Problem To Solve

Stakeholder management is not new.  In fact, most references surfaced by Google search today cite the same 2×2 stakeholder matrix (Mendelow, 1991) published more than 30 years ago! – suggesting plenty of new opportunities to think innovatively about stakeholder engagement strategy.

Moreover, the context and importance of stakeholder management has started to evolve, in just the last 3-4 years.  There are multiple reasons and examples, from which two stand out in particular:

• In the business world, particularly at large corporations, the emphasis on traditional shareholder value is expanding to stakeholder value. Business stakeholders go well beyond shareholders and traditional customers to include employees, internal departments/functions, external partners, and those affected by socioeconomic issues.

• In the public sector, US federal agencies – notably the National Science Foundation and the Economic Development Administration – are extensively funding place-based collaborative consortia, each comprised usually of dozens of independent enterprises. Here, an extraordinarily diverse mix of entities must organize communally.

Closely linked with this evolution from traditional stakeholder management is the changing definition of “Customer”.  Indeed, customer focus in the past tended to be easier because the customer of a given enterprise was relatively easy to define.  In contrast today, consider for example an emerging regional innovation consortium established to commercialize university technology, increase jobs in the region, and reskill an inclusive workforce.  

In this case, who is/are the customer(s) and who are the stakeholders, exactly?  What are the strategic and tactical differences in collaborating with them?  And, by extension, how are the partners, contributors, special resources, influencers, and other members of a complex enterprise like this best engaged?

In fact, stakeholder engagement is often the “need behind the need”.  That is, the overt need could be to “Grow X…”, “Build Y…”, or “Fix Z…”  But these are desired outcomes.  The essence of what is needed to achieve those outcomes is getting everyone on the same page, and working together.

So, what is the solution to this new and growing challenge around stakeholder management?

Quick-Strike Stakeholder Engagement Strategy

The answer is not business as usual that clings to old paradigms and practices.  Nor is the answer an overly elaborate multi-month project which can overanalyze, waste time and energy, and impose prematurely rigid structures.  Rather, experience indicates that the most effective and practical answer is quick-turnaround development of a consensus-building stakeholder engagement strategy.

Let’s step back a moment for additional context.  Typically, organizational leaders seeking to strategize the engagement of diverse stakeholders do not start from scratch.  In most cases, the central opportunity has usually been at least roughly defined; and often an initial investment has already been made in an anchor asset or related activity.

Therefore, what is needed at this juncture is a practical means to consolidate current thinking, ideas, and actions into a pragmatic path forward that builds synergistic stakeholder engagement.

The Quick-Strike Stakeholder Engagement Strategy approach generates clear definition of what to do and why, to engage and integrate diverse stakeholders during complex collaborative innovation – e.g., at innovation districts, tech hubs or other cross-organization consortia aimed at communal outcomes.

The Quick-Strike Stakeholder Engagement Strategy process drives 3 main outputs:

• Identification of a complete palette of relevant stakeholders
• Determination of stakeholder roles which best add to collective value
• Strategy and structure of a core team to drive stakeholder engagement in the near-term.

The straightforward 6-step process combines internal reports and data, with insightful stakeholder interviews – all enhanced by generative AI tools, and delivered in a 4-6 week time frame depending on need.

In this approach, stakeholders are identified, including partners, contributors, and special resources – and they are mapped by role and importance.  Through the interview process, these stakeholders gain awareness and acceptance, leading to their commitment to the vision and high-level strategy.  A consensus roadmap further activates and engages the complete stakeholder mix.  And an execution charter structures the ways of working of an agile core team to drive the work to be done.

Quick-Strike Stakeholder Engagement Strategy is led most effectively by an innovation intermediary – i.e., an external resource who brings impartiality, outside perspective, and expertise in collaborative innovation.  Partnering with client leadership, that resource works with focus and commitment on behalf of the collective benefits of the entire consortium.

The resultant benefits are threefold:

• Consensus to decide and act across diverse partners and contributors
• Conversion of incompletely formed individual interests into communal commitment
• Sustainable cross-stakeholder engagement during periods of uncertain funding/revenues.

The bottom-line result is a purposeful execution team moving in concert toward a common vision. Previous ideas, interests, and preliminary activities have been converted into integrated stakeholder engagement.

Example of Quick-Strike Stakeholder Engagement Strategy in Action

The University City Science Center is one of the oldest science parks in the United States, founded in 1963.  A leadership change triggered the opportunity to refresh and revitalize the Science Center (SC) strategy. The first phase comprised expedient steps to engage a complex mix of stakeholders.

Located in western Philadelphia, the SC stakeholder mix included numerous academic institutions, ranging from the University of Pennsylvania to Lincoln University.  Starting-point Science Center assets included extensive research space to lease, and an incubator for startup companies.  Scattered independently across the region were many entrepreneurs, angel investors and venture capital funds, professional services, and a wide range of government agencies and community organizations.

The first step in resetting the overall Science Center strategy was building a strategy and plan to engage this complex stakeholder mix.  Indeed, de facto implementation of the eventual strategy began with this phase of stakeholder input – leading to their awareness, acceptance, and, ultimately, enthusiastic involvement.  The straightforward stakeholder engagement process combined market research, structured interviews, and external benchmarking.

The outcome of the new Science Center strategy was an innovative complement of three multifaceted programs: the QED Proof-of-Concept Program, Quorum networking forums and events, and the new Port incubator.  This synergistic combination catalyzed research relationships with academic institutions across Philadelphia and beyond, while boosting tenant demand at existing and new Science Center buildings.  And it improved measurably the economic and community health of western Philadelphia.

Innovative Role of Generative AI in Quick-Strike Stakeholder Engagement Strategy

Quick-Strike Stakeholder Engagement Strategy incorporates generative AI (GenAI) as a facilitating tool within the overall process.  GenAI, properly applied, is a valuable means to the process end – the end being enthusiastic stakeholder engagement in complex collaborative innovation manifested, for example, by successful tech hubs, innovation districts, and regional innovation consortia.

Gen AI intersects and complements the six-step Quick-Strike Stakeholder Engagement Strategy process at several points.

• Baseline ecosystem knowledge: GenAI can quickly “ingest” multiple context-specific data sources into its already massive public knowledge base – e.g., special reports, website content, and white papers.

• Stakeholder mapping and vision/value hypothesizing: Carefully querying the GenAI knowledge base can reveal hidden stakeholders, while helping map stakeholder interests and potential roles — thereby enhancing the initial consortium vision and value proposition.

• Stakeholder interview synthesis: Systematic and impartial stakeholder interviews will test hypotheses about consortium vision and value proposition, while illuminating ecosystem strengths and gaps, and stakeholder interests and roles.  GenAI helps to creatively “connect the dots” and extract strategic insights from the diverse interview data.

• Consensus-driven strategy development: GenAI can simulate deep dives into specific needs of key stakeholders.  It can help drive Decision Analysis, whereby stakeholder criteria are defined and ranked. Finally, skillful iteration with GenAI shapes creative ideas about innovative elements of the stakeholder engagement strategy – e.g., social contract principles, governance models, applicability of OKRs and balanced scorecard metrics, and others.

The bottom line is that GenAI helps deliver what Quick-Strike Stakeholder Engagement Strategy, at its core, seeks to do: that is, expand the executional “burst” capacity of consortium leadership to engage, align, and mobilize a powerful team of partners and stakeholders – with speed, agility, and efficiency.

Call to Action

Effective stakeholder engagement starts with stakeholder identification, inclusion, and integration of their respective synergistic roles.  Human nature being what it is, the best way to get independent functions and organizations to work together – i.e., to look outside their normal/narrow spheres of influence – is to involve them upfront in an efficient and transparent process leading to consensus about collective effort.

Stakeholder engagement strategy-making should not be an elaborate and multi-month process that implicitly seeks to over-predict and over-plan its way to success.  Instead, what works best is a comprehensive but quick-turnaround approach leading to joint awareness, acceptance, and start-up action.

Your next step could be consideration of an innovation intermediary to help build a successful Quick-Strike Stakeholder Engagement Strategy, with a methodology and process that is straightforward, practical, low risk, and cost effective.

© OIC Innovation LLC 2024