Shareholders and stakeholders
The main topic of this session is the analysis of the interdependencies of a company with its environment and how this environment can influence wealth creation. A new concept, to understand those interactions, is introduced by the authors: « Extended enterprise ». They define this new type of enterprise, which emerges in the 21st century, as a part of a large network with both internal and external dependencies. All these relationships can be more or less critical for the whole business or a particular issue, and the people or organizations that can influence the corporation are called stakeholders.
The new vision of stakeholders given by this article is to recognize the mutual interest among the firm and its stakeholders and also the interactions between the different dimensions of stakeholders. Indeed, stakeholders in this vision are represented in three different dimensions : Resource base, industry structure and social political arena.
An example of the importance of stakeholders management is Monsanto. This company is a leader in « life-science » industries. The first approach for them was to impose their products to the public without trying to listen or to answer public interrogations. This attitude, even if Monsanto was convinced that their products were safe, failed to reduce public skepticism. In consequence, the second attitude was to manage all the stakeholders that can influence the public and who have interdependencies with Monsanto to convince them and then convince the public by sharing, showing and adapting their business to their remarks. Firms give more or less importance to the different types of stakeholders. « Business
» stakeholders are considered as a part of the « core » creation of wealth, so it was and it is more natural to companies to optimize their relationships with clients, suppliers, employees…
In opposite it was more difficult to see the importance of relations with social and