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CEO Survey reveals: trust is a meaningful enabler of change
As part of the 25th CEO Survey, we found that trust and loyalty directly impact the success of a company and therefore should be a core task for every CEO. Trust and loyalty have been at the heart of PwC’s value framework for years. Stefan Räbsamen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of PwC Switzerland, explains in this interview why trust is a strategic priority and how PwC will develop it further in the coming years.
Mr Räbsamen, what characterises trust and how has it changed?
Stefan Räbsamen: When I entered professional life as a young man, it was normal to train and stay with one company. Nowadays, a lot of young people take charge of their own destinies. They start, change, take a break and try something new. I don’t find anything wrong with that. But we companies have to take this decreased loyalty into account when recruiting younger generations and in employee retention.
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, people’s trust in state organisations and governments has dropped significantly with the pandemic. Business institutions, on the other hand, have gained a lot of trust. People trust companies, and especially local ones, even more than before the pandemic. They see them as competent, ethical and influential. So there seems to be a certain trust bonus that ascribes competence and integrity to economic players like us. We should also take account of this when shaping our relationships with our clients and employees.
How important are trust and loyalty with respect to buying behaviour?
Trust is extremely fragile – it is hard to win and easy to lose. But you must distinguish between B2C and B2B. In the consumer goods sector, consumers’ trust can be lost in a moment. For example, because an event triggers viral outrage. Companies can no longer control how their customers will react on social media and on the many new communication channels, even if they invest a lot of money, time and effort in building trust and an authentic set of values. In the B2B sector, the bond between a supplier and its customers influences more than just buying behaviour. Connections are very important in this sector. Relationships of trust often take years to establish and are closely tied to a company’s core values.
How can companies prevent a loss of trust?
They shouldn’t promise too much. Because people will lose their trust in them if they don’t keep their promises. Companies need to ensure throughout their organisations that their managers act in a way that builds trust and that they make the right decisions. That has a lot to do with the G in ESG – namely governance. This includes a clear tone at the top, authentically exemplified values and a rigorous cascade from top to bottom.
'People will lose their trust in you if you don’t keep your promises.'
What do employees demand from their employers today?
An attractive employer brand above all in terms of the work models and personal development opportunities and also with respect to the company’s purpose and values. Swiss companies need to make their work structures even more flexible.
How does that work at PwC?
PwC Switzerland employs people with 85 nationalities. We have a high level of cultural diversity across all hierarchical levels. However, we need to do better in terms of gender equality – not to satisfy quotas, but because we aren’t exploiting the full potential of female talent. We can only do that by offering new forms of collaboration with flexible components.
We do our best to offer our employees a fertile environment in which they can develop – not just with their technical skills but also with soft skills like leadership. We also use upskilling programmes to keep our employees abreast of the latest technological developments. We want them to be able to use their skills even outside PwC. They will then remain valuable ambassadors even if they leave us.
What do clients want from companies? And what do they want from PwC?
They want us to remain steady and accessible. A lot of our client companies are in the course of ground-breaking transformations – for example, of their business models, their distribution channels or their ERP systems. In these situations, they want to be able to rely on an expert partner who will help them generate value beyond their transformations. That is why we have refined our vision and our brand promise. It used to be titled ‘Trust in Transformation’, and we have modified it to ‘The New Equation’.
What does ‘The New Equation’ mean?
We want to establish a new equation, just as the name suggests. On one side of the equation is our commitment. On the other side is our clients’ trust plus sustainable results. In other words, we help our clients to achieve sustainable success. We do this by bringing multidisciplinary teams together, using technology intelligently and making our extensive expertise and our global network available. Our new brand promise manifests itself in integrated solutions for diverse strategic focus areas – such as client-centricity, ESG, financial transformation and the future of work. The result is greater trust and sustainable added value.
For more information on The New Equation, visit our website.
Mr Räbsamen, thank you for talking to us.
Swiss edition: 25th Annual Global CEO Survey
Cyberrisks, sustainability, strategy and supply chain – are some of the issues keeping Swiss decision-makers on their toes. Read more about the pulse of the Swiss C-Level here.
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