12/16/2022

How Boards Can Guide Company Strategy on Social Issues

There can be as much risk in inaction as there is in action

For the past few years, we’ve been fielding calls from CEOs and other C-suite leaders who find themselves under increasing pressure to engage in — and take public positions on — issues that their companies would have considered outside their purviews only a few years ago. Recent research, including Edelman’s Trust Barometer, suggests that this pressure is likely to persist and possibly increase.

Companies are starting to recognize that there can be as much risk in inaction as there is in action, and a wrong move can have significant reputational and financial consequences.

Changing expectations around corporate social responsibility and governance only increase the uncertainty as to how stakeholders will react.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Harvard Business Review.