After Election Rupture, CEOs Seek Unity for Staff, Customers

Apple CEO Tim Cook is telling his employees to “keep moving forward.” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is saying “progress does not move in a straight line.” T-Mobile’s CEO John Legere tweeted “let’s see what an out of the box, nontypical, non-politician can do for America!”

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CEOs of major companies are taking stands about the results of the election - a departure from the traditional model of not mixing politics with business that major brands have long espoused.

Some are using it as an opportunity to bring their employees together following a divisive election campaign. Others are using it as an opportunity to stress their companies’ values and mission, or an opportunity to make nice with Trump, who many CEOs were publicly against during the campaign.

The men and women who head the nation’s biggest companies know that having a hostile relationship with the Trump administration could make doing business difficult. They also know that they operate in liberal bastions like New York and San Francisco just as much as in Trump-leaning places like Fort Wayne, Indiana, or Charleston, West Virginia.

“Neutral is the best policy,” says John Challenger, CEO of workplace consultant Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

T-Mobile’s Legere, who long was vocally opposed to Trump, congratulated the president-elect on Twitter for his victory last week, while holding off on judging the president-elect’s policies. Meanwhile another telecommunications executive, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, himself an immigrant and personally opposed to Trump, sent an email to employees saying that “it’s our obligation to accept the will of our fellow Americans and respect the new leader.”

It’s possible that Legere and Claure made nice because the president appoints the chairman and commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission, an agency that holds enormous influence over the telecommunications industry. All five FCC commissioners will see their terms expire during Trump’s first term.