Everyone has an opinion, for sure, on everything, but where is the line where the need to voice that personal opinion begins to affect your business?
Like it or not, your stance on certain things, should you choose to voice or display them publicly, can affect your bottom line. The most shining example of that is politics.
As divided as people are over the topic, you can bet that if you’re publicly voicing your opinion one way or the other, you’re running the possibility of those who disagree with your statement stopping doing business with you.
Depending on your client base, that can be quite the hit to your bottom line, and once you’ve lost them, there’s a good chance you won’t get them back. There have been countless examples of businesses going under just from this one example alone.
There are other topics with just as much “heat,” such as abortion. The bottom line is your opinion can affect your bottom line. It’s essential to take a stance and fight for what you believe in, but knowing who needs to know what we think is critical.
Organizational values that clash with public opinion are particularly risky because they can strain your company culture – your best bet is to recognize such conflicts early and acknowledge them openly with all your key stakeholders, particularly your employees.
As an Harvard Business study reviews said “Simply acknowledging shifts in public sentiment can be a powerful catalyst for change. As mentioned above, the propensity to conform is a universal human tendency, so explaining why a company is at risk of becoming a social outlier can help promote the need for change”.