Crises are good for something. They separate the great from the good enough.
Probably most business leaders look at a crisis and curse it. In the crisis, they see problems and burdens.
A few outstanding business leaders do just the opposite. Bold and imaginative, they look at a crisis and grin. For where others see only problems, these exceptional leaders see the gold of opportunity. They see potential for breakthrough competitive advantage.
At this very moment, you have just such a crisis on your hands, and therefore you have just such an opportunity in your hands. It is wise to seize it while you can.
The crisis looks like a leaky faucet of trust. Year after year, the credibility of business has been eroding among all three lifeline stakeholders: employees, investors, and customers. It has truly reached the point of a crisis.
You are well familiar with the litany of reasons: Mergers that haven't worked. Earnings that have to be restated. CEOs who retire with gazillions. Layoffs as a first resort, not last. Corporate values honored in the breach. "Customer service" that is a Jay Leno oxymoron. Broken promises everywhere. Manipulation as a core competency.
All Companies Pay the Price
If some companies are faultless, all companies suffer the collateral damage. Reputable studies show a broad, significant diminution in credibility affecting virtually every sector and extending around the world. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, some industries hold the trust of fewer than one of three people.
Not surprisingly, no one wants to address this issue. At first blush, it is seemingly thankless. Certainly it is hard to turn this around. To the casual observer, no single company can break out of the pack. If none can, then trying will be futile.
But is that true? Some organizations do manage to hold the public's trust. I can rattle off a list: Northwestern Mutual, Toyota, Johnson & Johnson, the Mayo Clinic, Virgin Atlantic, Chick-Fil-A, Southwest Airlines, Apple Computer, Harley-Davidson, the BBC, the Weather Channel.
All these organizations recognize an essential truth: No one wants to do business with someone who is untrustworthy. No one wants to work for an untrustworthy employer. No one wants to invest in untrustworthy management. And no one wants to buy an untrustworthy anything.
The inverse of that is also true. Establish yourself as trustworthy, and people will choose your organization to work for, invest in, and buy from. That's a competitive advantage you can measure. That's a competitive advantage that grows your company. That's a competitive advantage you can take to the bank.
Trust Offers Competitive Advantage
In the work I do, which often involves corporate departments of communication, I am frequently asked: How can we contribute to the company's top-line growth and bottom-line profitability in ways that we can measure and prove? Here's one way: Manage the company's trust both inside and outside systematically.
By systematically, I mean nothing less than putting in place a system that methodically forces consideration of implicit as well as explicit, and distributed as well as centralized, messaging. Such a system will pay for itself in weeks if not days.
What you have here is an opportunity in the robes of a crisis. Smart people will see it for what it's worth. Gold.
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