{"id":4245,"date":"2019-01-31T12:50:55","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T17:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?p=4245"},"modified":"2019-01-31T12:50:55","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T17:50:55","slug":"sovad-so-good-the-other-davos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?p=4245","title":{"rendered":"Sovad so Good… the “Other” Davos"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Building Trust One Principle at a Time<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

This past week the World Economic Forum held its annual meeting at Davos and the global elite were buzzing like bees around the word \u201ctrust.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Overlapping was another meeting being held in a remote corner of NJ (of all places), perhaps because the \u201cpolar vortex\u201d was about to ground the attendees’ private jets. This gathering was called “Sovad so Good” or “Sovad” for short.)<\/span><\/p>\n

For those unfamiliar with the annual Davos event,\u00a0<\/span>it\u2019s by \u201cinvitation only,\u201d and even those who secure an invite might not be able to afford the cost of admission. Most badges require a membership to the World Economic Forum, which costs somewhere between $60,000 and $600,000, plus an additional fee of more than $27,000 per person to get into the conference. <\/i>(CNBC, January 25, 2019) <\/span><\/p>\n

Worth noting: Of the 3000 attendees almost 800 were Americans and 22% were women, up from 21% last year!\u00a0Less than 5% of S&P 500 CEOs are women\u2014that\u2019s just 24 companies. We can\u2019t know how many of those 24 were invited to the event in Davos, but the official attendance list includes four of their names: Heather Bresch, CEO of Mylan N.V.; Adena Friedman, CEO of\u00a0 Nasdaq Inc.;\u00a0 Vicki Hollub, CEO of Occidental Petroleum Corp.; and Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM. <\/em>Quartz, January 21, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Sovad (the other Davos) didn\u2019t include the high price tag (or any admission fee for that matter), nor the \u201cA\u201d list of celebrities like Matt Damon or Will.i.am, and side deals were not being done off stage, probably because there was no stage. (Over 50% of the SOVAD group is women.) No large \u201ctrust signs\u201d were erected at the entrance to our gathering like the one leading up to Davos. It was just too darn cold for anyone to want to climb a ladder, especially those in skirts.<\/span><\/p>\n

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CNN reported, \u2018Trust is the new buzzword at Davos,” and as Dana Carvey \u201cThe Church Lady\u201d liked to say on SNL, \u201cWell isn\u2019t that special.\u201d (Dana and I lived together at one time but that’s a topic for another post.) So what was all the Davos \u201cbuzz\u201d on trust about? These were the trust \u201cthemes:\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Rebuilding trust (think Facebook.) Sheryl Sandberg was the trust \u201cexpert\u201d on this subject.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Trust and technology (digital security, AI, blockchain, etc.)<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Trust and innovation<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Trust and sustainability<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Trust and CEOs \u201ctaking stands.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    To the attendees at Davos these are certainly important revenue generating discussions to be having. But do they actually get to the heart of trust, or even move the needle slightly to elevate societal trust? That’s a solid “No.”\u00a0\u00a0Here\u2019s why<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    It seems only one trust conversation was missing at Davos, and probably the most important one: How do we move our societal institutions from trust buzz to trust action? And that was the ONLY conversation at Sovad.<\/span><\/p>\n

    So while the fine food and drink flowed, and the planes stayed warm on the tarmac in Switzerland, the Sovad attendees arrived by auto and took the following action over a burger and a beer:<\/span><\/p>\n

    With no revenue generating agenda, we created 12 universal principles<\/span><\/a> for elevating trust and began asking those who didn\u2019t travel to Europe, how that \u201ctrust thing” is working in their organization. After all, isn\u2019t that where trust starts (and ends)? Apparently, we struck a chord as over 35,000 unassuming folks from around the world have joined the conversation. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Will you take our brand new (one question\/one minute) survey<\/a>?<\/strong> Find out how your organization compares to others.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Note:<\/strong> Some believe that this year’s gathering was a disappointment on many fronts. Perhaps the word “trust” was simply a placeholde<\/a>r until a “real” topic can be identified for 2020.\u00a0Kenneth Rogoff, the Harvard economist, summed it up: “This is the flattest Davos I can remember. Normally, there is a star country or a star industry that everybody is talking about. But this year, there is nothing.” <\/em><\/p>\n

    Could it be that the “nothing” has “something” to do with trust?<\/p>\n

    Barbara Brooks Kimmel<\/b>\u00a0is an award-winning communications executive and the CEO and Cofounder of\u00a0Trust Across America-Trust Around the World<\/span><\/a>\u00a0whose mission is to help organizations build trust. A former consultant to McKinsey and many Fortune 500 CEOs and their firms, Barbara also runs the world\u2019s largest global\u00a0Trust Alliance<\/span><\/a>, and is the editor of the award-winning\u00a0TRUST INC.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0book series and\u00a0TRUST! Magazine<\/a>.\u00a0In 2012 she was named one of \u201c25 Women who are Changing the World\u201d by Good Business International, and in 2017 she became a Fellow of the Governance & Accountability Institute. Barbara holds a BA in International Affairs and an MBA. Don’t forget to TAP into Trust<\/a>!<\/p>\n

    For more information contact\u00a0barbara@trustacrossamerica.com<\/a><\/p>\n

    Copyright(c) 2019, Next Decade, Inc.<\/p>\n