Hate to get between a man and his Raisin Bran first thing in the morning, but trust is a serious issue for business. Especially these days.
Richard Edelman will be happy to tell you why. The president and CEO of the world’s largest independent public relations firm and the man on the other end of the Bran Flakes spoon in our early morning interview was in town in February delivering readings from his company’s 11th annual global truth barometer.
It would be an understatement to note that the barometer recorded a dramatic low-pressure system during the global financial collapse. But there’s more to Edelman’s barometric findings than teeth gnashing over subprime mortgage swindles and rapacious investment banking operations.
For Canada and companies based here, the needle on the barometer points to brighter business weather ahead.
Launched in the wake of the Battle of Seattle protest at the WTO ministerial conference in 1999, the Edelman barometer annually surveys thousands of what Edelman’s president calls “opinion elites” in 23 countries on issues of sovereign and corporate trust and integrity.
This year’s findings should bolster confidence in the global marketability of Canada’s brand. But they also trip some cautionary business alarm bells.
On the bolstering side, Edelman points out that Canada is among the most trusted of the G-8 countries. That’s worth money in the bank in the wider world. And money in Canadian banks has a lot of international currency – far more than their counterparts in the U.S., where trust in banks, according to the Edelman barometer, has driven off the cliff with Thelma and Louise: down to around 25% this year from 71% in 2008.
But growing distrust in banking is not breaking news.
For Vancouver and other Canadian urban centres, Edelman sees the country’s trust ranking as a huge global advantage for companies headquartered in Canada, one of the top three trusted “HQ” countries.
But those companies have to be willing to shed traditional Canuck reserve and leverage that trust.
“I sometimes think that Canadians use their company name more than putting the jersey on with the maple leaf,” Edelman said. “They should wave the Canadian flag more.”
Canada also needs to do a better job of selling the strategic value of its energy resources in fortress North America.
Alberta oilsands critics have helped seriously erode public trust in the country’s energy companies. In one year, according to the barometer, their sector went from being among the top four to being among the bottom four of trusted industries in Canada. That 18-percentage point plunge, said Edelman, “is huge. We don’t see those kinds of drops without a crisis [like BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill].”
The Edelman trust barometer also reveals some interesting peculiarities of the Canadian psyche.
For example, Canadians are far more trusting of big government poking its nose into business than are their U.S. counterparts. And when it comes to his most trusted industries, the happy-go-lucky Canuck has only middling faith in such arenas as automotive (51%) and biotech (46%). Higher up his priority ladder are brewing and spirits (58%) and food (56%).
So among the take-aways from Mr. Edelman’s early morning chat is that Canada could do much more to leverage its trust reserves in the global marketplace. But overall, a country that’s one of the world’s most trusted and appreciates food and beer has to be doing something right.
There are far worse sovereign business game plans.