In other words, stakeholders in our economic system are being actively wooed all the time by competitors. A company must give a stream of value to each stakeholder that the stakeholder views as being at least as good as the stream of value offered by competitors, taking into account switching costs. If stakeholders do not perceive such value, they will redirect their loyalty, either gradually or precipitously. Seen in this light, creating stakeholder value is not so much an objective as it is an economic constraint on a company’s actions. If, for example, a company takes actions that fail to deliver sufficient shareholder value, it will lose the loyalty of its shareholders and as a result go out of business. The same is true of its relationships with the other active stakeholders.