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1 – 9 of 9The author offers a leaders' guide to managing relations with “shapeholders” the political, regulatory, media and activist actors in the firm's operating environment that shape…
Abstract
Purpose
The author offers a leaders' guide to managing relations with “shapeholders” the political, regulatory, media and activist actors in the firm's operating environment that shape, constrain, or expand a firm's opportunities and raise certain risks.
Design/methodology/approach
The author, a former US congressman, shows how companies can adopt a program of analysis, foresight and preparation, and successfully engage shapeholders to advance mutual goals and preempt open conflict.
Findings
The author warns that seeking unjustified advantage for your company or industry often trades transient benefits for long-term risks and reduced standing in seeking a level playing field in international markets.
Practical implications
The author suggests several practical preparation techniques, citing the need to train for a rapid response to shapeholder pressures in today's hyper-connected world. When a controversy goes viral on social media, it's too late to debate options, policy and tactics.
Originality/value
Leaders can use the author's WinWin Shapeholders Decision Matrix and other models introduced in the article to analyze and prepare for shapeholder interactions in advance.
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Oleksiy Osiyevskyy and Vladyslav Biloshapka
The authors review the concept of building relationships with Shapeholders,: a broad group of players that have no financial stake in the company yet can substantively influence…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors review the concept of building relationships with Shapeholders,: a broad group of players that have no financial stake in the company yet can substantively influence it. The process for doing this is the subject of a new book by Mark Kennedy, Shapeholders: Business success in the age of social activism.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors examine Mark Kennedy’s framework for managing the firm’s shapeholders, a model composed of seven basic steps (7A’s): Align with a purpose, Anticipate, Assess, Avert, Acquiesce, Advance common interests, and Assemble to win.
Findings
Managing corporate reputation in alliance with enlightened shapeholders is a potential defense against self-aggrandizing schemes to wantonly maximize shareholder value in the short run.
Practical implications
Managing shapeholders is part of the messy democratic process that works when power is apportioned fairly among those affected by a firm’s decisions, and this process underpins the winning business models of true market leaders.
Social implications
Stakeholders previously discredited as mere “mosquitos” have gained new power, particularly when their legitimate concerns and unfair treatment resonate with the interests of a significant segment of the public and influential shapeholders.
Originality/value
Shapeholders can create enormous opportunities for smart managers capable of effectively engaging with them.
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José Luis Retolaza, Leire San-Jose and Ricardo Aguado
Stakeholder theory may be the Archimedes lever that allows defining a possible Economy for the Common Good; however, the theory’s current level of development does not enable it…
Abstract
Stakeholder theory may be the Archimedes lever that allows defining a possible Economy for the Common Good; however, the theory’s current level of development does not enable it to escape the criticism that considers it nothing more than shared egoism. The expansion of the concept of stakeholder, including not only groups that collaborate in the creation of value or which are actively impacted by the organisation, but also incorporating those affected by omission – non-stakeholders – would lead to the reconciliation of stakeholder theory and the common good. Nevertheless, to set it within corporate practice, besides having selfish and altruist incentives, would be of interest for the conceptual development of shapeholders, understood as the link between non-stakeholders’ interests and needs, and firms.
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Russell Craig and Joel Amernic
This paper explores the benefits and pitfalls of a CEO’s personal messaging on Twitter.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the benefits and pitfalls of a CEO’s personal messaging on Twitter.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on recent professional and scholarly literature that has explored Twitter use by executives. For empirical support, some personal tweets of Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk are cited.
Findings
Twitter enables the exercise of leadership through language, especially by CEOs who learn how to harness its benefits and avoid its pitfalls. Communicating via a CEO’s personal Twitter account can help establish the actual and perceived organizational culture of a company; build and maintain the CEO’s reputation as an honest broker of information; and influence how a company’s business model and priorities are perceived.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the first to explore the implications of the use by CEO’s of their personal Twitter account for corporate purposes.
Vladyslav Biloshapka and Oleksiy Osiyevskyy
The article describes how a well-functioning, competent system of self-evaluation of customer value creation and delivery can be an essential part of a corporate initiative to…
Abstract
Purpose
The article describes how a well-functioning, competent system of self-evaluation of customer value creation and delivery can be an essential part of a corporate initiative to reach or sustain the winner state.”
Design/methodology/approach
The true value the firm’s customers are obtaining from interactions with the firm can be assessed by obtaining candid answers to the following three strategic value-focused business model questions: 10;(1)9;How do you make sure you are offering the benefits your customers really appreciate most? 10;(2)9;What group of customers is the primary focus of your efforts? 10;(3)9;How do you help your customers fully appreciate the delivery of the benefits offered? 10;These three questions were derived from an in-depth investigation of the business models of real-world firms that succeeded in moving to and remaining in the winner state, an ongoing longitudinal study undertaken by the authors’ team in North America, Southeast Asia and Europe.
Findings
Based on the authors’ research, companies with sustainable winning business models institutionalize the processes of systematic, ongoing collection of the information about customer value, integrating it into the strategic decision making processes.
Practical implications
To be effective, according to our research, the analysis needs to consider value proposition (what is promised), value targeting (who is the primary recipient) and value delivery (how the promise is fulfilled) separately, which most companies don’t do.
Originality/value
The article offers top executives, marketing executives and board members process for updating and adjusting the business model so that it continues to produce superior revenue, operating profit and ongoing customer and shareholder satisfaction.
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