Describe the primary and secondary stakeholders, roles and relationships.

Primary stakeholders are the people most affected by the outcome of a project according to Robinowitz (2013) whereas secondary stakeholders are those not directly affected by the outcome of a project but still have an interest. If the midsize business I am the CEO for is “Marla’s Gourmet Catering” then I can assess that the primary stakeholders would include the stock holders/investors, myself and the management staff, cooking and catering staff, the driving and delivery staff, and the janitorial staff, along with the customers, the suppliers, our creditors and of course the community which we serve. We impact the suppliers because we purchase from them daily. Also our creditors because they anticipate our timely and full balance payments as agreed. With this in mind, our job is to impact the community and customers well enough to generate a greater need for supplies to ensure full and proper payment of balances to creditors. Our secondary stakeholders as mention are those not directly impacted but still possessing an interest. One certain example of this would be the families of the staff. They are dependent upon the income of the employees as means of living. Their interest is among the top of my concerns. Ensuring a pleased but promising staff is a key factor to product, attitude and success. Government agencies are also taken into consideration, we need to ensure that we engage in a completely compliant legal manner and have proper licensing and insurance. Other secondary stakeholders would include the greater community, and the general public. These are people who are not customers that we do not target in marketing, that are not impacted by out location, or our service but are in the area and could still have an interest. There is no real gain or loss by the majority of secondary stakeholders, but may at some point become a target, or will have weight in influence is we choose to move locations, or expand our outreach areas.

Describe ways stakeholders can influence the business destiny. Stakeholders, particularly primary stakeholders hold extreme opportunity in influencing the destiny for any business both good and bad. We will assume that one of my investors at the startup is also on the town council or has promising local political influence. As he was a start up investor he has the ability to ensure a timely delivery if my ABC license to allow my staff to serve alcohol legally. This kind of influence not only ensures a quicker turn around in generating profits but also greatly increases profits. Assuming a plate of a well-designed gourmet mean costs the customer on average $55 per person, their usual alcohol consumption is over $40 dollars as well making their total value for a short event $95 dollars, which without a license to sell would be nearly reduced in half. This will hold impact on the investors, staff, and potential future of the company. Another opportunity a stakeholder can influence the business destiny is by being prepared and efficient at their service. This means properly trained in serving, speaking, presentation, proper etiquette and most definitely attitude. By ensuring my staff is well trained, and also possess the right mindset for success we are sure to have an influence on the business potential. This kind of service gains very promising reviews and word of mouth marketing when our customers are pleased. Therefore we need to have motivated staffs, who are engaged in their success, service and growth. Obviously this is a trifold of impacts since this affects the customers, staff, and investors which only increases this needs more. One more stakeholder we need in influence is the media, and this is a key element in success. We must have positive remarks and ad campaigns in the media. This not only attacts customers, and puts a spotlight on our services, but also can influence for the worst if not done well. Our ads must be accepted byt the greatest audience and should have no negative impact on any of the audience so out ads must be welcoming and generally set the tone for our company. Ensuring that our customers make excellent reviews is a great way to attract media and using any high profile events to get in the spotlight of media is a great tool for success. If we have direct stakeholders who are able to influence such events we can surely speed up the process and attract the right kind of attention. Ensuring a properly educated and trained marketing staff are hired for our catering company is another key element for creating successful destiny. Basically proper mapping and strategic stakeholders are a surefire way of influencing success for our company.
Discuss a plan to encourage stakeholder coalitions and their influence toward goals. A coalition is described as a group of individuals or organizations with a common interest who agree to work together toward a common goal. This goal could be major such as state, community, or national impact or as narrow as obtaining funding for a specific need or cause. According to Robinowitz (2013) a company or business may for a coalition to address an urgent situation, empower elements of a community, obtain or provide services, or to increase efficiency and/or proficiency, increase communication or revitalize energy. Since I mentioned in the previous section a great influential impact stakeholders could make on the destiny of our business would be a well trained and efficient service staff. This could be one specific area to form a coalition. I would generate a desire for the staff to seek improvement by promoting success with rewards. Those with the most positive personal recommendations or feedback in a week; month; quarter; or year would receive rewards. This could include gifts, paid vacations time, promotions/ raises, awards… etc. Another plan to influence toward our goal of success would be community involvement. For example as Robinowitz (2013) mentioned, addressing urgent situation is one reason coalitions are formed. We as a business could perform community outreach and bring attention to our name and business by hosting a breast cancer awareness banquet, or holding public promotional tastings with entertainment in the interest of stopping community violence, or supporting a local veteran who has been recently returned home wounded. By participating in these kinds of events, not only strategically are we getting our name promoted, but also gaining a positive affiliation with our name to our community. These events serve as opportunity to showcase our well trained service staff as well as our gourmet selections. In hosting events such as banquets we open the door to high powered community members who hopefully will gain interest and knowledge of our company as well as our efforts. This can be beneficial for fundraising, expanding, or even something as simple as catering another high profile event. Each of these plans serve desired positive outcome for the success of our company.
Discuss anticipated challenges and steps to overcome. There are a number of challenges presented with each plan above. The first issue with each plan is funding. To train our staff with the most beneficial training will require payment for the training staffs, as well as employee training paid hours. This also presents the issue of whether we can operate simultaneously or of the company will gain no revenues while participating in this training event. However this does ensure full staff training. When it comes to hosting events and banquets we also have to face the financial loss challenge. To host a well-planned banquet with a gourmet meal, décor and full event we are sure to spend thousands of dollars with no immediate gain. The end result however should make this a worthwhile commitment.

Reference
Lawrence, A. & Weber, J. (2011). Business and society: stakeholders, ethics, public policy. (13th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin