Specifically, not at an owner/exectutive level, more in middle management, adjacent roles are often referred to as partners or stakeholders. How can you distinguish objectively between the two? Examples appreciated.
I’m having trouble distilling this concept down, thus why its in eli5. One example of a partnership I know gets referenced frequently is: engineering manager is a partner to a product owner. I’ve heard SEO experts, or marketing being stakeholders but im not sure if thats correct.
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With your updated clarification it seems you are talking about roles on a project or initiative within a company, not the company itself.
A stakeholder is someone who has an interest in the what the project/initiative/effort is.
A partner is someone who will be co-operating with others to do the planned effort.
For example, if your company is a retail store with a few locations and you are going to buy new cash register (Point of sale or POS) software, your stakeholders are everyone impacted: the sales people, the store managers, the finance people that use the software to keep the accounts, and probably whoever manages stock and places orders based on information from the software. Stakeholders (should) have a say in how the new project results will function, since it will change how they do their work.
Partners are those who would work on delivering the new software and training to everyone: the IT people, anyone who would write documentation or provide training or testing. If the project is actually building the software, an experienced individual from finance may be a partner, as could a representative of store operations who would help design the software, even though they are not writing the software. Depending on the business, a product owner/manager and/or project manager may be involved as partners.
If you are affected by the project, or have a say in what it should or should not do, you are a stakeholder. If your work brings the project about, you are a partner.
This use is commonly found when talking about product management and project management.
Businesses can use these terms to refer to the company ownership itself, but that seems to be a different use case than what you are asking.
“Partner” can also mean part-owner in a business firm, such as a lawyer who is a co-owner in the firm. This is a different use of the word.
Stakeholder is sometimes used to refer to shareholders, or people that own a stake/stock in a company but generally do not influence day-to-day decisions.
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