Moving beyond time-based trust models

From Personal Trust to Systemic Trust: The Hidden Engine Behind Scalable Businesses For the last 25 years, I’ve been buying loose milk from Modak Dairy in Pen. The quality is outstanding, and every month we settle accounts — no invoices, no reminders. Just mutual trust. But when I travel outside Pen, I wouldn’t dream of buying loose milk from an unknown dairy. I reach for Amul India or chitale dairy. Why? Because in one case, trust is personal. In the other, it’s built into a system. Think about it. When we order on Zomato, ride with Ola, or book through Airbnb, we trust strangers. We believe the food will be on time, the ride safe, the villa clean — not because we know the people involved, but because the platform makes us feel secure. It’s not about the individual anymore, it’s about the system they operate in. This shift from personal trust to systemic trust is the secret behind scalable businesses. Local businesses like Modak Dairy build trust one person at a time. Brands like Amul build it through process, consistency, and technology. That’s what allows them to operate across cities, states, even countries. This insight isn’t new — many bestselling business books have emphasized it. “Good to Great” by Jim Collins says great companies move beyond dependence on a few individuals. They create disciplined systems that deliver consistently, even when people change. “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael E. Gerber - Beyond The E-Myth reminds small business owners: to grow, you must work on your business (designing systems), not just in it (doing everything yourself). “The Speed of Trust” by Stephen M. R. Covey says trust isn’t soft — it’s a business advantage. Systemic trust reduces friction and increases speed. So what should small businesses do? Here’s a simple roadmap: Step 1: Build personal trust Be dependable. Deliver consistently. Build goodwill. Step 2: Create repeatable systems Document your way of working. Make quality non-negotiable and consistent. Step 3: Use technology to scale CRMs, ERPs, customer apps — these help you deliver the same experience to 10 or 10,000 customers. Step 4: Monitor, learn, and evolve Systems aren’t static. Update them based on customer feedback, market shifts, and internal audits. Trust may begin with a person. But to grow, it must live in a system. That’s the difference between a local legend and a national brand. And that’s the journey every small business can take — from Pen to the world. What are you doing in your business to build trust that scales? Let’s share and learn from each other. Subodh #SmallBusiness #Scalability #Trust #SystemsThinking #GoodToGreat #EMyth #Entrepreneurship #DigitalTransformation

Time to market and time to value are becoming secondary metrics. The new competitive metric is how long it takes to go from human-in-the-loop to machine-driven decision making. Gartner's latest research on Agentic AI states: "Product leaders must implement a time to trust metric – that is the time it takes to go from human in the loop to machine-driven decision making to win the agentic AI race." This changes everything about how we measure AI success. Traditional metrics remain important: Time to deployment ✓ Time to ROI ✓ Time to scale ✓ The metric that determines competitive advantage: Time to Trust → How quickly can you move from human verification to autonomous execution? Think about what this means. Every day you require human approval for AI decisions is a day your competitors might be running fully autonomous. Today, companies implementing AI in their operations spend more time reviewing its results and that it did not made-up information than it would have take them to do the task. The companies that build trustworthy AI fastest will operate at fundamentally different speeds. This metric will also clean up the market. The hundreds of AI vendors promising autonomous agents will quickly separate into those who can actually deliver trust and those who can only deliver demos. Time to trust is measurable, not marketable. How are AI companies planning to fund their "time to trust" with clients? Are we building business models that account for this trust-building phase?

𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁. 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 I recently read about a Cardiff-based company that has gone beyond a four-day week. They gave employees complete autonomy to choose their own hours, any day, as long as their goals were met. It’s a bold pivot from rigidity to trust. Here’s how it worked: ↳ Productivity stayed strong ↳ Engagement rose ↳ Turnover dropped ↳ People balanced life around work, not vice versa This is how I look at it: 𝗙𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗸. 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆. With autonomy comes self-leadership. Organizations must shift from policing time to empowering purpose. ➙ If HR defines flexible working only in hours and shifts, they miss the point. ➙ True flexibility lies in freedom with accountability. When you give your people control, you’re saying: I trust you to deliver results responsibly. That message is rare in corporate playbooks. Yet when it lands: ↳ Employees feel seen ↳ They perform better ↳ Engagement becomes intentional, not enforced But don't make this mistake: this model isn’t for everyone or everywhere. It requires: ➥ Roles that can be measured by outcomes, not seats ➥ A culture of open communication and results-based reviews ➥ Training in self-discipline, how to plan, prioritize, and refuse “busyness” culture Any organization that wants to thrive must ask ↓↓ 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘂𝗽 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘱𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴? DM me if you’re exploring how to lead your team or your career with more freedom and impact. #futureofwork #autonomy #leadershipdevelopment #empoweryouredge #smitadasjain #smitadjain