THE POWER OF TRUST
Trust is one of the most fundamental emotions in our lives. Nothing can replace the comfort that comes from feeling secure. At the heart of economic systems, trust lays the groundwork for commerce in social life, enabling people to invest and transact within a solid and dependable framework. In human relationships, trust is the backbone of emotional bonds. The connection between us grows stronger and deeper as we build trust. It is not only the foundation of sincerity and loyalty, but also of mutual understanding and support. In the world of brands, trust goes far beyond any advertising campaign. Trust in a brand nurtures loyalty, and that loyalty becomes the foundation of a community built by devoted customers. Trust has the power to elevate a brand from merely being a platform for selling products into something people care about—something they feel emotionally connected to.
Ultimately, trust plays a vital role in every aspect of life: from economic systems to personal relationships, from brand loyalty to social cohesion. It is a force that strengthens the balance of modern life and sustains the core values of humanity. As for me, I tend to believe the best in people and give my trust freely, until the moment they give me reason not to!
Today, in the whirlwind of fast-paced social media communication, where noise and meaning blur into the same haze, building long-term trust and maintaining its influence takes much longer than we might expect. The truth is, in this era of social media and rapidly evolving digital information, we still haven’t mastered how to manage communication or perception. As adults, we’re figuring it out as we live through it. And that leads to instability and public unease!
Note: This article was originally published on June 22, 2025.
The Power of Trust
Trust is one of the most fundamental emotions in our lives. Nothing can replace the comfort that comes from feeling secure. At the heart of economic systems, trust lays the groundwork for commerce in social life, enabling people to invest and transact within a solid and dependable framework. In human relationships, trust is the backbone of emotional bonds. The connection between us grows stronger and deeper through the trust we build. It is not only the foundation of sincerity and loyalty, but also of mutual understanding and support.
In the world of brands, trust goes far beyond any advertising campaign. Trust in a brand nurtures loyalty, and that loyalty becomes the foundation of a community built by devoted customers. Trust has the power to elevate a brand from merely being a platform for selling products into something people care about—something they feel emotionally connected to.
Ultimately, trust plays a vital role in every aspect of life: from economic systems to personal relationships, from brand loyalty to social cohesion. It is a force that strengthens the balance of modern life and sustains the core values of humanity. As for me, I tend to believe the best in people and give my trust freely, until the moment they give me reason not to!
In The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It (*) by Harvard Business School researchers Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta, the authors highlight four key principles of trust:
- No matter what you’ve done in the past, if you stop acting in a trustworthy way, you will lose the trust you’ve earned. Trust is not static; it fluctuates.
- Trust is a bounded relationship involving three distinct elements: the one who is trusted, the one who trusts, and the specific action that the trusted party is expected to carry out.
- We often assume that trust is built through effective reputation management. Trust is built from the inside out; it’s not merely a result, but a root cause and foundation of many outcomes.
- We tend to believe that once trust is lost, it can never be regained. However, with the right actions and sufficient time, it is possible to rebuild lost trust and even take it to a higher level than before.
Let’s now look at a classic business school case of trust and crisis management: Johnson & Johnson’s handling of the 1982 Tylenol crisis, which I believe stands out as a particularly comprehensive example. This crisis was a major event in the United States that reshaped safety standards across the pharmaceutical industry. Just imagine you’re a pharmaceutical company, and the most fundamental promise you make to consumers is to offer a solution to the health problems they’re facing. The public places their trust in you, believing that when they have a headache or catch a cold, your products will help them recover and support their healing process.
The crisis began with a shocking event: seven people in Illinois died suddenly and under suspicious circumstances. All of them had taken Tylenol-branded painkillers before their deaths. Investigations revealed that every one of the deaths was caused by cyanide-contaminated capsules that had been inserted into Tylenol bottles. This triggered a wave of panic across the United States and seriously undermined consumer confidence. Johnson & Johnson responded swiftly. The company launched a recall campaign, pulling Tylenol from shelves nationwide. To regain consumer trust, it introduced pioneering safety measures such as tamper-proof packaging and security seals. At the same time, a major communications and advertising campaign was rolled out to restore the brand’s image and rebuild consumer trust. The crisis significantly raised public awareness about product reliability and packaging safety, and prompted new regulations aimed at strengthening consumer protection standards in the pharmaceutical industry. In the long run, a new, stronger foundation of trust was established.
Trust as a Social Issue
Trust has a significant impact on both economic performance and human well-being. According to a decade-long study conducted by the World Values Survey across 29 market economy countries, a 10% increase in trust correlates with a 0.8% rise in economic growth.
Similarly, a model developed by economists Stephen Knack and Philip Keefer found that a 15% increase in the number of people who believe their fellow citizens are trustworthy leads to a 1% rise in average annual income, which is an indicator of rising prosperity in that country.
On the flip side, countries where trust levels fall below 30% are typically locked in a struggle against poverty. In the absence of trust, conducting business and generating new opportunities becomes impossible. At this point, the authors of the book raise a compelling question: “If people don’t trust each other enough to exchange even basic goods and services, how can an economy grow?” The answer is simple—it can’t.
Research has also shown a strong correlation between trust in corporate leadership and profitability. In a study conducted with 6,500 employees at Holiday Inn, participants were asked to rate a manager’s behavioral integrity, meaning the alignment between their words and actions, on a scale of 1 to 5. A mere one-eighth point increase in this score translated into a 2.5% rise in revenue. Among all the managerial behavior variables studied, trust had the most significant impact on profits.
How do people decide whether to trust a company?
The key elements that shape and sustain trust can be grouped into four core components: competence, motives, means, and impact. The authors illustrate each component effectively, opening each chapter with a powerful quote that adds depth to the narrative.
Competence
“It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn’t.” — MARTIN VAN BUREN, 8th President of the United States (1837–1841), lawyer, diplomat, and statesman.
Competence refers to a company’s ability to create and deliver a product or service. It forms the foundation for building and maintaining trust. Without it, nothing else matters. Once your competence is established, the rest can follow more naturally. As one of the core pillars of trust, competence can be further divided into two categories: technical and managerial.
Technical competence covers the day-to-day operational processes necessary to advance the standards of your work. For instance, a company operating in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector must continuously enhance its products in line with market demands and consumer expectations. This ongoing effort is essential for maintaining a competitive edge and ensuring customer satisfaction.
Managerial competence, on the other hand, is about understanding both current and future customer needs to deliver your product or service effectively. It’s about going beyond what customers say they want, anticipating the future, and sensing their needs beforehand. As Steve Jobs once put it: “Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do.”
Motives
“The character of a man is known from his intentions.” — JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE, French philosopher and satirist (1645–1696)
Today, there is growing public backlash against the dominance of shareholder interests. People increasingly demand that companies pursue positive social purposes. According to a survey by American Express, 81% of U.S. millennials believe that a successful company must have a genuine purpose, while 78% expect their employer’s values to align with their own.
At this point, we see how two seemingly similar concepts, purpose and motives, actually diverge. Purpose defines the goal a company seeks to achieve, while motives reflect the reasons for pursuing that goal. A company’s purpose can shift over time or in response to changing market conditions.
To evaluate how their purpose and motives are perceived from the perspective of multiple stakeholders, companies must answer three questions:
- Who are our stakeholders?
- What do our stakeholders expect from us?
- How do we balance competing stakeholder interests?
Means
“Being good is easy; what is difficult is being just.” — Victor Hugo (Victor-Marie Hugo, 1802–1885, French Romantic writer and politician.)
The English term means could be translated into Turkish as “methods” or even “tools,” but I find “ways of operating” a more accurate and comprehensive expression. Organizations trusted for their operational methods follow fair decision-making processes that account for all stakeholders. The business world often tends to make strategic decisions in favor of shareholders. Companies, however, need a four-dimensional justice model to support equitable decision-making:
- Distributive Justice: Refers to perceptions of fairness in how outcomes or rewards are distributed within the organization. It relates to the allocation of resources such as salaries, promotions, benefits, and workloads. Employees assess distributive justice by comparing how fairly they are treated relative to their peers.
- Procedural Justice: Refers to whether the processes and procedures used to make decisions within an organization are fair. It focuses not only on outcomes, but also on the fairness of the methods that produce those outcomes.
- Interpersonal Justice: Relates to fairness in interpersonal treatment and interactions within the organization. It includes how employees are treated by managers and colleagues, emphasizing respect, dignity, and courtesy.
- Informational Justice: Refers to the fairness of communication and information sharing within the organization. It involves providing clear explanations and justifications for decisions, as well as being honest and transparent in communication.
Impact
“It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.” — MOLIÈRE (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, regarded as one of the greatest writers in French and world literature.)
A company’s relationship with its consumers is shaped by how people feel about its motives and actions. If motives are not backed by concrete actions, they eventually lose credibility in the eyes of consumers. This is why companies must consider their multi-faceted relationships with customers, employees, investors, and the public, and hold themselves accountable for their impact on each of these groups. Otherwise, trust will erode. Simply put, you are remembered not for what you say, but for what you do.
Rebuilding Lost Trust
Rebuilding trust involves two dimensions. In the short term, it requires addressing and rectifying the incident that caused the breach, usually accompanied by an apology. In turn, the long-term dimension involves identifying and tackling the underlying causes of the problem to ensure that such mistakes are not repeated. The greater the impact on an individual or community caused by your company’s actions, the stronger the backlash you will face. A sincere apology is, of course, important, but if you want to truly regain lost trust, you must invest in long-term efforts to repair the damage you’ve caused.
Power, Trust, and Leadership
Leaders earn trust differently from organizations because they hold the responsibility of making decisions. Employees want to know that a leader has acquired their authority through legitimate means, and they want to believe that this power will be used wisely, especially since it affects their lives and careers. They trust that their leaders will make difficult decisions guided by the virtues of compassion and fairness.
Leaders often gain power through their willingness to listen to others. Yet, once they attain that power, it’s not uncommon for them to disregard dissenting voices—or even refuse to listen at all. This is one of the most common patterns we observe in both business and politics.
Unlike companies, leaders must manage five distinct components to build and maintain trust:
Legitimacy
In democratic systems, even if the opposition disagrees with the elected individual, they often accept the legitimacy of the process. The leader, in turn, consolidates that legitimacy within themselves and transforms it into the authority to lead.
Competence
Competence is one of the most essential foundations for a leader to earn and maintain trust. Managerial competence, in particular, is essential. It’s the ability to manage both internal and external relationships to help an organization reach its goals and adapt to changing conditions. A leader’s competence enables them to set the vision for creating a product or service, and to navigate the necessary relationships to bring that vision to life.
Motives
We care about a leader’s motives because they reveal whose interests they truly serve. Leaders constantly balance the needs of their institutions against the needs of individuals or groups whose interests may at times conflict with those of the organization. This balancing act can inevitably lead to dissatisfaction, especially when one party’s needs take precedence over another’s. In such moments, what matters most is how a leader’s intentions are perceived.
Means (Ways of Operating)
For leaders, actions matter more than words. Since individuals and communities can’t read minds, leaders are constantly judged on whether their actions are perceived as fair. If a leader’s behavior is viewed as unjust, people will begin to question their motives.
Impact
Leaders hold the authority over the ultimate impact their companies create, whether through their products or the way they manage operations. In times of success or failure, we hold leaders responsible for the outcomes. Therefore, leaders must always take the impact of their actions into account.
FINAL WORD
Our philosophy—make happy be happy—is simple, clear, and to the point. I hope it’s now evident what this mindset is built upon and why it matters.
Today, in the whirlwind of fast-paced social media communication, where noise and meaning blur into the same haze, building long-term trust and maintaining its influence, though thoroughly outlined above, takes much longer than we might expect. And losing it? Faster than ever. The truth is, in this era of social media and rapidly evolving digital information, we still haven’t mastered how to manage communication or perception. As digital immigrants, that is, adults, we’re figuring it out as we live through it. And that leads to instability and public unease!
I liken this chaos and noise to a hearing test. You know the kind—where they play sounds at different frequencies through high interference and ask you to tell them apart. Likewise, under the constant interference of social media, the more we sharpen our awareness and separate real from fake, the more peace of mind we can find.
Stay well.
(*) https://www.amazon.com.tr/Power-Trust-Companies-Build-Regain/dp/1541756673; S. J. Sucher and S. Gupta (2021.) The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It, Public Affairs, pp.304.
Note: This open-source article does not require copyright and can be quoted by citing the author.
