Stakeholder strategy

What is stakeholder strategy?

Stakeholder strategy means running a company with explicit attention to customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders. R. Edward Freeman's 1984 book, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, argued that a company's strategy should be shaped by its dealings with the main groups that have a stake in it. In 2019, 181 CEOs signed a Business Roundtable statement committing their companies to all five groups.

Why it matters to a revenue leader

For a revenue leader, stakeholders are concrete people. Technicians shape whether customers renew, and facility managers decide whether the company stays on the bid list. In a PE-backed company the sponsor is the shareholder that sets the clock, and a commercial plan that burns out field crews or squeezes key suppliers to hit a quarter can cost more at exit than it gains.

A facility services company with 18 sellers plans a 9 percent price increase across its agreements. Before announcing it, the revenue leader checks technician turnover with operations and asks the facility managers at the top 20 customers when their budgets are set. The increase rolls out in two waves timed to those budget cycles, and renewals hold at 92 percent.