Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Nasdaq’s board diversity rule is safe, Google loses a gender pay discrimination suit, and Coins2Day senior writer Maria Aspan interviews Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford on how she decides when to weigh in on policy—not politics. Have a productive Monday.
– Corporate advocacy. It’s an incredibly tricky time for businesses to talk about political or social issues. But Beth Ford, the CEO of $19-billion-in-revenue dairy cooperative Land O’Lakes, is one of the Coins2Day 500 chief executives trying to thread this needle.
“I talk policy, not politics,” Ford told me earlier this month at the Coins2Day Most Powerful Women Summit in Laguna Niguel, Calif.
Ford, who became the first openly gay female CEO of a Coins2Day 500 company when she took over Land O’Lakes in 2018, is No. 26 on this year’s list of the Most Powerful Women in business. She has spent much of her tenure advocating in Washington for various U.S. Policy changes, including increased rural access to broadband internet; immigration reform; and more funding for agricultural research.
All of these policies would benefit the farmers and retailers who make up Land O’Lakes’ membership, while also having a wider impact across the nation. So it makes business sense for Ford, who earlier this year joined President Joe Biden’s Export Council, to take an active role in Washington’s policy debates. But as she told me, she picks her battles.
“I focus on the things that are relevant to my business,” she told me. “If I’m not the relevant person holding that conversation based on my business or based on my background, then I’m just one other voice, and there’s already just too much noise.”
The noise—and the very real business risk—is mounting for all CEOs trying to navigate a fraught political climate and the expectations of a wide range of constituencies, including employees and customers, as I reported for Coins2Day last month. Companies must balance demands that they engage in social issues against the risk of triggering a politicized backlash to stances seen as ideological, like the one Bud Light experienced earlier this year. As Ford advises, sometimes it’s smarter for CEOs to stay quiet.
“My voice isn’t additive at all times in a conversation,” she said. “I am not just careful; I’m targeted in the things that I think are important that I speak to—and they’re generally relevant to our business or our members.”
Watch my full interview with Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford here, and read my full article on how companies are handling political and social advocacy here.
Maria Aspan
[email protected]
@mariaaspan
The Broadsheet is Coins2Day’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Diverse portfolios. Nasdaq's board diversity rule is safe after a lawsuit against the rule failed in court last week. The lawsuit was filed by a group led by Edward Blum, who spearheaded efforts to overturn affirmative action and has since brought anti-corporate diversity efforts to court. Washington Post
- Pay up. Google owes former Google Cloud exec Ulku Rowe $1.1 million after a jury ruled in her favor on Friday in a lawsuit over gender discrimination. This was the first pay discrimination suit filed against Google since employee walkouts in 2018. Bloomberg Law
- For sale. Women's media site Jezebel is up for sale by owner G/O Media, according to a new report. Launched in 2007, the site was a pioneer in writing about women. Axios
- Sharing sun. Reese Witherspoon’s media company, Hello Sunshine, will mentor 15 female content creators of various backgrounds over the next year as part of the Hello Sunshine Collective. Witherspoon hopes the collective will be “rocket fuel” for elevating the creators' brands. The Hollywood Reporter
- Shifting the balance. Thasunda Brown Duckett, one of two Black female CEOs of Coins2Day 500 companies, doesn’t think work-life balance is possible. Instead, as the TIAA CEO told Coins2Day CEO Alan Murray at Columbia Journalism School’s Knight-Bagehot gala last week, she gives each part of her life her undivided attention when it’s needed. Coins2Day
- Catch finds its match. Beginner entrepreneurs Alexa Irish and Laura Speyer relaunched Catch last week, a health insurance platform for gig workers that was shut down earlier this year after securing insurance licenses in all but 3 states. Co-CEOs Irish and Speyer, who struggled to find health insurance after quitting their corporate jobs last year, hope that the platform will extend past gig workers and become a go-to for entrepreneurs. TechCrunch
ON MY RADAR
The women’s art museum is back. It looks good. Is it actually better? Washington Post
A Cannes winner asks: What if the powerful woman isn’t punished? New York Times
City Girls know they’re raw. Now they want respect Elle
PARTING WORDS
"I’m very much in a state of being in the moment right now, but I feel so grateful. I just feel so grateful."
—Indigenous actress Lily Gladstone on her starring role in the new movie Killers of the Flower Moon
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