Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

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.

Without generosity elevating organizational trust is not attainable, and the resulting low trust level is very expensive. Think about that. If leaders do not give their time or expertise to their stakeholders, they should not expect more than minimal progress in any facet of their enterprise. Unfortunately, low generosity is the “norm” not the exception in the *age of diminishing trust, and financial philanthropy is not a sufficient substitute.

As the CEO of Trust Across America, and in celebration of our 10th anniversary, I am pledging to freely give two hours per week of my time to share the organizational trust expertise I have developed over this ten-year period.

Email me at barbara@trustacrossamerica.com , message me on LinkedIn or post your question right here. What organizational trust challenge are you trying to solve? Let me know. I will respond directly or, if I do not feel qualified to answer, I will pass your inquiry to the best qualified member of our Trust Alliance. There is no cost to you whatsoever. It is simply Trust Across America’s way of positively impacting the trust challenges our global society currently faces.

*Need further proof?

• Employee engagement continues to fall to 32% on 8/6/17
• Organizations with low employee engagement scores saw 18% lower productivity, 16% lower profitability, 37% lower job growth, and 65% lower share price over time. (Source: Queens School of Business and by the Gallup)
• Innovation stalls
• 86% of corporate executives, employees and educators say that ineffective communications is a big reason for failures in the workplace. (Source: Salesforce)

Maybe you can find a way to participate in The Year of Living Generously. It starts today. How much time will you spare to share your expertise and elevate trust?

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.

Ten years of ongoing research on organizational trustworthiness has Trust Across America concluding that well-governed companies are less prone to crisis and more profitable over the long term.

One need not look beyond Uber to the fallout of a corporate governance failure. Yet, as a business leader, my definition of “well governed” may not necessarily align with yours.

If your current or past experience includes Independent Lead Directorship, Board Chair or CEO (either active or retired), would you kindly take a few minutes to respond in writing, with short answers, to the following questions?

• What does/did the term “good corporate governance” mean to you?
• What are/were some of the key governance practices you find/found most useful to good corporate governance?
• What are some suggestions you have for improved corporate governance in the future?

We hope to receive 50 responses to be published in a special upcoming governance issue of TRUST! Magazine as well as in a series of articles.

If you do not want to be identified, that works too, but please respond with the following information.

Name:

Title:

Company:

Can we publish your response with your name and title?

Please reply directly to me: Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com. We are hoping to collect your response no later than February 1, 2018, in time for our publication. Thank you in advance for your participation.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel
CEO and Cofounder

The chart above shows the “Return on Trust” of America’s Most Trustworthy Public Companies over the past six years. As a corporate leader every year that passes makes ignoring the business case for trust more difficult to justify. Yet in our almost ten years of research, Trust Across America continues to find that most business leaders do just that, they ignore trust. The following are the five main reasons why corporate leaders are missing out on perhaps their single most important strategic advantage.

Leaders take trust for granted

Trust doesn’t just “happen.” It’s a deliberate and intentional business strategy that must be practiced and reinforced daily.

Leaders use the wrong metrics

Growing quarterly earnings, CSR programs and philanthropy do not satisfy the trust imperative.

Leaders treat trust as a “soft skill”

Organizational trustworthiness is a hard currency as shown in the chart above.

Leaders are “trust reactive” 

Rarely do we hear proactive leadership discussions of trust. Instead, trust becomes a talking point after a breach. How often have we heard the battle cry “We must rebuild trust!” (Problem is it’s hard to rebuild something that never existed.)

Leaders delegate trust

Trust is not a function of legal, compliance, HR, communications, or any other department. Maintaining a high trust organization is the responsibility of the Board of Directors and executive leadership.

If you’ve gotten this far, you may want to click on Alison Taylor’s recent piece in the Harvard Business Review “5 Signs Your Organization Might be Headed for an Ethics Scandal.” Thanks for the inspiration Alison!

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.

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.

Every year about this time, the news “treats us” to the top corporate reputation failures, and 2017 is certainly no exception. I think it’s safe to say that the “buck stopped” on the CEO’s desk at Wells Fargo, United Airlines and Equifax, to name just a few leadership fails this year.

While bad news continues to sell, not all is gloom and doom. When I launched Trust Across America-Trust Around the World almost ten years ago, one of our objectives was to redirect attention to the “good.” Great corporate leaders are plentiful, but their stories often get buried amongst all the bad news.

The list below is not about philanthropy or CSR, but rather a long-term holistic embrace of trustworthy leadership and the resulting impact on ALL stakeholders, not just shareholders.

Ten Great CEO “Trust” Stories for 2017

(not in any rank order)

#1 David Reiling, CEO at Sunrise Banks talks about community enrichment, innovation and its impact on underserved consumers in banking.

#2 Basecamp CEO Jason Fried limits both meetings and work hours to ensure his employees lead well-balanced lives.

#3 Amy Hanson, CEO of Hanson Consulting encourages both teamwork and corporate transparency.

#4 Rose Marcario runs Patagonia and for her, conscious leadership has resulted in the quadrupling of profits.

#5 Fifty-year old Earth Friendly Products CEO Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks pays her employees a minimum of $17.00 per hour.

#6 In an industry fraught with reputation disasters, Gary Kelly at Southwest Airlines not only puts customers first but insists on making flying enjoyable.

#7 Love, trust and commitment to excellence are how Mark Stefanski, CEO (for 30 years) of Third Federal Savings and Loan describes his values, while eighty percent of his associates are women.

#8 Mark Benioff at Salesforce is trying to close the gender and racial pay gap.

#9 Cathy Engelbert, Deloitte’s CEO has a 94% employee approval rating and still manages to balance work and family. (After all, family is certainly a stakeholder in the life of a CEO.)

#10 Chip Bergh, who took the helm at Levi Strauss in 2011, has created a long-term focused culture where employees feel safe to experiment… and it’s worked.

(And BTW: Chip and I share the same (Lafayette College alma mater.)

Whether male or female (count them on this list) trustworthy CEOs know that philanthropy and CSR only go so far in building high trust companies. Trustworthy CEOs practice what we call VIP Leadership (Values, Integrity & Promises kept). The CEOs mentioned on our 2017 list don’t just “talk” about stakeholder trust, they walk it. Community enrichment, focus on employees, conscious leadership, treatment of customers, protecting the environment. These are what make a great CEO.

Let’s celebrate these trustworthy leaders and the companies they run. Let’s work together to continue to build organizational trust in 2018.

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. Click To Tweet 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. Click To Tweet

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.

Our third anniversary Showcase of Service Providers has been published.

See the fall issue of TRUST! Magazine.

I hope you will take a few minutes to review the magazine featuring those who place organizational trust in the center of their business agenda.