A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a customer? you can sign up right hereYou can listen to the audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link,
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Americans have become accustomed to corporate executives walking the well-worn paths of the Northeast Corridor, meeting with elected officials in Washington, D.C., and discussing geopolitics, policy, and everything in between.
In 2017, prominent CEOs from across the country came together to protest North Carolina’s transgender bathroom law. In 2019, he called abortion restrictions “bad for business.”
Following the deadly attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, several big names in corporate America condemned the rioters and promised to stop their political contributions.
Recently, more than 1,000 companies pledged to voluntarily reduce their operations in Russia in protest of Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
Following the 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, Dick’s Sporting Goods stopped selling semi-automatic, assault-style rifles in stores, and Citigroup imposed new restrictions on gun sales by business customers.
A year later, following mass shootings at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and a nightclub in Dayton, Ohio, Walmart stopped selling handgun ammunition.
Corporate leadership has long been vocal on the issue of gun control – in 2019 and again last summer nearly 150 major companies – including Lululemon, Lyft, Bain Capital, Bloomberg LP, Permanente Medical Group and Unilever – called gun violence a “public health crisis” and demanded that the U.S. Senate pass legislation to address it.
That’s why the silence from corporate America in the wake of the latest mass shooting at a Nashville school is so troubling. The United States has come to rely on the growing power of large corporations as political advocates.
But Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a vocal advocate of corporate social responsibility and who has direct connections to prominent CEOs around the world, said top executives are frustrated. Their past efforts haven’t done much to move the needle on gun control legislation, he said, and without more support, they don’t know what else they can do at this time.
Earlier, Bell spoke with Sonnenfeld, who runs the Yale School of Management’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute, a nonprofit educational and research institute that focuses on CEO leadership and corporate governance.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Before the Bell: CEOs have been silent about gun reform since the latest mass school shooting in Nashville, have you heard anything about plans to speak out?
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld: Where is everyone else? Where is all the civil society? CEOs are just a bunch of people and it seems like we’re making them our savior on every topic. They have joined the work with bravery and nobility, but they cannot just do one thing after another like no one else in the society. The social change that occurred in the 1960s was not being led primarily by CEOs. Social changes really happened when we saw interfaith activity by the clergy taking up arms and campaigning for the legislators. We saw the campuses alive and awake. Where is all the student activism?
CEOs are still the most active, even if they are less active than six months ago. They are not there as hired hands of shareholders to play the role of politicians and civic leaders. They’re there to join that chorus, but they don’t want to be the only one singing.
So is this what you’re hearing from top CEOs? Are they tired of practicing law?
I just came off the CEO call on voting rights and this morning we had a forum on sustainability – CEOs are still the most active on these fronts. The same is true on immigration reform. Even if a CEO were working 18-hour days a 12-day week, they still wouldn’t be able to address all the issues that need attention.
The country’s CEOs are waiting for everyone else to join them. They don’t need to repeat what they’ve already said. They’ve jumped into the pool, where is everyone else?
So what do you think is causing this complacency among Americans and increasing reliance on CEOs to advocate on our behalf?
He has taken a very tough stance and has gone even further than the general public. They are where the general public is on the survey, but they are not where the general public is taking action on the streets. So now we are ready to do something for others. It has already been said that ‘What are CEOs doing?’ Social capital is just as valuable as financial capital. CEOs understand that they want social capital in their soul. They want to maintain public trust, but they also need to involve the rest of civil society. And this is their frustration.
Looks like the CEO is disappointed?
Yes, they are disappointed.
But don’t these CEOs have money to donate to powerful politicians?
You would think so, but there have been very few campaign contributions from big business since the 2020 election. Since the 2021 run on the Capitol, many businesses have either had official bans or have simply given money to politicians. The common perception on the street that CEOs are controlling the campaign purse strings is 100% wrong.
By CNN’s Chris Isidore
Tesla reported. Sales rose a modest 4% in the first quarter compared with the final three months of last year, despite a series of price cuts on lower-priced vehicles and talk by CEO Elon Musk about strong demand at those lower prices.
This marks the fourth consecutive quarter in which Tesla has produced more vehicles than it delivered to customers. Some of this may be due to increased production at two new factories, one in Texas, the other in Germany, which opened last spring, and the lag between that increased production and sales.
Tesla said sales of its more expensive models, the Model S and Model
But this means that over the past 12 months Tesla has produced 78,000 more cars than it sold, which suggests that the strong demand talked about by Tesla executives may not be supported by the numbers.
“Earlier this year, we made a price adjustment. After that, we actually generated a huge demand, much more than what we could actually produce,” said Tom Zhu, Tesla’s executive in charge of global production and sales. “And as Elon said, as long as you offer a value product at an affordable price, you don’t have to worry about demand.”
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