Provokeglobal: Ceos Need To Be More Like Dolly Parton, Nikki Haley Advises

(MENAFN- PRovoke) WASHINGTON, DC-CEOs should take a“Dolly Parton” approach to Political and social issues and avoid taking any public stance that might offend a portion of their consumer base, former UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor and now vice chair of Edelman Global Advisory Nikki Haley told attendees at PRovokeGlobal this week, during a session on“Navigating the Intersection of Business and Politics in the Year of Elections.”

“I always say that the best approach is the Dolly Parton approach,” Haley said.“Everybody loves Dolly Parton. No one knows what she stands for but everybody loves her.

“CEOs have to realize that you've got 100% consumer base. You don't want to offend any of them. You don't want to go and risk any revenues with any of them. So the best thing is to talk about your products. Talk about how you improve your product and don't talk about any labels or anything else.”

Aaron Guiterman, US head of Edelman Global Advisory, set up the conversation with a look at Edelman's role in counseling clients around the issue of trust, particularly in a year when countries that comprise 60% of the world's GDP have held or are holding elections.

“The outcomes are monumental, and we're going to, come January, a new environment for policy and politics in relation to business and communications,” said Guiterman.“So the number one concern of constituencies in the US is right now is anxiety over the elections. Trust in government is at an all-time low

“Only 45% of respondents trust government as a source of truth. Seven in 10 say the system is biased on favoring the rich. And 63% of constituents worry the government is misleading them. And 60% of constituencies worldwide worry about mis- and disinformation from adversarial nations.”

Haley expanded on that theme.“I think that there's a lot of distrust,” she said.“We all feel the divisions, we all feel what's happening. I personally think that you're seeing a lot of early voting. And I think the reason you're seeing a lot of early voting is because of that anxiety. Nobody wants to be voting on election day. Nobody wants to be around the polls on election day. And it's because they can sense what's happening.

“I think what's not being talked about is the foreign influence in this election. It's the fact our intelligence agencies have said yesterday that there are already protests planned post-election, regardless of who wins. They are definitely going to be divisive, but they're also going to be violent. And they are all being planned by the Russians It goes back to 2016 is when it all started and protests around the country that were racist in nature, and Americans actually showed up to Russian protests not realizing they were Russian protests.

“It's creating more distrust and it's more where people don't know what to listen to or who to listen to to get that trust. They don't trust the media. They don't know what to trust in social media.”

Haley pointed to the COVID pandemic as a critical inflection point in terms of public trust, especially when there were competing messages from the scientific and health establishment and politicians in the administration.

“COVID was the first time that we didn't all come together,” Haley said.“We actually got further divided. Why? The Trump administration, as much good as they did, they had different voices saying different things. So what happened? People started distrusting which voice they were listening to and then other voices came in and all of a sudden, instead of us talking about protecting our neighbors, taking care of seniors and things like that, it went into, but this person said this, this person said that.

“In a crisis, you've got to speak with one voice.”

News media, she added, were part of the problem.“Because when COVID hit, what happened? You saw the networks split. They didn't do what the American people needed. They literally split on what they wanted to say to their constituencies. So Americans are craving an outlet that just has unbiased news and right now unfortunately Gen Z is going to YouTube and social media and others are just going to their camps and that's only leading to further division.”

Asked whether business leaders have a role in countering disinformation and calming the post-election environment, Haley said CEOs may need to“talk with your employees and let them know that there is this bubble of misinformation, we should always be careful, and let them know that a lot of what they hear and read, they should fact check and make sure it's accurate.”

In particular, she said, companies should be cautious in their communication:“Regardless of what happens on election day, don't be quick to put anything out, don't be quick to respond because you won't know if it's real and you don't know exactly who's behind it. Make sure we're not contributing to any of that division.”

She also talked about corporations taking stands on issues such as diversity, equity and inclusion, which have become a lightning rod for criticism over the past year.

“So I think when companies decided to do DEI, I think that they were well-intentioned in what they were trying to do. And if you want to do that inside your company, and you want to go and create inclusive programs inside your company, that's one thing. But consumers don't want it outside your company. The problem that consumers have is on the equity front.

“They don't want to know the guts of what you're thinking on the inside,” she added.“They just want to know that you're following the law, you're putting out a good product, and you've got something to sell.”

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