Dutch Stakeholder Workshop

Dutch stakeholders were invited from a group of relevant stakeholders for P&G, including representatives from science (different Universities and Research Institutes), policymakers (Dutch Departments), journalists, industrial organizations, consumer organisations and representatives of environmental and social Non Governmental Organizations to review and discuss the Science in the box website initiatives.

This website is designed to present in depth information on sustainability, product use, safety, scientific publications, research & development and programmes/commitments for the Fabric and Home care division. The website was launched in October 2002 and in October 2003 the website was redesigned and more content was added. However, this new version is not considered as a final state for P&G. It should be further developed and improved towards the needs of its stakeholders. Therefore, in November 2003, P&G organised a stakeholder workshop event in the Netherlands, in order to collect feedback on the functioning of the actual (recently redesigned) SiB website as important element in the stakeholder approach and to further improve the Dutch stakeholder dialogue.

For P&G it was an innovative learning experience as it was the first stakeholder group meeting using decision support software tool Groups Systems� that was provided by the external consultant and facilitator (PricewaterhouseCoopers). The approach that was chosen proved to be of great value as it offered a good balance of working in a transparent structure towards clear objectives, collecting (and reflecting upon) individual views of stakeholders and maintaining an open setting that allowed for a fruitful group discussion on key issues.

P&G wants to thank all participants of the workshop for contributing to a positive working atmosphere, their roles in the dialogue and for the richness of suggestions to further improve P&G's stakeholder dialogue.

Overall the SiB website seems to be highly appreciated and seen as one of today's good corporate examples for the organization of an advanced and easy accessible stakeholder information system.

• All participants of the stakeholder event valued SiB positively: this overall positive rating of the website was expressed in an average score of 7.5 (0-10, n=14), which is rather high and with no big differences of opinion. On average all parts of the site received a similar high appraisal (with no exceptions).
• According to the participants - following the input received during the in-depth analysis -. According to the stakeholders SiB (24,2%) and the sustainability report (19,8%) are contributing most to the transparency of P&G Participating stakeholders rate the overall transparency of P&G with a score 7.0 (n=9), which can be considered as "sufficient/good".
• Important results of the workshop are inventories of key strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of today's SiB site as perceived by the stakeholders.
• Strengths of SiB, according to the participants of the workshop, were considered: completeness, openness, well balanced content, site goes into (sufficient) depth, compared to competitors' sites SiB is a good example, user friendliness.
• As weaknesses of SiB, according to the participants of the workshop, were considered amongst others: not enough "custom made" approach relating to the different audiences and two-way communication, increased awareness for SiB is advised and the threshold of introducing SiB as additional brand.

The following five points are considered the major opportunities for P&G to further improve SiB:

• Show a higher degree of responsiveness, e.g. incorporating issues brought up by external stakeholders (e.g. how does P&G deals with complaints), paying more attention to current events, topical matters and relevant news, improving direct access to P&G professionals (e.g. inclusion of names and contact details), etc.;
• Expand SiB approach to other product groups;
• Improve trustworthiness and credibility for SiB, starting with explaining the purpose of the site, peer reviews and (independent) multiple sources of information. Also a verification statement by stakeholders could be added to the site;
• Further increase transparency, e.g. on (potential allergic) substances including origin, on ingredients (perfumes), on environmental risks, on animal testing, etc. This could be achieved by intensifying stakeholder dialogue and/or introducing consumer/stakeholder panels;
• Raise awareness of the site and further improve user friendliness and access to information of the site (e.g. include SiB references on all P&G product packaging of product groups included in SiB, linking SiB with the frontpage of P&G's general website, introducing other external links to SiB, improving access through search engines).

The use of Group Systems� (discussion tool based on linked computers) was considered useful, but should be considered case-by-case, dependent on the cultural setting.
Participants asked explicitly about future follow-up session in order to intensify the stakeholder dialogue with P&G, which should be considered as an opportunity.