THE HISTORY OF TRUST ACROSS AMERICA
Shortly after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, a small group of experts convened in New York to discuss topics ranging from interpersonal to organizational trust and trustworthiness. We recognized that history repeats itself. The 2008 crisis was not the first time trust had been tested.
In the early 1980s, many people lost faith in Corporate America and believed that America was "broken" and could not effectively compete with Japan. Malcolm Baldrige, Secretary of Commerce, had a vision –– to canvass companies across America and identify "best in breed" practices. President Ronald Reagan and Congress named the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in his honor. The awards remain an important annual event thirty years later.
This timeline will provide a summary of our progress since our formation:
2009 Trust Across America launches. Its mission is to help enhance trustworthy behavior in organizations.
- Creates website
- Launches Trust Across America radio
- Creates Trust Across America group on LinkedIn
- Creates the FACTS® Framework for public companies, industries and sectors, analyzing five indicators of trust – Financial Stability, Accounting Conservativeness, Corporate Governance, Transparency and Sustainability
2010 Develops Fides™, a software program to generate trust reports for approximately 2500 public companies based on the FACTS Model
December 2010 Issues first annual "Top 10 Most Trustworthy Public Companies"
January 2011 Issues first annual "Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior"
February 2012 Launches BEST! (Business Excellence through Sustainable Trust) a collaborative media program to shine the spotlight on trustworthy organizations
October 2012 Launches the Alliance of Trustworthy Business Experts (ATBE) to collaboratively advance the cause of organizational trustworthiness around the world
January 2013 Launches our Global Campaign for Trust™
March 2013 Publishes inaugural semi-annual Trust Directory™ (an ATBE publication)
May 2013 Repositions Trust Across America as a global program: Trust Across America - Trust Around the World
Trust Across America – Trust Around the World™ is a global collaborative initiative.
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