Stakeholder Analysis and Communication: Rightmove plc

This report provides a detailed stakeholder analysis of Rightmove plc, examining the various stakeholder groups including shareholders, customers, employees, and suppliers. It explores their interests, powers, and the communication strategies employed by the company's board. The report highlights how Rightmove maintains transparent relationships with stakeholders, particularly focusing on shareholder value, customer engagement, and employee satisfaction. It also covers the company's financial performance, dividend policies, and the impact of digital transformation on its business model. Furthermore, the analysis delves into the regulatory environment, risk management practices, and the company's commitment to corporate social responsibility. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of stakeholder engagement in driving Rightmove's success and maintaining its market leadership in the property sector. This assignment is contributed by a student to be published on the website Desklib, a platform which provides all the necessary AI based study tools for students.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS
ANALYSIS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS
Name of the Students:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1ANALYSIS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS
Table of Contents
Stakeholders interest and powers.....................................................................................................2
Communication between Board and Stakeholders..........................................................................2
Stakeholder theory...........................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

2ANALYSIS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS
Stakeholders interest and powers
The stakeholders are the base of the company as they are the one those who provides
practical and financial support to the business. Stakeholders refers to those person who are
interested in the company operational activities and wants to make profitable decision for the
business that will leads to maximum profitability. Stakeholders can be employees, customers,
investors, and many more other individual who are providing finance for the company. In short,
it can be said that people who are interested in the well-being of the company as well as who
work towards achieving maximum profitability of the business are referred as stakeholders of the
company. In an organization before taking any decision, relating to the business activities
stakeholders needs to give their opinion and even acceptance regarding a particular business
activity. In this report, we are going to discuss about different stakeholders groups of the
rightmove plc and we discuss their powers that exists in the company. The report will discuss
how the stakeholders are engaged in the corporate governance of the company and what interest
and power they are acquiring in the company. The ultimate decision relating to all business
activities are taken by stakeholders and their decision is the final decision based on which the
management move forward for achieving the ultimate aim and objective of the business.
Communication between Board and Stakeholders
The Rightmove plc Company is having a transparent and constructive relation with the
stakeholders of the company even outside the boardroom forms a critical aspect of Board-Level
activity. Even the company is having a strong customer relationship bond and the customers has
even showed immense confidence and beliefs in the company that helps the company to maintain
its leading position in the market thus enabling the company to maximise its profitability level
and to increase its customer base. Even shareholders are the one of the most important

3ANALYSIS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS
stakeholders of the company as they are the prime owners of the company who provides capital
for the business. They are interested in the sustainability of the business for an extended period.
There primary aim is to maximise profits and to attain sustainable competitive advantage in the
market that will help the company to sustain in the market for a longer period. It is vital that the
company and all its employees works towards achieving the profits for the business as well as for
the shareholders. It is necessary that the business create some profitable values for the
shareholders as they are the person who are investing their capital in the business and the prime
responsibility of the management and the employees is to maximise profits of the business that
will ultimately create value for the shareholders (Boley, McGehee and Hammett 2017). It is
evident that nowadays, the property industry has also become digital and this proves to be
extremely beneficial for the Rightmove company. Due to digitalization of the property business,
the customer base of the company is rapidly increasing and helps the company to capture a
leading position in the competitive market. The company is using high-quality software and data
driven analytics that are becoming more popular and valuable to customers. As the company is
able to meet customer expectation and the company principle source of revenue is the
subscription fees that is paid monthly by the customers to advertise their properties and some
other relevant fees for additional advertising solutions is rapidly increasing (Missonier and
Loufrani-Fedida 2014). The increase in customer base is ultimately leading to creating value for
the shareholders as the profit is increasing and even the scope for further expansion and growth
of the business is increasing. The company is also engage in providing valuable data and services
related to commercial property and investing in smaller adjacent business relating to overseas
advertising.

4ANALYSIS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS
Most of the shareholders if the company have owned the shares of the shares of the
company via IPO in 2006. Presently the top ten shareholders of the company acquire almost 45%
of the shares in issue and the company is having an impressive geographic split of shares with
53% in the UK, 35% in North America, and 12% belongs to rest of the world. The shareholders
of the company are the owners of the business and expects the company to earn an impressive
return on investment. The management of the company is having a constructive engagement with
the shareholders by which they can understand the perceptive of the shareholders thus making an
efficient decision making process for the company that will result in profitability of the business
(Tarhini et al. 2015). In 2019, the company directly engage with the investors regarding the
company full year and interim outcomes, executive remuneration and Board succession plan.
The prime customers of the company are the real estate agents and the new home
developers who advertise their properties for sale or for renting purpose on Rightmove platform.
The company is offering the customers an appropriate platform by which the customer can
efficiently sell their properties (Eskerod, Huemann and Savage 2015). The company is offering
effective marketing tools that can provide excellent services to customers. The company directly
engages with the customers via customer support and even the marketing team regularly receives
customer feedbacks regarding various information related to property advertisements, data
protection, and safety of doing business online. In 2019, various plans was implemented by the
company to provide excellent services to customers such as ample of choices in the packages and
product mix that customer can avail to maximise their profits. Even the account management
team and the product development team are improved for providing better services to the
customers thus meeting their expectation. In 2019, the audit committee requested the internal
audit review of data protection to give the board assurance that the company policy and

5ANALYSIS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS
regulations are efficient enough to protect the customer data. To improve the tenant referencing
experience the Board of the company has approved the acquisition of Van Mildert Landlord and
Tenant Protection Limited as part of company strategy.
The company believes that the sustainability of the company will depend on the skills and
values of its employees. The company offers a collaborating culture and thus providing friendly
work atmosphere. The primary aim of the management is to create a diverse work culture thus,
making all employees productive. Every year the Board engage in the employment engagement
session where the management and the Board receives direct feedbacks form the employees.
Even the Board receives feedbacks via management system including the ‘Have Your Say’
survey results. After receiving the feedback, the non-executive directors of the company
recommended that investment must be made in the internal system that will improve the
company finance, communication, and data quality of the business (Henisz 2017). Even the
Board has approved the Real Living Wage for all levels of the employees and contract staff who
works at the offices of the company. In the 2019, annual report the company has published the
gender pay information that reflects that there in an improvement in the mean gender pay gap of
0.6% year on year. The company is trying to bridge the gender pay gap and is expecting that by
2020 the company will receive profitable results. In case, of higher paid senior management
women’s are under presented whereas in case of, customer experience team men are under
presented. The company believes in maintain an adequate and proper balance in the workforce
thus, treating all employees equally. The organization tries to maintain gender equality in the
business activities. Almost 82%, of the employees participate in the Share Incentive Plan and are
eligible to sell their shares by subjecting to tax after three years.

6ANALYSIS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS
The suppliers are claimed to one of the most important stakeholders of the company. The
large suppliers of the company are related to the field of marketing, recruitment, technology, and
professional services. The organization aims to select specific suppliers who can meet the
standards of the company. The management engage with the suppliers before entering into a
contact and even maintain regular communication throughout the entire contract period. The
audit committee reviewed the supplier risk management structure of the company that is
associated with the implementation of the enhanced procurement policy regarding the areas of
risk (Ayuso et al. 2014). Endorsement of the payment practice report has been done by the Board
of the business and thus, prompting the payment of suppliers.
The Information Commission Office for data protection regulates the organization and
the FCA regulates the credit referencing. The insurance services are regulated by the rent
guarantees. The company operates with The Property Ombudsman and ARLA property mark for
supporting the customers in meeting their expectations and helping them to work within the legal
framework by maintaining all relevant policies and regulations (Plc.rightmove.co.uk, 2020).
The company has return £148.8m to shareholders via dividends and share buybacks in
2019. Whereas in 2018, the company had return £168.5m to shareholders (Plc.rightmove.co.uk,
2020). Lower amount of return is because of the capital that has been used to acquire the Van
Mildert that cost £15.9m. The operating cash conversion was extremely strong and even remains
in excess of 100% of the operating profit. The interim dividend in 2018 was 2.5p whereas in
2019, the Board increased the interim dividend to 2.8p and the dividend was paid on 1st
November 2019. The main aim of the company is to provide sustainable return to shareholders
and the business tries to increase the dividends each year thus, providing profitable results to the
shareholders. In 2019, the Board declared a final dividend of 4.4p and thus, giving a total

7ANALYSIS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS
dividend for the financial year 2019 comes to 7.2p whereas the total dividend for financial year
2018 was 6.5p (Plc.rightmove.co.uk, 2020). A total increase of 11% has been reflected in the
dividend of the company and it was decided that the final dividend would be paid on May 29,
2020 to all shareholders register on 1st May 2020. 81% of the employees believes that Rightmove
is a great place to work and the company tries to adapt the employees to cultural diversity.
However, the customer membership numbers downs to 3%, in 2019 as compared to previous
year 2018 because of the declining in the agency branches offset by rapid growth in New Homes.
The existing market share of the company assumes to be over 75% as the company is making
investment in leading brands. The company is implementing innovative strategies and trying to
focus more on making the UK property market more efficient for home hunters and various
agents. In 2019, the product development team released 1,423 updates in the company platform.
In 2018, 27% of the customers were there who availed the optimiser and enhanced product
package of the company however, in 2019, the percentage has increased to 38% as the company
is using efficient marketing products and packages. Every year the employment engagement
session is organized by the organization where the Board directly engage with the management
and the employees in 2019, 88% of respondents to Have Your Say survey claimed that they
enjoy working with their team. There is an 8% increase in the average revenue per advertiser. In
2019, the EPS of the company increased by 10% to 20.2p and the basic EPS grew by 10% to
19.6p. In 2019, there has been some specific changes in the remuneration policy report and it
claims that there will be increase in opportunity for annual bonus from 125% to 175% of base
salary. The performance share plan opportunity will decrease from 200% to 175% of base salary.
A stakeholder pension plan was formed under which employees needs to contribute 6% of base
salary subjecting to the employees contributing a minimum of 3% of base salary.

8ANALYSIS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS
Stakeholder theory
Lastly, in this report we are going to discuss about the stakeholder theory that is followed
by the organization and to evaluate how the stakeholder theory effect the functional and
operational activities of the business. Even we needs to analyse if there is any conflict that is
existing in the organization related to stakeholders and if issues are there how to implement ways
by which conflicts can be solved. The stakeholder theory states that the main aim of the business
concern must be to maximize the profit thus, delivering an impressive return on investment to all
the shareholders. For the Rightmove plc we have analysed that the company is not facing any
issues between their existing stakeholders and even the Chairperson of the company is
responsible for ensuring that there is regular clear communication between the Board and its
primary stakeholders. In this case, the company adopts the stakeholder approach that claims that
the management at all levels of the organization and all employees needs to deliver their work on
behalf of the stakeholders by which the company can obtain maximum profit and can provide
better returns to the shareholders in the form of dividends or increased share price. In 2019, the
total dividend of the company comes to 7.2p whereas in 2018 the total dividend was 6.5p thus,
reflecting an increase in dividend. This shows that the corporation of the company works
towards the betterment of the organization as well as the shareholders. The stakeholder theory
needs to be implemented by every organization as it reminds the management and the employees
to become more productive and deliver work that proves to be beneficial for the company and
even for all stakeholders associated with business (Harrison, Freeman and Abreu 2015). The
main concept behind this theory is to emphasis focus on the interconnected relationship that exist
between business and its customers, investors, lenders, employees, suppliers, regulatory
authorities, communities, and many other groups who have a stake in the organization. The

9ANALYSIS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS
corporation of the business claim that the firm must operate in an efficient manner that will
create value for all stakeholders of the organization and must not only focus on the shareholders
of the company (Yang 2014). In this case, the company is trying to implement innovative
strategies that proves to be beneficial for the customers (Hörisch, Freeman and Schaltegger
2014). As the customers of the company are dealing with their properties and it is the
responsibility of the business to implement safety measures that will keep the relevant
information and data of the customers safely. In 2019, it has been seen that the company was
successful to acquire and attractive customer base as compared to the previous year and almost
around 38% of the customers has availed the membership package of the company. This reflect
that the company is framing innovative strategies and efficient marketing tools that are meeting
the customers expectation and are even proving beneficial for increasing customer base
(Freeman and Dmytriyev 2017). Even the company decided to implement some new approach in
2020 related to the internal audit plan that will be beneficial for its employees and customers.
The organization decided to implement an anti-bribery and whistleblowing policy that states
each employees needs to sign up the Rightmove Bribery policy on appointment and whenever
there is some changes in the policy the details will be communicated to all employees. As the
company is a real-estate agency and it wants to delivers excellent services to its customers and
even wants to ensure its customers that all their relevant information are confidential and safe.
Both the employees and customers are vital stakeholders of the company and the company must
ensure that whatever the strategies are being made must give benefits to all stakeholders parties
related to the organization. The company is not only focusing on the shareholders benefit but
also framing strategies that will meet customer’s expectation thus, generating higher revenue for
the company (Richter and Dow 2017). This stakeholder theory takes into consideration various

10ANALYSIS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS
strategies that needs to be implemented by the corporation of the business and it claimed success
must be valued as a whole and should not only stick to the profits they make for the
shareholders.

11ANALYSIS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS
References
Ayuso, S., Rodríguez, M.A., García-Castro, R. and Ariño, M.A., 2014. Maximizing
stakeholders’ interests: An empirical analysis of the stakeholder approach to corporate
governance. Business & society, 53(3), pp.414-439.
Boley, B.B., McGehee, N.G. and Hammett, A.T., 2017. Importance-performance analysis (IPA)
of sustainable tourism initiatives: The resident perspective. Tourism Management, 58, pp.66-77.
Eskerod, P., Huemann, M. and Savage, G., 2015. Project stakeholder management—Past and
present. Project Management Journal, 46(6), pp.6-14.
Freeman, R.E. and Dmytriyev, S., 2017. Corporate social responsibility and stakeholder theory:
Learning from each other. Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management, (1), pp.7-15.
Harrison, J.S., Freeman, R.E. and Abreu, M.C.S.D., 2015. Stakeholder theory as an ethical
approach to effective management: Applying the theory to multiple contexts. Revista brasileira
de gestão de negócios, 17(55), pp.858-869.
Henisz, W.J., 2017. Corporate diplomacy: Building reputations and relationships with external
stakeholders. Routledge.
Hörisch, J., Freeman, R.E. and Schaltegger, S., 2014. Applying stakeholder theory in
sustainability management: Links, similarities, dissimilarities, and a conceptual
framework. Organization & Environment, 27(4), pp.328-346.
Missonier, S. and Loufrani-Fedida, S., 2014. Stakeholder analysis and engagement in projects:
From stakeholder relational perspective to stakeholder relational ontology. International Journal
of Project Management, 32(7), pp.1108-1122.