The success of any project and its further evolution depends on many factors that can either contribute to a venture’s growth or precondition its collapse. Consideration of these issues is one of the major tasks of an effective manager who is responsible for the selection of an appropriate strategy and creation of solutions to all possible problems. Among the aspects that have a strong impact on any company, stakeholders hold the leading place.
The fact is that their participation is fundamental as it guarantees the existence of resources demanded for evolution, support, financing, and stable revenue. That is why stakeholder analysis and improved understanding is central for any company or business.
Regarding our project, there are four main stakeholders that should be taken into account when analyzing the current state of the company. These are the team of the BU Laundry Inc., the cleaning service company, the IT company supporting the application, and students. The improved understanding of their peculiarities is a key to future success. Two groups can be differentiated: an internal one (the team), and external (cleaning company, IT firm, and students).
Internal stakeholders are entities within a business such as employees, managers, and directors (Lawrence & Weber, 2016). For this reason, the team can be taken as the only internal stakeholder relevant to the case. Employees have the critical function of supporting the project and contributing to its further evolution by aligning the cooperation between other stakeholders, creating an appropriate environment, communicating with clients, and creating the basis for the future success (Freeman, Harrison, & Zyglidopoulos, 2018). The cost center can also be found here as this very department allocates the income with the pivotal aim to meet all current requirements. For this reason, this cohort of stakeholders plays a vital role in the development of the business.
At the same time, their functioning depends on other stakeholders and their work. It means that another goal of this group is the constant monitoring of the situation to be able to determine critical issues and offer solutions when necessary. Finally, the team is the entity responsible for the cooperation with clients, which means that they represent the whole company and significantly impact its image. The central needs of this group are the stable functioning of the firm to acquire income and be paid, successful cooperation with other groups, and the rise of the company’s popularity to have extra revenues.
External stakeholders are actors that are not within a business but have a powerful impact on it (Lawrence & Weber, 2016). For this reason, the cleaning service company is the cleaning service that cooperates with the team can be related to this category. It guarantees that all things picked up from Boston University students will be returned clean. The main reason for the firm’s participation in the project is its beneficial character. The cleaning service company acquires new clients that can help to improve its functioning and guarantee a high level of income. At the same time, no extra spending is demanded because of the utilized scheme of cooperation.
In such a way, the given stakeholder’s group major demands are the existence of a stable target audience and the further development of the company working with Boston University students. It plays a critical role in the whole process as it ensures the delivery of the main service to the clients. The discussed company acts as an integrator as it aligns the connection with clients. The actor will benefit from the further development of the project and is interested in the growth of the business as new clients can be expected.
IT company working with the business is another external stakeholder that is critical for the case. The fact is that a specific application is used to guarantee the connection and improved cooperation with clients. They can order the desired service or delivery by using this software. That is why the effectiveness of the whole project depends on the work of the designed application and the absence of critical flaws in it. The relations with this stakeholder also presuppose cooperation based on mutual benefit. The growth of the business will require a more powerful application, which will also help the IT company to grow.
The contribution of this actor to the growth of the whole business remains critical. It ensures that clients will enjoy the convenience and comfort associated with the use of the effective application and return to the provider of this service. Additionally, the structure of cooperation between the main company and the stakeholder can be described as the appropriate for the given sort of business as it ensures the in-time provision of IT services and nonintervention in the company’s strategy or its relations with clients. At the same time, the IT firm tries to provide the best quality because of the presence of multiple competitors that can be given preference.
Finally, the students using the services of the company can be taken as another group of external stakeholders. Their contribution to the rise of the company is fundamental as they are the main consumers of offered services and their payment creates the basis for future growth and evolution. This category can be characterized by the high diversity in demands and frequently changing preferences which means that work with them demands flexibility and constant monitoring of the situation to be able to interest clients and increase loyalty levels.
Furthermore, this stakeholder group impacts all others because of its critical importance for the project and its ability to generate income. That is why the functioning of the three agents mentioned above is to a greater degree preconditioned by the current peculiarities of students who might have various demands to the quality of offered services. Students of the University ensure that the delivery, cleaning, and IT companies will have clients needed for their evolution.
Altogether, the given stakeholder analysis shows that there are four major stakeholders, such as the team of the company, the IT services provider, and the cleaning firm. All these agents play a fundamental role in the evolution of the project as they form an entity that functions effectively and guarantee the provision of the demanded services to clients (Kotler & Keller, 2015). The internal stakeholders are presented only by the team of employees who make strategic decisions and create solutions about the future evolution of the venture. The external stakeholders are the IT company, cleaning service firm, and the students.
Consideration of important characteristics of these groups is vital for the successful evolution of the company, its further development, and preservation of high loyalty and popularity levels among clients. The given analysis contributes to the in-depth assessment and acquisition of better comprehension of this aspect.
References
Freeman, E., Harrison, J., & Zyglidopoulos, S. (2018). Stakeholder theory: Concepts and strategies. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2015). Marketing management (15th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.
Lawrence, A., & Weber, J. (2016). Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics, public policy (15th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.