Shareholders are the owners of a corporation. People often forget that. So, as owners are they automatically the most important constituents in a company?
Darcy Rezac, speaker at the CIRI conference in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada had a great anecdote yesterday when referring to the priorities of a corporation. He referenced the priorities of a Fortune 50 company based in the US.
Priority #1: Customers - the most important stakeholders in our organization.
Priority #2: Employees - they work at serving our customers.
Priority #3: The Communities in which we do business - supporting and maintaining the communities that house our customers and employees.
Priority #4: Shareholders - if we do a good job at taking care of our top three priorities then our shareholders will be happy.