Where’s the trust?

Peter Drucker once said ‘if you find an executive focusing on CSR, fire him and fire him fast’. That’s all changed. The merging of the economic and ethical is transforming the meaning and context of trust. Hitherto, trust has been an essential ingredient of all brands and their reputations.

However, the notion of trust (in the commercial world) has been mainly centered on the transaction itself, but not any more. The notion of trust has dramatically moved on from trust in the company’s product to trust in the people behind the product. Now it’s less about ‘can I trust them to deliver?’ but ‘are they the sort of people who would...?’ And a plethora of words can fill in the missing space. Are they the sort of people who would tell me it’s 100% organic when it’s not; who would use child labor to make their products cheaper; test on animals; and pollute the environment in the search of a big buck?

Clearly, there is a market for trust. Most organizations refer to the meaning of share in terms of market share, profit share and share of wallet, etc. Simultaneously, however, they are competing with other organizations for share of trust. So in today’s world, full of litigation, accusation, scandal and bankruptcy, evidence and counter evidence, when it’s down to the wire, whom do you trust? Which of the organizations you are doing business with are and have the sort of people who would tell the earnest truth in this matter?

Times have changed and all around us there is a battle for share of trust and it’s a very large market worth billions.

1 October 2007, posted by Dean Crutchfield