Who and what the world trusts

This week, Edelman published their 2011 version of the Edelman Trust Barometer. Over the past 4 years, I’ve begun to watch this report as it comes out annually with great interest. Below is the slide presentation.

Here are some of my observations.

Trust in Institutions in the US and UK are pretty close to levels of trust in Russia.
Wow. Enough said.

CEO’s aren’t all liars and trust in experts or credible sources is growing.
As more and more people have begun to share their voice in the digital realms, the deluge of information has once again created demand for filtering.

People overwhelmingly trust people in the technology industry most
I find this a bit surprising and wonder if this is because in general people feel that Google, Apple, and (gasp!) Facebook have actually made their life better and easier?

Quality, transparency, trust is what leads to corporate reputation
Interesting that there is such a high correlation between trust and quality

Corporations should be good be good members of society
More than 80% of people in Germany, the UK, Ireland, China, US, Mexico, Indonesia, Canada, The Netherlands, Sweden and Russia believe that corporations should create shareholder value that aligns with societal interests as a whole.

So what does this mean for organizations?

- Create great quality products and services
- Treat employees well
- Promote and share internal talent and expertise with the world to establish credibility and trust
- Aim to create systems of interdependent value distribution; Focus on shareholder returns, AND be mindful of local communities, and society at large.
- In the US, UK and some other countries, there is a trust leadership void. This means opportunity for the organizations who can excel in the items listed above.