Friday, February 24, 2012

Stakeholder analysis - we all do it subconsciously

Whether we know it or not, we all do stakeholder analysis in our minds. Subconsciously. This is when we mentally make a list of all the important things and people in our lives and "PRIORITIZE" - what is important and who is important for us. And then, we assign priorities and resources to those accordingly, in our minds.

More thoughts soon... :)

Gerry.

Stakeholder Analysis, Stakeholder Matrix ,Stakeholder Engagement & Stakeholder Consultation.

What is Stakeholder Analysis?

Stakeholder Analysis (SA) is a methodology used to facilitate institutional and policy

reform processes by accounting for and often incorporating the needs of those who have a

‘stake’ or an interest in the reforms under consideration. With information on

stakeholders, their interests, and their capacity to oppose reform, reform advocates can

choose how to best accommodate them, thus assuring policies adopted are politically

realistic and sustainable.
Few useful links:

Stakeholder Analysis

What is it?

A stakeholder analysis is a technique you can use to identify and assess the importance of key people, groups of people, or institutions that may significantly influence the success of your activity or project. You can use this technique alone or with your team members.

Who uses it?

Members of your quality improvement team.

Why use it?

Use a stakeholder analysis to:

identify people, groups, and institutions that will influence your initiative (either positively or negatively)
anticipate the kind of influence, positive or negative, these groups will have on your initiative
develop strategies to get the most effective support possible for your initiative and reduce any obstacles to successful implementation of your program.

When to use it?

Conduct a stakeholder analysis in the early stages of planning a quality improvement initiative.

How to use it:

Develop a Stakeholder Analysis Matrix like the one below:

Stakeholder	Stakeholder Interest(s) in the Project	Assessment of Impact	Potential Strategies for Obtaining Support or Reducing Obstacles

Organize group brainstorming. Identify all the people, groups, and institutions that will affect or be affected by your initiative and list them in the column under "Stakeholder."
Once you have a list of all potential stakeholders, review the list and identify the specific interests these stakeholders have in your project. Consider issues like: the project's benefit(s) to the stakeholder; the changes that the project might require the stakeholder to make; and the project activities that might cause damage or conflict for the stakeholder. Record these under the column "Stakeholder Interest(s) in the Project."
Now review each stakeholder listed in column one. Ask the question: how important are the stakeholder's interests to the success of the proposed project? Consider:
- The role the key stakeholder must play for the project to be successful, and the likelihood that the stakeholder will play this role
- The likelihood and impact of a stakeholder's negative response to the project
Assign A for extremely important, B for fairly important, and C for not very important. Record these letters in the column entitled "Assessment of Impact."
The final step is to consider the kinds of things that you could do to get stakeholder support and reduce opposition. Consider how you might approach each of the stakeholders. What kind of information will they need? How important is it to involve the stakeholder in the planning process? Are there other groups or individuals that might influence the stakeholder to support your initiative? Record your strategies for obtaining support or reducing obstacles to your project in the last column in the matrix.

Stakeholder matrix

Proposed action: chemical plant in protected forest	Positively affected	Negativelyaffected
Directly affected
Indirectly affected

Stakeholder PSYCHOLOGY

This is extremely important, in my view. It is funny that this term is not that popular yet, in the business world. Knowling the power dynamics in an organization is extremely important.

What is the stake of people involved?
What is the interest of each entity?
What is the degree of power that each one holds?
How can that be influenced?
What do people want?
How can we give people what they want (or even, what WE, as Managers want) and keep them happy?

Answering the above questions (and more) shall help to deal with business situations better.

Here are some useful links:

Will try to post details soon...

Cheers!

Gerry Som.

Academic Champion or Real World Champion? What should final year MBAs try to become?

This is a thought that I keep repeating often. My apologies. But this is important for me and this is what I am undergoing right now.

What to focus on, over the next few months - job or studies?

JOB focus in good - because - well, lets face it, we need to pay the bills. But it is also important because theory alone can not make a student good enough and can not enable learning enough. Let us face it. All or most of our teaching is classroom based. There is NO off class activity right now. That is why we have - an Internship. For practical, hands on learning. But getting into a job too early shall mean that one is like a half baked cake - the fundamentals of business (knowledge) may not be fully formed.

ACADEMIC focus is good as well - and this is because there is just SO MUCH to learn. Sometimes, we students are like those newly hatched baby birds that are scared to fly off the nest. We like the warmth, security and cozyness of the institution so much that we are a bit apprehensive to jump into a job scene. However, what is true is this - when an MBA student is very good at his knowledge and skills - the sky is the limit for career growth.

A JOB focus shall mean that the candidate chases any available job or perhaps waits for a dream job.

ACADEMIC focus shall perhaps mean that the candidate shall look at PhD or Research. Or take further courses like DAM (Diploma in Advanced Management) or an Post-MBA Diploma and further strengthen his skills.

I am right now in the middle of something similar.

I LOVE studying my MBA subjects. But at my own pace and at my own style and following my own taste. I would love to get to the depths of all the subjects before flying the nest and going out into the real world and doing magic!

Yes, once I am on the job, I would love to do some Corporate Magic, ha ha :) ---> Reduce losses, Increase profits, streamline processes, increase efficiency, keep all tasks up to date and make the company a leader in the field. Anything less is an insult to the books that I have read and the classes that I have attended, LOL.

MBAs are respected for a reason. The general public has faith in MBAs for a reason. And we MBAs must do our best to live up to those expectations and deliver results!

- Gerry Som.

Corporate Personality & CPD (Corporate Personality Disorder)

I had some thoughts today:

Do companies have personalities, just like people? An aggregate behaviour as the end result of all individual behaviours together. Perhaps they do.
And if companies do have personalities, are they perfect?
Can the company personalities be improved?
Can they be fine tuned to improve efficiency?
If necessary, can any problems be solved?
Yes, there is something called Corporate Culture. But there must be something call Corporate Personality, as well, eh?

CORPORATE PERSONALITY

I did an internet search and found a few useful links as below:

I even found an interesting blog at the link below. The blog is called:

Surviving Corporate Personality Disorder - It's not you that's crazy -- it's the organization!

http://www.corporatepersonalitydisorder.blogspot.com/

The author has a written a book called: Surviving and Saving Sick Organizations - Corporate Personality Disorder - by Dr. Eli Sopow. PhD.

What does Consumer Behaviour / Consumer Psychology / Customer Analytics mean?

I am trying to understand the following terms better:

Consumer Psychologist
Consumer Behaviour
Consumer Study
Consumer Research
Consumer Survey
Customer Analytics

Studying the psychology of various stakeholders of business is extremeley important. And the consumer is perhaps one of the most important stakeholder of any business, if not for the most important stakeholder. I shall post more info soon :)
Here are some useful links:

- Gerry Som.

People Power

(Picture from the internet)

This is true for both Politics & Business (with regards to Politicians & Corporations). People do not know their true power. Corporations and politicians depend on people for their power. The only problem is that the power in the hands of the people is fragmented and they do not have enough bargaining power.

Nice Quote about fame

From the internet (authenticity unconfirmed).

Quote about fame:
If you love me, I am in your heart;
If you hate me, I am in your head;
Either way, you make me famous !

- Shahrukh Khan (Indian movie super star).

Pages

Friday, February 24, 2012

Stakeholder Analysis

What is it?

Who uses it?

Why use it?

When to use it?

How to use it:

Stakeholder matrix

Proposed action: chemical plant in protected forest

Positively affected

Negativelyaffected

Directly affected

Indirectly affected

Surviving Corporate Personality Disorder - It's not you that's crazy -- it's the organization!