: Paul Ratoff
: Thriving in a Stakeholder World Purpose as the New Competitive Advantage
: Indie Books International
: 9781941870440
: 1
: CHF 9.40
:
: Management
: English
: 248
: kein Kopierschutz
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
Shifting influences among stakeholders has caused leaders to consider new ways of managing their organizations and navigating through a very different and ever-changing world. This book demonstrates to leaders that purpose can be the driving force behind this new management style and also provide a competitive advantage in their markets. The book offers two fundamental concepts that when embraced and practiced authentically, can be transformative for organizational success. First, one must look at an organization strategically as if operating inside of its own stakeholder world. This stakeholder world is represented by the many individuals and groups of individuals who impact, or are impacted by, the organization. Second, to ensure an organization's long-term success, pursuing purposeful behavior is the best practice for managing stakeholder value inside its stakeholder world. Purposeful behavior means taking actions that are consistent or aligned with a purpose that is meaningful and important to all the organization's stakeholders.
CHAPTER ONE
Surviving and Thriving in the Brave New Stakeholder World
THE BIG IDEA
To be successful in today’s world, an organization needs to think beyond maximizing shareholder value. Organizations need to manage from the perspective of stakeholder value and bring backpurpose as an effective management tool.
In 1995, Larry Page and Sergey Brin met by chance at Stanford University. Their collaboration over the next three years would result in one of the most well-known and utilized services on the Internet. By 1998, the pair launched the search engine Google and incorporated the company with a clear purpose in mind. Google’s mission was, and still is, to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
As you are undoubtedly aware, Google radically transformed the way most people access information on the Internet. Throughout the years, the company added products like Gmail, Google Maps, and the Android operating system that would become fundamental to the lives of users across the world. Each month, Google is used for search by over a billion unique users. During the summer of 2013, a five-minute blackout of Google caused global web traffic to dip by 40 percent. You will probably use at least one of their products today.
What makes Google unique is not just its great success as a global enterprise but its commitment to making a huge contribution to society that is meaningful and important to most of the people who are impacted by them. In addition, Google recognizes that it is also impacted by the very same people and must address their needs as well.
Google realized from the start that if it were to achieve its mission, it would need to think beyond merely maximizing profits and instead balance the needs of all of its stakeholders including employees, customers, suppliers, governments, media, activist groups, competition, and the community at large. To honor that, it established one of its core values as “Don’t be evil.”
In the prospectus for their IPO in 2004, Google stated: “Don’t be evil. We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served—as shareholders and in all other ways—by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short-term gains.” What an incredible thing to put in writing. This ideal has not always been easy to live up to over the years. Google has come under criticism for censorship in China and violations of privacy that some feel conflict with their