About the Author
SEC Newgate Germany’s new Berlin office provided the ideal setting for a timely discussion about the changing relationship between business, politics and geopolitics. The panel, “Power, Purpose and Politics: Corporations and the New Geopolitics,” brought together Dr. Thies Clausen, Head of Policy & Communications at Sila Atlantik, and Dan Doherty, Global Chair of Corporate Affairs at SEC Newgate, moderated by Dr. Valbona Zeneli, Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council.
The discussion began with a fundamental observation: geopolitical fragmentation is no longer an external risk that businesses can address solely when a crisis emerges. It has become a fundamental part of the operating environment in which companies have to make decisions about investment, market access, partnerships, supply chains and corporate positioning.
Export controls, tariffs, investment restrictions and increasingly complex regulatory frameworks are changing the conditions under which multinational companies operate. Simultaneously, the number of stakeholders that businesses need to understand and engage with is growing, as are their expectations of corporate practices and differences across markets.
This creates a new strategic challenge. Companies must understand not only where they can operate and invest, but also how their decisions will be perceived by governments, regulators, employees, consumers, and especially local communities.
The discussion therefore centered on the growing importance of corporate affairs: the ability to connect geopolitical understanding with business strategy, stakeholder engagement, and reputation management.
Corporate affairs moves from the communications function to the boardroom
Traditionally, corporate affairs and communications functions have often been brought in to explain decisions after they have been made, manage reputational consequences or respond to political and public scrutiny. In an increasingly fragmented environment, this approach is no longer sufficient.
As the panel explored, geopolitical developments directly impact decisions about capital allocation, market entry, partnerships, sourcing and long-term investment. Thus, corporate affairs must enter the decision-making process right from the start, thereby connecting reputational considerations with commercial priorities, while understanding upstream risks in the business environment and anticipating downstream effects on customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders. To enable this, a closer relationship between corporate affairs, executive leadership and the teams responsible for investment and operations is required.
As emphasized by Dan Doherty, the key challenge is turning information into actionable intelligence. Companies may already have access to internal reporting, external research, risk dashboards and political analysis. Yet possessing information does not automatically translate into the ability to anticipate the consequences of a policy change or respond more quickly than competitors. The critical capability is to interpret those signals, develop plausible scenarios, assess their implications, and translate them into clear recommendations for senior decision-makers.
Corporate affairs in an era of competing priorities
Dr. Thies Clausen’s contribution highlighted the broader implications of geopolitical fragmentation for the way companies define and communicate their priorities.
The sustainability and ESG debate provides a useful example. Over recent years, ESG has served as a common framework through which businesses communicate their environmental and social responsibilities. Yet the political and societal context in which these commitments are interpreted is changing.
In some markets, sustainability remains an important element of corporate identity and public accountability. In others, the debate increasingly centers on industrial competitiveness, affordability, economic resilience and the protection of domestic industries.
This does not mean that the underlying issues have disappeared. Rather, they may be discussed through different political and economic narratives.
For businesses, this creates a communication challenge: how can they maintain consistent corporate principles while explaining their relevance to audiences whose priorities differ?
The same question applies to investment, industrial policy, local-content requirements and economic security. Governments may seek to strengthen domestic production or reduce strategic dependencies, while companies must remain competitive across international markets and manage the costs of complying with different national requirements.
As the panel discussed, these objectives can conflict, and not every tension can be resolved through communication alone. Companies must understand the underlying policy choices and their implications for business models.
Clausen’s contribution also pointed to the importance of understanding the political and institutional context of individual markets. A company’s activities may be interpreted differently depending on local sensitivities, regulatory requirements, and bilateral political relationships. Decisions that appear commercially straightforward in one country can generate political or reputational complications in another.
The implication is that corporate affairs requires more than a consistent global narrative. It requires an understanding of how political priorities are evolving, where competing interests arise, and how companies can engage credibly without losing sight of their commercial objectives.
Corporate affairs and geopolitical risk: anticipating scenarios rather than overreacting
Separating signals from the noise applies today more than ever. Not every geopolitical event has the same implications for every company, as the impact of policy developments needs to be measured against the respective business sector, geographical footprint, supply-chain configurations, regulatory frameworks and stakeholder relationships.
Translating signals requires scenario planning. Corporations should consider plausible developments, assess their potential impact and determine different strategies and recommendations across different sets of circumstances. The process involves several capabilities, from political intelligence and stakeholder analysis to scenario planning and leading up to strategic advice for executive leadership.
Simultaneously, public and stakeholder perceptions can change rapidly as political events reshape how audiences interpret a company’s activities. Monitoring sentiment and modeling how different audiences might respond to business decisions can help organizations identify reputational vulnerabilities before they become difficult to manage.
Reputation is built before it is needed
Corporate affairs goes beyond recognizing the importance of stakeholders. Throughout the discussion, one of the key implications emerging was that stakeholder relationships cannot be built and leveraged only when a company needs political support, regulatory approval, or public acceptance for a particular decision. A company that has failed to establish credibility or demonstrate an understanding of local concerns may struggle to gain support, regardless of the merits of its proposal.
Corporate affairs therefore involves building relationships before a specific request becomes necessary. This means identifying relevant stakeholders, understanding their interests and relationships among each other, listening to their concerns and establishing a track record of credible engagement.
An internal perspective alone may be insufficient. Corporate teams simplify complex environments to make executive decisions manageable, but this can result in overlooking actors, assumptions, or competing interests that become important later.
External insight, local expertise, and ongoing engagement help businesses update their assumptions and develop a holistic understanding of the business environment in which they operate.
All the speakers agreed that reputation is an asset companies must develop and maintain before they need to rely on it or face a crisis.
Corporate affairs: making geopolitical understanding actionable
Companies are operating in an environment where political decisions increasingly shape commercial opportunities, regulatory conditions and public expectations. At the same time, businesses themselves have become important participants in debates about economic security, technological development, sustainability and the future of international cooperation.
In this context, corporate affairs cannot remain confined to communications or crisis response. It must support organizations in interpreting political and societal developments, understanding their stakeholders and translating uncertainty into informed strategic choices.
That requires more than collecting intelligence or producing scenarios. It requires connecting those insights to executive decision-making, building relationships before they are needed, and maintaining a coherent corporate identity while responding credibly to local realities.
The challenge is not to eliminate geopolitical uncertainty. It is to develop the capabilities that allow companies to navigate it more effectively.
For SEC Newgate, this is the central proposition of corporate affairs: bridging geopolitical insight, stakeholder intelligence, reputation management, and strategic engagement to support businesses in anticipating change and informing strategic decision-making for executives.