Seeds of Growth - articles from our monthly newsletter

CEOs are increasingly stuck between employees and politicians. We should side with our people.

…When we run large multinationals we have the extraordinary privilege of representing giant institutions with a huge turnover that bring together thousands of people. With this power comes responsibility.

Today’s business leaders are being pushed back in this direction–and that’s a good thing. CEOs can and should use their position to speak up for their constituencies on questions that affect our societies and the prospects of our planetary survival. These constituencies may otherwise be marginalized in unrepresentative political systems or silenced by established power. It’s not so-called liberal bias. It’s a vital function of any inclusive and dynamic democracy and it can help heal and strengthen politics when it falters.

This does, of course, put business leaders under new and challenging scrutiny. Corporate statements must be followed by action. From the murder of George Floyd and now the horrific Buffalo attack to the January 6th insurrection and Roe v Wade, activists routinely expose businesses whose public positions are at odds with their political donations. Firms that condemned Moscow’s brutal invasion of Ukraine while continuing to do business with Russia have been denounced in the court of public opinion. A company may have the best targets on emissions, diversity, or human rights but if its trade associations are lobbying against environmental protections or voting rights, or if these firms ignore poverty and oppression in their value chain, there’s an ever-growing chance of being called out.

The best and the only defense is consistency. A company doesn’t have to be perfect, but it should be striving to improve all the time. Companies that go beyond getting their own houses in order, working to address our biggest shared systemic problems, such as money in politics and runaway climate change, stand to reap more rewards.

These are the inescapable realities of running a corporation in today’s world. The politicians who try to silence corporate leaders ignore the role business must play in thriving and vibrant democracies. CEOs everywhere will need to find their voice.

Read the full article of Paul Polman – CEO Unilever (2009 – 2019), author of ‘Net Positive: how courageous companies thrive by giving more than they take’ and guest on the Humanizing Growth Series.