Ensuring Balance

This chapter provides a route map for linking political and social strategies to business objectives and market positions. It advances the business case for investing in political and social strategies within a commercial organization. It starts from the premise that every organization is a community dedicated to the maintenance and development of a value-creating system in the market and nonmarket. To implement nonmarket strategies, firms must assess and evaluate the political and social benefits and costs of delivering value to different stakeholders. It suggests that individual elements of the nonmarket strategy must be built, maintained, and reinforced by keeping balance in various steps that determine business performance. Nonmarket monitoring is the final step in successful nonmarket implementation, requiring companies to foster a culture of integrity and ethics and thereby reduce risks associated with engaging with market and nonmarket stakeholders.