Your stakeholders are everyone involved in your business both internally and externally who can influence the outcome of your project, reputation or business success including board members, clients, suppliers, partners, sponsors, and contractors. Stakeholder engagement is no longer optional, yet many managers and organizations still fail to engage those who can potentially create mutual benefits and add strategic value. Failure to engage effectively with your stakeholders can be risky and costly.

 Genuine stakeholder engagement and relationship-building, as opposed to stakeholder management or consultation, is becoming the preferred means for achieving strategic outcomes. Well-intentioned executives, managers, analysts, project managers and politicians while seeking to engage their stakeholders, often disengage the very people who are vital to their future