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-: Hello.
Today, I'm really excited to speak with Marcos Aguiar,
the lead author on BCG's first Global Trust Index Report,
which is entitled "What AI Reveals
About Trust in the World's Largest Companies."
I'm sure Marcos has a lot to say,
so maybe we begin with Marcos.
What would you say that this report contributes
to the global conversation that everyone's having
about trust?
-: Well Vaishali, business leaders are already aware
of how important trust is in today's age
of stakeholder capitalism.
However, trust is elusive.
It is a highly dynamic psychological state.
So it's really hard to measure, let alone decode
and understand it deeply
so we can practically use it for business decisions.
BCG's Trust Index seeks to address exactly that challenge
by using AI to comb through millions of articles, posts,
and tweets on the web to identify trust-specific mentions
and score the 1,000 largest public companies in the world
based on their perceived trustworthiness.
And as importantly, uncover the specific themes
that drove those scores.
The answer to the why question:
Why is trust high, low, or changing?
We did that
by dissecting the data across years, regions, sectors,
and contrasted the top 100 most trusted companies
against the bottom least trusted
to identify patterns that can be relevant
to improve trust in business.
-: Fantastic, Marcos. I like the decoding.
I like the why, right?
Because that's what matters in the end.
There must be so many more findings that are noteworthy.
Which would be a few that you would highlight?
And secondly, any implications for business leaders as well
that you would point to?
-: You're right.
I mean, this report is filled
with interesting analysis and findings.
So let me pick three of my favorites.
First, we found that trust pays off.
The 100 most trusted companies generated 2.5 times
as much value as comparable businesses.
They also had 47% higher PE multiples.
The link to value highlights the need
to really take trust very seriously.
Second, we found that trust is highly dynamic.
Fewer than half of the top 100 companies
from any given year remain in the top 100
the following year.
So business leaders really need to be measuring
and managing trust on an ongoing basis.
Finally, we are able - on the wide question you mentioned -
we are able to identify three clusters of trust themes,
namely trust foundations, trust destroyers,
and trust enhancers,
that can help guide leaders to devise strategies
to improve trust in their companies.
What we found is that strategies vary markedly,
depending on the company's starting position.
As an example,
while crises unsurprisingly impact trust scores,
their impact is measurably different for low trust
versus high trust companies.
For low trust companies,
crisis can be a major trust destroyer.
While high trust companies are not immune to crises,
they can cope with them in such a way that, actually,
they can maintain or even strengthen
their perceived trustworthiness.
-: So many insights Marcos, and I'm sure that's
just a fraction on the tip of the iceberg.
So beyond encouraging people to read the report
also do reach out to Marcos to find out specifics
to your situation.
As well as, you know, the whole link
that you mentioned Marcos between trust and value.
I think that's really fascinating as well.
So thank you very much for these interesting insights.
-: Thank you, Vaishali, it's a pleasure.
I hope our contribution will be helpful
to many business leaders in today's world.
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