,of Contents
1. Cover
2. Table of Contents
3. Title Page
4. Copyright
5. Dedication
6. Supplemental Images
7. Foreword
8. Introduction
9. 1 What Is an Activist CEO?
1. What Is ESG and Why Is the “S” So Important?
2. The ESG “S” Framework
3. Notes
10. 2 Why We All Need to Be Activist CEOs
1. Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging – and Why They Matter
2. Notes
11. 3 Finding My Inner Activist CEO
1. Beginnings
2. Hong Kong to Harrogate
3. Searching for Something
4. Coming of Age
5. Starting Again
12. 4 Fill Up Your “S” Cup
13. 5 Addressing Behaviour Not Belief
14. 6 Breathe in Courage, Breathe Out Fear
1. Tami's Story
15. 7 Go Blaze a Trail of Your Own
1. Notes
16. 8 The Three Steves
17. 9 Where Are You Really From?
1. Find Your Voice, Find Your Mentors
2. Entrepreneurship
3. The Activist CEOs
4. Notes
18. 10 A Billion Strong
19. 11 Winning Hearts and Minds
20. 12 The Toughest Job of All
21. 13 Love Is Love
1. Note
22. 14 Age Is But a Number
23. 15 Getting the Full Picture
1. Socio-Economic Status
2. Nationality
24. Conclusion
, 25. Supplemental Images
26. Index
27. End User License Agreement
1
What Is an Activist CEO?
When we hear the word “activist”, we are often faced with images of rebellion or controversy.
That's not what we are talking about here.
Activist CEOs are simply leaders who want to support, include, and lead from the front an
organisation which is full of employees who can bring their whole, true, authentic selves to work.
They know inclusive and diverse workplaces lead to economic success and want to make their
world a better place now and in the future.
They are allies and they are beacons.
And they are a key part in the fight for equity in the workplace.
Until recently, CEOs, I feel, have had a bad rap. You, I'm sure, will remember the statistic from
2019 that stated then there “were more chief executives called Steve in the FTSE 100 than there
were from a minority ethnic group”. We hear constant rebukes and snide comments about the
stereotypical CEO being “male, pale, and stale”.
Don't get me wrong. We know more opportunities for non-white, non-male leaders need to be
found, and I'll explain later why the boardroom needs to look very different if organisations want
to survive.
However, I also feel it's lazy, rude, dismissive, and, dare I say it, far from inclusive, to overlook
the contribution of such men and what they have to offer. We need to understand these are allies
– some may already be doing great things for the cause, some may just not know where to start.
But no matter where you stand on this, there is no question that the role of the CEO is changing –
and we can all learn from their leadership.
Over the last ten years the world has changed exponentially, and we have seen huge political and
sociological upheaval, and the boundaries between politics and business have become blurred.
In the United States, we have seen Apple's Tim Cook and Starbucks’ boss Howard Schulz
becoming more vocal in their advocacy on a number of issues. In a piece for the Wall Street
Journal, Bank of America's CEO Brian Moynihan said, “Our jobs as CEOs now include driving
what we think is right. It's not exactly political activism, but it is action on issues beyond
business.”1
, “Action on issues beyond business”, I love that phrase.
Marc Benioff of Salesforce also perfectly summed up the current CEO Activist phenomenon in an
interview with Time, saying, “Today CEOs need to stand up not just for their shareholders, but
their employees, their customers, their partners, the community, the environment, schools,
everybody.”2
Some leaders have pointed to the power of the Millennial generation as a driver of change,
acknowledging that morals in business matters to younger people more than ever – as both
consumers and employees.
Back in 2017, global communications firm Weber Shandwick (in partnership with KRC Research)
commissioned a study on CEO Activism, called “High Noon in the C-Suite”.3 It was the follow-
up to “The Dawn of CEO Activism” (2016),4 which had focused on the risks and rewards for
companies when their Chief Execs use their platform to comment on “issues beyond business”.
The new piece of research focused on the impact of this on the Millennial generation – and found
51% of that demographic were more likely to buy from companies led by CEO Activists.
The changing political climate in the US was seen as a major factor, as Weber Shandwick's own
CEO Andy Polansky said at the time:
Over the past 12 months, the climate in the United States has changed dramatically as business
and policy have intersected more deeply than ever before.
When dozens of CEOs spoke up about the new administration's decisions regarding issues like
climate change and travel to the U.S. from select countries, for example, social media ignited,
protests erupted and media attention exploded. Navigating how to communicate a company's point
of view in this environment is becoming increasingly complex and important. Future generations
will only pay closer attention to how companies communicate around their values when it comes
to deciding where to work or who to purchase from.
The Harvard Business Review has been writing on the concept of Activist CEOs for almost a
decade,5 and they put together a fascinating précis on the tactics employed by such leaders – noting
that while they would be motivated by many different interests (“external, internal and deeply
personal”), in the main, they relied on two types of tactics – raising awareness and leveraging
economic power. Now this was a report focusing on the US, where the main battlegrounds were
over specific pieces of legislation – such as Trump's immigration laws or same-sex marriage. But
even though the action taken by the American-based CEOs was mainly only relevant to their
country, it began to set a precedent worldwide, the consumers wanted their big and beloved brands
to stand for something.
This has been backed up in the UK, by research which came out in 2019 from a joint collaboration
between the University of Bath's School of Management, Imperial College London, and Audencia
Business School in France. Their study found that: “People are over 20% more likely to want to
work for a company where the CEO takes a humanistic stance on a political issue unrelated to their
business.”6
1. Cover
2. Table of Contents
3. Title Page
4. Copyright
5. Dedication
6. Supplemental Images
7. Foreword
8. Introduction
9. 1 What Is an Activist CEO?
1. What Is ESG and Why Is the “S” So Important?
2. The ESG “S” Framework
3. Notes
10. 2 Why We All Need to Be Activist CEOs
1. Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging – and Why They Matter
2. Notes
11. 3 Finding My Inner Activist CEO
1. Beginnings
2. Hong Kong to Harrogate
3. Searching for Something
4. Coming of Age
5. Starting Again
12. 4 Fill Up Your “S” Cup
13. 5 Addressing Behaviour Not Belief
14. 6 Breathe in Courage, Breathe Out Fear
1. Tami's Story
15. 7 Go Blaze a Trail of Your Own
1. Notes
16. 8 The Three Steves
17. 9 Where Are You Really From?
1. Find Your Voice, Find Your Mentors
2. Entrepreneurship
3. The Activist CEOs
4. Notes
18. 10 A Billion Strong
19. 11 Winning Hearts and Minds
20. 12 The Toughest Job of All
21. 13 Love Is Love
1. Note
22. 14 Age Is But a Number
23. 15 Getting the Full Picture
1. Socio-Economic Status
2. Nationality
24. Conclusion
, 25. Supplemental Images
26. Index
27. End User License Agreement
1
What Is an Activist CEO?
When we hear the word “activist”, we are often faced with images of rebellion or controversy.
That's not what we are talking about here.
Activist CEOs are simply leaders who want to support, include, and lead from the front an
organisation which is full of employees who can bring their whole, true, authentic selves to work.
They know inclusive and diverse workplaces lead to economic success and want to make their
world a better place now and in the future.
They are allies and they are beacons.
And they are a key part in the fight for equity in the workplace.
Until recently, CEOs, I feel, have had a bad rap. You, I'm sure, will remember the statistic from
2019 that stated then there “were more chief executives called Steve in the FTSE 100 than there
were from a minority ethnic group”. We hear constant rebukes and snide comments about the
stereotypical CEO being “male, pale, and stale”.
Don't get me wrong. We know more opportunities for non-white, non-male leaders need to be
found, and I'll explain later why the boardroom needs to look very different if organisations want
to survive.
However, I also feel it's lazy, rude, dismissive, and, dare I say it, far from inclusive, to overlook
the contribution of such men and what they have to offer. We need to understand these are allies
– some may already be doing great things for the cause, some may just not know where to start.
But no matter where you stand on this, there is no question that the role of the CEO is changing –
and we can all learn from their leadership.
Over the last ten years the world has changed exponentially, and we have seen huge political and
sociological upheaval, and the boundaries between politics and business have become blurred.
In the United States, we have seen Apple's Tim Cook and Starbucks’ boss Howard Schulz
becoming more vocal in their advocacy on a number of issues. In a piece for the Wall Street
Journal, Bank of America's CEO Brian Moynihan said, “Our jobs as CEOs now include driving
what we think is right. It's not exactly political activism, but it is action on issues beyond
business.”1
, “Action on issues beyond business”, I love that phrase.
Marc Benioff of Salesforce also perfectly summed up the current CEO Activist phenomenon in an
interview with Time, saying, “Today CEOs need to stand up not just for their shareholders, but
their employees, their customers, their partners, the community, the environment, schools,
everybody.”2
Some leaders have pointed to the power of the Millennial generation as a driver of change,
acknowledging that morals in business matters to younger people more than ever – as both
consumers and employees.
Back in 2017, global communications firm Weber Shandwick (in partnership with KRC Research)
commissioned a study on CEO Activism, called “High Noon in the C-Suite”.3 It was the follow-
up to “The Dawn of CEO Activism” (2016),4 which had focused on the risks and rewards for
companies when their Chief Execs use their platform to comment on “issues beyond business”.
The new piece of research focused on the impact of this on the Millennial generation – and found
51% of that demographic were more likely to buy from companies led by CEO Activists.
The changing political climate in the US was seen as a major factor, as Weber Shandwick's own
CEO Andy Polansky said at the time:
Over the past 12 months, the climate in the United States has changed dramatically as business
and policy have intersected more deeply than ever before.
When dozens of CEOs spoke up about the new administration's decisions regarding issues like
climate change and travel to the U.S. from select countries, for example, social media ignited,
protests erupted and media attention exploded. Navigating how to communicate a company's point
of view in this environment is becoming increasingly complex and important. Future generations
will only pay closer attention to how companies communicate around their values when it comes
to deciding where to work or who to purchase from.
The Harvard Business Review has been writing on the concept of Activist CEOs for almost a
decade,5 and they put together a fascinating précis on the tactics employed by such leaders – noting
that while they would be motivated by many different interests (“external, internal and deeply
personal”), in the main, they relied on two types of tactics – raising awareness and leveraging
economic power. Now this was a report focusing on the US, where the main battlegrounds were
over specific pieces of legislation – such as Trump's immigration laws or same-sex marriage. But
even though the action taken by the American-based CEOs was mainly only relevant to their
country, it began to set a precedent worldwide, the consumers wanted their big and beloved brands
to stand for something.
This has been backed up in the UK, by research which came out in 2019 from a joint collaboration
between the University of Bath's School of Management, Imperial College London, and Audencia
Business School in France. Their study found that: “People are over 20% more likely to want to
work for a company where the CEO takes a humanistic stance on a political issue unrelated to their
business.”6
