Just published on LinkedIn the following post. Please read it there or here. It is about keeping corporate America accountable in response to COVID-19 and BLM. There will be a whole new world order for reputation in the year ahead…

During the last several years, controversial sociopolitical events have shaken America including the immigration ban, Charlottesville protests, school shootings and same-sex marriage legislation. In the face of such societal challenges, increasing numbers of corporate leaders have felt compelled to speak out and take action bucking the long-established maxim that the “business of business is business” and no more.

Accountability for such corporate incursions into social and political matters has not been easy if only because scorecards connecting corporations with social and political stands have been few and far between.

Consumers interested in a company's position on hot button issues had to primarily rely on their memories or media accounts. At best they could search for guidance from less widely known organizations such as Color of Change or Grabyourwallet or HRC to know whom to buy from, whom to avoid and where to apply for their next job.

This is not to say that a few companies who spoke out did not do so memorably.  Dick’s Sporting Goods became top of mind when 17 people were shot to death in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and Dick's CEO Ed Stack declared that his company would stop selling assault-style weapons. When a white supremacist and neo-Nazi rally was held in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 and President Trump remarked that there was wrongdoing on both sides, Merck’s CEO Ken Frazier tweeted his disagreement, a turning point in the annals of CEO activism that was quickly followed by other business leaders.

Dick's and Merck, however, were undoubtedly the exception rather than the rule. With few hit lists keeping track of companies who spoke out or remained silent, consumers were on their own. Few consumers can be expected to long lionize a company's public stand on the issues.

This is no longer the case. How companies stand on social and political issues are likely to have a far greater impact since the coronavirus outbreak and BLM movement. Tens of hundreds of companies have gone on record to support employees, schools, the vulnerable, Black rights organizations or others during the COVID-19 pandemic and the killing of George Floyd and others. The sheer magnitude of this planetary public health crisis, the catastrophic economic fallout and the raw racial inequities that have shockingly risen to the surface have overwhelmed (or paralyzed) the public sector forcing the private sector to boldly take charge. Many in the private sector practically serve as a quasi-government arm by making serious decisions that affect more than just their employees.

What is different today when it comes to reputation is not just the seriousness of the challenges presented by COVID-19 and BLM, but that there also seems to be a groundswell of emerging lists to keep corporate America accountable and provide some kind of long-lasting reputational reckoning. These evolving lists of “heroes and zeroes” or “saints and sinners” are proliferating. They serve to combat our natural collective amnesia and fatigue during these unprecedented times of great uncertainty and unrest. Consumers are acknowledging the moral authority that companies have wielded and see the need for permanent record-keeping of who and how that authority was employed (didtheyhelp.com). With accountability now far easier, the effect of a company's position on social and political issues will now be far more apparent.  Corporate accountability is here to stay.

Over one dozen lists are publicly available at last count. Some lists are purely alphabetical listings of what companies have done to provide support during the coronavirus outbreak (U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation) or the racial inequity movement sparked by the George Floyd killing (JUST Capital). JUST Capital also provided a regularly updated and thoroughly comprehensive corporate tracker of the policies and best practices that 301 of the largest employers implemented during COVID-19’s outbreak (i.e. Adjusted Hours of Operation, Back-Up Dependent Care, Closed Stores or Suspended Services, Community Relief Fund).

Several lists rank how companies responded to the pandemic and racial unrest impacting the corporate sector. The Forbes Corporate Responders list named 25 companies that mobilized to meet the COVID-19 challenge (Verizon was #1) and The Harris Poll’s Essential 100 named companies in rank order according to Americans’ perceptions of which companies played an essential role during the outbreak (USPS was #1). So far, two lists have been released involving CEO reputations – the CEO Leaderboard (top CEOs in the U.S. and the U.K. ranked according to how well they connected with employees, customers and other stakeholders during COVID-19) and Barron’s list of the top 25 CEOs with a leadership preparedness lens towards COVID-19 and racial inequality. Newly released PEOPLE magazine’s 50 Companies that Care survey conducted with Great Place to Work applies a COVID filter this year (Publix Super Market is #1). Soon, a consensus will shape up over which companies should be recognized as the most accountable during these troubled times.

Many of these lists are coming from sources you might expect during an economic and societal collapse – media titans, marketing services and public relations organizations, and established research firms. Newer lists, however, are also emerging that have the possibility of prodding corporate America into unfamiliar territory. These Instagram list-makers seem to be more willing to call companies out for inaction and lack of transparency. They are putting company reputations on the line and to the test. Two Instagram accounts just getting started are mirror images of each other – Silent Brands and Vocal Brands – with a common mission: “Brands have a choice: To be silent or to use their platforms to support equality for Black lives. Protest with your dollar to make real change.” Silent Brands calls out companies who have been silent during the Black Lives Matter movement (nearly 5,000 followers) and Vocal Brands names companies who have been supportive (1,200 followers).

Another corporate scorecard keeper is @pullupforchange, an Instagram account started by CEO Sharon Chuter of Uoma Beauty which calls out companies for not responding to her challenge to release their total number of Black employees and their respective levels within 72 hours of posting a supportive message for Black people. It also asks companies to employ a minimum of 10% Black people at the executive level. The IG site names companies that have disclosed their numbers and those that have not.

Companies can take four steps to prepare for this new age of corporate accountability and reputation registers, especially if you want to be on record for customers and talent:

1.    Keep a look out for lists in response to how companies behaved during COVID-19 and now BLM. Be aware that many annual awards and lists that have been ongoing for years (i.e. Fortune’s Change the World List or Fast Company’s Most Innovative) will most probably revamp their criteria to include corporate responses to the events of 2020 just as Barron’s did this year.

2.    Reach out to list-makers who have incomplete or wrong information and ask for an opportunity to address open issues or for a correction. Or reach out to list editors ahead of deadlines to explain why you should be on the list.

3.    Speak up more loudly if you want to be acknowledged by employees, customers or community members for having taken action since the pandemic began and reap your deserved reputational rights. If you have done something that supports your employees during COVID-19 or in response to the killing of George Floyd and others, don’t keep it hidden. This just might not be the time for playing the humility card. People want companies to go on the record and show the world that support is on its way and people are not forgotten. People are rightfully distracted and communicating notches up reputation.

4.    Prepare for a new reputational world order based on accountability during these tough times. With all the data analytics and algorithms that can keep score for posterity, expect that you will fall on one list or another this year or next.

Companies need to acknowledge that their reputations hang in the balance as more of these lists proliferate and are consolidated into year-end roundups of 2020. As CEO Sharon Chuter remarked in an interview: “And now there’s a community telling me what to do next. They’re saying that in six months, we want an update. We want to know if they will do better. Some are asking for a plug-in for desktops so that when they’re browsing, they can see if brands support Black people. Others are asking for a sticker on the box — a symbol to show they are diverse, like they have for [the vegan product label] Leaping Bunny. It shows how much people want to know. You have to pull up. You have to do this. This was created to be a shopping guide, not a boycott guide.”

Accountability is the future.