Three decades ago, whilst working in the IT industry, I held a job whose primary role was to gather and assess ‘business intelligence’.
Others might have called it ‘market research’, and it also covered measuring customer satisfaction. I attended lots of conferences and spent time interfacing with many customers and competitors.
We never used the term ‘stakeholders’, though many of them would fit that description today. When looking at modern approaches, I realise that, gradually, we were moving towards the bundle of activities we now label stakeholder relationship management, with all the tools and techniques that Tractivity and others promote.
Learning what is going on around you is a key feature of the role. It complements the desk research of market analysts, or in the public sector, policy specialists. All the best Chief Executives and top teams invest time in keeping abreast of key developments. It’s part of their jobs, and they mostly try to balance their time between inward-focused tasks and absorbing external messages.
Filtering the noise: avoiding echo chambers
Years ago, sources of information were relatively few. A Senior Manager I once knew with an international remit, used to store up articles and papers ready for his next long flight and read them all together. Today, there is SO MUCH, it is almost a full-time job just absorbing what’s available. Inevitably, there is a need for filtering.
Yet, how does one do this?
We are all conscious of the risks of only listening to a narrow range of voices; therein lie the perils of echo chambers. And there are vast numbers of pundits and commentators that overlay genuine research with their own particular opinions (I am one such myself!).
The answer lies in placing a premium on the views of our stakeholders.
After all, they are the ones that matter to our organisation, though admittedly to a different extent. In many cases, they will have the same questions and share your uncertainties about future directions, risks and opportunities. Those best equipped to understand their perspectives will probably be best able to figure out the relevance of their views to your agenda.
Those who manage stakeholder relationships already know that it is part of their role to identify and interface with stakeholders that matter. They use stakeholder mapping and similar techniques to help communicate with them. To do this well, they need a sound understanding of their organisation’s goals and aspirations and a ‘feel’ for what issues are creeping up the agenda.
No doubt periodic reports are expected. My hunch, however, is that the ‘intelligence gathering’ role will suddenly become strategically important.
With this in mind, here are a few issues we should consider:
We should be totally transparent with stakeholders and admit that we expect key relationships to yield important insights
Few stakeholders are outright competitors but have their own reasons for keeping their cards close to their chests.
Even in the public sector, where there is a culture of information exchange, there are many who are inhibited from sharing their thoughts and their assumptions. Overcoming the ‘what are they up to?’ syndrome is largely about building trust and showing a genuine interest in the stakeholder and its affairs. In other words, what are already the core skills of the job.
We need to work closely with subject-matter specialists
To focus on intelligence gathering, it may be necessary to identify priority issues.
If, for example, a local authority wishes to learn more about the ways that neighbouring Councils help small businesses, it will need to involve its Economic Development department in its dialogues. For large organisations with complex technical responsibilities, there may already be machinery to liaise with domain specialists. These may need strengthening.
Consider setting up stakeholder panels on key issues
At times, you need a way to neutralise the effects of very individual reactions and find a consensus view.
There are, of course, considerable benefits to your stakeholders in being able to ‘bring and share’ their ideas in a safe space. You also enhance your image as one who is interested in long-term trends and underlying themes.
Exploit modern system tools to monitor your stakeholders’ published views
AI is set to have a seismic influence on many kinds of data gathering and analysis.
You may have limited opportunities to read and absorb your stakeholder’s Annual Report, or the Chief Executive’s statement to shareholders. You certainly don’t have time to synthesise its key messages and present them to your management team, but so much more will be possible in the coming years.
You need an easily accessible repository of documents and analyses and the ability to relate them to different individuals and organisations with whom you have a relationship.
I see that some high-profile USA companies are appointing ‘Chief Future Officers’ or their equivalents.
To many, this sounds rather like the latest gimmicky job title, though we have seen similar appointments centred around predicting technology innovations for some time. The cynical view is that they will always get it wrong, but the real aim of course is to obtain a better understanding of risks.
For most organisations, what they need are better ways to anticipate events and developments that will affect them.
In my view, this is emerging as a perfect role for leading-edge Stakeholder Relationship Managers, and I expect to see significant moves in this direction in the coming years.
Will your organisation be a leader or a laggard in this trend?
Written by Rhion Jones
Rhion Jones was the Founder Director of the Consultation Institute and is an acknowledged authority on all aspects of public and stakeholder engagement and consultation. He advises Tractivity and will be contributing expert analysis and commentaries on current issues.
Rhion now publishes thought leadership articles regularly as the Consultation Guru.