INTHEBLACK May 2025 - Magazine - Page 22
F E AT U R E
“What can you do as a business to demonstrate that you
really care about the damage that has been done through the
erosion of trust? How can you go one step further to become
an exemplary business and raise the standards for everyone?”
NINO TESORIERO, OGILVY PR
harassment across multiple sectors, it is
little wonder consumers can lose trust
in organisations.
But trust is a prized commodity that few
can afford to lose. Research from Deloitte
shows that trusted companies outperform
their peers by up to 400 per cent, and that
customers who trust a brand are 88 per cent
more likely to buy from it again. The research
also shows that almost 80 per cent
of employees who trust their employer feel
more motivated at work.
Trust can be hard to win, easy to lose
and painstaking to regain. With current
economic and social conditions creating
a perfect storm for its decline, is there
a winning formula for maintaining trust
in 2025?
WHEN TRUST IS AT RISK
Karthik Ramanna, professor of business and
public policy at the University of Oxford’s
Blavatnik School of Government and author
of The Age of Outrage, says three key factors
put trust at risk in 2025. The first is what
he describes as a “fear of the future”.
“The technological disruption of artificial
intelligence (AI) promises to be at least as
disruptive, if not more, as social changes
brought by the industrial revolution,” he says.
“Add to that concerns around climate change
and shifting demographics, particularly
in the Western world. When people look
ahead to the next few years, they realise
it’s going to look very different from the
world we’ve become used to.”
A second factor in declining trust, says
Ramanna, is that some people feel they’re
getting a “raw deal”.
“If we have fear of the future, but we
have deep trust in our leaders, government
institutions and business institutions, perhaps
22 INTHEBLACK May 2025
people wouldn’t be as anxious and outraged
as they are,” he says. “But in many societies,
and again particularly in Western societies,
people feel that they’ve been handed a raw
deal by their leaders and their institutions.”
The third factor for declining trust is
a polarising sense of “us versus them”.
“There is a growing sense of ‘othering’
and less of the tolerance and willingness
to see a lack of trust as a global
humanist project. Through the pursuit
of Enlightenment principles we might
somehow be able to resolve problems,”
says Ramanna.
EARNING TRUST
Trust may be easy to lose, but how is it
earned? Rachel Botsman, a leading trust
expert and author of How to Trust and
Be Trusted, says earning trust comes through
a balance of capability, such as the quality
of products or services, and character,
which comprises qualities like integrity
and compassion.
“The weight of that balance is changing,”
says Botsman. “In the past, businesses could
be very capable in their products and services
and their brands would be strong, but now
it’s the character of those organisations
and those leaders that is in question, largely
because of the current visibility into the way
that they work and the way products and
services are sold.
“I think integrity has become the most
important trait for organisations. Trust really
breaks down when people no longer believe
that the interests of that organisation or that
leader are aligned with their best interests.
That’s where you get the friction and that’s
where many organisations run into trouble.”
Ramanna adds that earning trust requires
making commitments that companies
