Beginning a formal business speech is no different than any other speech or presentation.

1. With a SINCERE SMILE, the speaker should start by courtesly greeting their audience, "Good morning", "Good afternoon", or "Good evening".
2. Next, the speaker should clearly say their name, i.e., "My name is Charles Boyd." Note: If you aren't a celebrity, or world famous, you should still say your name again, even if you are introduced. Saying your name personalizes you, and affords you some time to focus your thoughts on your speech.
3. If you are about to begin your speech and you notice and people are still entering the room, or the audience is resettling themselves after a short break, you would do well to not immediately jump directly into your subject matter. A better decision would be to tell the audience how delighted you are to speak to them about an important matter near and dear to your heart, and how you appreciate their attendance for such an important moment. Scan the room while you are speaking and be sure to make eye-to-eye contact with your audience. This action alone will strengthen your confidence and attract your listeners into your message.
4. Once you are ready to 'officially' begin (the room has settled), you should launch into your speech with passion and conviction. There are precious few moments when it comes to public speaking. To waste any of those moments is to do a disservice to your speech and the audience's time.

So to wrap up: How does one start a business formal speech? "Good morning, my name is Charles Boyd. I'm appreciative of your attendance today. The subject I wish to talk about is very important to me, and by the end of my talk with you, I believe you'll feel the same."

Project stakeholders are individuals and organizations whose interests are affected (positively or negatively) by the project execution and completion. In other words, a project stakeholder has something to gain from the project or lose to the project. Accordingly, the stakeholders fall into two categories-positive stakeholders, who will normally benefit from the success of the project, and negative stakeholders, who see some form of disadvantage coming from the project. The implications obviously are that the positive stakeholders would like to see the project succeed and the negative stakeholder's would be happy if the project was delayed or even better cancelled.

For ex: let us say, your state government wants to build a Government Hospital in your city. It is a good thing right? You, the citizens of your city and the chief minister are all positive stakeholders of this project. Lets say there is a private Hospital in the city that is having a thriving business currently. They would be negative stakeholders because, if the government hospital comes up, their business will be affected and hence they would be happy if the government scraps its project.

Negative stakeholders are often overlooked by the project manager and the project team, which increases the project risk. Ignoring positive or negative project stakeholders will have a damaging impact on the project. Therefore, it's important that you, as the project manager, start identifying the project stakeholders early on in the project. The different project stakeholders can have different and conflicting expectations, which you need to analyze and manage.

Identifying Project Stakeholders

Identifying all the project stakeholders might be a difficult task, but the following are the obvious stakeholders in any project:

1. Project manager - Include yourself first. The project manager in charge of the project, in the list of the stakeholders to start with.

2. Project management office (PMO) - If your organization has a PMO, and it is directly or indirectly responsible for the outcome of a project, then the PMO is a stakeholder in that project.

3. Project team - This team consists of the project manager, the project management team, and the individuals who perform the work of the project to produce the project outcome. This team may consist of individuals from different groups and departments with different subject matter expertise and skills.

4. Program manager - If your project is part of a program, then the program manager is certainly a stakeholder of your project.

5. Portfolio managers - A portfolio manager is an individual who performs high-level management (governance) of a set of projects or programs and interfaces between the projects/programs and the business strategy of the organization for which the projects and programs are being run.

6. Portfolio review board - A portfolio review board is a committee that selects and rejects the projects by reviewing them for factors such as the project value, return on investment, and risks involved in performing the project.

7. Functional managers - These are the individuals who play the management roles within administrative or functional areas of the organization. For example, the VP of marketing is a functional manager and so is the director of engineering. The level of authority depends on their position in the hierarchy and also the organizational structure. For example, if you are using resources that are under a functional manager, that functional manager is a stakeholder of your project.

8. Operational management - These are the individuals who are performing management roles in the operational areas of the organization. For example, the director of IT, who is responsible for maintaining the computer network that your team is using, is a stakeholder in your project. Depending on your project, you might be handing over the product of the project to an operations group that will be responsible for providing the long-term support for it.

9. Sellers - Sellers are entities external to the performing organization, such as contractors and suppliers, who enter into a contractual agreement with the performing organization to provide certain components for the project. These components are the products, services, or results that you procure.

10. Business Partners - Business partners are the external organizations that fill a specific role for the project, such as installing the product of the project, providing training and support for the product, or providing specialized expertise for the project. Business partners are different from vendors in that they have a special ongoing relationship with the organization, which sometimes is attained by satisfying some requirements, such as certifications.

11. Customer/user - In general, customers are the entity that will acquire the project's outcome, such as product, and users are the entity that will use the product. In some cases the customers and users may be the same entity, and in other cases there may be a whole chain (with different layers) of customers and users.

12. Project sponsor - This is the individual or group that provides financial resources for the project. A sponsor has a major stake in the project and may perform an active role in the project team from time to time.

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