Just read this in the WSJ in a story about a zoom call among 300 plus CEOs convened by Jeff Sonnenfeld of Yale School of Management. The topic was supposed to be the business impact of the coronavirus. Well, that barely happened and the discussion veered towards the killing of George Floyd and what CEOs were doing and learning about racism and social justice. The journalist writes: “Former PepsiCo Inc. Chief Executive Indra Nooyi commended CEOs for taking stands on issues, but spoke bluntly about the realities involved. Ms. Nooyi faced a boycott in 2016 after making comments interpreted as critical of Donald Trump, then president-elect. When she took political positions during her tenure, she said, a third of employees lauded her, a third sent nasty emails and a third stayed quiet. ‘So you could interpret it as two-thirds are on your side, or two-thirds are against you,’ she said.”

I think she is right that you will have a portion of your employees for you and against you. However, employees expect more from CEOs now. In the research we did at Weber Shandwick in 2018, approximately 4 in 10 expect CEOs to take responsibility for social issues facing society by speaking out and an equal number do not think CEOs have that responsibility. If I had to guess, 48% of the American public now expect CEOs to speak up as a result of the George Floyd killing. Those numbers will continue to grow as we see leadership in government weakened and business leaders and civic leaders no longer being bystanders.

Doug Parker, the CEO of American Airlines, said during that zoom call that CEOs can no longer side step the issues. “Sometimes we convince ourselves, look it’s not really my responsibility as a CEO to opine on this or make a statement on this,” he said. “Oftentimes you think, well, it’s not going to matter, because who am I to be making comments on this? It does matter.” But it matters and it matters to corporate reputation down the road. Due to the dismal situation with travel these days, you have to hand it to him for speaking so honestly.