Trust spoken of is rarely earned

20 Jun 2015

A joint research study by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) with Robert Phillips, author of 'Trust me, PR is dead', into the use of the word 'trust', indicates that the use of the word has risen by a a factor of eight in the past decades. This indicates an increasing corporate obsession with trustworthiness but the focus on trust is not always backed up by corporate action.

"Trust often spoken is trust rarely earned," says Phillips.

An analysis of the use of 'trust' - when referring to the concept, not the legal structure - in annual reports of FTSE 100 companies over the last decade, found that the word was mentioned just 38 times in 2005, but has climbed steadily since, appearing on 317 occasions in 2014.

Tony Manwaring, CIMA's executive director of external affairs, said, "The concept of 'trust' has always been misused by companies, but the past ten years has seen it achieve high growth as a corporate buzzword.

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"This is strange, because 'trust' is not something companies can directly control - it is an outcome. It does not work as a message. Endlessly repeat the word 'trust' if you want, but it will not make people trust you."

Likewise, the phrase 'building trust' appeared just once in a single 2005 annual report; in 2013, it was mentioned 18 times.

Phillips adds, "I would happily retire the t-word from the English language for a decade or two, allowing us time to reflect on what it really means to be trusted or trustworthy. It has been used and abused to the point of exhaustion. This is where so many leaders immediately fail. They think that by speaking endless words of trust or, in Ed Miliband's case, carving those words in stone, somehow we will trust them. We won't."

He argues that to be more trusted, companies need to create 'public value', as well as shareholder value, and focus on profit optimisation rather than profit maximisation. He cites banking, arguing that if a bank were to make radical changes including copying the John Lewis Partnership employee ownership model, ceasing extravagant bonuses and levying a small charge to its retail banking customers rather than claiming to offer 'free banking', it would begin to earn genuine consumer trust, and quickly address the challenge of being socially useless.

"If a firm wishes to become trustworthy, the answer does not lie with crafting narratives, managing messages or meaningless platitudes. We need actions, not words," concludes Phillips.