Ceo Activism - an Event of the Business Leader or Executives

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CEO ACTIVISM

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SUBJECT:-  COM501 Corporate Communication

Prepared By:- Karan Trivedi

Enroll No.:- AU1814018

Submitted to Faculty:- Sudhir Pandey

CEO activism is a event in which the business leader or executives starts taking public podium and share their views on political or social issues that are not directly related to the company but the issues that are affecting the society. This stance usually won’t increase the company’s profits. For example, in 2012, Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy denounced gay marriage on radio show. CEO’s have spoken much about the climate change, income fairness, same sex-marriage, immigration, gun control and discrimination. CEO activism influences the public’s opinion on social and political issues. When consumers agreed to CEO’s stances, they usually buy products of that company more which was good for that  company. All this made critic thought that CEO activism gave businesses even more influence in a political system. But from business perspective, it is quite risky to engage in such activities as it may also lead to negative impact and criticism for the company and CEO if people don’t agree to voice raised on issues. One of the responsibilities of a CEO is to determine the degree to which personal identification, and by extension the organization’s identification, with social issues is appropriate. Of course, all major business organizations participate in lobbying activities through an association or by other means. It is pretty much assumed. CEO “activism”—taking a public stand or action for or against a social issue—is something else. For e.g. Apple CEO Tim Cook, publicly expressed his views against Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). He argued that the law legalized discrimination in a way following businesses to refuse to serve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Customers. Some conservative websites criticized Marc Benioff and Tim Cook for denouncing religious freedom laws while their companies continued to do business in china. China did not have strong record of protecting LGBTQ rights.

CEO who chose to engage in social and political issues did so in a variety of different ways and that led to a wide range of results. In some case CEO activism was perceived as opportunistic rather than authentic. In April 2015, when chipotle announced that all its ingredients would be GMO-free, CEO Steve Ells said that chipotle is showing that there’s a better way to do fast food and “they” say that these ingredients are safe, but we all know food is safer if those ingredients are not there at all. Here by the Ells pointed to all those who said GMO’s are not harmful. Critics contended that Chipotle’s strategy and Ell’s rhetoric were polluting public discourse on scientific matters. All this was to gain popularity with millennials and health conscious customers.