INTHEBLACK May 2025 - Magazine - Page 21
Trust can be hard to win,
easy to lose and painstaking
to regain, but current
economic and social
conditions create a perfect
storm for its overall decline.
Earning business trust comes
from a blend of capability,
character, delivering on
commitments and ensuring
that those commitments are
relevant to the core business.
When trust is lost or put
at risk, honesty should be
the first response, followed
by going above and beyond
to repair the damage.
A matter
of trust
Trust is an asset too valuable to lose. When unethical conduct slips
through the gaps, how can trust be regained and is there a winning
formula for maintaining trust in 2025?
Words Susan Muldowney
WHEN NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING
economist Milton Friedman penned his
influential essay, The Social Responsibility
of Business is to Increase its Prof its,
he included a vital caveat that many leaders
appear to overlook. Executives are generally
directed to seek to make as much money as
possible, wrote Friedman, “while conforming
to the basic rules of the society, both those
embodied in law and those embodied in
ethical custom”.
More than five decades have passed since
the publication of Friedman’s doctrine,
and history shows that ethics can be a murky
concept across the corporate landscape.
Despite an abundance of regulations,
guidelines and frameworks that govern
ethical business practices, improper behaviour
still slips through the cracks.
From high-profile confidentiality leaks
in professional services to investigations
into allegations of price gouging by major
supermarkets, widescale data breaches and
allegations of greenwashing and sexual
intheblack.cpaaustralia.com.au 21
