Can businesses be apolitical?

The illusion of being apolitical, the cost of silence, and why actions speak louder than words

The illusion of being apolitical 

What is politics?

To understand what it means to be apolitical, we should first understand what politics is. Harold Lasswell offers the simplest definition: “Who gets what, when, how.” It’s a question about how to allocate resources and power. Closely tied to this is the question of whom to love and whom to hate. For Michael Laver, “Politics is about the characteristic blend of conflict and co-operation that can be found so often in human interactions. Pure conflict is war. Pure co-operation is true love. Politics is a mixture of both”. 

Politics happens at all levels of society: In families, in tribes and clans of traditional societies, in local governments, companies and institutions, as well as sovereign states and international bodies. Companies are thus clearly part of the political eco-system. They have always been. Yet, whilst in the past politics happened behind closed doors, now, especially via social media, politics is everyone’s’ business. As a result, the political positioning of a company has become much more central to its identity. 

What does it mean to be apolitical?

Being “apolitical” has two meanings. Firstly, it can imply antipathy or disinterest in political affairs. You might describe someone as apolitical if they don’t engage with current affairs, and wouldn’t have a strong opinion in either case. Secondly, apolitical can imply taking an unbiased stance towards a current issue. Whilst the first person is sometimes criticized for a lack of care, the second is applauded for their intellectual honesty. Ultimately, I don’t think we can be truly apolitical in either sense – We all care about politics to some extent, latest when it affects us directly. And none of us are, or can be, unbiased. The question is thus not whether you should be apolitical (you cannot), but how to best position yourself on political matters.

On taking sides

The cost of silence

The seemingly easiest way to stay away from the hot mess of politics is to say nothing. Were it not for the fact that silence can also speak volumes. During the George Floyd Protests by the Black Lives Matter movement, Netflix tweeted “to be silent is complicit” , a statement that got nearly a million likes. Nowadays, people - especially Millennials and GenZs - expect companies to take a stance. In a 2020 report by Kantar, 54% of consumers expected companies to take an active role about social issues like racial injustice. Increasingly, in the business world, if you don’t stand for something, you’ll die for nothing. 

At the same time, you will (rightly) be seen as disingenuous when making statements that aren’t followed by meaningful action, or blindly reposting the majority view on controversial issues. So how can you take a stance and show support for what you care about without endangering your company? 

Before taking sides, ask yourself:

Whose views are you representing? When companies make political statements, I am usually slightly confused as to whose views the company is representing: Are they the CEO’s, the Boards, the managements, the PR teams, the employees, the investors, or the consumers…? On whose behalf can you meaningfully speak? This issue is made easier through social media – the person presenting a view can do this on their personal profile. But, if you are prominent figure in your company, or are speaking on your companies’ behalf, your views should still be aligned to your corporate strategy. Otherwise, you risk internal alienation and backlash, which can undermine the unity of your corporation.

Are your views truly yours? When taking sides, following what you consider the majority view seems like a safe success: Even if some people disagree, you will have enough people to back you to prevent severe harm to your brand. Yet, considering how often majorities have been wrong in the past, blindly following what everyone else seems to be saying, is not only dishonest, but dangerous. Independently informing yourself about an issue before taking a side is of utmost importance. Ask yourself: If the people whose side you are siding with were to suddenly support the other side, whose side would you be supporting? 

Are your views justified? Even if your opinions are yours, you must still reflect whether they can be justified. As said before, none of us are, or can be, “unbiased”. Yet, we can become less biased. Trying to understand the other side better is an uncomfortable but critical process. It is against our human nature, our unconscious bias to seek out evidence that supports our own view. It is also against the design of social media recommendation systems, whose algorithms lead us to ever more polarized and hateful information, as this sadly drives engagement. When trying to better understand the opposing side, the worst thing to do is seek out the most radical view (the view people of “your” side will flag as evidence that they are correct). Rather, look at what someone who only slightly disagrees with you says. Once you understand where they are coming from, move your way along the political spectrum until you get a better sense of the entire field. It is likely that you won’t change your views at the end (as humans we are very bad at doing this, and your view could have been justifiable from the beginning). Hopefully, however, this exercise will counter black and white thinking.

More practically speaking, can you afford the backlash? Take Elon Musk as an example. For him, the personal is political. He sees himself as a “free speech, anti-woke warrior”. He has come under attack for frequently tweeting antisemitic and hateful posts on his platform X (former Twitter), tapping into, and thereby spreading, explicit and implicit anti-Jewish tropes (see here for a discussion). The prevalence of hate speech and misinformation on X has contributed to a 15% drop of users and a 54% drop in ad revenue from the year before. Yet, he’s rich and influential enough to not have to care. His goal is to “make X the coolest and most enjoyable place on the internet“ (whatever this may mean and with however much backlash this may come). He doesn’t seem to judge success in financial terms. Rather, for Musk, “​​if successful, X will evolve to be the collective consciousness of humanity or, more accurately, the human-machine collective”.

Actions speak louder than words

Your actions are political 

You might (reasonably) decide to stay away from making controversial political statements about global affairs. This however does not mean you are apolitical. Your business activities – even “simple” ones - will raise many political issues. These are questions you cannot avoid because they are integrated into all your actions. 

Imagine you are bringing out a new foundation. This activity will not require you to take sides on global issues but will involve a whole range of political questions: 

Do you engage in animal testing? Do you use substances that are derived from child labor? Do you produce in an environmentally friendly way? What about your supply chain? What about your packaging? What are the working conditions for your employees? Do you offer a wide enough range of colors to be inclusive? Is your make-up suitable for people with different skin issues? Are your models diverse enough (in terms of gender, skin color, body shape and size)? Are your products affordable to lower-income people? Do you exploit tax loopholes? Who are your investors? Do you give to charity? To which?

Failing on any one of these fronts can nowadays be the ruin of your company – irrespective of how “good” your product is. I am not saying thinking about these issues isn’t important – it clearly is. But I do think we have developed a problematic culture of canceling people/ companies. We don't celebrate progress, but demand perfection. And looking at the long list of questions needed to be answered correctly for something as seemingly simple as a foundation, this is an almost impossible task. Thus, demanding perfection, rather than acknowledging genuine progress, will, ultimately, I think, alienate people and companies. Worse, it might stop them making the effort in the first place. 

Especially so if you are a social enterprise

If you are a social enterprise, by definition, you exist to help solve a social problem. Thus, whilst you don’t need to participate in difficult and controversial political battles, your raison d’etre will be a political statement (influencing who gets what, when, how). For example, Change Please has the mission of combating homelessness through great coffee. They train homeless people around the UK to become baristas, dedicating 100% of their profits to turntheir lives around – giving them a living wage job, housing, therapy, a bank account and onward employment opportunities. Their mission is inspiring and uncontroversial, but it is nevertheless political. 

The way forward - Act with transparency, humility and integrity 

Transparency about your business activities is a good starting point. Don’t present yourself as something you are not. This is dishonest and will most likely backfire at some point: You are shifting attention to what you claim to be your „ethical selling point”, and once the truth gets out (it usually does), not only will you lose your “ethical” selling point, but you’ll also undermine your integrity regarding things that are genuinely good about your company.

Hence, trying to become better, bit by bit, and being open about your weaknesses, is, I believe, the best way to garner trust in the long-term. For instance, if you are a company that has increased its’ foundation range from 3 to 10 shades, you can proudly acknowledge your progress. But, equally, acknowledge you still have a long way to go, given that you are objectively behind companies like Fenty Beauty who have 40 shades.

Also, if you slip up but own your mistakes people are more likely to forgive you. In a 2021 study by Porter Novelli, 79% of consumers are "willing to “uncancel” a company if that organization apologized and committed to make changes”.

All of this, for me, boils down to integrity. You can’t be totally apolitical – and you will be neither “liked” by all, nor “perfect” to all. Neither should you - being liked by everyone doesn’t seem like a good metric for success anyways. So, do what you say, but do it well.

Try to do right – but know you will do wrong. So at least do right to yourself. 

Thank you for reading and all the best,

Caroline