For years now if a company was privately held it meant that the information that was available about the organization was what they chose to tell you through advertising, media buys, and the occasional magazine article. Even publicly held corporations had means of controlling the information that was distributed about its organizations.
Compare that to the traditional non-profit who by very definition of the structure have to be open and accountable to their stakeholders which include:
- The Members/Board of the organization, Employees and Volunteers
- The community in which the non-profit is serving
- The “clients” or recipients of the service from the non-profit
- Federal, State/Provincial and Local/Municipal governments
Non-profits have strived to measure, listen, solicit feedback, measure again, and report. And once that report is completed the process starts all over again.
Employees, Customers, Vendors and Community as Influencers
Fast forward to the days of social media. The privately or publicly held business is no longer in direct control of its marketing – what people see and hear about the organization is strongly influenced by how they engage with – you guessed it – their stakeholders:
- Employees of the Organization
- The community in which the business operates
- Their customers/clients
- Federal, State/Provincial and municipal governments
For the For-Profit business, ignoring any of these stakeholder groups could result in significant communication challenges for the company.
In this new reality I wonder if For-Profit companies can look to the best practices developed over years of improvement on best practices in the Non-Profit.
In short: Listen, Measure, Report. Show your accountability to your stakeholders.
I wonder if a potential solution for a business is to look to your favourite Non-Profit and observe how they operate in an open and transparent way. What do you think?
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