In These Difficult Times, Businesses Need Trust

Examination leakages, burning of schools, mega corruption scandals, and religious leaders preying on their followers are just a few of the many issues we are currently facing in the country. Things have gotten so bad that we are beginning to question whether there’s anyone in this country who still has values, and we’ve heard the Kenya Films Classification Board raise concerns regarding activities and actions that they deem contrary to our values as a country. But what really are our values? What values do we hold as a country? Is it even possible to have national values that are upheld by all?

While the public sector can afford to take heavy hits when it comes to the values they hold, the private sector cannot. After all, the public sector is funded through taxes and doesn’t need to make any profits to stay alive, the private sector does. It is therefore worrying to read about companies in the country that seem to operate without any values, despite the fact that many of them have beautifully framed statements of their values hanging on their office walls.

There are a number of values that companies need to have and uphold, but one that stands out the most is trust. Trust is defined as the firm reliability in a person or entity. In relation to companies, it means that a company’s stakeholders find it reliable. Stephen M. R. Covey the author of “The Speed of Trust” says that one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, organization, nation, economy, and civilization throughout the world is trust.

Read: The World Authority on Trust is Coming to Kenya

It takes trust for a customer to offer up their hard earned money in exchange for a particular good or service. Well, trust or desperation. But depending on customer desperation isn’t a long-term business strategy, because eventually the customer will get tired or a competitor offering better value will come up. And so it is that a company that intends to continue operating profitably must gain and keep the trust of its customers. But it is not just the customer that a business needs, there are many other stakeholders, key among them being the shareholder. So how can a business gain and keep the trust of all its stakeholders? Mr Covey offers four key elements of trust: integrity, intent, capability and results.

Integrity

The business, and its leaders, must not only be honest but also have strong moral principles. This means that the company should not bend, break or hide the truth, and neither should it shift its stand for convenience or profit. Things are taking a bad turn? Don’t fudge the books and hope that things will get better, let the shareholders know the truth and offer a plan for turning things around. A good example of this is what Julius Kipng’etich is currently doing at Uchumi; he has openly told stakeholders what the situation is like and engaged in discussions with them to bring the company back to profitability. There are many examples in the country of companies and business leaders who chose the dishonesty route, to the ruin of the business.

 Intent

What is the motive of the business and its leaders? Is it purely about profit, so that the business will go to any lengths, including stealing from its stakeholders in order to make profit? While profit is the main reason why a business exists, the business must have other motives that complement the profit motive. Personally, I believe that stakeholder satisfaction is a key complementary motive for any business that intends to operate for the long term.

Capabilities

A business must have the skills, knowledge and other requirements to be able to do what it says it can do. Having intent alone, is not good enough, the company must have in place all that is needed to actualize the intent. If the business has the intent of providing delicious, affordable and hygienic food deliveries, then it must have skilled cooks, an affordable source of ingredients and the means to make the deliveries as promised. Having these capabilities is what delivers results.

Results

In the age of e-commerce, delivery to clients has been the waterloo of many a business since they are unable to deliver as promised. This is a shortcoming on the results element of trust. If the business does not deliver to the expectations of the stakeholder, then it loses the stakeholder’s trust. This is related to the common business saying: it is better to under-promise and over-deliver than to over-promise and under-deliver.

As the country continues to grapple with its values, businesses in the country can begin working on the value of trust if they intend to grow and remain sustainable.

By Ian T. Ng’ethe who is the Chief Executive Officer at the Raiser Resource Group, a performance improvement company based in Nairobi.