Five Big Forces to Watch at America Inc. in 2025

Existential questions arise about the role of the country’s largest companies in such turbulent times – and about who can best lead them through these turbulent times.

These overlapping questions will shape the business world’s most important stories next year. Here’s what I’m going to look at:

CEOs against Trump: CEOs were willing to act as a moral counterweight during the first Trump presidency and speak out against actions that ran counter to their perceived values, such as the travel ban from Muslim-majority countries and the January 6 riots.

Expect things to look different during Trump 2.0. Most CEOs remained silent during the campaign season, while some wooed Trump behind the scenes and rushed to publicly congratulate him after his victory. Now companies like Meta Platforms and Amazon.com are going one step further and donating to Trump’s inaugural fund.

But I suspect the pats on the back and ego stroking won’t last four years. The questions will be: Where will big business draw its red lines and how will it react when Trump inevitably crosses them.

The Great DEI Rollback: America Inc. has continued to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, pushed by right-wing activist Robby Starbuck, whose latest and biggest victory is Walmart.

And as the new Trump administration targets and penalizes companies it deems “woke,” expect even more companies to publicly throw their DEI promises under fire. There is evidence that employers are still investing in DEI – just quietly and without using this now taboo acronym.

But failing to publicly champion the importance of diversity will have real consequences. For example, we have already seen a slowdown in women’s progress in business.

It is now expected to take five years longer than previously estimated for women to achieve parity in the C-suite, while fewer board positions will be filled by women and African-American directors. There will likely be even more regression among underrepresented groups in the coming year.

A crisis of trust: After UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered in early December, executives across the country were surprised by anger directed at the company rather than the killer.

Essentially, the criticism is a symptom of the ongoing loss of trust in large companies. Will the collapse continue in 2025? Or will companies and leaders work to restore this rather than just doubling down on their own security?

The C-Suite in the Age of Urgency: This has been a tough year for the CEO position, with an unprecedented number of people being let go, reports say Bloomberg News.

It all boils down to one word that’s popular on Wall Street: urgency. Shareholders are becoming increasingly impatient, and corporate boards are giving their CEOs less time to get things done—or, if necessary, to turn the business around.

And new CEOs are usually expected to hit the ground running, making the once-standard 90-day listening tour a thing of the past.

Despite the turnover, a consensus has yet to emerge on the best model for CEO succession in this era. This year we saw big companies operate with insiders (CVS Health Corp), outsiders (Starbucks Corp., Boeing) and boomerang executives (Nike).

A CEO’s job won’t get any easier or less complex in 2025, so boards will continue to grapple with the question of how much time to give executives to implement their strategies – and who can best replace them when they do they pull the plug.

Disney, Starbucks and who else?: These two companies pioneered some of the most zeitgeisty corporate narratives in 2024: CEO succession and compensation, work organization, corporate governance, return to office and DEI and “woke” backlash.

Their next chapters will unfold in 2025: Can The Walt Disney Company find a capable replacement for longtime CEO Bob Iger in one of the business world’s most-watched succession dramas? Will new Starbucks boss Brian Niccol turn the coffee giant around and prove he’s worth his huge pay package?

And even as these sagas play out, another company (or companies) will likely be the big, exciting corporate story of the coming year.

If I had to bet, I would put my money on Intel and its uncertain future, Boeing and its ongoing crisis, and any number of healthcare companies facing increasing public and political scrutiny.