External Stakeholders are individuals or groups outside a business or project, but who can affect or be affected by the business or project. Arguably external stakeholders wield the most influence on the long term success of a business or project, because they will often be the end users and customers. stakeholdermap.com
Who are external stakeholders?
The image above shows typical External Stakeholders suggested by Tres Roeder in Managing Project Stakeholders: Building a Foundation to Achieve Project Goals So we can see that Internal Stakeholders are groups or individuals within an organization or project, whereas external stakeholders are the customers, distributors, governments, suppliers, communities, laws and regulations. (Karim, et al., 2007, pp.8).MindMap of External Stakeholders
This is a free mindmap you can use as a starting point for identifying your External Stakeholders. Click Copy and edit map at the bottom right! Arguably external stakeholders wield the most influence on the long term success of a business or project, because external stakeholders will often be the end users/customers.
That said, during a project external stakeholders should still be identified and managed. The Gower Handbook of Project Management explains succinctly why external stakeholders always need to be considered. these distractions [external stakeholders] can have a major influence on whether the project will be a success. For example, the cost of dealing with pressure groups protesting against a new bypass can add up to 15% to the cost of the project. R. Turner, 2014, pp 758While external stakeholders may feel like a distraction or distant from the task at hand it would be a mistake to exclude them from your stakeholder analysis. You may find this generic list of stakeholders useful for identifying your external stakeholders.
Download a template for mapping external stakeholders
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References - External Stakeholders
Boundless, 2015. External Stakeholders [online] Available at: https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-textbook/ethics-in-business-13/business-stakeholders-96/external-stakeholders-452-1889/
Business Case studies, 2015.Corporate responsibility and stakeholders. [online] Available at: https://businesscasestudies.co.uk/reed-elsevier/corporate-responsibility-and-stakeholders/external-stakeholders.html
Saipol Bari Abd Karim, Hamzah Abdul Rahman, Mohamed Ali Berawi, Aini Jaapar, 2007. A review of the issues and strategies of Stakeholder Management in the Construction Industry, Management in Construction and Researchers Association (MICRA) Meetings and Conference, 28-29 Aug. 2007, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. [online] Available at: https://www.academia.edu/172847/Issues_and_Strategies_in_Stakeholder_Management
Tres Roeder, 2013. Managing Project Stakeholders: Building a Foundation to Achieve Project Goals. John Wiley & Sons.
Rodney Turner, 2014. Gower Handbook of Project Management. 5th Revised edition edition. Gower.