Discussion
Stakeholder engagement is basically the process that some businesses take to involve parties that are influential when it comes to decision making processes of the business. However, it may mean involving parties that can be affected by the decision making process or the decisions themselves. Stakeholder engagement therefore means the involvement of anybody who can affect or be affected by a business’s decisions or decision making process e.g. employees, managers, customers, shareholders, government, investors among others (Noland et al, 2010). In that case, information technology (IT) stakeholder engagement is basically the engagement of stakeholders in the process of making decisions concerning IT and development. This means that these parties are supposed to be knowledgeable in the field of IT and other fields related to it.
Generally, most businesses conduct this process with an aim of achieving a certain objective of the business which at most time is usually a long-term objective or goal. This is so because the stakeholders’ roles in a business is to influence the business operations that are related to both the external and internal environment. Stakeholder engagement is a Corporate Social Responsibility tool that focuses on ensuring the community aspects and values are respected and adhered to. Also it ensures that the business is in a position to be accountable and responsible for its own operations no matter what the conditions or results are (Manetti et al, 2016). Therefore, stakeholder engagement is involved especially when a business seems to face complex and difficult situations and must make a decision that is fair but also beneficial to its operations. In that case, IT stakeholder engagement will certainly be focused on ensuring the technology advancement of the business is a successful process and that it is effective and efficient.
In this report, I will use the Coca Cola Company as the business of my reference. I will use as the case study company whereby I will discuss its IT stakeholder engagement, how relevant the process is to the business, IT stakeholder engagement models and structures applicable to the business and the informal models and strategies that the business uses when it comes to the IT stakeholder engagement process.
The Coca Cola Company is basically one of the largest beverage companies in the world. It is an international business operating in almost all the continents in the planet and with a very large market share and segment. With this in mind, it is clear that the company has a very large number of shareholders and investors all around the world who are eligible in the involvement in the stakeholder engagement process. The business is also very well developed when it comes to IT. This is one of its aspects that makes it pretty successful even with the increase in competition in its industry. The company has been using this process as a way to increase and improve its future sustainability goals and objectives especially that are related to IT advancement. The business uses the stakeholder engagement as a tool of making long-term decisions and planning its way towards achieving those decisions (2016 Annual Stakeholder Forum minutes (PDF, 4.0mb)). This is one of the most relevant, effective and efficient instrument that the business has used to achieve and fulfill its sustainability plans.
Formal Models and Structures Applicable
The formal models and structures are mostly used by the experts in a certain field. This is because the experts are the only ones that can be able to understand the language used by the models. In the case of Coca Cola Company, the IT stakeholder engagement models may involve experts like engineers, financial analysts, environmental analysts to name a few. Some of the formal or experts in Coca Cola Company include people like the employees, managers, trade partners, governments and the other related authorities among others. However, it will also depend with the kind of objectives and goals that the business is expected to achieve.
Just as earlier mentioned, Coca Cola company a very large number of different stakeholders from various parts of the world. They include parties like; consumers, suppliers, investors, employees, NGO groups, business analysts to name just but a few. From these stakeholders, the company has formed different partnerships and collaborations with some of them. Apparently, it has been involved in international operations like the United Nations Global Compact as well as the World Economic Forum. This international collaborations have helped both organizations to identify and solve most of the global problems facing such industries hence bringing up many ideas of development and growth of the businesses and individuals involved as well (2016 Annual Stakeholder Forum minutes (PDF, 4.0mb)). The business has formally been involved in collaboration with parties like the government, NGOs, society members even the water agencies, agricultural agencies with an aim of serving the surrounding communities (Issue brief: Water & water stewardship (PDF, 1.0mb)). Coca Cola has been able to provide for many of the community needs either directly or indirectly through these collaborations and partnerships.
However, the IT stakeholder engagement has played a very important role in the success of these collaboration and partnerships. The information technology advancement status of the company has been able to fasten the progress of the activities that take place in the community. Through the involvement of the IT stakeholders to the company, the business is able to make informed and realistic decisions towards community development. For instance, in the case of water preservation and environmental development and growth, the company is able to choose the right and most effective and efficient kind of technology to implement its plans and operations through the help of the IT stakeholder engagement.
Coca Cola has been engaged in various programs the help develop the society in different ways. For instance, the supplier engagement program has helped the company succeed in its sustainable agriculture objective by involving most of its suppliers in the program. Its aim was to ensure that the suppliers have made effective use of the agricultural resources available but should also respect them accordingly. Therefore, in that case, the company has been able to communicate and work together with the suppliers to achieve its sustainable agriculture guidelines and principles that they had set up. It is clear that the process was possible because of the help received from the suppliers and especially their technological support.
Collaboration and Partnership formations
The informal models are used by the common people in the community or business. This means that they are used by people who are not experienced or experts in the specified field. For instance, the Coca Cola Company has common stakeholders like the customers or consumers, the society members to name a few. In that case these are the people the business is likely going to use informal models of stakeholder engagement on.
The business has been able to communicate effectively with its customers and consumers through the social networking sites. These parties have been able to share their ideas and opinions on certain issues regarding the business itself as well as its products and services. Most of these people are the society members who may have ideas on how the business can improve its operations and other things. For instance, Coca Cola Company has got a website in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. Through this websites the business experts and management is able to get in touch with its stakeholders and also respond to the stakeholders’ contributions and complaints.
This is a process that involved frequent evaluation and supervision of a situation and making conclusions in the end. The business can conduct surveys on their customers and consumers with an aim of getting to know what problems they are facing and what are their ideas about the business’s products or services. These services can be done by experts so that the results can be accurate and eligible to be relied upon. Therefore, through these surveys the company can be able to engage these type of stakeholders when it comes to improving its business operations. The organization can get new ideas and opinions on how to improve its IT development and advancement from such people especially when the operations are related to society development and growth e.g. environmental cleanness and water usage and preservations techniques.
These meetings can be conducted for stakeholders like the shareholders, investors, customers and consumers, suppliers and community members to name a few. These stakeholders also may have knowledge on how to improve the technology advancement of a business even if they may not be information technology experts. Even though these meetings may be informal, the stakeholders are able to air out their opinions and ideas openly on how the business can improve its operations especially the activities that are directly related to them (the stakeholders).
Through these formal and informal models, the business is able get valuable and crucial input information that it can use in developing and improving its technology advancement and utilization. Through this, the business acquires a very large number of various ideas that can help it not only develop its IT status but also other operations that may be related to information technology.
Coca Cola Company has different strategies that help it manage its information technology stakeholder engagement. Basically, the purpose of these strategies is to increase and improve the business’s stakeholder involvement in business growth and development. However, the business also desires to improve the economic, environmental and social responsibility of the stakeholders in general. Furthermore, the information technology stakeholder engagement is also responsible for ensuring that the technology status of the business is modern, effective and efficient for achieving the objectives and goals set. Some of the strategies that Coca Cola Company uses include the following:
Program Engagement
The company’s social responsibility strategy is responsible for ensuring that the general operational processes of the business are in line and effective. For instance, the strategies focuses on minimizing the total amount of energy consumed in the production of its products especially the carbon footprint used. The business achieves this strategy by partnering with other organizations like environmental agencies, universities, NGOs and government authorities to ensure that climate conditions are protected and do not affect the community (Issue brief: Water & water stewardship (PDF, 1.0mb)). The company uses its IT stakeholder engagement to receive the ideal and effective processes and methods to use for this to be possible.
These strategies are of different types according to the type of stakeholder. For instance, the media relations strategies which focuses on the marketing and advertisement of the business’s products and services. Through this strategy, the company is able to attract more customers, investors and consumers in the market to purchase and invest in the company. The company has ensured that its relations with the public are effective and are fruitful. The other strategy is the Investor relations strategies. The company has invested a lot of time and funds in ensuring that its investors are well compensated and rewarded. It has focused on ensuring that the company has earned as much revenue as possible which means more profits and therefore more compensation to the shareholders or investors (2016 Annual Stakeholder Forum minutes (PDF, 4.0mb)). Through this strategy, the business is able to get ideas on how best to improve the business operations and how to develop. The IT stakeholder engagement is able to achieve such a purpose because the investors being a part of the business, they will have a chance to produce good ideas so that that business can increase its profits hence more money for them.
The other types of stakeholder strategies include the following: government relations strategies, internal communication strategies which is apparently related to employee relation strategies, advertising strategies among others.
Conclusion
From these case study, I have realized that there is great need for a business to conduct IT stakeholder engagement process. This is simply one of the best ways which a business can use to get various ideas and opinions from other parties. This process can play a fundamental role in ensuring that the business stay on its knees and be able to achieve its objective and goals especially the long-term ones. Therefore, the fact that Coca Cola Company has been using this aspect to help it improve its operations is an indication of how successful a business can be by using such an instrument as one of its Corporate Social Responsibility tool.
References
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2016 Annual Stakeholder Forum minutes (PDF, 4.0mb)
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