Business Core · Stakeholders · Module
Identification
Establishing who is affected by the organisation and who can affect it. The second group is usually mapped; the first is usually not.
The idea
How it works
Stakeholder lists tend to contain whoever complains loudest. That is a reasonable proxy for urgency and a poor one for importance, and it systematically omits people affected by decisions who have no way to object.
Freeman’s original formulation — anyone who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the objectives — is deliberately wide. Narrowing it is a judgement that should be made consciously rather than by omission.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
List both directions
Those who can affect the organisation and those affected by it. The second list is longer and less obvious.
- 02
Include those without power
They still carry legitimate claims, and reputational risk usually originates there.
- 03
Name people, not categories
“Regulators” is not a stakeholder. A named body with a named contact is.
- 04
Revisit when the organisation changes
New markets, products and structures create stakeholders nobody added to the list.
One level in
The components of identification
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
The people affected who cannot object are the ones most often missing from the list, and where reputational risk starts.
The other modules in stakeholders
Expectations
What each stakeholder actually wants, established by asking rather than by assuming. Assumed expectations are usually the organisation’s own priorities restated.
LearnEngagement
How each stakeholder is involved — informed, consulted, or genuinely party to the decision — and being honest about which.
LearnReporting
What is communicated to whom, how often, and in what form — including the things that are harder to report.
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