At Fairmount Minerals, we live by our motto “Do Good, Do Well” as we seek to gain competitive advantage through enhanced relationships with key stakeholders and anticipating relevant economic, social and environmental trends.
We therefore place a high priority on stakeholder relationships — from our employee family to our community neighbors to customers, suppliers and more. To strengthen these relationships, Fairmount Minerals consistently reaches out to stakeholders to gather feedback such as ongoing communications initiatives, community advisory councils, focus groups, surveys and organization-wide summits.
Who are your stakeholders?
Fairmount Minerals believes that all organizations have stakeholder groups, both internal and external, who can help to identify challenges and opportunities as well as material issues.
Stakeholders can include employees, customers, owners/investor groups, suppliers, unions, professional/industry associations, government, community neighbors, NGOs, educational institutions, neighbors, the media and so on.
Why are stakeholders important?
Stakeholders are a powerful force in business from both an economic and societal point of view. Fairmount believes our stakeholders help define our sustainable development efforts and, with their trust and input, we embark on collaboratively building our future.
It is important to gain feedback from a variety of your stakeholders. This helps in order to better understand the key issues that affect the people and places an organization touches through everyday business practices. Appreciate the important role stakeholders play in your ongoing success, and work to include their perspectives as you make decisions about the future.
Additionally, it is important to strive to provide two-way communication mechanisms through which you can share information and updates with employees, customers, suppliers, neighbors, non-profit partners and other relevant groups while also receiving important comments and recommendations. It is with active engagement with your valued stakeholders that you can remain current and responsive to essential needs.
Engage stakeholders in sustainable development
Fairmount Minerals’ formal stakeholder engagement process began in 2005 with the first company-wide summit.
Bringing together more than 225 employees from all levels of our business and external stakeholders such as neighbors, community leaders and customers, we employed the Appreciative Inquiry methodology — a process focused on evolving in the direction of positive images — to discover core strengths, dream of a possible future and design a plan to achieve our vision.
This summit and follow up sessions with additional stakeholders resulted in our adoption of sustainable development ideals and guiding principles.
In the subsequent years, we followed up the summit by again listening to employees and external stakeholders through regular engagement tools such as focus groups, surveys, open houses, electronic communication and feedback solicitation.
We are gearing up for our fourth AI Summit this summer. A cross-functional team will determine which valued partners will join us. This internal and external engagement will significantly impact our future focus in sustainable development as it allows us to see our business from different perspectives.
As Fairmount continues to grow, we will maintain an inclusive approach with our valued stakeholders — a focus on everyone’s tomorrow. We believe in the power of possibility and that, together, we can accomplish great things.
