Activism and Corporate Culture

Written by Liz Young
11 · 09 · 22

We need people like Elon Musk.  A disrupter, an entrepreneur who creates new innovative businesses: Tesla, StarLink and SpaceX.  He replaces old businesses with new ones and creates new wealth.  But does Musk believe in any social issues that impact society?  Does he care about corporate culture or his employees? From what we have witnessed recently at Twitter, it appears not. We have seen today that Gen Z and Millennials do care about societal issues like climate, gender equality, equal pay, and much more.  Toxic workplace environments are just not acceptable to the next generation of employees.  We saw this when more than 2,600 workers at a Staten Island, New York warehouse called JFK8 voted to join Amazon’s first US union in April 2022.  It was a historic moment.  However, Amazon filed 25 objections with the National Labor Relations Board.  This prompted dozens of Amazon workers at a different New York warehouse to take action becoming the latest string of employees attempting to unionize.  This recent trend of activism comes amid a recent rush of organizing that’s swept other major US companies with the first-ever unions forming at Apple, Google, Microsoft and Starbucks.

I recently asked a Gen Z entrepreneur who is on his second start-up in Germany, why he chose not to join a big corporation after college.  He told me that he thought long and hard and decided he did not want to be in a company that no doubt would have bureaucracies and politics.  He said he was creative and wanted to have an impact with his work. He was also not inspired by any CEO in Germany leading a big corporation today.  Thus far he has one successful start-up and is working on his second one. His final words to me were that if companies and CEOs think they can ignore social ills of society and not consider best practices, they will not succeed.  The world today is plagued with too many problems, i.e., climate, social injustices, that upcoming generations will have to fix.

I also spoke to a Millennial who attended Harvard and MIT business school.  After graduation he went to Google.  He recently left Google to create his own start-up.  He told me Google had a bureaucratic culture, and his ideas took forever to be heard and implemented.  Today his start-up has first round funding.  He feels he can now create his own culture.

In my 25 years as a senior executive, first in a large German  company and then in an even larger Japanese conglomerate,  I worked for seven CEOs, two of whom were entrepreneurs and cared about social issues.

The first was the former CEO of Bertelsmann, Thomas Middelhoff.  He was a disrupter, and entrepreneur.  He was the visionary who brought innovation to Bertelsmann and at the same time made sure an activist culture emerged.  For example, he treated employees around the world as stakeholders.  He brought everyone together to understand and take ownership in new innovative businesses.  How did he achieve this? Town hall meetings around the world, and constant communication to employees. People felt like they had a stake in the company, and more importantly an impact.  Salaries were raised and executive programs to educate employees were offered.  He grew the company and made massive profits.  

My other example is Doug Morris, the former CEO of Warner, Universal and Sony Music who signed some of the biggest names in the music business. He cared about having a social impact.  He hired women, committed to diversity programs, paid his employees based on performance reviews and had his direct reports committed to diversity training and employee development.  He told me to always thank my staff at the end of the day, as it brings them back to the office the next day.  He gave his employees the freedom to do their jobs and rewarded them when they were successful.

Organizations today can bring activism into the culture with new systems based on the types of capitalism that best fit the societal needs.  We just need to look for those CEOs who understand and can adjust to reflect the ever changing global cultures and norms.  

Shareholders and corporate boards need to understand that talent acquisition is not just about offering a big paycheck.  It is about showing the next generation of employees that their company cares about societal ills and that the leadership will develop protocols to address them.

Liz Young, founding member of the ERA Project’s Advisory Board at Columbia Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. Former EVP of Global Communications for Sony Music and former EVP, Corporate Communications, Office of the Chairman, Bertelsmann.

Comments

9 Comments

  1. Renee

    Liz,
    very insightful & current in today’s times! Well done and needed to address the issues facing US companies during the economic slow down. More thought regarding corporate cultures will be helpful.

    Reply
  2. Doreen Carvajal

    Sage ideas from a seasoned executive who has navigated the C-Suites for years.

    Reply
    • Maximilian Kuschmann

      A much needed fresh perspective on how current executives fail to create an inspiring corporate climate for young People entering the work force. With EVER-increasing options on the job market, the cultural and social image of a perspective employer is guaranteed to influence the decision of sought after TALENT.

      Reply
  3. Nathaniel

    A thought provoking read.

    Particularly with layoffs in the tech sector and major secular shifts across a variety of industries, it feels like the intangible social contract between employer and employee is evolving further. Paired with emergent organizational types (collectives/DaOs) and preferences for multiple overlapping paid engagements, this becomes an opportunity to reconsider some of the workplace culture norms that we Accept but no longer need or want. I’m hopeful that some changes occasionEd by a younger workforce with different priorities will result in positive progress that impacts the entire working population.

    Reply
  4. Jan Henri Kalinowski

    VERY INSIGHTFUL AND GREAT TO FOLLOW WITH THE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF ROLEMODELS.

    “SHAREHOLDERS AND CORPORATE BOARDS NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT TALENT ACQUISITION IS NOT JUST ABOUT OFFERING A BIG PAYCHECK. ITS ABOUT SHOWING THE NEXT GENERATION OF EMPLOYEES THAT THEIR COMPANY CARES ABOUT societal ills and that the leadership will develop protocols to address them.”

    EXACTLY!

    Reply
    • Ben

      I enjoyed this piece, Liz. I like the scaling up of equity – the idea that a stakeholder culture and considerate management is the foundation for broader social engagement. I think it’s interesting to think too about how smaller start-ups can preserve a politics-free culture like that even as they scale, which seems like an important challenge. Thank you!

      Reply
  5. Marianne Keeley Stack

    Liz Young offers a wise take on life in the current workforce.

    Workplace culture starts at the top and works its way down.

    Reply
  6. Tim arnold de almeida

    Very insightful and inspiring. I particularly like the CEO role models. This is really becoming a big topic in the corporate world, both in talent acquisition and in corporate culture. GenZ are changing it for the better. Sadly, there‘s aLready a backlash From people arguing that companies should return to fully focussing on financial returns rather than ESG etc.

    Reply
  7. Frank Fine

    a brave and thoughtful reflection on current corporate cowardice and short termism.

    Reply

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