Do we trust the leaders of the companies that we work for? The answer is yes according to Edelman’s most recent annual global Trust Barometer.
The public relations firm’s 2022 survey makes reassuring and inspiring reading for company executives like myself. And while the report does not include Vietnam as one of its 28 respondent countries, many of its findings are just as applicable here.
One of the main ones relates to the role that businesses should play in society. Respondents want to see businesses play a greater role not a lesser one because they trust them more than other types of institutions.
Edelman says this is because respondents view businesses as a reliable and credible source of information in an era of fake news, especially across social media. It believes that businesses can help to bridge “trust gaps” in societies.
Even more pleasingly, the research highlighted that the kind of companies, which people trust most, are family-owned ones. These are trusted by 67% of the survey’s 36,000 global respondents, up three percentage points year-on-year. By comparison, privately-owned businesses are trusted by 58%, publicly-traded businesses by 56% and state-owned businesses by 52%.
These statistics are not really that surprising. People trust family-owned businesses because they know that the owners are completely invested in their company’s success.
The owners of family-run businesses are highly unlikely to just leave and get another job if things go wrong. Instead, it is in their interests to work out why things went wrong so that they can do better next time and so can the company. The Tran family lives by this ethos at THP and we encourage everyone else who works for the company to do the same. Our fifth core value – Spirit of Business Ownership – is all about training our employees to act like business owners.
The Tran family lives by this ethos at THP and we encourage everyone else who works for the company to do the same. Our fifth core value – Spirit of Business Ownership – is all about training our employees to act like business owners.
What this does NOT mean is telling other people what to do. Instead, it is all about setting a good example and taking responsibility for success and failure since the two go hand-in-hand.
Leadership rests on accountability. And accountability is the very foundation that trust is built on.
At THP, we take our corporate responsibilities to society seriously too. My sister Bich and I spend a lot of time outside the company attending conferences, seminars and events. We also actively engage with the local media.
Of course, we do both of these things to pick up business tips and enhance our brand. But we are also just as keen to pass on the lessons that we have learned so that others may thrive too.
Another interesting finding from Edelman’s survey is how consumers buy brands based on a company’s beliefs and values. More than half of all respondents (58%) said that this was a motivating factor.
Trust is an important part of brand value. This also chimes with another THP core value: Responsibility to Community and Society. Increasingly, we are all becoming aware that one of the most pressing responsibilities of all is to the preserving the environment. It is one of the main reasons why are investing our R&D resources to recycling and waste management.
