One company, many capitals
As geopolitics forces companies to take sides, the real test of corporate foreign policy may lie less in where they stand than in what they leave behind.
Does your company need a foreign policy? It is a question that has lingered with me since the PRCA's Corporate Affairs Forum in Singapore last week, when Embraer Asia-Pacific institutional relations VP Juhairul Marzuk made the suggestion during a session I moderated on how public affairs leaders are managing geopolitical risk.
It is not that I necessarily disagree with Marzuk, but there is a measure of surprise in hearing the notion voiced out loud. Mostly because I have observed a sense of relief among communications leaders about the retreat of corporate activism. The war in Gaza has upended easy assumptions about where corporates might choose to stand, while Trump's second term has triggered a relative decline in ESG concerns, to put it mildly.
