What has surprised me most over the past few years is not the number of challenges facing businesses. It is how little many business leaders are willing to say about them.

Issues like artificial intelligence, climate risk, workforce disruption, economic opportunity, and political polarization are reshaping the business landscape. These are not abstract debates. They affect workers, customers, supply chains, markets, and long-term value creation.

And yet, at a moment when business leadership is deeply needed, many companies seem quieter than ever.

That silence is striking because businesses are not usually on the sidelines of social progress. The business community has often played an important role in helping the country move through moments of change:

• Civil rights: In 1963, a coalition of major U.S. companies helped launch the Plans for Progress program alongside the Kennedy administration, committing employers to expand equal employment opportunities and support workplace integration before the passage of the Civil Rights Act. The initiative ultimately included hundreds of companies representing millions of workers.
• Sustainability: In the 1990s and 2000s, LEED certification helped make environmental responsibility a visible business signal for companies, developers, and institutions. Today, LEED is the most widely used green building rating system, with more than 7,500 LEED-certified commercial projects globally in 2025.
• Marriage equality: In 2015, 379 employers and organizations representing employers filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of marriage equality, arguing that inconsistent marriage laws created burdens for businesses and harmed their ability to attract and retain talent.
• Bathroom access: More recently, major companies pushed back against restrictive bathroom bills because they understood the economic consequences of policies that made it harder to attract talent, investment and events. In 2017, companies including IBM, AT&T, Texas Instruments, American Airlines, Kimberly-Clark, Southwest Airlines, and Dell opposed a proposed Texas bathroom bill. 

What is the same across these examples? Businesses saw a shift in society. They assessed what it meant for their workers, customers, communities, and long-term success. And at critical moments, many chose to lead.

That is what feels so different now.

Today, there is no shortage of clarity about what is at stake. Insurance companies are already adjusting rates in response to environmental change. Employers are trying to understand what AI will mean for their workforce. Companies know that attacks on economic opportunity affect who can participate in markets as employees, entrepreneurs, and consumers.

I understand why some are hesitant. The current environment rewards outrage. A statement can become a headline. A business decision can become a political target. A values-based position can be recast as something it is not.

But silence is not neutrality or sound strategy.

That does not mean every company needs to speak on every issue. Leadership is not about issuing statements for the sake of appearing engaged. But when an issue affects your business, your workforce, your customers, or the communities you depend on, silence becomes harder to justify.

This is where companies need to remember what they already know how to do.

Businesses explain complicated products, introduce new technology, and shape consumer behavior every day. They sell trucks, makeup, insurance, software, and financial products to specific audiences with clarity and conviction. That same discipline can be applied to explaining why a company makes decisions that support its workers, customers, and long-term value.

Not everyone will agree. But that has always been true. Traditional marketing does not require every person to become your customer. It requires clarity about who you serve, what you stand for, and why your choices create value. The same is true for leadership.

For those worried about legal risk, the question is worth examining carefully. There is a difference between responding to actual legal obligations and being governed by the specter of a lawsuit. Companies should, of course, seek sound counsel, be precise, and comply with the law.

But let’s not confuse intimidation with inevitability.

Too many leaders are allowing the possibility of conflict to dictate decisions before the facts require it. That is not prudence. That is retreat.

The companies that helped move society forward in previous moments were not free from risk. They simply understood that doing the right thing for their business sometimes required taking a leadership position before it was universally comfortable.

That is the lesson history offers us now.

The business community has more tools than it is using right now: marketing departments, legal teams, policy experts, communications professionals, trusted brands, and direct relationships with millions of people.

History rarely remembers the companies that stayed quiet until the risk passed. It remembers the ones that understood the moment they were in — and chose to lead.