"I spend my working life responding to RFPs, and realize that an RFP is a product with contributions from numerous stakeholders. However, the thing that truly matters is what the decision maker wants. In one case, an RFP contained a very specific requirement that said that item X had to be done in a very specific manner. After award, the decision maker asked us what we wanted to do regarding item X. This gave us the freedom to do what we wanted regarding this item. In your case, the CEO could have turned around to the bidders and said, "Don't worry about that social stuff." But it (usually) doesn't hurt to try." - John E. Bredehoft