Question

Identify and research at least two examples of companies that have been impacted by the campaigns of public advocacy groups. What is the value of democratic inputs in business decision making? Identify and list all of the sustainability stakeholders at Top Shelf. Does each group have equal weight throughout the program development process? When should each be brought into the discussion? Explain the advantages of implementing a multiple-stakeholder process that significantly influences a company’s agenda for sustainability. Describe the challenges in a multiple-stakeholder process for developing a sustainable business plan. Do the interests of one group outweigh the others? Develop a step-by-step plan for implementing a multiple-stakeholder process. Your plan should assure the credibility of Top Shelf’s sustainability plan in the public sphere and also be effective in meeting the goal of sustainability. Suggest metrics for tracking the progress.

Answer 1

(a) The two examples of companies that have been impacted by the campaigns of public advocacy groups are:

1. Coca-Cola’s Happiness Machine: In 2010, Coca-Cola has installed a Coca-Cola’s Happiness Machine in the college campus. In the first week of its publication, more than 15 million people saw this public advocacy campaign, no doubt it was a happy day for the marketing department of the company. The Happiness Machine was nothing but a vending machine that dispensed what seemed like an unlimited supply of popular drinks, and when customers realized what was happening, hidden cameras captured their excitement and often pure joy.

2. Red Bull started campaigning on Facebook: The company was able to create public advocacy after joining Facebook, which showed no sign of slowing down. Now that more than 46 million people like Facebook in 2016, Red Bull has proved that its simple yet effective content-based technique is perfect for its brand.

(b) In a business decision-making process if a decision is made by taking the democratic input then it must be conducted with equality and fairness in mind. Taking the help of a group by following a consensus or majority rule, a business can really make a great decision to accomplish any mission.

(c) Every organization has two types of stakeholders group:

- Primary Stakeholders: This includes shareholders, managers, employees, customers, and suppliers.

- Secondary Stakeholders: This includes the environment, society at large, and the communities connected to primary stakeholders.

(d) Most organizations place primary stakeholders above secondary stakeholders in priority.

(e) The advantage of implementing a multiple-stakeholder process that significantly influences a company’s agenda for sustainability are:

- it promotes better decision making by ensuring that the views of the main members concerned about the particular decision are heard and integrated at all stages through dialogue and concesus building.

- It can be used Globally, nationally, and locally.

- The decision making in this process is transparent and inclusive.

(f) The challenges in a multiple-stakeholder process for developing a sustainable business plan are:

- The visions of some stakeholders do not empathize with the indigenous worldwide.

- There can be time differences between sectors who have participated in the same project.

- Limited participation in decision-making and inadequate stakeholder and institutional organization can lead to challenges in the Multi-stakeholder process

- Inadequate communication across sectors and lack of suitable information hindering project development.

Yes, sometimes interests of one group outweigh the others in the Multi-stakeholder process

(g) The steps for implementing a multiple-stakeholder process are:

- Initiation: Establishing the reason for multiple-stakeholder process initiative, mobilizing community interest, and deciding what organization and institutional agreements are needed

- Adapting Planning: Undertaking the detailed planning and strategy development needed for the Multi-stakeholder process to be successful.

- Collaborative actions: managing the implementation and ongoing resourcing of the initiative and ensuring continued community input and support

- Reflective monitoring: monitoring the impact, success, and failures, learning from these and continually improving what is being done already from the setting up phase onwards.