The Corporate Current Vol. 10, No. 1

Executive Summary

The following key themes and questions emerge from OCR’s insights interviews with leaders from Fortune 500 and Forbes Global 2000 companies in Quarter 1 of 2025. These questions set the agenda for OCR’s Senior Corporate Affairs Summit and address the most pressing issues impacting Corporate Affairs today:

A. Business Growth

1. How are you making the case for Corporate Affairs as a growth lever in Q1?
2. Under what conditions are you pulled into investor, customer, or commercial-facing work?
3. How are you measuring and reporting on reputation’s contribution to business performance?
4. How are you embedding yourself upstream in strategic business planning?
5. What growth inflection points in Q1 required direct Comms intervention?

B. CEO Focus

1. How are you syncing with a CEO focused narrowly on business outcomes this quarter?
2. Under what conditions do you elevate long-term risk or brand issues to the CEO’s radar?
3. How are you briefing the CEO to cut through noise with speed and clarity?
4. How do you manage up when leadership attention is stretched or fixated?
5. What’s working to get your CEO to prioritize corporate reputation in Q1?

C. CEO Security

1. How do you balance executive protection with the optics of accessibility and humility?
2. How do you tie CEO security into broader messages around employee care and organizational stability?
3. Are you doing anything to reduce executive exposure without reducing public visibility or leadership presence?
4. How do employees interpret visible security around senior leaders?

D. Chaos vs. Permacrisis

1. How are you distinguishing between high-alert chaos and long-term permacrisis?
2. When do you activate different levels of crisis governance?
3. How are you helping the organization maintain focus through constant turbulence?
4. What changes have you made to cadence, communication, or escalation in Q1?
5. How are you reinforcing leadership calm when volatility is the norm?

E. Corporate Affairs Identity / Structure

1. How are you defining Corporate Affairs in relation to Legal, GR, ESG, and HR in 2025?
2. Are you restructuring the function for new influence areas?
3. How are you thinking about ownership in cross-functional reputational issues?
4. How are you positioning the function for agility and board visibility?
5. What new roles or mandates have you taken on this quarter?

F. Government Relations (National, State, Local)

1. How are you coordinating federal, state, and local messaging strategies this quarter?
2. How are you aligning stakeholder messaging across conflicting jurisdictions?
3. How do you manage visibility when state-level politics are reputationally risky?
4. What’s your strategy for keeping Corporate Affairs and GR unified on posture?

G. Legal Jiu Jitsu

1. How are you flipping legal pressure into strategic leverage this quarter?
2. Under what conditions do you make legal conflicts part of your comms narrative?
3. How are you coordinating with Legal without compromising privilege?
4. How are you preparing for AG actions or politically motivated litigation?
5. What language or messaging helps you stay in control during legal friction?

H. New Measures of Corporate Affairs Outcomes

1. How are you evolving your dashboard beyond media and sentiment in Q1?
2. Under what conditions do you reset outcome metrics with the CFO or board?
3. How are you quantifying speed, reach, and influence in stakeholder movement?
4. What new measurement tools or data sources are you piloting?
5. How are you tracking the alignment between narrative goals and business impact?

I. Personal Use of AI

1. How are you personally using AI to scale your own output this quarter?
2. Under what conditions do you bring AI-generated content into external-facing work?
3. How are you vetting AI tools for security, accuracy, and bias?
4. How are you coaching your team on when to rely on AI—and when not to?
5. What have you stopped doing manually because AI now does it faster or better?

J. Pushback / Rollback of DEI

1. How are you navigating increased scrutiny or legislative constraints on DEI programs?
2. Under what conditions are you changing DEI language, tone, or positioning?
3. How are you maintaining internal momentum while softening external exposure?
4. How are you preparing leaders to defend DEI as a business driver, not a political stance?
5. How do you explain DEI recalibrations to employee resource groups without losing credibility?

K. Trump 2.0 / First 30 Days Impact

1. How are you monitoring and triaging reputational risk from early policy shifts?
2. Under what conditions are you coordinating cross-functional messaging responses?
3. How are you communicating internally when public policy creates division or anxiety?
4. How are you balancing access to Washington with stakeholder relationships and expectations?
5. What’s your approach to engaging the federal administration without appearing aligned?

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