2. Understanding Your Stakeholders

“...we are a business dedicated to meeting all the various stakeholders of the company’s best interests. And by stakeholders we mean customers, team members, stockholders, {the} community, and the environment. Sometimes what is in the best interest of one stakeholder may not be in the best interest of another stakeholder, and as the CEO, I have to balance the various interests of the different constituencies and stakeholders to create win, win, win scenarios, and that can sometimes be very difficult to do.”

—John Mackey^[1]

^[1] John Mackey, CEO and co-founder of Whole Foods Market, in an interview with Cyberways, at www.4empowerment.com/en/chatarchive/chat_mackey.jhtml.

Why are you doing it—why are you building a software product?