Expense Sheets and Cultures of Trust
Business travelers know the taxi expense fiddle. You ask the taxi driver for a receipt. He winks at you and gives you a blank form, implying you can fill it…
S&P and the New Challenge of Integrity in Business
We've all read tales of corporate wrongdoing – think Bernie Madoff, Enron, LIBOR. In most cases, managers engaged in nefarious behavior, knowing they were doing wrong. There are a few…
Why We Don’t Trust Companies Part IV: The Solution
My last three posts – here, and here, and here – were about why we don't trust companies. To review the bidding, I've said it's because: Trust is predominantly personal in nature – a fact…
Why We Don’t Trust Companies, Part III – Risk
This is the third in a four-part series about why we don't trust companies. The final post will offer solutions. In the first and second posts, I said trust in companies is so low…
How Neuroscience Over-reaches in Business
Every age has its fads and fashions. Some of them hold up over time – competitive strategy, business process re-engineering, quality circles. Applying neuroscience to business, I suggest, will not…
Trust, Scale, and the Corporation
I always have trouble answering a question I'm often asked: What company does a great job on trust? Because the answer is some combination of, "it depends on the definition…
Part 2: Why Aren’t There High Trust Strategies in a Low Trust Industry?
In my last post, I asked the question: If financial services are such a low-trust industry (on average), then why isn't someone pursuing the obvious differentiation strategy of forming a high-trust…
Would Manti Te’o Trust Lance Armstrong?
King Kong vs. Godzilla. The immeasurable force and the immoveable object. The mountain and Muhammed. To these historic pairings, add Manti Te'o and Lance Armstrong, in the roles of trustor and trustee respectively. (For…
A Better New Year’s Resolution
I wrote a good blog post at this time six years ago, and haven’t improved on it yet. Here it is again. Happy New Year. —————– My unscientific sampling says…
Trust, Gun Control, and Neuroscience
It may be hard to imagine, given the horrific events of Newtown Connecticut, but violence of almost all types has been declining rapidly in the US and around the world.…