“I Can’t Trust Nobody…(in business)”

If there are any lessons from 2008, it’s about trust – or who not to trust. It’s a bit of an issue really, because trust is a pretty important part of doing business. In fact its the foundation of an efficient economy. If your a business, you need to trust your staff and your suppliers, your banker (dare I say it) and your insurer. If your a consumer, you need to trust the producer and the product description.

The sub-prime events have revealed a lot about trust – or at least what happens if its misplaced.  If you trust people who don’t deserve to be trusted then the whole system of business can break down.  We trusted financiers we thought were smarter  and they weren’t.  We trusted mortgage salesman who sold unnafordable loans , we trusted banks offering credit that couldn’t be repayed and on so on.

The world is too big and complex not to trust others – we need too believe that they know what they are doing and will give us good guidance and advice.  Without trust it all breaks down – and it did.

Many countries in the world who had prior experience of misplaced trust and have the benefit of regulations to underpin financial integrity are responding better to the sub prime mess.    But unless we want an army of regulatory bureacrats overseeing all our decisions, we must all start taking reesponsibility – learning more about what we can afford, learning to ask the hard questions of those in positions of responsibility.

To trust others we need to be confident in their ability to understand and act for the benefit of everyone.  Those who are take a role which effects the lives of others need to ask themsleves ‘do I have the capacity and knowledge to do this job competently and with integrity?’.  Those that allow them to take the job need to ask them the same question and piss them off quickly if they can’t.

The fact that so many in positions of responsibility performed so poorly gives no excuse to place any individual on a pedestal beyond accountability.  No manager, CEO or Executive is that much of a superstar that they shouldn’t be made to stand and account for their actions.  There are no Gods of business – just ordinary men and women. When they perform well we must rteward them and when they stuff up, we’d better find them before they bring us down.