Kolawole Osinowo, CEO, Izili Group

In our work every day, we deal with a mix of several stakeholders; some are easy to manage, while others are quite difficult to manage. It's not an easy task for any entrepreneur or any executive managing these stakeholders. But a tool that has helped us in building successful stakeholder management is called the Influence versus Interest Matrix. If you put it in the four-quadrant matrix:

First, you see a point where you have low interest and low influence: these are people who do not have an interest in your business or in your work, and they hardly influence it. You don’t want to be in this quadrant at all. I start from there because a lot of stakeholders you interact with it, you need to determine, "do they have interest in my business or do they also have influence?" If they don't, you need to put them aside and deprioritize them.

Then if you go on the next axis of high influence but low interest, these are people that you want to make your allies. For example, we import some of our products, especially the renewable energy products that we distribute. The customs officers at the port have very high influence, but they have no interest in our business. However, since they have high influence, they could confiscate your product, they could delay you, all sorts of things could happen, and I have experienced that first-hand. So, you want to explain the value of your products or your service, and at the end of the day, you will be able to know when to prioritize this particular stakeholder.

Next, if you look at the next axis, you have people with high interest, but low influence: these could be your customers. Let's return to the port example. We distribute clean cookstores across the country and a lot of our customers are waiting for this product because perhaps somebody has experienced it and explained it to them, so they are eager to get this product. But they do not influence getting the products out of the ports because they are not customs officers. Although their interest is high, their influence is low, so you need to nurture them. And how do you nurture them? You keep updating them and giving them information to ensure that their interest remains.

Lastly, in the big quadrant where you have high influence and high interest. These are investors, shareholders, the people who give money to buy the products, and import the products. It's important to understand who the people are who have a high interest and high influence in your business. These are your top priority.

Now, take all your stakeholders. If you have 10 stakeholders, put them in all these four quadrants and ask yourself, "Who has high interest and high influence?" You know that you must put them at the top of the chain.

Key takeaways

• Use the Influence-Interest Matrix to map your stakeholders and identify what each needs from you. 

• Once you have mapped them, your priorities become obvious - high interest and high influence comes first.

• Stakeholders can move between quadrants. Use intentional engagement to move more into the top right quadrant.