Culture wars of 2022 reveal America's corporate leaders desperate to please lefty activists above all else
Suddenly a profitable business comes second for America's fragile CEOs. It's all about making the activists happy
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"The woke mind virus is either defeated or nothing else matters." That’s according to billionaire Elon Musk. Disney’s Bob Chapek learned this the hard way last month as the first major CEO casualty of the woke wars.
His controversial 11-month tenure at Disney saw the company’s stock price drop 37 percent as it became embroiled in a bruising political battle with Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Bob Chapek, 63, has put in nearly three decades of work at Disney and became the board's seventh CEO until being let go last month. (David Livingston/Getty Images / Getty Images)
The culture wars have exposed corporate America’s fragile leadership as CEOs attempt to placate activist employees, shareholders and politically aware consumers rather than focus on business.
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Chapek’s dismissal may be a signal that corporate activism is wearing thin. After Chapek led Disney to publicly challenge Florida Governor Ron DeSantis efforts to ban classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through 3rd grade, the state legislature stripped Disney of its self-governing tax status resulting in the entertainment giant losing approximately $50B in value. Chapek went woke and Disney paid for it. So why are CEOs doing this?
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One answer is that the view of corporate responsibility is being shifted by some within the business community. For example, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s pitch for "stakeholder capitalism" emphasizes companies having "consistent values" and striving to be more than mere profit producers.
It requires CEOs be ready to deploy an array of tools to solve problems having less to do with business and more to appease activist groups.
For years, CEOs have read works such as "The Art of War" to gain an edge on competitors. However, such books would have done little to prepare them for the expectations they now confront because of unproven stakeholder theories.
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Moreover, corporate activism opens up a Pandora’s box of double standards on issues such as China. Who can forget the NBA’s rush to label former Rockets GM Daryl Morey’s tweet supporting the people of Hong Kong in 2019 as "regrettable."
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Meanwhile, Hong Kong now resembles a communist police state with China having vaporized the "one country, two systems" principle. Morey displayed values, just not Fink’s "values". Chamath Palihapitiya, CEO of Social Capital and former part-owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, said that "nobody cares" about China’s Uyghur genocide.
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Palihapitiya’s horrific comments forced the Warriors to publicly scold him, but the NBA took no action. Athletes from around the world gathered in Beijing for what the New York Times dubbed the "Genocide Olympics" last February. However, American sponsors never said a word about the slaughtering of Uyghur Muslims which our government has labeled a genocide and a recent UN report said may constitute crimes against humanity.
Ideological crusades can be tricky business for corporate America. Larry Fink’s values-based agenda is pushing executives to ignore their fiduciary duty by focusing on stakeholders as opposed to shareholders.
Disney’s firing of Bob Chapek is a warning to CEOs though that engaging in activism is not without risk. His dismissal might signal the beginning of a boomerang effect that makes executive think twice about walking the ideological plank for what Elon Musk has termed the "woke mind virus."
Chuck Flint is an attorney and previously served as a U.S. Senate Chief of Staff on Capitol Hill.