What is a Stakeholder?

A stakeholder is a person or a group of interest (stake) that can affect or be affected by an organization.

Definitions of 'Stakeholder' by experts,
“any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization objectives” [Freeman (1984)]

The Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in 1963 defines it as,

“those groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist”

The main groups of stakeholders are Customers, Employees, Local communities, Shareholders, Suppliers and distributors. In addition there are the public in general, the media, Business partners, Competitors,Government, regulators..etc.