At the end of January, Politico ran a story about General Motors CEO Mary Barra’s new professional challenge: Balancing GM’s support for the Biden administration’s Build Back Better economic plan with the Business Roundtable’s opposition to the same plan. Barra is the Roundtable’s chair for 2022, a role which will require her to make public statements about major public policy issues which affect businesses.
The article was evidence of Barra’s rise as a power player where business meets politics. Politico wasn’t subtle, citing her many appearances with President Joe Biden in support of his economic and green energy agendas. But the article also framed the Roundtable as having an “apparent contradiction” with Barra’s support for BBB because of the organization’s opposition.
“Barra is taking on a balancing act,” reported Politico. Both organizations’ positions are “unchanged,” despite sharing “a common emissary,” and both issued narrow, defensive statements about their positions on BBB. Politicomade sure the reader understood the subtext, describing the Roundtable as having “a statement that carefully threaded the needle between endorsing the bill’s climate change provisions and criticizing its tax increases.”
It's not easy to straddle two brands in the media; it’s impossible when the brands conflict on important political matters. Apple was the target of withering criticism in 2015 when it boycotted North Carolina over a controversial LGBT bathroom law even as it sold iPhones in Iran, where same-sex attracted men and women are legally executed. Chick-fil-A’s Christian customer base was deeply offended when the company temporarily stopped giving donations to socially conservative faith-based non-profits – donations which offended prospective secular markets into which the company was trying to expand.
There are many ways to avoid the complications which can plague business leaders when they take on roles that have political implications. The best way is to build a consistent umbrella brand which fully aligns with your values, beliefs, and public persona – and then set the narrative by comprehensively communicating that message.
Barra got two of these matters right - she went from being the politically-linked CEO of a billions-dollar company to chairing the board of directors for a prominent business lobbying group. That fits under the umbrella of being a leader in both politics and business. She also showed consistency of values by leading an association which agrees with her corporation on important matters like left-of-center solutions to racial, social, and environmental issues.
What it appears that she didn’t do, however, was get in front of the fact that GM and the Roundtable disagree on a major bill. Barra could have set the narrative by highlighting where the organizations align, then amplifying her message through interviews, op-eds, third-party influencers, and social media. Instead, she allowed Politico to define the discussion negatively, putting both groups she represents on the defensive.
A narrative-controlling media strategy might have looked like this:
· The day Barra became the Business Roundtable’s chair, have both groups issue press releases about where they agree on political issues. The releases would frame Barra as their important liaison to the domestic and international business and political communities. Instead, the Roundtable’s September 2021 release announcing Barra as chair was very generic, and offered little substance about where the Roundtable and GM stood on critical issues under discussion in Washington, D.C.
· Secure early interviews with CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, and Politicoabout how Barra will move the business community forward with her new role, and how the role is consistent with her role at GM.
· Have third-party influencers like other Roundtable board members amplify these messages on social media and in their own media appearances.
· Publish early op-eds in outlets like The Hill and The Washington Postabout what Barra plans to accomplish in her new role.
If you’re an executive who is involving your company or companies in politics – not something I recommend – you’re risking serious trouble in controlling your public persona. Your best chance of coming out unscathed is to be consistent from the start, and communicate that consistency early and often. Don’t make Barra’s mistake in letting anyone else set the narrative for you.
