Peter Paul Van De Wijs

In today’s interconnected world of well-informed individuals not engaging with stakeholders is costing companies money and can potentially even threaten their existence. In a series of five blogs I will take a closer look at strategic stakeholder engagement and how companies can optimally use it. This first blog lays out the business case, blog #2 dives into the relation between the stakeholders, blog #3 takes a closer look at the benefits and the last two blogs examine barriers to success...

Stakeholder engagement is based on mutual respect and understanding. The strongest forms of engagement are those where there are clear, identifiable benefits for both company and stakeholders. However, this does not mean that stakeholder engagement is only useful if there is an opportunity to create shared value. Nor does this imply agreement on all topics nor should that ever be the objective of engagement. After all, both the company and the stakeholders have their own responsibilities and...