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Stakeholder Relations and Planning for Success: Five Case Study Reviews for Best 1

Practices
John R. Sardelli-jsardelli350@g.rwu.edu

Stakeholder Relations and Planning for Success:

Five Case Study Reviews for Best Practices

By: John R. Sardelli

July 18, 2012

LEAD510: Leadership and Organizational Stakeholders

Dr. June Speakman

Dr. Michael Hall


Stakeholder Relations and Planning for Success: Five Case Study Reviews for Best 2
Practices
John R. Sardelli-jsardelli350@g.rwu.edu

The five case studies presented share the commonality of examining whether

stakeholders were engaged using best practices. Overall, it is evident that of the five, only GAP

and Endangered World Wildlife Trust (EWT) evolved meaningful stakeholder engagement plans

that had any measure of success. The other examples, Tampa Bay Town Hall Meeting, Race,

Politics, and Low-Income Housing, and Liquor Tax Reform in Thailand demonstrated clear

examples of what not to do if one wants to have successful stakeholder relationships. The most

significant lesson learned came from GAPs case study where their stakeholder engagement and

relations strategy revealed that the process takes time to evolve and many trial and error

experiences should be expected. It also resonated that GAPs most successful engagement plan

manifested once the company realized that they could not continue to do it alone in managing

crisis situations in their industry (Smith, Ansett, & Erez, 2011). As all leaders must learn that

shared success is the best success, the same is true of stakeholder relations and GAPs case was

the only one that represented this statement to its fullest. Companies and individual must always

partner for success with internal and external stakeholders. Yet sometimes the best achievements

are had when partnerships are forged with competitor companies as shown by GAP and Levi-

Strauss joining forces to address child labor and pollution in the manufacture of their clothing

ranges (Smith, Ansett, & Erez, 2011).

Unsuccessful Stakeholder Engagement Strategies

Three of the case studies provide a roadmap for how to not engage stakeholders. The

biggest example of poor stakeholder management leading to mistrust, racism, and blatant

politicking can be found in the Race, Politics, and Low-Income Housing study about Old Towns

efforts to keep its medical school at the expense of displacing the poorest people in the township
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Practices
John R. Sardelli-jsardelli350@g.rwu.edu

(Reinke, 2008). The elected commission gave no power to its mayor, had a Town Council

divided along racial lines that caused disruption to voting and accusations of racism, and featured

the story of underhanded machinations the town administrator, Ford Thompson, took to try and

make a deal to expand the medical school (Reinke, 2008). Thompson took the poor approach of

only inviting Whites to sit on the panel and never had public discussions or even notified the

residents of the soon-to-be-razed project of plans to displace them (Reinke, 2008). He paid no

heed to the media scandal that erupted when the medical school president had clandestine

meetings about merging with a larger university in a different township. Outright racism blew

the entire secret plan open in the media and set up a firestorm of controversy (Reinke, 2008).

Had Thompson taken the time to be more public in explaining the true merits of the reason for

expansion and that there were plans to move project residents elsewhere, much of the problem

could have been avoided as he would gained trust and shown transparency in planning. By

focusing only on what the medical school needed, Thompson missed an opportunity to gain

widespread support and goodwill. The entire project was undermined by secrecy, lack of

transparency in activities, and an overall lack of communication and trust. While Thompson

may have felt that he was acting in the best interest of the town, his lack of stakeholder

engagement created an unnecessary situation that put the entire project, race relations, and his

own career in peril.

Some of the same issues were on display at the Tampa Town Hall Meeting on Health

Care. Representative Betty Reed had her own agenda for the meeting and planned for things to

be more community based, however, as it became clear there was strong potential for protests

related to the national health care debate, she did not engage her constituents in discussion, she
Stakeholder Relations and Planning for Success: Five Case Study Reviews for Best 4
Practices
John R. Sardelli-jsardelli350@g.rwu.edu

simply discussed the matter with the head of her local Democratic Party (Varley, 2011). The

complete lack of stakeholder engagement and ignoring external stakeholders who were invested

in the disruption of the event laid the foundation for a disastrous meeting (Varley, 2011).

Further, once the meeting was underway, not directly engaging with the overflow crowd that

could not come into the event and cutting the meeting short because of the unruliness of

attendees sent a message that there was no interest in listening to voters (Varley, 2011). Worse,

the aftermath of Reed not directly engaging her constituents for more than a year just reinforces

that message and demonstrates she still lacks the awareness of how to directly connect with

stakeholders (Varley, 2011).

The final case study that falls into unsuccessful stakeholder engagement is related to

Thailands Liquor Tax Reform (Techajareonvikul, 2006). This case again shows no stakeholder

engagement and reveals that the government has conflicts of interest in even seeking to regulate

tax reform on liquors as many elected officials are actually in the liquor manufacturing or liquor

import business (Techajareonvikul, 2006). Further, with the government seeking to revise the

tax structure to increase tariffs while they run simultaneous campaigns to cut down on citizens

drinking and improve their health, the tariff seems self-defeating, especially when it is revealed

that declining revenues for liquor and cigarettes has already begun occurring (Techajareonvikul,

2006). The report also makes note of redundancies in office duties that could be streamlined and

used to free up money for the infrastructure projects the country needs to fund. While it is noted

that the public has a widespread awareness of why the government is seeking to raise the tax on

liquor, the case study also notes that there has not been stakeholder engagement with the public,

or seemingly with the liquor industry on this issue or how to raise funds for infrastructure needs.
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John R. Sardelli-jsardelli350@g.rwu.edu

By not engaging with stakeholders, lawmakers are missing an opportunity to actively engage in

an idea exchange that could lead to significant improvements in fiscal responsibility and better

benefit individuals and businesses.

In every one of these cases, these officials should look to the success GAP has had by

hiring Stakeholder Managers (also known as boundary spanners) and engaging directly with

stakeholders, even in difficult situations (Smith, Ansett, & Erez, 2011). In the worst possible

situations, a smart company or government will have properly developed and managed their

stakeholder relationships to achieve maximum success. Stakeholder relations are most clearly

defined in a time of crisis when businesses can be redeemed or destroyed based on stakeholder

perceptions.

Stakeholder Relations Best Practices

The final two case studies focus on EWT and GAP and both illustrate the benefits of

developing long-term, positive stakeholder relationships while also showing that the process

takes time to be properly developed and enacted. With Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), the

organization experienced a long period where it over-extended itself and was run more by

volunteers and other organizations dictating what EWT needed to do on their behalf (Price,

2010). When faced with declining revenues, branding confusion, and associations with

questionable organizations, leadership recognized that in order to survive, avoid scandal, and

prosper, EWT needed to look inward and get back to its core mission and values (Price, 2010).

To do this they undertook a four-step process that focused on stakeholder engagement of the

board of trustees and staff only (Price, 2010). While the resulting plan helped to reestablish

EWTs identity and signaled a return to their core mission and values, they did make a misstep
Stakeholder Relations and Planning for Success: Five Case Study Reviews for Best 6
Practices
John R. Sardelli-jsardelli350@g.rwu.edu

by not engaging broader stakeholder groups that could be vital to their planning and emerging

role as a go-to leader in connecting organizations, volunteers, and governmental agencies for

important conservation needs in South Africa (Price, 2010). While EWT has taken a huge step

in the right direction, there is still a long way to go to build a true stakeholder engagement

strategy and plan that encompasses all stakeholders for every eventuality.

The last case study that provided a true blueprint of how to build and manage stakeholder

relationships is GAP. The case study highlighted GAP had many difficulties in getting to their

ultimate stakeholder communication plan (Smith, Ansett, & Erez, 2011). In fact, it took them

decades to finally get it right (Smith, Ansett, & Erez, 2011). GAP demonstrates that there is no

magic bullet to manage stakeholder relationships but it does take effort. It takes time, engaging

unexpected partners, and accepting that a single company cannot police an entire industry.

While GAP has weathered serious scandals relating to toxic pollution, polluted rivers, and child

labor, they have survived by consistently showing that they are committed to engaging critics,

supporters, and competitors to help solve the problems. They have won over critics by being

transparent and building trust (Smith, Ansett, & Erez, 2011). Trust and transparency are the

most critical elements to building an effective stakeholder plan and all of the case study subjects

would do well to recognize this.


Stakeholder Relations and Planning for Success: Five Case Study Reviews for Best 7
Practices
John R. Sardelli-jsardelli350@g.rwu.edu

References

Techajareonvikul, A. (2006). Liquor tax reform in thailand: Competing interests and objectives.

(Boston: Harvard Kennedy School Publishing: HKS238,

Newell, C. (2009). Managing local government: Cases in effectiveness. (3rd ed., pp. 89-93).

Washington: ICMA.

Price, G. (2010). Stakeholder management and the endangered wildlife trust. Richard Ivey

School of Business Foundation, 12(14), doi: 910M66

Smith, N., Ansett, S. & Erez, L. (2011, Summer). How gap inc. engaged with its stakeholders.

MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(4)

Varley, P. (2011). A tampa "town hall" forum goes awry: Anatomy of a public meeting fiasco.

(Boston: Harvard Kennedy School Publishing: HKS676

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