Whole Foods’ CEO John Mackey is under fire for offering his opinion on the health care debate in the U.S. His comments in an op-ed which were critical of proposals to reform American health care have sparked calls for a boycott of the companies’ stores and have even generated a anti-Whole Foods Facebook page.
The Economist magazine, among others, have laid into Mackey and other outspoken CEOs to “keep their mouths shut”:
…the best strategy, from the perspective of maximising shareholder value, is probably for customers to know as little as possible about the personal opinions of a company’s boss. When tempted to sound off on matters of controversy, bosses would be doing their shareholders a favour by taking a deep breath and then zipping it.
Mackey is far from the first outspoken CEO to take on a role in a public policy debate – Jack Welch, Lee Iacocca, Ted Turner are among the many CEOs who have spoken publicly on matters of public policy that were only tangentially related to their business. Some even went so far as to run for public office:
Yes, CEO comments become controversial when they misread the political winds as Mackey apparently did. But as The Economist rightfully pointed out: “society…could do with hearing, from time to time, the logical arguments and wisdom built on experience that, at their best, business leaders can bring.”
Despite the rhetoric of the day, CEOs should speak up if they are passionate about a subject. They can be experienced and knowledgeable voices with real insight that contribute to a public debate – as long as their opinions are taken in the same spirit as all of the other opinions on the topic. Mackey may have slipped up from a shareholder point-of-view (though whether there is any long-lasting reputational effect will not be known for some time), but from a public communications point-of-view he has made a valuable contribution.
One key lesson out of all this: if you are going to enter the public debate, make sure you control how it is being framed. Mackey’s op-ed was originally titled “Health Care Reform.” An editor at the Wall Street Journal took it upon themselves to change the title to “Whole Foods Alternative to Obamacare” setting up the appearance that Mackey was crusading against the President.
