CECP Insights Blog

CECP's CEO Daryl Brewster, other CECP staff, members of CECP's Board of Directors, and other industry thought leaders provide timely insight into trends and developments on the role of business in society.

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Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Changing the World is Good Business
The Fortune 2018 Change the World list features 57 companies that are doing well by doing good. These businesses are trying to fix big problems and make money while doing it. That’s right, it’s not a list about charity (though many of these companies also have charitable efforts). It’s about how business—one of the most scalable and sustainable engines we know of—is using its resources and expertise to tackle the biggest challenges. In recent years, more companies are taking steps to try to solve large-scale social issues; it’s a trend that’s not likely to slow down.

Responsible Production & Consumption

Small Decision = Big Impact
Each day Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and media venues are bombarded with the idea of social impact and yet many do not understand the true meaning behind the movement. The business dictionary defines social impact as the effect of an activity on the social fabric of a community and well-being of individuals and families in that community and around the world. How can one person, one organization, one business, one CEO make a social impact that will be felt by many?

Health & Healthcare

Calling on the Private Sector to Solve the Next Great Health Crisis of Our Time – Global Safe Surgery
The global health world periodically has rude awakenings that expose vulnerabilities in countries’ preparedness to handle health crises. The outbreaks of Ebola and Zika in recent years are a glaring example of this weakness, exposing how poorly prepared areas like West Africa were for threats of that magnitude. Governments, civil society, and the private sector leapt into action with the resources to help, but their aid arrived late and was not completely organized, rendering their relationships and resources underutilized. The next global emergency is always lurking around the corner, making advance preparation of key resources all that much more important.

Media & Communications

The Swoosh Heard ‘Round the World
Taking a knee made Nike stand up.

As brand activism becomes commonplace – even expected – it’s an optimal moment to unpack the factors that spur companies to stand up for something that matters.

Enter Nike and Colin Kaepernick, with a contentious new campaign and profound tagline: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” As swooshes burn, #boycottnike takes over social feeds, memes proliferate, and thought pieces ignite conversation, one might wonder: Why, Nike, why?

Innovation & Technology

Creating a Better World Through Business
CECP, a coalition-based organization, leverages several tools to convene companies to address some of the world’s most pressing problems. “Every day I see the power of our cross-functional business leaders at work, from disaster relief to diversity and inclusion to tackling the issue of patient capital, our members are pushing us to go deeper,” says Daryl Brewster, CEO, CECP at any given time.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

One Year Ago: CEOs Respond to Charlottesville
Today marks one year since Merck CEO Ken Frazier announced his resignation from the President's American Manufacturing Council in response to what he and his company felt was a failure to appropriately denounce "expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy" on the part of the federal government. In the days that followed, nearly all CEOs followed suit and resigned from the group, marking a new era in brands and CEOs taking stands in support of social issues of critical importance to their stakeholders.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

CEOs Speak up on Zero Tolerance
The past two years have witnessed a bold shift in leadership from the C-Suite. Now more than ever, CEOs and senior Executives at the world’s leading companies are speaking out on social policy issues that conflict with the core values of their business. This phenomenon, dubbed “CEO Activism,” is on the rise – and right on queue. CEO Activism as a core component of corporate societal engagement strategy has shifted from important to imperative. According to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer, public trust in business and government to “do the right thing” fell sharply from 2017 to 2018.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Response to WSJ’s “Short-Termism is Harming the US Economy”
In “Short-Termism is Harming the US Economy,” Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffett argue that executives who target quarterly, short-term results often do so at the sacrifice of long-term strategy and results. This, in turn, harms the sustainable success of companies and the economy as a whole. As part of CECP’s Strategic Investor Initiative, a coalition of long-term oriented companies and institutional investors, the call to action is clear: It is time for short-termism to end. There is an alternative. Rather than race to attract fickle traders, executives should instead aim to woo “patient capital” by adopting long-termism.

Diversity & Inclusion

Integrating Diversity and Inclusion Into Corporate Social Engagement
Over the course of the past year, CECP has, with support of the Walmart Foundation, led an inquiry into the role and current practice of companies integrating Diversity and Inclusion into their Corporate Social Engagement efforts. This effort has been propelled by a questioning of the role of companies in the midst of rising inequality, racial tensions, and social movements such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, among others. The interest and engagement of CECP’s coalition in this research has been high; CECP has engaged over 50 companies in interviews, case study collection, quantitative survey, and discussion.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

You Didn’t Learn This in Business School
Few of today’s CEOs earned their job because they were socially responsible and spoke out on hot topics. Yet key stakeholders increasingly want to know where companies and CEOs stand on critical social issues. It might be argued that speaking out is becoming a 21st-century requirement for the leaders of major companies. Data confirms a shift in expectations from the public: research from Weber Shandwick indicates that 47% of Millennials believe CEOs have a responsibility to speak up about issues that are important to society [emphasis added].
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