Topic: Stakeholder Capitalism

Pharmaceutical companies know the bottom-line effects of a wide range of corporate risks. The last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and the race to develop vaccines upended all normalcy in risk management for pharma communicators. Health topics dominated online and offline conversations on a global basis and medical misinformation was rampant and uncontrolled. This digital chatter ushered in a new, disruptive normal as our Communications Leaders Risk Survey: Pharma Edition reveals. These pharma communications professionals are stepping up to the challenge, however, and seeking risk intelligence solutions to protect their global enterprises and proactively mine digital chatter to identify an issue before it escalates into a full-blown crisis.

While the term “hijacking” is a somewhat provocative way to describe what’s happening to corporate ESG initiatives, the reaction from attendees at the RIMS ESG/ERM conference confirmed the growing urgency of this issue. Fueled by actors and groups online, social media has turned companies’ ESG agendas into a matter of public discourse that can alter the speed and direction of these initiatives.

What is stakeholder capitalism? Stakeholder capitalism isn't a new idea. It's a principle that business leaders adopt to define their mission as creating long-term value not only for shareholders, but also for customers, suppliers, employees and communities. What is new, however, is stakeholders coordinating online and using social media to spread their views at scale is. And it’s a growing concern among corporate leaders.