One of the things that a financial accountant takes into consideration is the stakeholders of a company. Now, a stakeholder is anybody that has an interest in the economic position of that company. And the reason that an accountant cares about the stakeholders, as do the owners of the company, the board of directors, is because these are the people that can influence the success of the company.

For example, when we look at this diagram, you see a spider-web-type situation, and the stakeholders include the following: consumers. Now why would a consumer care about the financial position of a company? Well, if you found out that Ford was going out of business, would you purchase a Ford? Probably not, because you want a company that is going to be around to service your automobile. So therefore, a consumer cares whether the company that they are purchasing from is viable and will be in business.

Suppliers. A supplier cares why? Because obviously, if a company goes under, then they have lost a customer. They are supplying things for this customer, and they want that customer to be successful. They also want the customer to be successful because chances are that customer, that company, owes them money for items that the company purchased from them. So they want to make sure that the company is viable and can pay their bills and will continue to order items from them.

Employees. Obviously, if you're an employee, you want your company to be successful because you want to keep your job.

The local community. The local community cares because if a company is successful, then that means the people in the community have jobs and will have income that they can then spend within that community.

Management. Obviously, management cares for the same reason that employees care. They are managing this company. Their performance has a direct influence on the performance of the company. So if the company is doing poorly, it reflects upon management and they might be out of a job.

Shareholders. A shareholder is another word for an owner. A shareholder is an owner in a corporation. All shareholders are stakeholders, but not all stakeholders are shareholders. So obviously, as an owner, you want your company to be successful.

Government. The government wants a company to be successful, too. Number one, because that company will then pay taxes on whatever incomes the company produces. But more importantly, if that company goes under, the government may have to be paying unemployment or welfare to those employees who no longer have jobs.

So when we talk about stakeholders, just remember that it is someone who has an interest in the success of a company.