The Power of Principles and a Reflex Hammer

At Third Side Strategies, we focus on providing support to companies, boards, and investors in making the hard decisions about when and how their companies engage in the public sphere. As part of this work, we focus on how to ensure that the public affairs decision-making process is tied to a clear purpose and defined principles; includes a broad range of perspectives and roles; and strengthens rather than weakens relationships when difficult disagreements arise. See Why CPR for more on our approach and tools. The best way to understand how to implement what we call corporate political responsibility governance is to see what it looks like in real life. 

That is why we are so fortunate to have been able to sit down with Jonathan Johnson, former Chairman and CEO of Overstock, active board member, and former Utah gubernatorial candidate, to talk about his experiences putting the third side into action. Jonathan Johnson is a former public company C-suite executive and current public and private company board member with 20+ years’ experience in ecommerce, retail, consumer goods, and emerging technology having served as chairman, chief executive officer, president, chief financial officer, and general counsel at public companies. 

Known as a transformational business leader who creates a results-focused and positive team culture, and a creative problem-solver, comfortable making decisions of major consequence. He is known for patience, openness, and the ability to strategically balance risk and reward to deliver profitability. Jonathan has been a frequent speaker at national and regional board education conferences on a variety of topics, including: Activism & Dissenting Voices; Anticipating Strategic Disruption; 2025 Investment Dynamic; and Fostering Innovation. Jonathan was also a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2016 Utah gubernatorial election. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS 
◼ Context Matters: “You can't say that we need to take a position on everything, or we need to take a position on everything about this topic, but not that topic. What employees and other stakeholders need from a company differs depending on the current situation, the time, and the place. So companies need a way of evaluating specific needs in real time.” 
◼ Principles Anchor Thoughtful Decisions: Defining and reinforcing a common set of principles to guide company leadership provides a framework to lean into when making the difficult decisions.
◼ Listen to Understand: Navigating tough conversations and decisions within a company requires “listening to understand” rather than “listening to respond,” and immediate no’s are often not the right response.

Read the full interview by downloading the PDF.