America is at a political and cultural crossroads.
While this statement has technically been true since at least 2016, many of the threads that have divided the nation seem set to come to a head in 2024.
The U.S. presidential election will be a major flashpoint at which voters will need to consider where they stand on issues ranging from wars in the Middle East and Ukraine to an uncertain relationship with China, the rising volatility of a changing climate and a variety of culture wars centered around identity.
Gravity Research surveyed top communications executives from Fortune 1,000 companies to better understand which of these issues most concern them in the year ahead. All together, the data paints a picture of a fractured nation — and a worried corporate sector.
The DE&I concern
The biggest foreseeable event of the next year is certain to be the U.S. presidential election, the first since insurrectionists stormed the capital to protest the certification of current President Joe Biden.
But the campaign process itself is likely to bring some level of risk to companies and their initiatives.
The biggest election-related concern by far relates to its potential impact on affirmative action, DE&I and equity initiatives, with a full 88% at least moderately concerned about this impact. Of course, this plays out against the backdrop of the Supreme Court case that all but ended race-conscious admissions at universities and saber rattling from GOP attorneys general toward companies engaged in the practice.
But this should not be interpreted as companies panicking or abandoning DE&I efforts. In a subsequent question, Gravity asked what specific actions companies had taken in the wake of the decision. Majorities of both B2B and B2C companies responded that at the moment, they’re in a wait-and-see holding pattern, likely until trial cases like that against the Fearless Fund, which gives grants to Black female entrepreneurs, are decided.
