Connect Stakeholders
Clara Millard Dereudre · 2024
This chapter describes the first element of the Connect 4 Impact methodology, Connect Stakeholders, which aligns with the first step of traditional strategic marketing: market analysis. However, in Positive Impact Marketing, this analysis must be more holistic and systemic. Thus, the first step in Connect Stakeholders is to perform an ecosystem analysis, that analyzes sustainability-related environmental and socio-economic megatrends and the externalities of the company and product or service. The next step in Connect Stakeholders is to perform holistic stakeholder mapping. Stakeholder mapping complements the traditional value chain analysis tool by considering direct and indirect impacts, social and environmental aspects at multiple geographic scales, and the entire life cycle of the company&s;s offering. The final step of Connect Stakeholders is to form impactful partnerships with stakeholders beyond the value chain and within the entire ecosystem. For these collaborations to become impactful partnerships, they must abide by a few fundamental principles: win-win formulas; clear, ambitious yet realistic objectives that can be measured; commitment and transparency from partners; and last but not least a new underlying collaborative and caring mindset.