1.2.2+Stakeholders+and+their+importance

= The following activity is taken from the Bized website = []

**The Stakeholder Model at McDonald's** Let's get one thing very clear before we start. It is impossible for any business to meet the demands of **all** its stakeholders - they invariably conflict. So what they must do is to find a way of prioritising stakeholder demands and thus balancing out these competing requirements. This involves judgment. However good information is, ultimately it is a person who has made the judgment. If most of the stakeholders are satisfied with the plans and the outcome, s/he will be regarded as a 'good leader and manager'; if the decision angers some stakeholders unduly, that person's reputation might well suffer. On such fine decisions leaders and managers are judged.

The Stakeholder Model
A stakeholder is defined as any individual or group who have an interest in the **success** of the business. It is worth noting the reference to 'success' because this would exclude competitors from the model. Competitors may have an interest in seeing the business decline but not necessarily in its success so for that reason we are excluding this group.

** Task 1 **
====**Identify the key demands/objectives of each stakeholder group in business in general and produce your own mind map showing where the conflicts might lie. **====

**Now look at the following summary of McDonald's. **
====**McDonald's is one of the world's leading fast food restaurants. It opened its first restaurant in the United States in 1954 and has since expanded to almost every country on the planet. Its first UK restaurant opened in 1974 and McDonald's now serves around 2.5 million customers every day in the UK. **==== ====**In recent years McDonald's has faced pressure on its profit levels. High profile concerns about the quality of its food and its business practices dented the profile of the company. In the latter part of 2002, it made a loss for the first time and sales growth in the few years before this had been slow. **==== ====**It made attempts to address this situation by reviewing its business practices and its menus. In the USA, sales have started to pick up although the situation in Europe is less successful but still encouraging. **====

**Task 2 **
====**Identify the main stakeholder groups of McDonald's and state what you think the demands they make on McDonald's are. (For example, the local community might be concerned about the extent of the litter in their area from the McDonald's restaurant.) **==== ====**Having identified these stakeholder demands, you should now be in a position to be able to identify where McDonald's are facing the conflicts in dealing with these external influences. Some of these external influences will affect the way that the business is managed and run. For example, if there were complaints being made about the level of pay for its workers then McDonald's might have to respond to this. Even though it could be argued that the workers demands are not an external influence the company still faces pressure to make judgments about the nature of its decision-making. **====

**Task 3 **
= = = Extension Activity:  = = Watch the video on "responsible drinking". Identify all the different stakeholders and their various objectives = = = = Plenary Activity: Copy out the table on P12 of your textbooks. =
 * ====**Work together in groups to identify how McDonald's could develop its strategies to meet the demands of its stakeholders. **====
 * ====**Present a short report on what judgments it might make on resolving the conflicts between its stakeholder groups. Try to ensure that you explain how the judgment will meet stakeholder needs, what conflict might exist and how this conflict can be balanced and minimised. **====