New research finds home country is a top three business stakeholder 

Weber Shandwick’s Geopolitical Strategy & Risk Group uncovers a powerful new dimension to the role of a global business today in its report, Home Country as Stakeholder: The Rising Geopolitical Risk for Business Leaders. In partnership with KRC Research, the group surveyed executives’ perceptions of the relationship between a multinational business and its home country across 12 countries, including Germany, Sweden, and the UK. Among the findings, we reveal:

• Fifty per cent of multinational business executives in Europe (50%) say their company’s home country is a “very” important stakeholder to their business, second only to customers (55%) and equivalent to shareholders.
• Forty-six per cent (46%) of executives in Europe rate national security as “very” important to their companies’ business decisions, surpassing diversity and inclusion, ESG, and climate change as important decision-making factors with 42% or fewer of all executives citing each of these as “very” important.
• Eighty per cent (80%) of executives in Europe agree their companies should be prepared to take a more public position on geopolitical issues over the next five years.

 

“Home country is no longer an unspoken stakeholder. As corporate leaders reset their strategies for a new geopolitical and post-COVID era, they are considering how they deliver and communicate value to their home country stakeholder. Executives are saying corporate responsibility includes national responsibility, and leaders must plan accordingly.” – Michelle Giuda, Executive Vice President of Geopolitical Strategy & Risk, Weber Shandwick

View the full Home Country as Stakeholder report here and a one-pager on our findings here