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Trust: The Foundation for Every Business

Four Ways to Wield Trust as a Business Asset

At the 50th St. Gallen Symposium, Leaders of Today and Tomorrow alike agreed that for businesses, internal and external trust is the bedrock of longevity and success.

That was never more clear than in 2020, as a pandemic overran the world, bringing a slew of economic hardships. News and turmoil around the U.S. election were broadcast globally. Trust in various systems waned. In 2021, a lack of trust persists and has the power to hurt our economies and global health. As we move forward as one connected world, trust remains vital. There must be an intentional focus on businesses repairing broken trust.

At a string of top-level panels, business leaders discussed four important ways to build trust, both with customers and within companies.

Digital as a tool for transparency. One of the key ways to gain trust is through transparency. Despite some of social media’s negative impacts, platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter give businesses the opportunity to connect more deeply with their customers through increased transparency. Whether it’s taking videos of work behind the scenes or answering questions publicly, social media platforms offer a new, more direct way to build trust between a business and its customers.

Diversity. Several businesspeople at St. Gallen’s 50th Symposium made the business case for diversity, including gender-based diversity. Diversity, GetDiversity founder Carla Kaufmann argues, is not a luxury. “It is mandatory to survive as a company, and it is mandatory for our economic system,” Kaufmann said, “to bring companies more longevity and to keep money in the market as long as possible.”

Diversity not only creates an environment conducive to innovation, but research shows there’s a business case for diversity. Research published in 2018 by the Boston Consulting Group found that companies with above-average diversity on their management teams – measured by national origin of executives, range of industry backgrounds, gender balance, and career paths, but not race or ethnicity —  reported revenues 19% higher than those with below-average leadership diversity.

According to the report, “in both developing and developed economies, companies with above-average diversity on their leadership teams report a greater payoff from innovation and higher earnings before income and taxes (EBIT). Even more persuasive, companies can start generating gains with relatively small changes in the makeup of their senior teams.”[1]

Healthy work environment and pride. It is important for leaders to foster trust within their teams. According to Lara Bezerra, chief purpose officer and founder at WorkCoherence, some great pathways to this include creating a work environment that maintains an awareness of pride.

Bezerra said there are three key indicators of measuring pride in workers, which positively correlates with performance: people proud of the work they’re doing, people proud of work done with colleagues, and people proud of the company. High scores in these areas are indicators of a healthy work environment where employees trust each other, the company, and their personal values.

Battling ignorance with education. As technology advances, it gets harder for the average person to keep up. This is especially true, for example, for increasingly digital financial services and cybersecurity issues.

Valentin Stalf, CEO and co-founder of German-based “neo-bank” N26, revealed that fraudulent accounts are opened at N26 with valid identities. This makes it harder for the bank to detect, but these schemes also tend to target less tech-savvy customers, commonly the elderly. Stalf explained that N26 is creating initiatives to work against fraud and schemes, for example, by educating their customers to spot signs of fraud.

While banks must continue developing stronger cybersecurity measures, banks like N26 also want to empower customers with knowledge.

Trust is nuanced, and there is more involved with gaining trust than the four ideas above. However, these points outline the path to building businesses with strong foundations, rooted in trust.

[1] BCG measured diversity through a combination of the. Age and educational focus showed a lesser effect, and the firm did not consider race or ethnicity.

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