Four Steps to Restore Trust in Business
Global CEOs agree on four things they can do to engage in the community and build the business
February 24, 2014 CECP Board of Boards CEO Roundtable
Featured speakers Michael T. Duke, Retired CEO, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.; Dominic Barton, Worldwide Managing Director, McKinsey & Company; Anthony F. Earley Jr., Chairman, CEO, and President, PG&E; Richard Edelman, President and CEO, Edelman; Duncan Niederauer, CEO, NYSE; Gregory Page, Executive Chairman, Cargill; Anne Stausboll, CEO, CalPERS; and 50 global CEO attendees discussed the theme, Restoring Trust by being a Force for Good.
Attendees of the 2014 Board of Boards CEO Roundtable agreed on the steps that must be taken to eliminate the corporate trust gap.
Four Steps to Restore Trust in Busines
1. Lead Publicly: CEOs accepted the responsibility of engaging employees and other audiences through storytelling, but asked for support.
2. Empower Employees to be Your Biggest Champions: CEOs spoke about the power of first engaging the group it knows best—employees—and then expanding to consumers and other stakeholders.
3. Expand Collaboration to Strengthen the Company: CEOs underscored the importance of partnerships with companies, communities, and NGOs to pool solutions, resources, and expertise, and solve community challenges they cannot address alone.
4. Make the Business Case to Investors: CEOs understood the benefits of a long-term mindset, but expressed that pressure for quarterly results dominated their time. Attendees agreed to devote more time during quarterly calls to addressing long-term performance.
