There are no safe topics for CEOs today – but not speaking up may do more harm than good. Stakeholders from all sides continue to press corporate leaders to take a position on a range of societal issues, but leaders find themselves boxed in by conflicting expectations.

In the last five years it has become increasingly common to see CEOs take public positions on societal issues and events to demonstrate they, and the companies they lead, are in touch, engaged and empathetic. Which issues require or benefit from executive acknowledgement is still up for debate, but in the multistakeholder landscape in which all companies operate, balancing the positions, preferences and expectations of diverse stakeholder groups makes the determinations of when, how and to whom that much more complicated.

To bring some insight and clarity to the ongoing challenge of multistakeholder issue engagement, Myriant by United Minds, in collaboration with the USC Annenberg School fielded a survey in February-March 2024 exploring the question of whether and how companies should continue to take public, or even internal, positions on potentially divisive societal issues from sustainability, DE&I, and reproductive rights, to the 2024 election and climate change.