The Trust Edge

The Importance of “Trust”

Most people value trust over anything else. In the absence of trust, they find it difficult to do anything significant. That includes completing commercial transactions, affecting other people’s opinions, working with other individuals, building the value of the brand or increasing profitability.

John O. Whitney, director of the Deming Center for Quality Management at the Columbia Business School, found, “Mistrust doubles the cost of doing business.” Companies with high degrees of trust had profit levels almost three times above those with low trust. Conditions that encourage commercial transactions require trust and dissipate without it. Businesses can’t forge new associations or boost customers’ regard. Without trust, a firm’s ability to work effectively decreases, and its employee retention suffers.

Defining Trust

Trust is a belief in a person or thing. Being trusted indicates that a person or a product has an inherent integrity even under the most trying circumstances. Strong trust connections are implicit. Your chair doesn’t need to reassure you about its trustworthiness to encourage you to sit down. Similarly, trust in...