The value of stakeholder engagement
How companies can create, monitor and manage brand experiences and successful stakeholder relationships.
BY: Mark Stapylton is president of BrandPanorama Research and Consulting LLC, Rhinebeck, N.Y.
We may look back on 2013 as the year, after a 30-year journey, when phrases such as “profit with purpose,” “conscious capitalism” and “shared value” finally migrated from B-schools, think-tanks and a relative handful of innovative companies and entered the popular lexicon of business and society in general.
In the slow recovery from the global financial crisis – and fuelled by growing awareness that social media and global digital connection have empowered consumers in ways that few business leaders imagined even just a decade ago – companies across the entire business spectrum are now embracing sustainable business models.
Among recent comments, these three are representative:
“I don’t subscribe to the notion that companies exist to create value strictly for their shareholders. I think they are there to create value for their customers, and that gets to the mission of the company. And ultimately, doing that, they create value for society.”
Bill George, retired CEO of medical devices manufacturer Medtronic in a December 2013 interview with McKinsey.
“Profitability is a shallow goal if it doesn’t have a real purpose and the purpose has to be share the profits with others. We are equally proud of what we are doing in the community, what we are doing with our people and how the company has built itself around a purpose that is not just about making money.”
Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO, in a September 2013 CNBC Mad Money interview.
“Business does not operate in a vacuum – it operates under a license from society. We recognized early that when we transform our business to deliver for our customers, protect our environment and invest in our employees, we achieve sustained value. In fact, these actions fuel our financial returns.”
Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo Chairman and CEO, in a 2012 letter to shareholders.
Formerly lone voices, high-profile standard-bearers such as these now find themselves at the center of the conversation.
Every available touchpoint
In recent years, a series of paradigm shifts have occurred in the relationships between brands and consumers, and between companies and their shareholders. Brands are creating meaningful and personally relevant experiences and engaging with consumers through every available touchpoint, not just by building awareness through mass media; consumers are increasingly motivated to participate with brands through co-creation and co-ownership. Companies are adopting sustainable practices that integrate the triple bottom line-thinking of “profit, people and planet” into the core of their business models and purpose; shareholders have found they now compete for primacy with customers and a whole raft of other stakeholders.
