The TrustReader Volume 8

Welcome to the February ebook, Volume 8 of the Trust Reader. We use the Trust Reader series to announce the publication of new articles on the Trusted Advisor website.

This month’s issue is made up of three articles which share one broad theme: the need for greater transparency and relationships with various stakeholders in the emerging new business world.

We begin with a broadly theoretical article, first printed in the TrustMatters blog, titled, “Is Capitalism 2.0 a Mirage?” Just as business evolves, the ideologies that lay their foundation need to change with them. Recently, we witnessed the business world, and society at large, come perilously close to the brink by focusing on yesterday’s ideology-gone-wrong: what I call Capitalism 1.X.

Umair Haque and Michael Porter, two distinguished HBS business strategists, have both made compelling arguments on the need to remedy the situation, and how to do so. Their diagnosis is surely right, but updating the ideology may not be quite the right solution.

The other two articles are far more tactical, and deal specifically with the power of transparency and honesty in real-life business situations–specifically selling. They are given one-page summaries with links.

1. When to Ditch the Elevator Speech and Take the Escalator or the Stairs, first published in RainToday.com, sheds some light on how a generic 30 second pitch is not trust-creating enough for today’s market..



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2. The Dirty Truth About Price, first published in Entrepreneur.com, delves into the psychology of transparency between buyer and seller, to provide an understanding of what customers really mean when they say you’ve lost a bid on price.

We hope you enjoy these new articles.