Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

For anyone still hesitating to embrace the business notion that trust is an asset – an asset that can leverage real business gains –look at the ongoing data from Trust Across America – Trust Around the World (TAA-TAW) comparing companies with strong trust profiles to all other companies.

Our portfolio is based on our FACTS model that combines quantifiable indicators of organizational trust including strong Financials, conservative Accounting, good Corporate governance, Transparent business practices and business Sustainability.

Source: Trust Across America November 2013

The market clearly values trustworthy business behavior, so why does the crisis of distrust continue, and why are companies not more focused on trustworthiness? It boils down to a system that makes other assets priorities over trust – specifically, antiquated notions of shareholder value and settling for regulatory compliance as the marker of ethical behavior, among other distractions.

The value of a company is derived from the relationships it maintains will all its stakeholders, not just shareholders. When we look at corporate performance we can no longer look at the short-term and we cannot merely look at investors.

Trust leadership requires a more progressive stance on building authentic relationships with stakeholders – a relationship that pays trust dividends.  It also requires a long-term focus. And for those pioneers in valuing trust and investing in trust, the upside is clear –and the short-term takes care of it self.

Barbara Kimmel, Executive Director of Trust Across America (TAA), a US based think tank and communications program (www.trustacrossamerica.com) whose mission is to help build organizational trust. Through it’s Alliance formed in early 2013, global experts are joining forces to collaboratively advance the cause of trustworthy business.

 http://trustacrossamerica.com/cgi-bin/alliance.cgi

Our new book, Trust Inc., Strategies for Building Your Company’s Most Valuable Asset  has just been released.

Trust Inc.

While most authors and publishers hope for bestseller status for their new titles, we hope so too, but not for the same reasons that most do. If we don’t earn it, we’d rather not have it! This is how we would like to see it happen. Will you help?

Our Prayer for Becoming a Bestseller

1. May every CEO who puts profit before good business read this book.
2. May every CEO take away the understanding that trust IS a hard currency.
3. May every Board member read this book before their next meeting.
4. May business schools use the essays as case studies on how to do it “right.”
5. May someone deliver copies to every member of Congress and the guy in the White House. The lessons to be learned apply to all organizations, not just businesses.
6. May everyone who buys a book, buy a second one for someone who will benefit from reading it.
7. May the financial news anchors read this book and start talking about a new “trust” model for business.
8. May Warren Buffett, who is mentioned several times, take a bow for trustworthy business practices.
9. Same goes for Howard Schultz of Starbucks.
10. May every essay contributor feel a tremendous sense of pride in collaborating on this much-needed resource, and help us spread the word to foster trust around the world. Our mission has just begun.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THE BOOK FOR SOMEONE WHO SHOULD READ IT

Ask any C-Suite executive about organizational trust and most will tell you that the “soft stuff” belongs to another department. Soft stuff? How many business executives do you know who could pass this “trust” test?

The Hard Cost of Low Trust

Question: Gallup’s research (2011) places ________ % of U.S. workers as either not engaged or actively disengaged.

Answer: A startling 71%

Question: The price tag of disengagement (Gallup) is $________

Answer: $350 billion a year. That roughly approximates the annual combined revenue of Apple, General Motors and General Electric.

Question: The Washington Post reported that “the federal government imposed an estimated $_________ in regulatory costs on the economy (in 2012).”

Answer: $216 billion in 2012, nearly double its previous record.

Question: The cost of the tort litigation system alone in the United States is over $________.

Answer: $250 billion. – or 2% of GDP, Forbes, January 2012

Question: The six biggest U.S. banks, led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Bank of America Corp., have piled up $___________ in legal costs since the financial crisis.

Answer: $103 billion in legal costs since the financial crisis, more than all dividends paid to shareholders in the past five years. Bloomberg, August 2013

Question: According to The Economist Intelligence Unit (2010), __________ % of senior leaders say disengaged employees are considered one of the biggest threats facing their business. However, only ____________ % of them reported doing anything about this problem.

Answer: 84%, 12%

Question: In 2011 , WIQ calculated that mistrust is costing companies between ______% to ______% revenue loss, and _____% to _______% loss of profitability. WIQ is a team sourcing technology company

Answer: 14-18% revenue loss and 17-24% loss of profitability.

Question: In the 1960’s, if you introduced a new product______% of the people who viewed it for the first time believed the corporate promise. Forty years later, if you performed the same exercise less than _______% believed it was true. Howard Schultz, Founder & CEO Starbucks

Answer: 90% believed the corporate promise, now less than 10% believe it to be true.

Question: According to Edelman globally, _____% of consumers trust businesses, but just ______% trust business leadership.

Answer: 50% of consumers trust business, while 18% trust business leadership.

Question: In the United States, Edelman’s statistics are similar, but the story is a bit worse for leadership. While _____% of U.S. consumers trust businesses, just ____% trust business leadership.

Answer: 50% of consumers trust business while just 15% trust business leadership.

The Low Cost of Hard Trust

Unfortunately, it’s easier to find data on the cost associated with low trust. But here are a few test questions addressing the cost savings of hard trust.

Question: A study by the Russell Investment Group finds the “100 Best Companies to Work for in America (In which trust represents 60 percent of the overall criteria) earned over _______ times the returns of the market at large.

Answer: See for yourself. resources.greatplacetowork.com/article/pdf/how_trust_affects_the_bottom_line.pdf

Question: The Towers Watson 2011-2012 “Change and Communication ROI Study Report” shows that companies that have highly-effective communications practices are _________ times more likely to outperform their peers financially.

Answer: 1.7 times

And finally, Trust Across America – Trust Around the World continues to track the performance of America’s Most Trustworthy Companies agains the S&P 500 and the findings are nothing less than remarkable.

 

 

The next time a business executive tells you “trust is soft”, suggest he take the “Test” and maybe (even) buy our new book:

Trust Inc., Strategies for Building Your Company’s Most Valuable Asset.

 

Trust Inc.

 

 

Collaboration leads to better decision-making, and by working together, people can achieve extraordinary things.

On a personal level, collaboration:

• Improves communication skills
• Stimulates critical thinking
• Enhances self esteem
• Builds confidence
• Motivates individuals to take risks
• Builds self-control
• Allows for evaluation of personal values and goals
• Builds empathy
• Teaches to listen with respect
• Develops conflict resolution skills

As a group, collaboration:

• Increases productivity
• Speeds up decision-making
• Encourages creativity
• Simplifies workflows
• Pools skills and resources
• Fosters diversity
• Increases profitability
• Brings balance to decision-making
• Encourages win/win situations
• And most importantly, builds trust

So the next time someone asks you to collaborate, perhaps you won’t need to ask “What’s in it for me?”

How do you normally respond when someone asks you to collaborate?

I don’t eat cookies, except for Mallomars. I love Mallomars. They take me back to my childhood. I ceremoniusly pull off the tops and eat the cookie separately. I wait for Mallomar Week every year and then I indulge in a box (or even two)!

So when I walked into our local chain supermarket earlier today with one of my teenage sons (he also has the Mallomar excitement gene) and we were greeted with an ENORMOUS display of Mallomars, we high-fived each other and added two boxes to the shopping cart (at $1.99 a carton). And then we read the fine print. “Sale is in effect for 4 days from September 11 through September 15 (today is September 8).  And my son said, “That’s deceptive advertising” just as one of the store managers walked past, and he must have heard the comment.

He politely asked if he could help and I explained the issue to him. At first he “pretended” (I’ll tell you why I chose that word in the next paragraph) not to understand until I pointed out that anyone who bought the cookies between now and  September 11 would not do so at the advertised price. And not only did he agree, but he immediately removed the signs; and my son and I felt like we had all won (including the store manager for doing the right thing) and we had all done a good deed for the shoppers who would have mistakenly paid full price before the sale date.

And then we went shopping, discussing how people can, and do act with integrity and will admit their mistakes…until I realized that I had forgotten the tomatoes, which were on display next to the Mallomars, where the signs had been put right back up, as soon as we walked away.

And that, my friends, is today’s story about trust, or lack thereof. And when I finally do buy that box (or two) on Wednesday, I bet they won’t taste quite as good as in the past. The bitter taste of today’s experience may linger for a while.

Shame on all the companies that try to “put one over on their customers.” Remember, without your customers, you have no business.

1. Our name changes to Trust Across America – Trust Around the World, reflecting our global expertise and program reach
2. Our membership expands to almost 20 countries
   
3. Our Alliance members organize into task forces to tackle five early initiatives in our Campaign for Trust
4. 46,000+ page views in May! Organizational trust is a global concern and a popular subject
5. Our book, Trust Inc.: Strategies for Building Your Company’s Most Valuable Asset is now available for preorder 
   
6. Construction of a master Framework of Organizational Trust (for use in any organization regardless of size) is underway
7. Trust Talks™ launches: Delivering speakers and panels for worldwide events
8. Trustworthy businesses continue to outperform their less trustworthy peers bit.ly/111ZtjV
9. Community Ambassadors to our Alliance are joining us from around the world
10. A Google search of the term “trustworthy business” returns the first 4 listings to us!

Collaboration is a powerful tool, especially in addressing and advancing a global issue like trust!

For more information, please contact Barbara Kimmel, Executive Director, Trust Across America – Trust Around the World

Email: mailto:Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Does Trustworthy Business Result in Stock Market Outperformance?

This week, a well-respected colleague put a challenge before me. He said that Trust Across America (TAA) must continue to correlate stock market performance to trustworthiness in order to gain the attention of public companies. In other words, companies care about little else.

While I humbly think that TAA has gained plenty of attention, I love a challenge! So Mike, this one’s for you!

I decided to look back at our first “Top Ten” Most Trustworthy Public Companies named in early 2010 and calculate the collective market performance of these ten companies vs. the S&P 500.  We begin our calculation on December 10, 2009, the day the companies were selected, and end on May 17, 2013.

This is the list:

Hess (HES)

Albemarle (ALB)

Best Buy (BBY)

Cummins (CMI)

Eastman Chemical (EMN)

Lexmark (LXK)

Lubrizol (acquired by Warren Buffett)

Sonoco Products  (SON)

Texas Instruments (TXN)

USANA (USNA)

Setting Lubrizol aside (although the Buffett acquisition could be the subject of a separate blog post) leaves us with 9 companies. Collectively, these companies posted gains of 63.96% vs. 51.27% for the S&P, resulting in outperformance of 24%. For those of you who want to dig a bit deeper, 8 companies increased their share price while one (Best Buy) saw a decrease. Three companies had greater than 100% stock price appreciation over that period.

So Mike, in the short-term you may be more right than wrong. But the world is not that simple. We are seeing a shift in focus away from shareholder value, albeit a slow one. Building trustworthy organizations and increasing stakeholder trust, while flying in the face of the quarterly income statement mentality, may be gaining in popularity.

I will argue that the companies listed above are “on to something” that somehow approximates trustworthy business practices.  On the other hand, maybe Trust Across America just got lucky, as I’m sure some will conclude, when our FACTS® Framework chose these companies back in 2010.  You decide.

Feel free to leave your comments here or email me at barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Our book, Trust Inc:, Strategies for Building Your Company’s Most Valuable Asset is now available for preorder!

Trust Inc.

Who is tweeting on trustworthy business? Here are just some of the “Best of the Best!”

Patricia Aburdene   @paburdene

Randy Conley  @RandyConley

Kellie Cummings @Kellcummings

Charles Feltman @CharlesFeltman

Linda Fisher Thornton @leadingincontxt

Robert  Galford  @RobertGalford

Bahar  Gidwani @CSRHub

Charlie Green @CharlesHGreen

Jim  Gregory @CoreBrand

Parveen  Gupta @ParveenPGupta

Nadine  Hack  @NadineHack

Stewart  Hirsch @Stewartmhirsch

Michael  Hopkins @mjdhopkins

Noreen Kelly @NoreenJKelly

Kimmel, Barbara @BarbaraKimmel

Jim  Kouzes  @Jim_Kouzes

Deb Krizmanich  @Powernoodle

Mike Krzus @mikekrzus

Par Larshans   @PLarshans

Greg Link  @CoveyLink

Linda Locke  @Reputationista

Eric Lowitt  @ericlowitt

Elsie Maio  @Soulbrand

Jon Mertz @thindifference

Deb Mills-Scofield @dscofield

Carol Sanford  @carolsanford

Omer Soker @OmerSoker

Frank Sonnenberg @FSonnenberg

Roger Steare @RogerSteare

Davia Temin @DaviaTemin

Robert Vanourek @BobVanourek

Bob Whipple @Rwhipple

Who should be added to this list. Drop me a note and let me know. barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Barbara Kimmel, Executive Director, Trust Across America

www.trustacrossamerica.com- Leaders in information, standards and data, and the “Who’s Who of Trustworthy Business”

Once upon a time, in the land of gardens, also known as New Jersey, a somewhat small “Jersey Girl” named Barbara (Barb to her good friends) had a rather tall vision to change the world, or at least the conversation.  Barb believed that if she could increase the dialogue around trust, particularly in business, it would spring eternal- similar to Jersey’s blueberries- and the trust crisis would subside.

And so Barb began to knock on the doors of corporate America (and businesses in lands far away) to politely inquire about trustworthy business practices. Oddly, the response was not what she expected to hear. “We are big business. We are trustworthy. We are beating our quarterly earnings and expanding globally. We give to charities. The trust crisis is not out problem. You are just one person named Barb from NJ. Go away with your “soft words.”  Go knock somewhere else.”

And so she did because Barb had changed her middle name from Jane to “Tenacity” right around the same time that she turned 39 for the third year in a row. She knocked and knocked and did not give up until the right people started to listen-and even offered to help. And then she came up with an idea- if one rather small woman from NJ could get some “trust lovin’”, imagine how much 100 men and women, or 1000, or even a million could attract? And so she started a movement- A Campaign for Trust, and she invited everyone who didn’t slam the door to join her-  (except the mainstream media because they are still stuck on bad news)!

And in a few months, eyebrows around the world began to “raise” as did the roster of alliance members, almost 200 from 13 countries and counting. Men and women from academia, consulting, the “alternative” media, and even a few from “big business” (including some CEO’s) signed up to help. They weren’t exactly sure what “signing up” meant, but they trusted Barb enough to know they wanted to be part of this particular movement- because without trust, what else really matters?

Do you want to be part of the problem or part of the solution? Do you want to learn more about what Barb and the band of “trustnicks” are up to?

Read more about our alliance here.

trustacrossamerica.com/cgi-bin/alliance.cgi

PS- Barb’s teenage son cautions about trying to be funny about trust. It’s a serious subject. Barb disagrees. She thinks trust can be funny and fun, and serious too! What do you think? Email her at barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

As the Executive Director of Trust Across America, I often find myself discussing the difference between being legal and being ethical. The legal side of the discussion is pretty easy to explain. If you and/or your organization comply with the law, you are meeting your legal requirement. Being ethical- not so easy to describe. It’s going beyond what’s legal to “doing the right thing” and I’ve learned there is no standard for the “right thing.”

In reading today’s headlines, I may have found a perfect case study for legal vs. ethical, right in my own backyard. Talk about not “getting it!” The story has do do with NJ taxpayers paying dozens of school superintendents twice via a paycheck and a pension. It’s called “double-dipping” and it’s perfectly legal. But is it ethical? You can read the full article here.

bit.ly/12m0p3Q