Should Your CEO Speak On Social Issues?

Should Your CEO Speak On Social Issues?

"Comment" red words on white keyboard - online, education and business concept The nature of CEO communication on social topics over the last two years has significantly changed. The event of George Floyds death and emerging movement of Black Lives Matter was a major catalyst for change following on the heels of the business roundtables 2018 shift from shareholder to stakeholder capitalism. The embrace of the definition of stakeholders and the ESG movement with special focus on diversity equity and inclusion was particularly catalyzed by George Floyd. We see the recent Ukraine war triggering another public round of companies taking positions on whether they will do business with Russia. All of these events have brought up the question of just how much should corporations join in on social-political discourse? On the other side of the argument in favor of companies opining publicly on social issues we see Coinbase COIN CEO Brian Armstrong telling his employees that the companies intranet is not the vehicle for political debate, that they should please do that elsewhere i. e. Facebook, Twitter, etc. and focus their energy while working on the corporate goals, of course, in alignment with the companies values and principals. Boards need