Leo Martin: Lessons from eight years of GoodCorporation

Date: 28 Feb 2009
Author: Mallen Baker

3. Looking for the ones with the biggest stake

Video: Leo Martin talks about employees as key stakeholders

So, who are the stakeholders of the businesses that they focus on the most? It begins, says Leo, with those that have a contractual relationship. "They're people who can give you feedback on business practices and say something intelligent about the organisation."

"We're very open to looking at stakeholders in a wider context, but we find it absurd that some people's idea of stakeholder engagement is to start off with a list of international NGOs and then they're a bit surprised when they get no useful feedback from them. Whereas we say that you go and talk to your customers and your employees and your suppliers and your shareholders and people who actually know you, and you'll find that you get lots of useful feedback about fair and responsible business practice".

That leads to a big focus on HR issues, with employees figuring as major stakeholders for how the firm does business.

"The things that we find going wrong vary again by size of organisation. In big organisations we find that often it's in the areas that are soft and require good culture where things go wrong in terms of people management. Things like good appraisals regularly go wrong because that manager over there's good at doing them, and that one over there is terrible and doesn't give a stuff. And until you spend time with managers saying 'this is expected, we're going to appraise you on your appraising, and we're going to link your pay to the quality of work you do in coaching and developing your employees' you will end up with that problem".

In small businesses, on the other hand, there can often be lax processes, but really happy employees. It may well be that there is not great documentation, few formalised processes, but the employees themselves believe they are treated well and fairly. GoodCorporation takes a relaxed approach to those situations. It's about outcomes, not just processes.

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Further reading

GoodCorporation website

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