what is a stakeholder?

a stakeholder is a person, group or organisation that has a vested interest in the organisation because they are affected by the businesses actions and objectives. There are seven different types of stakeholders, three being internal: managers, employees and owners/shareholders, and four external: customers, government, suppliers and the community. These can often have conflicting desires, this is called stakeholder conflict.
For example, shareholders want high returns, whereas customers want a high quality product for as cheap as possible, these two desires are often conflicting.