Businesses Make A Huge Mistake Choosing Political Sides

In these days of rage where the Jacobin mob can try and take you out on a moment’s notice, businesses are trying to navigate the turbulent waters.

This came to mind when I read this article about a chain of yoga studios in Colorado.  A post with a quote from Desmond Tutu triggered a “woke” mob and they summarily put the entire chain out of business.  Now the entrepreneur, age 47, who built his business for the last 19 years is struggling to see if he can ever work again.  Unfortunately, this is not a unique situation.

Naysayers will chalk it up to the effects of Covid quarantines.  They are missing the point and putting their heads in the sand.

My advice to businesses has always been to don’t virtue signal directly. Don’t be overtly political.  My experience comes from CME where we contributed 50% to each political party, told the exact same story to each side, and worked with each side to achieve the policy goals we wanted to try and achieve.  We were not always successful and we didn’t always get what we wanted but at least doors were open to us.

As far as customers were concerned, we sold the story of why we did what we did and serviced the hell out of them.

I am seeing lots of posts about Black Lives Matter and money being sent to BLM which is just a front for Act Blue, a hard left-wing political organization.  I saw where the NBA is going to post Black Lives Matter on the hardwood, and let players put things on their jerseys.  Will be a great experiment, but my expectation is it will not work out well for the league.

Whether you agree with BLM or not isn’t the question.  The question is about your customers.  In 2007, Oprah lost 50% of her audience when she became overtly political for the first time.  Are you ready to lose 50% of your customers?

It’s also about potential future customers.  If you pick a side and the potential future customer is apolitical or on the opposite side, will they do business with you?  Most companies aren’t like Google or CME where they have a quasi-monopoly.  Especially startup companies that are trying to build a new market that might not have existed before.

I think it’s totally possible to have empathy, to empower, and to use language in your business messaging that communicates what you want to communicate without being overtly political.  I think your business can take action, like hiring and building networks, or by exposing people who wouldn’t normally be exposed to mainstream business.

You know, it’s not just the United States.  I love this interview with the great economist Thomas Sowell, who turned 90 yesterday, when he compares the poor in Great Britain to the poor in the United States.

I think that Gary Becker’s research on racism from back in 1962 in the Jim Crow South is a good guide.  Businesses who actively discriminated back then wound up hurting their business.  The economics of discrimination haven’t changed and they are repeatable from society to society.

After all, who isn’t against creating opportunities and having equal rights for everyone?  I don’t know a conservative or a liberal that is against it.  Leverage that ethos when you communicate to customers.  Don’t overtly pick sides.  It will cost you in the long run, and may cost you in the short run.