How Stakeholder Auditing Transformed a Major Infrastructure Provider
A large state-owned business enterprise, which provides major infrastructure services to private industry, immediately adjusted its relationship with key customers when it went to the trouble of actually asking them what they needed most.
The unexpected response came as a bit of a shock, but once it was understood, it meant developing a different approach to managing the operational relationship between supplier and customer.
While the state enterprise already provided a reliable and needed service, it did so on its own terms and to its own timetable. What wasn’t understood were the needs and expectations of the customers who were forced to adjust their operations to meet the demands of the state service provider. What customers wanted most was a business relationship with the state service in which the two could sit down and work through the ways the provider might better satisfy their individual needs. The results were rewarding – not just in terms of better relations but in improved productivity for both.
This outcome was achieved via an independent Stakeholder Audit which involved face-to-face, one-on-one discussions between a skilled interviewer and individual customers of the state-owned service.
While the audit showed the service provider rated well in terms of the efficiency, reliability and cost, it was criticised for being bureaucratic, inflexible and internally focused.
To its credit, management recognised the validity of the criticism and set about building a more collaborative understanding between itself and its key stakeholders. A follow-up Audit, some 18 months later, showed a dramatic turnaround in customer relations.
This depth of research insight can usually only be achieved through stakeholder auditing. That’s because of the no-holds-barred approach to interview discussion, which is deliberately designed to encourage participants to speak their mind.
The Stakeholder Relations Group (SRG) has developed its patented interview model over more than two decades.
The reality is that stakeholders will open up about their views, concerns and expectations in a personal discussion while most avoid such issues when participating in an impersonal Q&A survey or a facilitated focus groups session.
‘Our strategic focus had been fixated on ensuring reliability, given the service’s poor historic record in that area. However, in doing so, we concentrated on operational issues rather than trying to better meet the needs and expectations of our customers. The audit result was a wake-up call to change the way we were doing business,’ the CEO of the state service enterprise explained.
Stakeholder auditing has a unique way of exposing the inner-thinkings of those you depend on most, whether they be customers, suppliers, decision makers, regulators or local communities. It delivers insights that help eliminate important areas of guesswork in strategic planning. As such, they can change the way you do business – for the better.