Idea 40 - Stakeholders It is the fate of some words to evolve rapidly through enlightening to hot, overused and, finally, very irritating, and 'stakeholder' has become one of them. It is sprinkled over reports and jammed into mission statements, as if use alone were enough to prove concern. Worse, politicians have got hold of it. In their mouths, it seems to refer to the population at large, which makes them sound caring without meaning very much. All this is a pity because its original concept represents a radical shift in the way the corporation views, or should view itself. The stakeholder idea began its march with R. Edward Freeman's 1984 book Strategic Management: A Stakeholders Approach. Freeman held that commercial firms would be much more effectively managed at a strategic level if the concerns of various stakeholders were taken into account. In other words, there would be long-term benefit for shareholders. He said later that the word 'stakeh...