Brainstorm your stakeholder groups without screening for influence. List anyone and everyone that might have an interest in your objectives now and possibly in the future. 

• Questions to help push your brainstorming beyond the obvious: o Who are potential stakeholders from new markets? New technology? Who are our competitors’ stakeholders?

o What are new trends in sustainability? New regulations coming?

o Is our stakeholder group diverse? Are they influencers? Collaborators? Advocators? Objectors?

o Who are the loudest voices? [Hint – not always our biggest groups of stakeholders…..take a peek at social media to see who’s communicating about issues facing your organization or business practices]

2. Analyze your list to understand the stakeholders’ relevance to your purpose and the influence they hold. You can use the following criteria to help your analysis: o Contribution: does this stakeholder have information or expertise that can be helpful to the business?

o Willingness to engage: will the stakeholder be a part of the process?

o Influence: is their claim legitimate and how much influence do they have over the process? Whom do they influence? You directly, government policy, your customers, community?

o Necessity of involvement: are they important to the process? Will they derail it or make it less relevant if they are left out of the process?

3. After a list is comprised, identify a list for prioritizing your stakeholder groups. This could be based on their level of interest, level of influence, power for negatively/positively affecting your business operations or reputation, regulatory influence, etc.

4. Once identified, map the stakeholders on a matrix [provided below]

5. Use the matrix to prioritize the stakeholder. o IDENTIFY CRITERIA FOR PRIORITIZING THE STAKEHOLDERS

[The criteria you are using should be clearly communicated in your assignment submission].

It could be based on their direct influence, influence over others, effect on the business, affected by the business actions, etc.

6. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS ASSIGNMENT, SELECT AND IDENTIFY YOUR TOP FOUR (4) STAKEHOLDERS AND PROVIDE YOUR RATIONALE FOR SELECTING THEM.

7. Once selected, identify the issues that are important to them. You will use this as part of your engagement strategy and explain their relevance to your engagement objectives. o Ex. Environmental activists = issue is concern with logging of mature/old growth forests.