The Governance Library curated by Matthew Doyle
Strategy Room · Note 10
Mendelow's Stakeholder Matrix
00:00 / 11:30
mæd partners
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Hero
H1: Mendelow's Matrix.
Sub: A tool for treating stakeholders unequally, and being explicit about why.
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Frame
Eyebrow: `STRATEGY ROOM · NOTE 10 OF 15`
H1: Mendelow's Stakeholder Matrix.
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Origin
Date plate: 1981 · Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Caption: Aubrey L. Mendelow · Second International Conference on Information Systems.
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The matrix card (Path-2)
Two-axis grid. X = Interest. Y = Power.
Quadrant labels:
- Low/Low: Minimal effort.
- High/Low: Keep satisfied.
- Low/High: Keep informed.
- High/High: Key players.
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Two observations
Two lines:
The matrix is a snapshot. Stakeholders move.
Power is structural. Persuasion is not power.
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Lukes (Path-2)
Pulled fragment: Steven Lukes · Power · A Radical View · 1974.
Three faces:
Decision power.
Agenda-setting power.
The power to shape what gets seen as an issue at all.
Caption: Mendelow captures the first cleanly. The second, partially. The third, not at all.
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The argument
The matrix is a discipline for the present.
And a trap for the future.
Both BP and BlackRock show the matrix in motion. One read the trajectory. The other read only the snapshot.
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Case anchor
H1: BP plc · Plotted twice.
Sub: February 2020 · February 2025.
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BP 2020 map (Path-2)
Quadrant grid populated.
- Key players: LGIM · Vanguard · Norges · BP board.
- Keep satisfied: UK government · EU regulators · indexed sovereign wealth.
- Keep informed: ClientEarth · Follow This · NGOs · students.
- Minimal effort: retail · short-cycle hedge funds.
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BP 2025 map (Path-2)
Same grid, redrawn.
- Key players added: Elliott Management (~5% stake).
- Climate-aligned holders moved down (power axis).
- Follow This moved up interest, still low power.
- UK government (Labour, July 2024): higher interest, middling power.
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Two maps · same room
Two maps. Same company. Five years apart.
No stakeholder has left the room. Each has moved.
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The matrix gives the read
Auchincloss could read the 2025 map and know:
acting against the pledge costs less from the current key-player set than holding the pledge costs from Elliott.
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The trajectory critique
Hero card.
Power and interest are not independent.
Interest without power tends to acquire power.
The board that reads the snapshot misses the trajectory.
The board that reads only the trajectory misses the present.
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Positive contrast
H1: BlackRock Inc.
Sub: Larry Fink · annual CEO letters · 2018 to 2024.
Pill: `POSITIVE CONTRAST · TRAJECTORY MAPPING`
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BlackRock letters arc
Five date plates with one-line captions:
2018 · "What is your long-term social purpose?"
2020 · Climate as defining factor.
2022 · Re-weighting in response to political backlash trajectory.
2023 · Refinement.
2024 · Refinement.
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The harder critique
The matrix can entrench bias.
Structural power is the power the existing system has legitimised.
Indigenous communities. Future generations. Displaced workers.
The matrix tells you they are in low-power quadrants.
It does not tell you whether they should be.
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The closing question
Plot your own matrix today, and five years ago.
Who has moved. Who has moved furthest. Who did you miss moving.
And who is in the low-power quadrant because the structure put them there?
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Credit
Curated by Matthew Doyle · mæd partners.
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Educational material · not legal, regulatory, or investment advice · see `00 - Disclaimers.md` for the full notice · © 2026 mæd partners limited.