Good Business New York Leading Women for 2012 has named Trust Across America’s Founder, Barbara Kimmel, among its honorees.

The accomplished women listed below inspire us, surprise us, and give us hope that the world can be a better place. Each of these determined women honored this year is working diligently to solve critical social and economic problems.

These courageous women tackle our most challenging modern issues including environmental sustainability, human rights, business trust, equitable capital allocation, social enterprise, women’s economic empowerment, and ethical leadership with indefatigable energy and dedication.

The “Good Business New York™ Leading Women of 2012” includes economists, lawyers, thought leaders, journalists, policy makers, activists, investors, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, scientists, quants, and academics. Some are known to us personally at Good-b; others are not. All of these women have been selected for their impact and effectiveness in the world of business and finance.

We live in times of crises. Critical social and economic challenges are more important than ever to address, and even more importantly to resolve. These women are among the champions and change makers who are creating real and positive change. Most of these women are well known in their circles, but none are household names. Some operate behind-the-scenes; others take center stage. Our goal atGood Business New York™ is to celebrate the important work that each of these remarkable women do everyday with committment, personal sacrifice,  passion, purpose, and sheer determination – work that might sometimes go unnoticed by the general population, but is never-the-less shaping the positive changes taking place in business and society.  At Good Business New York™, we honor the triumphs and accomplishments of these 25 Leading Women in the face of real challenges.

After eight months of deliberation and research at Good Business New York™, we have selected 25 amazing women to represent the power that one person has to make a big difference. We believe they deserve even greater recognition for the socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable work they do every day. They serve as role models for women and girls everywhere.

We celebrate these 25 dynamic women who inspire and empower us to create a better world for all. The“Good Business New York™ Leading Women for 2012” offer us hope that a more equitable and sustainable economy is possible, one that serves all levels of society fairly and responsibly and doesn’t leave millions of the world’s inhabitants out. We congratulate and applaud all of them for what they do every day for our communities and our world.

To review the complete list, please click on the link below.

good-b.com/?p=10329

“I am honored to be included among this list of outstanding women,” said Barbara Kimmel. “This recognition reconfirms that the work I am doing at Trust Across America is not only helping to restore trust in the business community, but is also being more widely acknowledged by prestigious organizations like Good Business New York”.

Will you join Trust Across America in a pledge to model trustworthy business behavior?

Curtis C. Verschoor, CMA, a member of the IMA Committee on Ethics and one of Trust Across America’s Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior trustacrossamerica.com/offerings-thought-leaders.shtml recently wrote a blog post called A Disturbing Thirty Days www.accountingweb.com/article/disturbing-thirty-days/219658

Essentially, the post talks about the enormous worldwide corporate transgressions that occurred from mid-June to mid-July 2012 beginning with $4 billion in fraud and ethics fines levied against the pharmaceutical industry. The enormity of these global trust violations is staggering.

Life is a series of small interpersonal transactions that either build trust or lose trust. I believe that the economics of trust works as follows: every small positive deed, whether seen or unseen, adds to ones personal and professional value. In this environment, a single transgression can derail decades worth of “brand” building if trust has not been “banked”.

Lately I’ve thought quite a bit about trust violations and what’s behind them. In most cases, the root cause of the breakdown of trust is self-serving and self-interested behavior, often on the part of those in the most trusted positions in business. While all professionals, regardless of their field, can build and bank trust, sadly few choose to. Even those who work in the fields of trust and ethics don’t always take the high road. And so here we are today witnessing some of the worlds largest companies paying billions of dollars in fraud and ethics fines, with no apparent end in sight.

Most of us have fallen victim to trust violations, and while the “big” cases, like those referenced in the link above, make the news, the day-to-day transgressions may not. Regardless of their size, trust violations harm interpersonal, inter-organizational and international relations.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s second inaugural address in 1937 included the following passage. “We have always known that heedless self interest was bad morals, we now know that it is bad economics. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their practicality has come the conviction that in the long run economic morality pays.” Roosevelt was correct. Economic morality does pay but it seems that the business world needs a reminder.

Will you join Trust Across America in a pledge to model trustworthy business behavior? Will you take that pledge today? Will you serve as a role model for your children, your friends and your co-workers? Will you remind them (as often as needed) that economic morality pays? Will you share this short blog post with those who have banked trust and those who should start?

On Twitter: #pledgetobetrustworthy

Barbara Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America. Send your comments to barbara at trustacrossamerica.com

Trust Across America (TAA) receives frequent inquiries from the financial media. Here’s how the conversation usually goes.

TAA: Hello TAA. How can I help you?

Media: Hi! This is Debbie Downer from major financial news network. We understand that TAA ranks public companies according to their trustworthiness. Is that correct?

TAA: Yes we maintain a database of approximately 2500 public companies and our FACTS® Algorithm can measure the major drivers of trustworthy business behavior. We can even show you how each company ranks according to its market cap, industry and sector peers.

Media: Great. Can we get a list of the lowest ranked companies?

TAA: Just to clarify. You want a list of the least trustworthy companies?

Media: Yes

TAA: Sorry but TAA’s mission is to highlight the good guys. How about if we give you some examples of companies doing good and doing well at the same time?

Media: Good guys? No thanks. The public is not interested. Only bad news sells.

Click.

Jonathan Low at www.lowdownblog.com recently wrote about the disappearance of the small investor, and with the help of Barry Ritholtz www.ritholtz.com/blog/ listed 10 reasons why. I propose #11.

#11 The financial media industry is obsessed with bad news and scandals of the day. How will confidence in the financial markets ever be restored if this cycle continues? Jonathan and Barry, it’s really not a matter of poor returns. There are great companies who are meeting the needs of all their stakeholders including their shareholders.

It’s the responsibility of the financial news networks to refocus. Report to the public about companies that are behaving in a trustworthy manner. A few names that come to mind are Accenture (Symbol: ACN) and United Natural Foods (Symbol: UNFI). We are not suggesting that these companies are perfect. They may trip along the way.  But our research shows that they will also recover much faster. They have “banked” trust.

So to all the Debbie Downers of the financial news networks. Here’s my suggestion. Try highlighting a few of the good guys. Treat the public with more respect. Use this as an opportunity to be a positive role model for the rest of your industry. Don’t be part of the race to the bottom. Don’t be that guy (or gal)!

What do you think? Should the financial news networks report more good news? Send your comments to barbara at trustacrossamerica.com

Anyone still hesitating to embrace the business notion that trust is an asset – an asset that can leverage real business gains – should look at the ongoing data from Trust Across America (TAA) comparing companies with strong trust profiles to all other companies.   TAA is a US-based think tank exploring the issues of corporate trust and the relationship between trustworthy business and company performance in America – this, at a time when we feel corporate trust is not only rare, but also misunderstood and unappreciated as a business-building tool.

Among the empirical data we have collected over three years studying 3,000 US public companies, is the vivid performance of our “Gold 59” – including US brands such as Mattel, United Natural Foods and Accenture.   The Gold 59 comprises the US-based public companies that met our minimum benchmarks of trustworthy business behavior – which essentially means an above-average score in each of our five drivers of trust including Financial stability, Accounting Conservativeness, Corporate Integrity, Transparency and Sustainability (FACTS®). While many companies may be strong in multiple drivers, our research shows that a “weak link breaks the chain” and this is why only 59 companies qualified.

Compared to the S&P Index, an accepted standard for stock performance among some of the largest 500 companies in America, the Gold 59 is presently 500 basis points (or 5%) ahead since November 2010 when TAA began to formally share its data. Certainly the 10-year trend is even more enlightening, compared to a very stagnant S&P.

Source: Trust Across America May 2012

  We can point to five critical areas that show why the Gold 59 is so much further ahead of the S&P:

• Governance: Companies that made it into our Gold 59 put transparency and governance high on their priorities lists to ensure they have operations that meet and exceed the minimum standards expected. They are not “just compliant.”
• Stakeholder Engagement: Trust is a tango of at least two, and companies that engaged key stakeholders in meaningful, two-way communication received unbiased high trust marks.
• Consistency: There is nothing like being reliably consistent in delivering on product and service excellence and business performance to solidify trust with the audiences that make a business succeed.
• Authenticity: “Keeping it real” is a motto that rises to the highest levels in business performance, which means being honest about successes, failures, goofs and unexpected triumphs.
• Relevance: Companies that reflect real needs and real opportunities are the companies that attract the highest level of interest and potential for trust dividends by delivering on those high expectations. Sales increase because customers like doing business with trustworthy companies. We see this in other highly ranked FACTS companies like Nike and Starbucks.

“When we deliberately and consistently behave in ways that inspire trust, we will experience high-trust ‘dividends’,” says Stephen M.R. Covey, author of the bestseller The Speed of Trust. “There are actual economics to high trust – the dividends of greater speed and lower cost – just like there are economics to low trust – the “taxes” of lower speed and higher cost.  These economics of trust are experienced in relationships, on teams and in organizations, and ultimately these economics translate and extend into the financial marketplace.”

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of trusted companies “beating the street’ is the evidence of the upward virtuous cycle that is created because of the reciprocal nature of trust. When we trust people, they tend to trust us back. When we reward trusting behavior in organizations, it begets more trust-building behavior — which is the essence of a free and civil society.   The Gold 59 proves that the market values trustworthy behavior.   So why does the crisis of distrust continue and why are companies not running to prove their trustworthiness?   This is the inspiration for many more columns on the asset of corporate trust, but it boils down to a system that makes other assets priorities over trust – specifically, antiquated notions of shareholder value and settling for regulatory compliance as the marker of ethical behavior, among other distractions. The value of a company is derived from the relationships it maintains will all its stakeholders, not just shareholders. When we look at corporate performance we can no longer look at the short-term and we cannot merely look at investors.

If we study the other 2,941 pubic companies that don’t meet TAA’s minimum threshold for trustworthy business behavior, we see how rare trust is and how easily poor performance is justified by the apparent fact that “everyone else is doing it.” Trust leadership requires a more progressive stance on building authentic relationships with stakeholders – a relationship that pays trust dividends.  It also requires a long-term focus. And for those pioneers in valuing trust and investing in trust, the upside is clear –and the short-term takes care of it self.

Barbara Kimmel, Executive Director of Trust Across America (TAA), a US based think tank and communications program (www.trustacrossamerica.com) whose mission is to restore corporate trust. Email your thoughts and ideas to barbara at trustacrossamerica.com

Who Are the Tri –State’s Most Trustworthy Public Companies?

Even though trust in corporations is dropping nationwide,  many companies in the Tri-State area exhibit high levels of trustworthy behavior and many are surging ahead of the S&P as America recovers from its most recent recession. According to Trust Across America (TAA), the Tri-State area’s most trustworthy companies are:

New York:       

Gold- Hess Corporation                    

Silver- Transatlantic Holdings Inc.  

Bronze- Avon Products, Inc.            

For more details: tinyurl.com/4bn6zn3

New Jersey:          

Gold- Prudential Financial, Inc.

Silver- Cytec Industries Inc.

Bronze- Sealed Air Corporation

For more details: tinyurl.com/5t5cxlw

Connecticut:        

Gold- Praxair

Silver- Rockville Financial

Bronze- United Technologies

For more details: tinyurl.com/65ekk43

Trust Across America shines the spotlight on world-class companies exhibiting high levels of trustworthy business behavior, while providing a roadmap for other organizations to follow. Although trust was difficult to accurately measure in the past, TAA has compiled a composite set of trust metrics and worked closely with organizations that measure them.  The result is a new model called FACTS™, an acronym that stands for Financial stability and strength, Accounting conservativeness, Corporate integrity, Transparency, and Sustainability, with each factor evenly weighted. The power of this model is that it is objective, quantitative, and rich in independent metrics. 

Barbara Kimmel, Executive Director of Trust Across America states: “There are no perfect companies.  However, many companies have touted themselves as trustworthy and have been given a free ride because corporate America has lacked a definition of trust and tools to measure it. Our data can see through the smoke and mirrors.”

So while the news continues to be filled with surveys showing that consumer and investor mistrust of business is rising, we can now focus on the companies that are working hard to earn the public’s trust. As a result, consumers can now choose to do business with these trustworthy companies, while investors have an added level of protection from the next corporate scandal. 

 Trust Across America is a program of Next Decade, Inc., an award-winning firm that has been unraveling and simplifying complex business subjects for over 20 years. TAA provides a framework for public companies to improve trustworthy business practices, as well as showcasing role models that are exhibiting high levels of trust and integrity.

Last week’s  release of the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer www.edelman.com/trust has prompted much discussion in the news . Edelman sampled over 5000 people in 23 countries. Highlights of their survey, for our purposes focusing on US business, are as follows:

1. Trust is now an essential line of business

2. Trust in US business to do what is “right” dropped 8 percent

3. Trust in the US media to do what is “right” dropped 11%

4. Trust in the following US industries decreased from 2008-2011:

                – Technology- down 5%

                – Banks- down 46%

5. Trust in Automotive increased 17%

6. The most trustworthy industries in rank order are:

                -Technology

                -Automotive

                -Telecommunications

7. The least trustworthy industries, starting with the worst are:

                -Financial

                -Banks

                -Insurance

Charles H. Green at Trusted Advisor Associates www.trustedadvisor.com followed the release of the survey with an excellent blog post “Can You Trust the Data on Trust?” that explores the meaning of the word “trust” and how data can be interpreted in various ways:

trustedadvisor.com/trustmatters/can-you-trust-the-data-on-trust

As Charlie notes, the Edelman Survey is an opinion poll while Trust Across America (TAA) www.trustacrossamerica.com  uses quantitative data to assess the trustworthiness of American business. Both are important, but TAA’s findings are somewhat different than Edelman’s, especially in terms of the trustworthiness of various industries, as a whole.

Our data segments the largest 3000 companies into 16 sectors. While they cannot be fully aligned with Edelman’s industry categories, they are close enough to make several observations. Utilities, retail/wholesale and auto represent our most trustworthy sectors, while oils/energy, finance and transportation are the least trustworthy.

Edelman’s findings include estimates of how much people trust varies by industry. In our data, we have found that industry is not destiny; there is considerable room for individual company variation in trustworthiness. For example, technology is just slightly above average as a group. But when we delve a bit deeper into our data, the findings reveal something more interesting- thirteen of our Top 59 Gold List Companies www.trustacrossamerica.com/documents/media/PressArticle-v9.pdf are in the technology sector, lead by Lexmark www.lexmark.com , Texas Instruments www.ti.com , Analog Devices www.analog.com  and Teradyne www.teradyne.com– that’s over 20%. 

No one can argue with Edelman that trust is an essential line of business, and if trust in business to do what is right is down, we must find ways to reverse this cycle of mistrust. Quantitative data and surveys are certainly useful, but until CEOs acknowledge the trust crisis and agree to examine the data, we don’t see much changing in the short term. In other words, talking is fine, but moving the needle is essential.  

Trust Across America’s challenge to the C-Suite for 2011: The opinion surveys are out and our quantitative data does not lie. Very few companies have adopted  trust as a corporate culture.  Collectively, you have the power to reverse the downtrend in trust. Study your worst practices and improve them. Communicate your actions with your stakeholders. Get the needle moving in the right direction.

What were the most trustworthy business sectors in 2010? We recently ran this question through our FIDES ™ computer software. We bundled all the companies in our database (almost 3000), sorted by sector and pressed “go!” Here are the top 5 sectors- there are 16 in total:

Basic Materials– lead by Lubrizol (www.lubrizol.com) and Eastman Chemical (www.eastman.com)

Oils-Energy– lead by Hess (www.hess.com)

Utilities– lead by Pinnacle West Capitol Corp. (www.pinnaclewest.com)  and Oge Energy (www.oge.com)

Consumer Staples– lead by Avon Products (www.avoncompany.com)

Auto-Tires-Trucks– lead by Cummins Inc.  (www.cummins.com)

Our data incorporates five key drivers of trustworthy business behavior: Financial stability/strength; Accounting conservativeness: Corporate integrity; Transparency and Sustainability. We call this FACTS (tm).

One of the goals of Trust Across America is for the top trustworthy companies to start sharing best practices with their peers.

Do you have any questions or comments? Email me at barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Now, more than ever, consumers want to make the best purchasing decisions from companies they trust- those that will stand behind their products. While most people would agree that trust and integrity are the foundation of our economy, the news is full of surveys showing that consumers’ mistrust of business is on the rise, but we must not forget that great businesses still exist. 

So whether you are stopping for gas, taking a vacation, buying a computer, getting a cup of coffee, looking for auto or health insurance, or buying a new pair of shoes, you can rest easy that a purchase from one of the following is coming from a trustworthy source that has earned your support: 

                         Alfac www.aflac.com

                         Best Buy www.bby.com

                         Carnival Corp www.carnival.com

                         Cigna  www.cigna.com

                         Costco  www.costco.com

                         Federal Express www.fedex.com

                         Hess www.hess.com

                         JC Penney www.jcpenney.com

                         Lexmark www.lexmark.com

                         Mattel www.mattel.com

                         Nike www.nike.com

                         Progressive Corp www.progressive.com

                         Starbucks www.starbucks.com

                         Timberland www.timberland.com

                         UPS www.ups.com

                         US Airways www.usairways.com

                         Whirlpool www.whirlpool.com

While no company received a perfect score from Trust Across America, our audit incorporated over 500 data points with respect to five key corporate indicators of trustworthy behavior: Financial stability and strength, Accounting conservativeness, Corporate integrity, Transparency, and Sustainability, aptly called FACTS™.

Trust Across America™ (TAA) is a program of Next Decade, Inc., an award-winning firm that has been unraveling and simplifying complex subjects for over 20 years.  TAA provides a framework for public companies to improve trustworthy business practices, as well as media opportunities to highlight companies that are exhibiting high levels of trust and integrity.

Contact: For more information on our methodology please visit our website at www.trustacrossamerica.com or email:  barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Mark Your Calendars for Our Holiday Festival of Trust December 22

Join Barbara and Jordan Kimmel, the co-founders of Trust Across America, for a “virtual eggnog” on Trust Across America radio from noon to 1 PM EST on December 22.

This will be a fun filled hour with surprises and gifts. We will unveil our new website, bring you up to date on our programs, and count down the “Top 10 Companies in Trustworthy Business Behavior for 2010.”

And as a way of saying “Thank you” to our supporters, we will be giving away lots of books and “Trust Across America™ logo products. All you need to do is email us a question or comment about our programs that you would like us to address during the show (send questions or comments before December 20) and we will enter your name to win a prize.

Please email: barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

(US address must be supplied to receive a prize).

A quick run down on what’s going on at Trust Across America is provided below:

Week of December 12-Launch of new website at www.trustacrossamerica.com

December 22-Release of “Top 10 Most Trustworthy Companies” on Trust Across America Radio (noon-1PM EST)

www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vshow.aspx?sid=1713

December 29-Release of “Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior” at www.trustacrossamerica.com

January 2011

Company Trust Audits and Sector/Industry Reports Become Available at www.trustacrossamerica.com

Earlier today Jordan Kimmel interviewed Bob Eccles on Trust Across America radio. The archived interview will be available in the next 48 hours.

www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vshow.aspx?sid=1713

Robert G. Eccles first joined the faculty of Harvard Business School in 1979. After receiving tenure, he started doing research on corporate reporting, a topic which remains of great interest to him from a research, managerial practice, and public policy perspective. His book  One Report: Integrated Reporting for a Sustainable Strategy (with Michael P. Krzus) is the first book on this subject. This is the Amazon link.

www.amazon.com/dp/0470587512 tag=trustacrossam20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0470587512&adid=1AM99F52MSMW1MTA2CMV&

Bob is a member of the Steering Committee of the International Integrated Reporting Committee (www.integratedreporting.org).

Jordan and Bob spent the hour talking about Integrated Reporting and why it is so timely. Highlights from the interview are reproduced below.

What is integrated reporting?

It is a single report produced by a company that combines material financial and nonfinancial data into one document.

Why is integrated reporting gaining in popularity?

Bob highlighted four main reasons:

1. Technology has made it easier for companies to share information with their stakeholders via their website.

2. Sustainability is becoming more mainstream.

3. The recent financial crisis has prompted companies to provide their stakeholders with added transparency.

4.  Companies are becoming more aware of the importance of corporate repuation as an intangible asset.

Who benefits from integrated reporting?

1. Employees

2. Customers

3. NGO’s

4. Investors

5. Society

What are the key challenges in implementing an integrated report?

1. Companies must gather information from many different (and often independent) silos within the organization.

2. Internal measurements of nonfinancial reporting are not well developed.

3. Companies are not always willing to be, or comfortable in being, more transparent.

4. CEO”s must embrace the integrated reporting concept.

5. A lack of clear integrated reporting standards makes auditing difficult.

But the good news is that, over the next year, there will be more examples of public companies issuing integrated reports and more groups will be developing standards and frameworks.

In mid-October a workshop entitled “Workshop on Integrated Reporting: Framework & Next Steps” was held at HBS and sponsored by their Business and Environmental Initiative. This culminated in the release this week of a new e-book on integrated reporting, reflecting the input and efforts of 64 workshop attendees. The Landscape of Integrated Reporting: Reflections and Next Steps is now available at the following link:

www.smashwords.com/books/view/30930

In summary, the development of corporate integrated reporting (IR) standards is potentially one of the great business innovations of the 21st century, and could be pivotal in restoring public trust in business institutions. We are all stakeholders in some way, whether as employees, customers, or investors. As such, we can all play a role in encouraging companies to adopt IR into their culture.

Professor Eccles can be reached for comment at reccles@hbs.edu

or you can direct questions and comments to:

 barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Thank you Professor Eccles and Jordan! Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Barbara Kimmel, Executive Director, Trust Across America