Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

Our ongoing research at Trust Across America points in the direction that over time trustworthy public companies outperform their peers and the “markets.” This relatively small universe of well-governed companies goes beyond just meeting the needs of its shareholders to recognizing the importance of all its stakeholders.

Why Does this Make Sense?

Based on numerous studies high levels of trustworthiness are correlated with:

• Ethical leadership
• Happy employees and lower turnover
• Faster decision-making
• Higher innovation
• Better community engagement
• Decreased risk of corporate crisis

to name just a few benefits. And all of these factors impact the long-term bottom line.

Every year since 2012 Trust Across America has publicly announced its “Top Ten Most Trustworthy Public Companies” via an annual article on our blog. The following table displays the current cumulative returns of the companies selected each year vs. the S&P 500 since the date of the blog publication.

FACTS(R) Framework Annual Returns “Top Ten”

Note: FANG companies have never appeared in any of the “Top 10” selections.

How are these Companies Chosen?

In 2010 Trust Across America introduced the FACTS® Framework, a comprehensive unbiased barometer of the trustworthiness of America’s largest 2000 US public companies. The Framework (based on 5 equally weighted indicators) identifies companies whose leadership has intentionally chosen to govern in a manner that goes beyond doing just what is legal to choosing what is right in meeting all stakeholder needs. Now in its 8th year the FACTS® Framework is the most comprehensive and data driven ongoing study on this subject. We analyze companies quarterly and rank order showing trends by company, sector and market capitalization.

Whether one calls this great culture, high integrity “ESG,” or simply trust, the business case has been made. Leaders who choose to ignore trust are setting themselves up for not only a crisis, but a sudden decline in their stock value. Just ask Mark Zuckerberg.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. A former consultant to McKinsey & Company, she also runs the world’s largest global Trust Alliance and is the editor of the award- winning TRUST INC. book series. In 2017 she was named a Fellow of the Governance & Accountability Institute, and in 2012 she was recognized as one of “25 Women who are Changing the World” by Good Business International. She holds a BA in International Affairs from Lafayette College and an MBA from Baruch at the City University of NY.

For more information visit our website at www.trustacrossamerica.com

or contact barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

You may also join our Constant Contact mailing list for updates on our progress.

Copyright (c) 2018, Next Decade, Inc.

Yesterday in a CNBC interview with Jim Cramer, Marc Benioff emphatically stated that “trust is the highest value at Salesforce.” The company’s success is a by-product.

Ten years ago tools to assess and build organizational trust were rare and difficult to locate online. Trust Across America-Trust Around the World was formed, in part, to serve as a clearinghouse for trust tools and related resources.

Like Salesforce.com, most progressive companies are pursuing trust as an intentional business strategy, knowing full well that it is a competitive advantage. Leaders of organizations of any size and shape who are interested in elevating trust and proactively practicing it as a business strategy, may find these website links to be useful. Many of the resources are free.

FREE RESOURCES (Most Popular)

Trust Across America Blog: Viewed 74,898 times in February

TRUST! Magazine: a digital magazine, dedicated to helping leaders and organizations place trust on their strategic agenda. Our current issue has been accessed over 20,000 times.

Case Studies: Our Trustlets are a newly launched and growing library of real-life cases available as free downloads and for use in both academia and business.

Trust Bibliography: Updated annually and curated by Robert Easton, a partner at Accenture, it is probably the most extensive online research tool available (currently 86 pages).

Building Trust Reports: A growing library of “special reports” written by members of our vetted Trust Alliance.

Special Report via our Corporate Integrity Monitor: The Impact of Trust on Financial Returns

Join our Constant Contact mailing list for updates on our progress.

RESOURCES THAT CAN BE PURCHASED

Trust Alliance: a growing group of vetted global professionals working to elevate trust and share resources, now in its 6th year.

Workshops, speaking engagements, etc. Our Alliance members are available to meet just about any trust need an organization might have. No reason to search the internet for the “right” person to fill the gap. Just contact us.

Trust in a Box: A “do it yourself” solution for professionals and organizations interested in elevating trust, ethics and integrity.

Data Licensing: Our proprietary FACTS(R) Framework is the longest ongoing research study of the trustworthiness of America’s 2000 largest US public companies, now in its 8th year. Our data is available for licensing on a case-by-case basis.

Books: An entire Reading Room dedicated to organizational trust.

Top Thought Leaders Program: Nominations are now open for the 9th annual Top Thought Leaders in Trust.

If you lead an organization, serve on a Board or in any management capacity or work with others, and you continue to ignore trust as a hard asset, you are losing out to your competitors. Trust works. Give it a try.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. A former consultant to McKinsey & Co., she also runs the world’s largest global Trust Alliance and is the editor of the award- winning TRUST INC. book series. In 2017 she was named a Fellow of the Governance & Accountability Institute, and in 2012 she was recognized as one of “25 Women who are Changing the World” by Good Business International. She holds a BA in International Affairs from Lafayette College and an MBA from Baruch at the City University of NY.

Contact me for more information.

Copyright (C) 2018, Next Decade, Inc.

According to this recent article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review, 9 out of 10 consumers want to make purchases that reflect their values. If trust is an important value to you, read on.

In 2010 Trust Across America introduced the FACTS® Framework, a holistic unbiased barometer of the corporate integrity of America’s largest 2000 US public companies. The Framework identifies companies whose leadership is going beyond doing what is legal to choosing what is right in meeting all stakeholder needs. This, by order of magnitude, is the most comprehensive and data driven ongoing study on this subject. We analyze quarterly and rank order by company, sector and market capitalization. We are particularly interested in tracking individual companies and sector trends over time.

Understanding that brick and mortar retailers face increasing challenges, we took a closer look at how some retailers stack up in our Trust Metrics. These are our findings.

This chart reflects 5-year average (2012-2017) scores of corporate trustworthiness. Trust Across America will be completing its 2018 analysis in April. Given this knowledge, I might choose TJX and Target over Dillard’s and Abercrombie. How about you?

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. A former consultant to McKinsey & Co., she also runs the world’s largest global Trust Alliance and is the editor of the award- winning TRUST INC. book series. In 2017 she was named a Fellow of the Governance & Accountability Institute, and in 2012 she was recognized as one of “25 Women who are Changing the World” by Good Business International. She holds a BA in International Affairs from Lafayette College and an MBA from Baruch at the City University of NY.

Join our Constant Contact mailing list for updates on our progress.

Contact me for more information.

Copyright 2018 Next Decade, Inc.

On June 19, 2017 Trust Across America published its annual Top Ten Most Trustworthy Public Companies, describing its selection methodology and other relevant details.

Just one day earlier, CNBC’s Michael Santoli announced that the S&P had already met its average return for the full year.

Seven months have passed since June 19, the S&P has continued its advance and America’s Most Trustworthy Companies are outperforming this benchmark by 32.25%. (The S&P 500 has returned 14.54% vs. FACTS(R) 19.23%.)

The cynical reader might conclude that Trust Across America’s FACTS(R) Framework “got lucky” with its picks and no correlation exists between high trust and profitability. But a closer analysis of our publicly released “Top 10” over six years will reveal that our systematic selection of the most trustworthy public companies might just be more than good luck.

The simple fact is trust works year-over-year. (And just maybe the percentage of women on boards enhances these stellar returns.)

Do you have any questions? Please direct them to barbara@trustacrossamerica.com.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She also runs the world’s largest global Trust Alliance and is the editor of the award- winning TRUST INC. book series. In 2017 she was named a Fellow of the Governance & Accountability Institute, and in 2012 she was recognized as one of “25 Women who are Changing the World” by Good Business International. She holds a BA in International Affairs from Lafayette College and an MBA from Baruch at the City University of NY.

For more information visit our website at www.trustacrossamerica.com

You may also join our Constant Contact mailing list for updates on our progress.

Copyright (c) 2018, Next Decade, Inc.

Special Report December 5, 2017

The Impact of Trust on Financial Returns

(Trust “Beats the Street” Year Over Year)

In 2010 Trust Across America introduced the FACTS® Framework, a comprehensive unbiased barometer of the corporate integrity of America’s largest 2000 US public companies. The Framework identifies companies whose leadership is going beyond doing just what is legal to choosing what is right in meeting all stakeholder needs. The FACTS® Framework is the most comprehensive and data driven ongoing study on this subject. We analyze companies quarterly and rank order showing trends by company, sector and market capitalization. Read more about the Framework at this link.

Every year since 2012 we have announced our “Top Ten Most Trustworthy Public Companies” via the Trust Across America blog. The following table displays the current returns of every annual list vs. the S&P 500 since its publication.

For the past six years, America’s most trustworthy public companies continue to “beat the Street” since we began our annual reporting. Since 2013, every “Top Ten” list selected by Trust Across America has also outperformed the S&P 500 on a one-year basis. Elevating organizational trust improves the long-term wellbeing of all stakeholders, not just shareholders.

For more information contact Barbara Brooks Kimmel, CEO and Cofounder Trust Across America-Trust Around the World at Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright © Next Decade, Inc. All Rights Reserved. FACTS® is a service mark of Next Decade, Inc. where Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the founder and CEO. Jordan Kimmel and Barbara Brooks Kimmel are the Cofounders of Trust Across America.

While the media might have you believing that trust is declining across all major institutions, not everyone would agree. In fact, that’s why Trust Across America-Trust Around the World was born almost ten years ago, to help organizations build trust through an almost endless array of web based resources, and to highlight those individuals and organizations working to foster organizational trust.

In November Trust Across America witnessed an unprecedented response to our 8th annual Top Thought Leaders in Trust nominations (today’s the last day to enter), with over 20,000 visitors accessing 72,000 pages of material on our website. Just yesterday 843 visitors as diverse as the subject of organizational trust itself stopped by including the NY City Department of Education, Ricoh, AARP, Tel Aviv University and the City & Guilds of London Institute, to name just a few. Last month our blog was read 38,398 times with the most popular downloads being Trust Magazine and our short research piece Return on Trust.

This is encouraging progress in what sometimes feels like an uphill battle against the low trust “news” that bombards us daily.

So I must ask, are you someone who is helping to build trust in your organization or bust it? The business case for high trust organizations has been made time and again… faster decision making, higher innovation, more engaged employees, and higher profitability. Who would say “No” to those advantages? It’s never too late to start, and all you need are a few tools. Our ongoing research shows that those organizations who are already utilizing them are reaping the rewards.

I personally want to thank every one of our readers. While low trust may be both an enormous organizational frustration and barrier, you are the ones making a positive impact in elevating it. Here’s to more trust in 2018!

Interested in learning more? Join our Trust Alliance.

or

Buy our books

or contact me directly: Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

In 2010 Trust Across America introduced the FACTS® Framework, a holistic unbiased barometer of the corporate integrity of America’s largest 2000 US public companies. The Framework identifies companies whose leadership is going beyond doing what is legal to choosing what is right in meeting all stakeholder needs. This, by order of magnitude, is the most comprehensive and data driven ongoing study on this subject. We analyze quarterly and rank order by company, sector and market capitalization. We are particularly interested in tracking individual companies and sector trends over time.

F   Financial Stability and Strength: assesses the company’s financial and market performance. Companies that maintain high rankings have been shown to have better stock performance, with lower volatility over time.

A   Accounting Stability: analyzes the company’s transparency of earnings and quality of reporting. Companies ranking highly over time have conservative ratings and are shown to have less regulatory actions and restatements.

C   Corporate Integrity: assesses the company’s overall governance risk, board independence and composition, and compensation policies and risks. The focus is on real-world value and risk, not just “check-the-box” practices.

T  Transparency: analyzes the company’s financial and nonfinancial clarity including disclosure, environmental management and climate change, diversity, human rights and workforce composition.

S   Sustainability: assesses the company’s environmental, workforce policies, community impact and human rights performance among other metrics.

Trustworthy public companies are rewarded in the long-term. Share on X They not only avoid expensive crises but also have the benefit of stakeholder support and longevity.

During the three-year period from February 2013-February 2016, and according to FACTS® Framework audited live returns, America’s most trustworthy public companies outperformed the S&P 500 by 1.8x. The composite results translate to 16.7% annualized for FACTS® vs. 9.5% for the S&P 500.

Almost two years since this chart was created, Trust has continually proven to be a successful business strategy that may significantly impact a company’s profits over the long-term. Share on X

Our Corporate Integrity Monitor provides additional insights into America’s most trustworthy companies.

Interested in learning more?

Buy our books

or contact Barbara Kimmel: Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright © Next Decade, Inc. All Rights Reserved. FACTS® is a service mark of Next Decade, Inc. in which Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the founder and CEO. Jordan Kimmel and Barbara Brooks Kimmel are the Cofounders of Trust Across America.

Question: If elevating organizational trust improves profitability, what stops senior executives from placing trust at the top of every business agenda?

Possible Answers:

• Trust is taken for granted or overlooked
• No silo “owns” trust so there is no budget
• Trust is soft and intangible
• Trust is not regulated
• External stakeholders are not demanding trust
• Executives believe that the business case for trust does not exist
• Organizational trust is completely misunderstood by just about EVERYONE

I recently posed the following questions to two senior executives at Fortune 500 companies:

Question #1:  How is the level of trust in your organization?

1. Answer from Executive #1: We have no trust issues
2. Answer from Executive #2: We have no trust issues

Question #2: How do you know?

1. Answer from Executive #1: Our revenues are exploding and we are expanding globally.

Note: I call this the “shareholder value” answer.

2. Answer from Executive #2: Weren’t you listening during my speech? Our CSR and philanthropy programs are some of the best out there.

Note: I call this the “corporate window dressing” answer.

Ask almost any C-Suite executive these two questions and most likely you will get a similar answer.

 Now let’s take a deeper dive

Executive #1 works for one of the largest health insurers in the world. Over 500 employees posted the following comments on Glassdoor.com. Overall, the employees rate the company a 3 out of 5.

• Horrible health benefits (the company is a health insurer)
• Huge cronyism issues
• Tons of corporate politics and red tape
• Poor appraisal process
• High stress
• It paid the bills
• Management by fear
• High turnover rates

Executive #2 works for one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Let’s see what over 200 employees have to say about their work experience. Overall, the employees rate the company a 3 out of 5.

• We played cards to reduce our workday from 8 to 6 hours
• Employees not allowed to talk to each other
• Too many company meetings and policies
• No decent leadership
• No morale
• Leaders are inept
• Bureaucracy and never ending process

Do these sound like “high trust” companies to you? Do perceptions match reality?

Trust Across America has been researching and measuring the trustworthiness of the 1500 largest US public companies for almost eight years via it’s FACTS® Framework. This, by order of magnitude, is the most comprehensive and fact-based ongoing study on this subject. We analyze quarterly and rank order by company, sector and market capitalization. We are particularly interested in tracking individual companies and sector trends over time.

While Trust Across America continues to make the business case for trust, it remains quite common for perceptions of organizational trustworthiness to remain misaligned with reality. Most times, the trust “wake up call” and the residual fallout unfortunately occur AFTER a crisis, and as a direct result of a blatant abuse of stakeholder trust. Just ask Wells Fargo, Mylan and Volkswagen.

It’s a lost opportunity when business leaders wear their trust blinders while the evidence mounts not only for the business case but also the financial one.  Trust works.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She also runs the world’s largest global Trust Alliance and is the editor of the award- winning TRUST INC. book series. In 2017 she was named a Fellow of the Governance & Accountability Institute, and in 2012 she was recognized as one of “25 Women who are Changing the World” by Good Business International. She holds a BA in International Affairs from Lafayette College and an MBA from Baruch at the City University of NY.

For more information visit our website at www.trustacrossamerica.com or contact Barbara Brooks Kimmel, CEO and Cofounder

Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

You may also join our Constant Contact mailing list for updates on our progress.

Purchase our books at this link

Copyright 2017, Next Decade, Inc.

Which of these companies do you think has the higher integrity culture, Coca Cola or PepsiCo?

Let’s start by defining what we mean by a high integrity culture. A high integrity culture is…

• NOT the credo written on the wall in the corporate headquarters
• NOT a CSR program or how philanthropic a corporation chooses to be
• NOT solely what employees think of their organization

A high integrity culture…

Has a high integrity VISION that defines its purpose, and that vision is practiced and reinforced daily.

Has high integrity VALUES that serve not only as a guideline but as a PRACTICE for all employees. HR supports these values at all times by hiring PEOPLE who share the corporate values. In fact all silos play a role in maintaining the high integrity values.

Starbucks offers an excellent example of high integrity values:

• Creating a culture of warmth and belonging, where everyone is welcome.
• Acting with courage, challenging the status quo.
• Being present, connecting with transparency, dignity and respect.
• Delivering our very best in all we do, holding ourselves accountable for results.
• We are performance driven, through the lens of humanity.

Has high integrity LEADERSHIP who understands and meets the NEEDS of all its stakeholders, not just shareholders through its consistent practice and reinforcement of its high integrity vision and values.

So who has the higher integrity culture Coca Cola or PepsiCo?

Trust Across America has been measuring the corporate culture of public companies for over seven years through its FACTS Framework. Unlike other culture surveys that rely heavily on employee input, FACTS (an acronym) measures the quantitative indicators or dimensions of high integrity- Financial stability, Accounting conservativeness, Corporate governance, Transparency and Sustainability. And in our analysis Pepsi wins. Out of the five indicators, PepsiCo scores significantly higher in three.

While relying on employee surveys alone may be helpful in measuring culture, surveys don’t tell the full story and can be easily gamed. In fact, in the case of Coke and Pepsi, their Glassdoor reviews, for example, are almost identical.

Why should a high integrity culture matter?

In our ongoing research at Trust Across America, all signs point to high integrity cultures being more profitable. To all those companies whose leaders think culture is soft, intangible, immeasurable and/or doesn’t matter, you are ignoring the FACTS at your own risk. And perhaps that’s why Pepsi scores higher than Coke. It may boil down to Indra Nooyi’s leadership priorities.

You can read more about our Corporate Integrity Monitor findings at this link.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She also runs the world’s largest global Trust Alliance and is the editor of the award- winning TRUST INC. book series. In 2017 she was named a Fellow of the Governance & Accountability Institute, and in 2012 she was recognized as one of “25 Women who are Changing the World” by Good Business International. She holds a BA in International Affairs from Lafayette College and an MBA from Baruch at the City University of NY.

For more information visit our website at www.trustacrossamerica.com or contact Barbara Brooks Kimmel, CEO and Cofounder

Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

You may also join our Constant Contact mailing list for updates on our progress.

Purchase our books at this link

Copyright 2017, Next Decade, Inc.

Would you visit a shoe store without giving the salesperson your shoe size, color or the style you are seeking and expect to leave with shoes that fit properly and meet your needs?

At Trust Across America we often receive the following inquiry:

And every time, I respond with “What are you trying to measure or detect?”

Similar to shoes, trust is not a “one size fits all” proposition. These are just a sampling of the trust assessment choices available to organizations, and most have their own tool and/or assessment mechanism:

• Self-trust- see Rosenberg self esteem scale
• Propensity to trust- see this assessment
• Individual trustworthiness- take the Trust Quotient Assessment from Trusted Advisor Associates
• Internal trust including trust among team members, between teams, and trust between leaders and employees- see the Team Trust Index from Stephen M.R. Covey
• Organizational trustworthiness- see Trust Across America’s FACTS® Framework and the Trust Across America Corporate Integrity Monitor
• Public perceptions of institutional trust- see Edelman Trust Barometer
• Stakeholder trust- see the Conant Leadership Flywheel

In most organizations trust is taken for granted, and maybe it’s because of the mistaken belief that “one size DOES fit all.” After all, most leaders think:

• Trust is intangible
• Trust can be taken for granted
• Trust has no impact on the bottom line.

And perhaps the greatest obstacle to trust…. many leaders have never thought about the word “trust” or considered how it might impact business success. We hope these tools will help change that mindset.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She also runs the world’s largest global Trust Alliance and is the editor of the award- winning TRUST INC. book series. In 2017 she was named a Fellow of the Governance & Accountability Institute, and in 2012 she was recognized as one of “25 Women who are Changing the World” by Good Business International. She holds a BA in International Affairs from Lafayette College and an MBA from Baruch at the City University of NY.

For more information visit our website at www.trustacrossamerica.com or contact Barbara Brooks Kimmel, CEO and Cofounder

Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

You may also join our Constant Contact mailing list for updates on our progress.

Purchase our books at this link

Copyright 2017, Next Decade, Inc.