Stakeholders

Stakeholders, Involved parties, Parties, Interest groups, Stakeholder, Interested parties
Stakeholders are parties that have an interest in your project, product or organisation. They influence or are affected by the outcome.
Strategy & Business

What are stakeholders?

Stakeholders are all persons, groups or organisations that have a direct or indirect interest in your company, project or decision. They can influence or are influenced by the outcome. Think of customers, employees, suppliers, investors, but also local authorities or industry associations. For an SME entrepreneur, recognising stakeholders is essential to create support and mitigate risks.

How to identify and prioritise stakeholders

Start with an inventory of everyone who will influence or be affected by your project. In the case of a website rebranding, these might include your marketing team, external web builder, existing customers and possibly a franchisor. Next, distinguish between power and interest. An investor has a lot of power and interest, an occasional visitor has little of either. In practice, we see that SME entrepreneurs often underestimate their internal team as stakeholders, while support within the company is crucial for successful implementation. A stakeholder matrix helps to visually map these parties and align your communication strategy to them.

Why stakeholder management matters now

The concept of ‘stakeholder’ emerged in the 1960s as a counter-reaction to the shareholder-centric approach to business management. Since then, it has become a standard in project management and strategy development. In the Dutch SME sector, stakeholder management has become relevant due to increasing expectations of transparency, stricter regulations such as the GDPR, and the influence of online reputation. A dissatisfied supplier or employee can have a direct impact on your brand perception via social media. Furthermore, grants and certifications increasingly require evidence of stakeholder consultation.

What stakeholder management brings to SMEs

By actively involving stakeholders, you avoid surprises halfway through a project. An online shop introducing a new payment system without consulting supplier and accountant runs the risk of technical incompatibility or fiscal ambiguity. At Monkey Vision , we find that clients who make a stakeholder analysis beforehand, reach a supported brand strategy and brand identity faster. You gain valuable input, build commitment and reduce resistance. This leads to shorter lead times, less rework and a higher success rate of your project. Stakeholder management is not a bureaucratic exercise, but a practical tool for keeping a grip on complex changes.

Applications of stakeholder management

Stakeholder management is not an abstract management theory, but a practical approach that you apply in different phases of your operations. Below are four concrete situations in which you actively involve stakeholders and what that delivers.

Project start-up and scope definition

At the start of a new project such as a website redesign or ERP implementation, involve stakeholders to get expectations clear. A manufacturing company with 25 employees building a new order portal first identifies the needs of sales, logistics and finance. In this way, you avoid building a system that is technically perfect but operationally incompatible. In this phase, you use interviews, workshops or a stakeholder matrix. The result is a supported project scope and realistic planning. With SME clients, we often find that involving the finance director at an early stage prevents budget overruns.

Communication and change management

During a change process such as a rebrand or merger, you tailor your communication to different stakeholder groups. A retail chain with franchisees communicates differently with them than it does with its own staff. Franchisees want to know what the impact will be on their investments and local marketing, whilst employees wonder what will happen to their roles. By drawing up a communication plan for each stakeholder group, specifying the timing, channel and message, you can prevent rumours and resistance. A good SEO strategy also takes into account stakeholders such as Google, users and content creators within your organisation.

Risk management and compliance

Stakeholders help you identify risks that you overlook yourself. An online shop launching international shipping involves a logistics partner and a tax specialist to understand customs and VAT obligations. A healthcare institution launching a new website checks with the privacy officer whether patient communication is AVG-proof. By consulting stakeholders with specific expertise early, you avoid fines, reputation damage or project delays. In practice, external stakeholders such as industry associations or certifying bodies often provide valuable checklists that internal teams miss.

When stakeholder management is the right choice and when it is not

Stakeholder management pays off in projects with multiple stakeholders, long lead time or high impact. Think of an ERP migration, brand positioning or a merger. It is less relevant in operational routine decisions such as ordering office supplies or a small text change on your website. The rule of thumb: if a decision affects more than three parties or has a budget above 10,000 pounds, do a stakeholder analysis. Consult not for consultation's sake, but to make better decisions. A one-man business commissioning a new website has less complex stakeholders than a family business with three generations at the table.

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Frequently asked questions

No, a customer is one type of stakeholder, but not the only one. Stakeholders include all parties with an interest in your company or project. These include customers, but also employees, suppliers, investors, government agencies and sometimes even competitors in partnerships. A customer has an interest in a good product, an employee in job security, a supplier in timely payment. The difference is in the nature of the interest and the influence the party has. In website rebranding, your web builder is a stakeholder, but not a customer. Recognise all stakeholders to avoid blind spots.

Choose stakeholder analysis if you are implementing a change that affects multiple parties, such as a new strategy, a merger or a major system change. Customer research focuses specifically on the needs and experiences of your customers. In a product launch, you often do both: customer research for market validation and stakeholder analysis to include internal departments, suppliers and distributors. For an SME company with a new business model, stakeholder analysis is broader and more strategic. Customer research is deeper but narrower. Combine them for a complete picture.

Start with a simple inventory: list all parties that influence or are affected by your project. Divide them into categories such as internal, external, primary and secondary. Then map their interests and power with a matrix: high interest and high power requires intensive involvement, low interest and low power requires only informing. Schedule meetings with key stakeholders to check expectations. Document their input and translate it into concrete actions in your project plan. A spreadsheet or a tool like Trello is sufficient for most SME projects. Keep it practical and update regularly.

The biggest mistake is involving stakeholders too late, which means you have already made decisions that create resistance. A second pitfall is hearing only the loudest voices and ignoring quiet but crucial parties, such as your IT manager or financial advisor. Also, entrepreneurs often underestimate internal stakeholders: a marketing campaign that does not understand sales fails in execution. Further: informing stakeholders but not really involving them leads to sham participation and cynicism. Make sure input is also visibly processed. Finally: not prioritising makes you treat all stakeholders equally, which is inefficient and distorts focus.

The best approach depends on the complexity of your project and the number of people involved. Are you in the middle of a strategic change such as a rebranding, new market positioning or digital transformation? Then schedule a free 30-minute brand strategy scan at Monkey Vision. We live map your key stakeholders and give you a workable matrix plus communication approach. You immediately get three concrete actions to increase support, plus an honest estimate of the lead time. Not theory, but a practical step-by-step plan tailored to your situation. Take a look at our approach via brand strategy and brand identity.

About the author

Monkey Vision

Monkey Vision is a full-service digital agency based in London, specialising in web design agency, SEO and AI automation for SMEs. The knowledge base is compiled by our team of online strategists and continuously updated based on current insights.

Publication date: 26-04-2026
Last update: 27-04-2026