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Actions not acronyms… Top executives are recalibrating their approach to ESG initiatives, moving away from symbolic gestures to focus on actions that have a measurable impact on the bottom line, according to the “Pulse on the Modern CEO Agenda” report from the Weber Advisory.
Companies are dumping things considered performative and focusing on what works. “Actions speak louder than acronyms, and it’s a moment for purpose with pragmatism,” said Jim O’Leary, CEO of the Weber Shandwick Collective North America and global president.
The report found an upswing in business-focused language to describe a company’s role in society. Those terms include “workforce development” and “responsible business.”
It found that almost half (48 percent) of respondents are “enthusiasts” who embrace social initiative as core to their business.
“Pragmatists” who want social initiatives to be backed by strategic action and not cultural pressures account for 45 percent of those surveyed.
Seven percent are “skeptics” who believe social actions go beyond what a company should address.
The upshot: companies are getting back to basics.
Consultant-speak run amok… Accenture plans to fire a lot of staffers who cannot operate in the age of artificial intelligence.
Or as CEO Julie Sweet said in a conference call: “We are exiting on a compressed timeline people where reskilling, based on our experience, is not a viable path for the skills we need.” Say what?
Sweet didn’t spell out how many people are going to be canned. My hunch: a lot of them.
Let’s go to the numbers. Accenture had 779K employees at the end of August, which was down from 791K three months earlier. Only 77K are skilled in the ways of AI or data processing.
Sweet promises that Accenture’s headcount will grow next year. Or as she put it: “We are investing in upskilling our reinventors, which is our primary strategy.”
Power sponsorships… President Trump is adding a monster-sized ballroom alongside his residence that will be bigger than the White House. It’s the latest move to satisfy his massive ego.
According to renderings acquired by CBS News the gold-tinged ballroom will be a 90K-sq.-ft. colossus that will make the 50K-sq.-ft. White House look like a shack.
Corporate donors are bankrolling the $200M facility, which is supposed to be completed by the end of Trump’s term.
They include Google, which has been fending off antitrust moves; surveillance company Palantir; tobacco giant RJ Reynolds; and defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen Hamilton.
Those donations may be the best money spent in Trump’s Washington. Will they get their corporate logo on a plaque affixed to the ballroom, or how about rotating naming rights?
Slaughterhouse-20… Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has decided that the 20 soldiers who participated in the 1890 slaughter of Native Americans at Wounded Knee can keep their Medals of Honor.
An estimated 250 men, women and children of the Lakota Sioux were killed at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota after they had already surrendered to the US Army.
What’s next for Pete? Will he pardon Lieutenant William Calley who led his soldiers in the killing of more than 500 Vietnamese civilians in the 1968 My Lai massacre?
Exonerating and then expunging Calley from America’s collective memory would fit right in with Donald Trump’s plan to whitewash American history.
His “restoring truth and sanity to American History” executive order calls for highlighting the nation’s “unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness.”
Nine percent of US adults think it was okay for Donald Trump to post an image depicting himself as Jesus Christ. Oh Lord!... It’s hard to shed a tear for a billionaire, especially one with a thin skin like Citadel chief Ken Griffin... A Republican group plans to support GOP candidates who want to restore foreign aid cuts made by Elon Musk's DOGE.
The death of Ted Turner, CNN's visionary founder, highlights the network's uncertain future under Paramount Skydance ownership... Anti-Defamation League reports a 33% drop in antisemitic incidents in 2025. But hold the cheers because 2025 was the third most violent year for American Jews... AI could use some PR according to Yale Youth Poll... Omnicom Media Intelligence warns that ad frequency can result in brand damage... Wall Street gives Bronx cheer to Coinbase's decision to fire about 700 people.
Struggling WPP and rampaging Omnicom have something in common. It's 6.7 percent... Nonsensical Comey indictment and Melania's war on Jimmy Kimmel are sure signs that Team Trump is falling apart... Black Rock pulls the plug on offshore wind project to please the nation's No. 1 hater of 'ugly' offshore windmills. 
“Having been born in the US” is tied for dead last in the “What does it mean to be American” survey conducted by Ipsos US Public Affairs... Defense Secretary Hegseth's boneheaded move... FTI Consulting chief Steven Gunby is the firm's $10M man... Book bans in the US near record level... Can Kevin Warsh avoid the fate of Kevin McCarthy?
Reed Hastings, the genius behind Netflix's DVD-by-mail strategy, steps down. If O'Dwyer's had a Corporate Hall of Fame, Reed would be in it... Donald Trump's revenge tour rolls on as his team strips $11M from Catholic Charities that is used to run shelters for migrant children who have entered the US alone... Crusader Pete Hegseth should lay off the biblical stuff for a while, or at least until the world has moved on from his boss’ depiction of himself as Jesus.
