures helps in minimising conflicts of interest
• · Looking for opportunities and proactive mitigation