CEO Guidelines For Speaking Out On Controversial Issues

CEOs speaking out on issues is hardly new. The Business Roundtable, for instance, was born in 1970s as a platform for major company CEOs to take up issues facing the nation. But a conflation of societal trends over the last decade is luring more individual CEOs into taking more public stands.

First, the corporate social responsibility movement morphed beyond “green” values into a more amoebic “sustainability” ethos, even as millennials, scarred by the Great Recession, became captivated by entrepreneurs launching “world-changing” companies that purported a purpose beyond mere capitalism. (For example, consider Snap’s mission statement, which reads in part, “We believe that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate.”)

Second, the recent takeover of public discussion by social media—with their immediacy, ubiquity and global reach—has given CEOs both a new platform for expressing views and a virtual mandate to do so. Third, the elections and presidencies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump cast America’s political divisions into much higher relief, with a corresponding impact on consumer behavior. Some 78 percent of consumers who self-identify as liberal want brands to take stands on social and political issues, according to a recent survey by Sprout Social, while 52 percent of conservatives feel the same.

As a result, Goodism isn’t just for outliers anymore. Most CEOs now either are participating in the trend or at least seriously considering whether they should.

Before you do, here are six guidelines:

Start with authenticity: Successful public advocacy of social or political values requires the CEO’s stand to be closely tied to a company’s actual needs and outcomes.

For example, when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Chobani Founder Hamdi Ulukaya opposed President Trump’s attempts at a controversial immigration ban, their established history of hiring immigrants backstopped their comments and made them credible.

Brands and market positions often provide the most obvious clues to whether a CEO’s stand will ring true. “It makes a lot of sense for [Coca-Cola] to project progressive, international sorts of values,” says Americus Reed, a marketing professor at The Wharton School, because it is “an international brand, openly supporting diversity.”

Decide what purposes can work: That’s easiest if a company grows up with a stated purpose, such as Plum Organics, a childhood nutrition company co-founded by Neil Grimmer in 2007 and sold in 2013 to Campbell Soup for $249 million.

“A purpose and a mission must be at the epicenter of your culture,” says Grimmer, who went on to found an individualized nutrition startup called Habit. “That’s different than saying, ‘Our purpose is XYZ’ and not having proof points. And people need to see evidence of their work delivering on your mission on a weekly basis.”

Indeed, the more closely a CEO can tie transcendent corporate purposes to a company’s actual products, services and missions—and not necessarily to sublime cultural or social values—the better his or her chances of success will be.

“IBM’s purpose is to put technology to use to transform businesses and make them thrive,” says Constantine Alexandrakis, head of the U.S. region for Russell Reynolds Associates. “That’s a purpose that millennials can get excited about, but it isn’t around social issues.”

Prioritize crucial constituencies: CEOs may want to reach NGO leaders and politicians and even consumers with their appeals to purpose, but they ignore the most important audiences—including shareholders and directors—at their peril.