 "Israel-Hamas conflict puts pressure on CEOs and companies to speak up")
Before Adena Friedman presented Nasdaq’s financial results on Wednesday’s quarterly earnings call, the stock exchange’s CEO said the company was “horrified by the acts of terrorist violence” in Israel and denounced the “subsequent loss of innocent lives in Israel, Gaza and the wider region.”
She echoed similar statements from chief executive officers at Goldman Sachs Group , BlackRock , United Airlines Holdings and other companies, who are facing increasing pressure to speak up on a conflict where the human cost is rising by the hour.
Crisis communications experts say their phones have been vibrating out of their pockets as CEOs seek help calibrating their messages both inside and outside their companies. With third-quarter earnings season ramping up, many companies won’t have a choice but to face investors, employees and other stakeholders who have come to expect their corporate leaders to weigh in on global events.
CEOs are “all asking the same question,” said Davia Temin, founder of New York crisis consultancy Temin and Company. “If you say something, it’s about what you say. But equally you are at risk if you say nothing, because silence is a statement, so silence is controversial, as well.”
The public messages that are now trickling out on earnings calls mark a shift from the immediate days after the brutal October 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing retaliation against Hamas. Major global companies have so far been generally reluctant to wade into the fray, with only about a fifth of the 100 largest firms in the S&P 500 issuing formal statements about the conflict as of October 17. Nearly all of them, by contrast, released public statements on the Russia-Ukraine war.
That, in turn, has led to criticism from some employees that their corporate leaders haven’t spoken up quickly enough.
More From This Section
Take Nike, which hasn’t issued a public statement. While the head of the sneaker maker’s Europe, Middle East and Africa division sent an email to staff shortly after the attack about the violence’s “devastating impact,” it wasn’t until nearly a week afterward that CEO John Donahoe decried the “horrific attacks in Israel, tragic loss of innocent Israeli and Palestinian lives” in a company-wide message.
Some employees said they were disappointed with the response, according to Slack messages in a group for Jewish employees seen by Bloomberg.
Nike said it doesn’t “condone violence, hate or bigotry,” and that its campaign includes the International Committee of the Red Cross, an organisation that works mostly in Gaza and the West Bank but also in Israel.
In the days after the attack, the head of human resources at Instacart said she was “deeply saddened to see the extensive devastation and loss of life across the Middle East.” Workers at the grocery-delivery company, though, questioned why the senior leadership remained silent and more support from the diversity and equity team wasn’t forthcoming, according to internal Slack messages seen by Bloomberg News.
Instacart CEO Fidji Simo stepped into the fray three days later, mourning the “horrific terrorist attacks on Israel.” Hours later, she posted yet another message lamenting “the loss of all innocent lives” — “Israeli, Arab and Muslim alike.”
Instacart, which announced a partnership with Israeli tech firm Fabric in 2021, declined to comment.
At German health-care giant Bayer AG, CEO Bill Anderson’s LinkedIn post condemning “acts of terror against civilians” was met with a barrage of comments taking umbrage against his statement of “solidarity with the people of Israel,” where Bayer has about 150 employees. Workers pushed back against a condemnation of violence that one sales specialist called “one-sided.”
Likewise at Procter & Gamble Co., the chief operating officer addressed the issue on an internal message board but the company didn’t release a public statement or address the conflict on its Wednesday earnings call.
Crisis communications
The Israel-Hamas war comes amid debate over companies’ roles in social and diversity initiatives and the expectations of leaders at global companies managing large, diverse workforces. “Once you get into this game, you cannot get out. That’s the expectation now, post-George Floyd,” said Paul Argenti, professor of corporate communi- cations at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
While there was widespread condem- nation over the death of George Floyd, companies have begun to scale back public statements on controversial topics to avoid alienating customers and investors.
Global operations
Sprawling global businesses with large franchisee operations such as McDonald’s or those, like Airbnb , that work with other stakeholders are getting pulled into the fray, whether they like it or not.
After photos and videos surfaced on Instagram that showed franchised McDonald’s stores in Israel giving soldiers meals, calls to boycott the fast-food chain spread across social media. Operators in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Pakistan renounced the actions. In a statement posted to its Instagram account, the Israeli franchisee confirmed it donated 100,000 meals to soldiers, hospitals and nearby residents.
McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said the company “firmly condemns violence and hate speech” and is “deeply disturbed by the acts of antisemitism and Islamophobia.” The message didn’t explicitly mention Israel and Hamas, and didn’t directly address the
tensions among franchisees in the region. McDonald’s declined to comment.