Companies have to earn and maintain trust through actions: Rashmi Dubé

Trust is a fragile commodity. It is never just given. Like reputation, it is earned over a period of time.

So where does the trust issue sit today in business, the economy generally, and politically? The business world is in flux. We are experiencing enormous change. The indicator is trust.

The growth of the new disruptors such as crypto leads to initial mistrust or even dismissal in terms of their longevity, with business making attempts to claim it’s a fad it wont last or cannot become the mainstream.

Bitcoin since its introduction has created controversy, but how much of the trust or mistrust has been generated from the established banks?

There is no harm in being wary but the worry for those in the financial infrastructure is that it could ultimately mean destabilisation of the current financial system. The thing about crypto is that it is taking its time to mature and during this phase it will gain traction and trust. The current trust lies with governments and their ability to facilitate the role of central banks in most economies.

Crypto arguably undermines this trust; it does away with intermediaries. A central bank is no longer required to manage, transfer or distribute currency. The role of government is to establish regulation and protection for users of the currency. However, one can argue this is a slow burn.

Ok, so this is just something that is in the background bubbling away. What about Artificial Intelligence and the trust factor here? Given that machine learning is to be the biggest gamechanger at every level of society as we know it, can we really trust data? The companies that currently use some form of AI have trust issues with the data.

In a recent survey of 1,000 senior executives released by ESI ThoughtLab and Cognizant, results revealed that “20 per cent of companies are powering ahead in the use of AI for decision-making... the remaining 80 per cent are struggling with a vicious cycle that holds them back”.

Trust starts looking like the person who can advocate the hardest for the issue that they believe in.

Across the pond in the States, the Securities and Exchange Commission introduced a rule change to make it easier for shareholders activities to elect board nominees. The new rules have been in effect since September last year. This in essence is a test of boards of directors and corporate governance.

What this says to me is that there is a decline in the trust of companies to do the right things in terms of good governance practices within companies.

The thing is trust is no longer something we assume governments and companies deserve. It has to be demonstrated by delivery, by committing to levelling up agendas and delivering on them in a way that actually makes a difference.

Rashmi Dubé is a partner at gunnercooke