There are two broad types of stakeholders in any organization. Internal stakeholders are those people who operate directly within the business, including owners, managers, employees and board members or trustees. Internal stakeholders typically generate the ideas for a business and are likely to have buy-in almost immediately because they realize the impact of decisions on the business’ bottom line.
External stakeholders are outside the business but still interact with it in some way. They include customers, community members and vendors that provide goods or services to the business. Stakeholder buy-in is particularly important from this perspective because if a business can get these folks on board, it can have an easier time implementing new plans and strategies.
