Table Of ContentFuture of Business and Finance
Johannes Bohnen
Corporate
Political
Responsibility
How Businesses Can Strengthen
Democracy for Mutual Benefit
Future of Business and Finance
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Johannes Bohnen
Corporate Political
Responsibility
How Businesses Can Strengthen
Democracy for Mutual Benefit
JohannesBohnen
BOHNENPublicAffairsGmbH
Berlin,Berlin,Germany
TheWorkalreadyhasbeenpublishedin2020inGermanlanguagebySpringer-VerlagGmbH,DE,partof
SpringerNaturewiththefollowingtitle:CorporatePoliticalResponsibility(CPR):WieUnternehmendie
Demokratieunddamitsichselbststärken
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FutureofBusinessandFinance
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To my father, who died far too young
Preface
Inmorethan25yearsofprofessionalandvoluntaryworkattheinterfacesofpolitics,
business, science, media, and civil society, I have often been struck by the lack of
understandingbetweenthesesectorsofsociety.Theydifferinlanguageandintheir
logicofthoughtandaction.Businesspeople,forinstance,haveanenormousdistrust
of politics; this is something that numerous business meetings and personal
conversations have made me aware of. It is alarming to see how apolitical most
corporate leaders are. At the same time, there is a sad decline in the economic
competenceofpoliticians,eventhoughtheyareinchargeofdefiningtheeconomic
framework.Thereisastrongsenseofalienationbetweenpoliticsandbusiness,but
also large sections of the population. Prejudices are cultivated on all sides. But
Europe’slargestnationaleconomycannotaffordtobeafraidofcontactandunable
tocommunicate.Giventheriseininternalandexternalthreats,weneedoursociety
toprovideastablefoundationforsuccessfuleconomicactivity.
For years, DAX and Eurostoxx corporations as well as larger medium-sized
companies have been working almost across the board with the CSR concept in
order to assume corporate responsibility. This approach is also firmly established
internationally—but it falls short. The concept of “Corporate politicalresponsibil-
ity” (CPR) presented here has the advantage of focusing on the most important
precondition for economic activity: the political and institutional state of society.
CPR offers a concept for the comprehensive positioning of companies in public
space.Thismakesitaninnovativecontributiontosustainablebusinesssuccess.
Companies need to concentrate more on the opportunities that exist at the
interface between politics and business and extend their concept of investment to
includeapoliticalcomponent.Thereasonisthatbusinesssuccessdependsonsocial
and political conditions, which until now have not received enough support from
businesspeople.Inthisbook,Iarguethatpoliticsisabusinesscase.Yetsofar,there
have been no convincing conceptual approaches or methods to recognize this
business case, adopt a suitable attitude, and take action. This book aims to fill this
gapasfaraspossible.
CPRdescribeshowbusinessescandevelopapoliticalstanceinthepublicspace
throughconcreteapproaches.Ourcommunityneedsthepoliticizationofallactorsin
society – whether in science, culture, the media, or organized civil society. This is
vii
viii Preface
less about adopting partisan political positions than about contributing in a funda-
mentalwaytothestabilizationofafreeanddemocraticstateoflaw.Itisbasedonthe
insight that societal institutions cannot function without an element of politics and
thattheirdegreeoffreedomisalwaysdependentonpoliticalconditions.Deficitsin
thepoliticalsystemaffectallsectorsofsociety.Soifwedevelopabroadconceptof
thepoliticalanddonotdelegateeverythingtothestateandtopoliticalparties,we
canrevitalizeourdemocracy.Thisrequiresremappingthepublicspace. Thisbook
would like to encourage all relevant societal actors to actively get engaged. It is
worthit!
Thebookisprimarilymeantforbusinesses.Theyhaveavariety ofresourcesat
their disposal to strengthen the societal and political foundations of their business
activities, but they are not sufficiently aware of them. To leverage this potential, I
introducedthetermCPRin2013andsystematicallydevelopeditinapublication
forthefirsttimein2014(Bohnen2014,pp.55–58).Thiswasfollowedbynumerous
other articles and papers on the topic1 which met withincreasing resonance from
businessleaders.Fromtheverystart,manyagreedwithmytheses.Iwasheadingin
the right direction. However, some commentators took offense at the word “politi-
cal.”Itcausedfrictionsbecauseitwasmostlyunderstoodtosignifypartypolitics.At
the same time, there was an issue with the concept of the political itself, because
politicsisoftenseenasshadowboxingthatimpedesa“truesolution.”Thisspurred
meontojustifytheimportanceofcorporatepoliticalengagementmorecomprehen-
sively.Afterall,IhavelongbeenpuzzledbythepoliticalignoranceofmanyGerman
business leaders. I was all the more pleased to have the opportunity to present my
approach at two large CSR conferences which brought together dedicated CSR
communities.Itwasverywellreceived.2
ThebookbeginsbyestablishingthebasisoftheCPRconceptandthencontinues
with a comprehensive practical part. It is my goal to enable companies to move
throughtheprocessofpoliticalbrandingstepbystepinordertooperationalizethe
CPRstanceforthemselves.Numerousgraphs,examplesfromcorporatereality,and
reflections on personal experiences underpin this approach. In addition, new
methods and terminologies (see dossier) are introduced to enable a systematic
approach to the topic. My contribution is aimed at the public debate in Germany,
but without losing sight of the European or international debate to which I owe a
number of ideas. The basic principles of CPR should work in all Western
industrializedcountriesthathaveahistoricallydevelopeddemocraticculture.
Thisbookisprimarilyintendedfordecision-makersinbusiness(includingCSR,
strategy, and communication departments) and representatives from politics and
administration, but also actors from science, culture, media, law, NGOs, and
1Cf.Bohnen(2019,2018,2017,2016,2015a,2015b,2015c,2014),BohnenandHennies(2018)
2In Cologne on 15.11.2018 (Int. Conference on Sustainability & Responsibility, “The New
Intersection of Business and Politics – Corporate Political Responsibility”) und Osnabrück on
15.11.2019atthethirdGermanCSSCommunicationCongress(“GetInvolved!!TakingPolitical
PositionsasPartofCSRCommunication“).
Preface ix
foundationsaswellascommunicationsandpublicaffairsconsultancies.Ultimately,
I am writing for everyone who is interested in the political development of our
societyandourpublicspace.
Lastbutnotleast,Iamverygratefultothemanypeoplewhohavesupportedme
inthedevelopmentofthetopicoverthepastfewyears—bycriticallydiscussingand
commenting on text passages and numerous diagrams. I would like to mention:
FlorianvonGierke,GeorgSchmidtgen,FelixHofmann,HelenaBallreich,Sebastian
Gallander, Knut Bergmann, Michael Wedell, Michael Alberg-Seberich, Erica
Benner, Jörg Schulte-Altedorneburg, Arndt Kwiatkowski, Stefan Wegner, Barbara
Strohschein, Achim Boehme, Michael Schütte, Christoph Weiss, Tobias Wolny,
RabanFuhrmann,HeikeSteinmeier,BerndRohlfes,RüdigerSura,StephaneOertel,
Bettina Vestring, Jörg Mayer, Torsten Schumacher, and Stefan Lafaire. Special
thanks to my tireless sparring partner Lutz-Peter Hennies, who accompanied my
writing process in a very thoughtful manner. I would also like to mention is the
GermanBP,whichwasthefirstcompanytoorganizeaneventspecificallytoallow
me to present my CPR concept to business representatives. I also thank the Aspen
InstitutefortheopportunitytogivealectureinHamburgin2018whichresultedina
verylivelydiscussion.
Berlin,Germany JohannesBohnen
References
Bohnen,J.(2014).Corporatepoliticalresponsibility(CPR)–WarumUnternehmen
sichoffenpolitischpositionierenmüssen.ZBP,1–2,56–59.
Bohnen,J.(2015a,April1).Haltungzeigen!SächsischeZeitung(p.6).
Bohnen,J.(2015b).DerStaat,dassindwiralle.EnormMagazin,3,62–64.
Bohnen,J.(2015c).WerdetPolitisch!Cicero,2,88–90.
Bohnen,J.(2016).UnternehmeralsBürger.Handelsblatt.
Bohnen, J. (2017). Corporate political responsibility. Unternehmen sollten ihre
politischeMarkeentwickeln.CSRMagazin,2,6–7.
Bohnen,J.(2018).WarumUnternehmenpolitische Verantwortungtragen.Debatte
LibMod.AccessedFebruary27,2020,fromhttps://libmod.de/johannes-bohnen-
warum-unternehmen-politische-verantwortung-tragen/
Bohnen, J. (2019). Corporate political responsibility (CPR). Warum nachhaltiges
Wirtschaftenpolitischseinmuss.forumNachhaltigWirtschaften,01,74–77.
Bohnen, J., & Hennies, L. P. (2018). Why brands should foster political
sustainability. Journal of Public Affairs. Accessed February 27, 2020, from
https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1706
Contents
1 Introduction:WhatIsatStake?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
PartI RemappingthePublicSphere
2 UnderstandingthePublicSphere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3 RevitalizingthePublicSphere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 47
PartII TakingaStance:CorporatePoliticalResponsibility(CPR)
4 WhyBusinessesNeedaPoliticalStance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
PartIII ImplementingaStance:PoliticalBranding
5 CreatingthePoliticalBrand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
6 ManagingthePoliticalBrand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
7 Conclusion:FillingtheNewAttitudewithLife. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Glossary:NewTermsintheContextofCPR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
xxii
