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| (L-R) Frank DeMaria, Elie Jacobs |
If you’re reading this, the world hasn’t ended, and the freedom of the press remains sacrosanct—if damaged.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that we are in a state of permacrisis—a world where instability is the norm, not the exception. As communications professionals, we have had to transition from handling occasional crises to operating in a landscape where everything demands crisis-level attention.
The Trump administration’s “flood the zone” strategy—where the sheer volume of executive actions and political maneuvers overwhelms public and corporate response—has made it nearly impossible to react in real-time to issues impacting your enterprise, or to be able to take a step back and develop a considered strategy about how to respond to ensure resilience over the long term.
Many corporate commitments to initiatives that are demonstrably financially and societally positive are now being reconsidered or dropped entirely. Trump and the echo chamber that generates an alternative reality have pushed issues like Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI); sustainability commitments; and even wind power to the forefront of the culture “War on Woke” within which the administration is attempting to place all its activity. This is one of the primary planks of his political platform.
While some executives may be quietly breathing sighs of relief about the demise of programs that some viewed as unpopular and onerous, others viewed as reverse discrimination, and still others considered risky, the business case for diversity is—no pun intended—black and white. Financial performance metrics from a 2022 Boston Consulting Group study revealed that companies with above-average diversity on their management teams reported innovation revenue that was 19 percentage points higher than companies with below-average leadership diversity. These companies generated 45 percent of their revenue from innovation, compared to just 26 percent for companies with less-diverse leadership.
Diversity has also shown popular support. Both Apple and Costco recently put their diversity policies to a shareholder vote, and 97 and 98 percent of shares voted to maintain existing diversity policies, respectively.
The (thus far) unyielding nature of the Executive Orders, inflammatory rhetoric, regulatory and legal scrutiny have forced companies into a difficult position: How do they uphold their long-term commitments to inclusion while managing real-time political risks?
Many companies are quietly recalibrating their diversity and other socially conscious efforts, moving away from loaded DEI-like terminology while keeping the substance of the policies intact. These are pragmatic pivots that trade symbolic battles for sustainable progress. For instance, when you frame diverse hiring and leadership development as drivers of better decision-making and competitive advantage, you sidestep the culture war theatrics while delivering actual results. Sure, some will call this capitulation to anti-DEI forces, but here's what matters: companies are finding ways to maintain inclusive workplaces and talent pipelines without getting bogged down in partisan firefights. The focus has shifted to measurable business outcomes—better talent acquisition, stronger leadership benches and improved performance.
If it weren’t challenging enough domestically, the global tightrope U.S. companies are walking is even narrower. While they're recalibrating and scrubbing language at home to dodge political obstacles, they can't ignore their European investors and partners, who have a nearly 180-degree different view. It's a classic "caught between Schengen and a hard place" situation, with the borderless European travel zone on one side and America's increasingly divided political landscape on the other.
European stakeholders view robust ESG commitments as table stakes, not talking points. They're not interested in American culture war theatrics; they want to see real commitment to inclusion baked into corporate DNA. Companies can't just pivot their messaging for a domestic audience without considering their global reputation.
Smart companies need to craft overall corporate narratives and narratives around initiatives—not just DEI—that work at home and abroad. Identify the core reasons for following or not following a policy or initiative. How does it relate to your organization’s character and purpose—the “why” of your existence—and then focus on business outcomes and workforce excellence rather than getting bogged down in politically charged terminology?
It's not about watering down commitments—it's about making them resilient enough to work everywhere. The companies that will be the most successful at managing the expected-to-remain-challenging environment of the next four dozen months will be the ones who take a long-term approach to their reputation management and risk mitigation. By gathering good information and utilizing well-versed advisors, organizations will be able to handle “wicked problems” by adopting an approach of making small interventions, monitoring outcomes and readjusting as necessary.
If, as communications advisors, we are to be—as Jack Welch called us—truth tellers, it is incumbent on us to carry the proverbial torch of truth to light the way through alternative facts, distorted realities and straight-up lies. It won’t be easy; in fact, it will likely only get more challenging in the coming months. How do we guide clients towards objective truth rather than the subjective—likely temporary—morass of invented reality? Do we advise clients to speak up or keep their heads below the parapet?
There are, of course, potential pitfalls to speaking up. Real, imagined and legal. But considering that eleven of the thirteen U.S. federal elections this century have resulted in a change in the party controlling the House, Senate and/or White House, there’s no reason to think that track record will change in two or four years. The key decision facing companies in the Trump era—at least for now—is: “Do you want to be ‘alright for now,’ or do you want to be in the right for the long term?”
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Frank DeMaria and Elie Jacobs are founding partners of Purposeful Advisors, which helps companies clients shape their narrative, identify and understand stakeholders, mitigate reputational risk, and strategically position brands to ensure recognition, relevance, and resilience for the long-term success.
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