Tech Employees Want CEOs to Stand Up for Company Values
New Weber Shandwick research shows Tech leaders have license to communicate
For full report, click here. (Disclosure: Nike is a client of Weber Shandwick)
It turns out your mother was right — if you stick to your values, good things will follow. Last week we learned that Nike’s market cap rose almost $6 billion since the brand announced its sponsorship partnership with controversial former QB Colin Kaepernick. Furthermore, in the 10 days following the launch of the Kaepernick campaign, Nike recorded a 61% rise in sold-out merchandise while also reducing the number of items it discounted by a third. Now, did Nike thoroughly research its Kaepernick relationship prior to going to market? Certainly.
That said, the brand still stood-up and took a clear side in one of the most public and controversial debates in America today and the results of that decision are worth our attention.
For those who have a burning desire to change the world, there have always been many professional career paths to pursue. For me, initially, it was politics. But for so many others it has been technology. Young men and women have been justifiably drawn to technology’s unparalleled ability to connect, inform, educate, solve, heal, and celebrate. When I entered the technology space 14 years ago, the cell phone was in the process of morphing into a smart phone and the modern age of personalized, mobile data was barreling down the runway toward takeoff. And while data privacy and security issues back then centered around the protection of cell phone call records, today we’re grappling with a host of far more complex technology challenges that affect our economy and overall public discourse.
Regardless of whether significant societal issues exist within your industry or within your community, technology employees have a strong desire to see their corporate leaders stand-up and be counted.
This is the primary finding of a new Weber Shandwick study titled CEO Activism in 2018: The Tech Effect. You can read the full report here.
As the title suggests, our research is based on a study of technology professionals (software developers, software engineers, data scientists, etc.) and was conducted in seven markets: US, Canada, UK, Mexico, Brazil, China and India. The critical finding from this new research is that this influential segment of technology employees — highly coveted by companies in every sector — is very enthusiastic about CEOs speaking up on social issues and keen for their CEOs to stand up for company values. They want CEOs to speak up mostly about jobs/skills training, equal pay and data privacy.
At the end of the day, your corporate values matter and tech leaders in particular should accept the license they’ve been given and let their critical audiences know where they stand on some of the most important issues of the day.
For new business inquiries, please contact Ellen DeMunter at EDeMunter@webershandwick.com.
