That's because it will help get views into the program that insiders will be forced to address. That can help breakdown some of the internal and self-serving hype that can emerge, especially with the more unquantifiable type KPIs. On the other hand, some outside stakeholders may have an agenda irreconcilable with the Shell Group's vision or they are simply intransigent on some issues. Shell Group will need to rely on having competent evaluators of inputs to deal with difficult external stakeholders that carry strong image-harming possibilities to itself.

But the strength of such KPIs is that the Shell Group will be better aware of external stakeholders' perceptions of its actions -- and, thus, have an opportunity to alleviate unnecessary misunderstandings too.

References

Jane Wei-Skillern, (Rev. July 6, 2004) case study presentation: Sustainable Development at Shell (A) published in Harvard Business School Publishing Co., Boston, MA, http://hbsp.harvard.edu / retrievable at

The Key Performance Indicator (KPI) program supports the Sustainable Development Management Framework (SDMF). The purpose of SDMF is to make sure that economic, environmental and social considerations are integrated in decisions on all Shell Group's actions. SMDF was created in response to two Shell Group business engagements - in the Brent...

And that's the reason why implementing the KPI program is so important.
And it may be difficult to keep the hype up for these KPIs since everyone working for the company has another job to do first and foremost. Some are related to human resource issues such as employees' feelings and diversity. Seeking to improve employee satisfaction is a good, and making it a KPI will help employees supporting KPI efforts. This is a strong point for the program.

The last group of KPIs seeks to improve issues associates with human rights, integrity, social performance, acceptability of environmental performance at the local level, and stakeholder perception of engagement with the Shell group. Improvements in this area will improve Shell Groups reputation and brand performance. So these latter areas seek to prevent future Shell Actions that may produce a worsening image and deteriorating profits.

But it's difficult to develop a measure - quantitative or qualitative - in these areas. That fact is recognized; but it's also a weakness in the program.