CEOs of major corporations are accustomed to high stress, high pressure and public-facing roles that can be dangerous to their mental health. But the shocking shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is a sobering reminder that on rare occasions, the position can be dangerous to their life as well.
While CEOs and other C-suite executives accept that they are subject to intense scrutiny and criticism and can lose their job due to circumstances outside their control, few expected CEOs to be risking their physical safety. But increased threats and social media vitriol has made this a frightening reality, especially for those whose businesses are unpopular or seen in a negative light by some. A Forbes story recently noted “CEOs often face threats from disgruntled employees, unstable individuals, or those vehemently opposed to their stances.”
So, what can companies do to protect their CEOs?
The immediate reaction by some is to consider increased security and removing the CEO’s bios and photos from the websites. But I suspect this will have only a limited effect. It may help for a privately held business. But if a publicly traded company’s CEO is targeted, there are numerous places where someone can find their name, likeness and more. More thorough physical and digital safety precautions may be required, in some cases for the CEO’s families as well as for the CEO.
There needs to be some consideration for the company’s effect on others. Companies with power over people’s lives must balance shareholder value with the effect their actions have on the well-being of the public. In the end, a company’s actions taken for the benefit of others also protects the company image which in turn increases shareholder value.
We likely will not go as far as Emory University School of Law professor George Shepherd argues in the law review article Not Just Profits: The Duty of Corporate Leaders to the Public, Not Just Shareholders. He says that the public good should again become a major acknowledged and required goal of corporations. “In exchange for receiving limited liability, corporations, and their officers and directors, should be required to serve the public purpose. This change would be efficient and would protect non-shareholder stakeholders, such as workers and the surrounding community, from inevitable vulnerability to corporate decisions.”
Ultimately, publicly traded companies should be interested in their long-term image. And while it is easy to get caught up in the quarter-to-quarter bottom line mentality, there can be negative consequences to this for shareholders and the rest of the community. These improvements in considerations and thus in image can hopefully serve as protection for executives as well.