PwC Trust Insight white paper

Understanding the
value and drivers of
organisational trust
Trust insight
www.pwc.co.uk/trustinsight
A PwC white paper

Trust insight 1
The value of trust 2
The drivers of trust 6
Measuring and managing trust in practice 9
The trust profile 10
The trust diagnostic 12
The trust advantage 15
Trust matters – understand what actions
you need to take 18
Contact 19
Contents

Trust insight 
Much has been written about the loss
of public trust in institutions and
organisations of all types since the
recent financial crisis. In the PwC Global
CEO Survey 2015, more than half of the
respondents worldwide cited a lack of
trust in business as a barrier to their
organisation’s future growth. The focus
is often on why trust matters and
learning the lessons from previous
breakdowns in trust. But are organisations
really clear about the true value of
building and sustaining trust? About
how trust works and how it is created?
And do they know what people see as
the key components of a trustworthy
organisation?
To help answer these questions and
bring a more tangible focus to what has
mainly been a theory-led debate, PwC
has conducted a research study. As well
as pinpointing the value to business of
investing in building trust, we sought to
identify the drivers of trust. Our aim
was to help provide greater insight on
what enhances trust and what diminishes
trust – cause and effect – so that a
business can better understand what it
needs to do to engender trust.
While it’s widely assumed that trust is
intangible, in a business context we
know that it can be measured and
influenced. Many organisations try to
track trust through customer or
employee satisfaction surveys, but we
explore a model for measuring trust by
assessing groups across an
organisation’s entire stakeholder
community – including employees,
customers, regulators and shareholders.
Our model also takes into account
unstructured social media data to
reflect the fact that interactions between
stakeholder groups can influence trust.
We believe our method gives
organisations a robust and accurate
measure of their overall
trustworthiness.
The daily interactions between an
organisation and its stakeholders are
underpinned by trust – and our study
showed that this is particularly
important, because the existence of trust
today allows stakeholders to interact
confidently with organisations in the
future. This means that with the right
information, businesses can predict how
different stakeholder groups will
behave, and can then manage those
interactions accordingly. This insight
has helped us to develop a methodology
that enables an organisation to establish
which stakeholders it needs to be trusted
by in order to achieve its strategic
objectives, and by how much.
However, even with an accurate picture
of how trustworthy they are, many
organisations don’t know what steps
they should take in order to have the
best chance of successfully changing
future levels of trust. To help fill this
gap, our approach helps businesses
know where to focus their efforts to
build trust and best achieve their
strategic goals. Our view is that, by
applying this model, business leaders
can convert trust into a valuable
organisational asset – moving it away
from being a misunderstood and
unquantifiable intangible, to something
real, measurable and truly manageable.
PwC | Understanding the value and drivers of organisational trust | 1

The value of trust
Trust is a powerful asset. Levels
of trust can determine how
stakeholders interact with an
organisation in the future,
because the way stakeholders’
view an organisation’s
motivations and behaviour
influences their current and
future decisions and actions
towards it. This definition of
trust means it has a number of
attributes, creating significant
implications for organisations of
all types, and prompting some
searching questions for the
people leading them.
Our research identified four
operational reasons for being
a trustworthy organisation.
Where relevant we have quoted
research participants to
emphasise each point:
1. Being trustworthy drives
performance
Managers understand intuitively that
being a trustworthy organisation is
beneficial, but find it hard to put their
finger on how this positive impact
manifests itself. Organisations generally
focus on trust only when there is a need
to repair it. Few use trust actively as an
asset to add value to their business. To
date, much of the academic research
into trust has sought to isolate particular
drivers of trust in specific situations.
In contrast, our qualitative research
revealed agreement at a basic level that
trustworthiness between organisations
and their stakeholders drives performance,
rather than the other way round.1
For example, when you are trusted:
• New customers try you and existing
customers come back to you
• Employees want to go the extra mile
for you and want to be employed
by you
• Investors want to entrust
stewardship of their assets to you
• Partners are willing to collaborate
with you
• Regulators allow you a licence
to operate
• Journalists advocate for you – or at
least give you the benefit of the doubt.
“[This professional services firm]
demonstrates its expertise through its
values and its process/performance.
This allows us to create value through
relationships.” – A senior manager at
a professional services firm
2. Being trustworthy puts an
organisation on the front foot
in a crisis
Crises can happen to all organisations,
but those with a higher degree of trust
are able to recover more swiftly than
their less trusted competitors. For
example, Toyota recovered quickly from
its global recall of the Prius in 2010 due
to its strong customer service, established
positive relationships with regulators and
long-term investor base. By contrast, in
the UK the level of trust in politicians and
the institutions of politics significantly
declined after the 2010 Parliamentary
expenses scandal. Events of this kind
may not only impact the specific
company or organisation/institution
involved, but may also mean that a sector
lacking ‘collective’ trust can be further
damaged by the actions of a few. With the
right degree of trust, organisations gain
competitive advantage, retain their
licence to operate even in times of crisis
and can have a clearer view of how their
business and markets are likely to evolve
in the future.
Until a crisis hits, most organisations are
unaware of how trusted they are.
Previous research has generally
suggested that trust already established
with stakeholders mitigates the severity
of a crisis’s impact on an organisation.
Our research suggests this dynamic is
actually more proactive in practice, and
that organisations can positively manage
trust to achieve it.2
“If something has gone wrong [trust is
the key to] the way you respond. If there
is overly defensive action then trust
may weaken. [Trust is generated by the]
type and level of response to a problem
or situation.” – A senior manager at a
professional services firm.
1
This insight does also show up in some recent academic research. Song et al. (2012) found that being a
trustworthy organisation drives customer loyalty to luxury brands. Walz and Celuch (2010) have also
shown that being a trustworthy organisation drives customer advocacy.
2
This proactive stance is substantiated in the academic literature. According to Cooper, Crossley and
Wernsing (2012), being a trusted leader allows greater acceptance of organisational change and so
greater business unit performance. Watson (2007) examined four case studies, from Australia and the
UK, of survival or failure from organisational crisis. He found that predictability was taken as a proxy for
trustworthiness by the organisation’s major stakeholders.
Our qualitative research revealed agreement at a
basic level that trustworthiness between
organisations and their stakeholders drives
performance, rather than the other way round.1
2 | Understanding the value and drivers of organisational trust | PwC

3. Being trustworthy overcomes
stakeholders’ scepticism
Global megatrends are changing society’s
expectations of business, and the use of
technology is fundamentally affecting
how organisations are perceived and
valued. A lack of trust in business is seen
as a threat to growth prospects.
Stakeholders today have a greater ability
than ever before to make their voices
heard and regulatory scrutiny is
increasing in terms of scope, intensity
and the cost burden it imposes.
A wide variety of opinion polls and
research studies tell us that trust in
public institutions such as Parliament,
the police and the armed forces has
declined in the last decade. This is due
in part to better data gathering, and in
part to trust-diminishing actions by
those organisations or their individual
members. The result has been a rise in
scepticism across different stakeholders:
customers don’t believe brands’
advertising, employees have little
confidence in their organisations’
leaders, regulators demand higher
levels of assurance, and investors are
harder to convince about future
performance stories.
At the same time, it seems that
organisations also face scepticism about
their ability to fulfil their various roles –
as employers, as sustainable investments,
in having a licence to operate, as being
worthy of support. While some of these
attributes are really just ‘nice to have’, our
research shows that trustworthy
organisations have identified a number of
real operational benefits in overcoming
stakeholders’ scepticism.3
For example,
cloud computing would not have taken
off recently without users’ basic trust in
technology providers to keep their
information secure.
“You wouldn’t say publicly that you
are holding organisation X to a lower
standard [than] organisation Y. But
rather the degree of intervention is
different from X to Y. An example
in the charity sector [would be] the
difference between [a large] and a
small charity organisation. We do not
need to engage with [the large charity]
day-to-day because they have strong
governance structures, etc. Whereas
there will be much more intervention
with an organisation that doesn’t have
access to legal or professional financial
advice.” – A regulator
Another regulator agreed: “It’s about
understanding what the trust drivers
are and what is the basis to which
we can trust an operator. Companies
that are considered trustworthy
have different experiences with us
in comparison to those that are
untrustworthy.”
Also, at a tactical level, being trustworthy
allows organisations to work with
customers and the general public to gain
information and intelligence that is
useful to their business4
.
“What we committed to our customers,
governments and our regulators was
that we will operate in an ethical way
[in the way] that we do business. This
is important as we need their help to do
business, to spend money and [enter]
new markets.” – A senior manager at an
aerospace and defence group
At a strategic level, being trustworthy
encourages regulators to give an
organisation the benefit of the doubt,
which leads to a lighter regulatory touch
over time5
.
3
The academic literature has investigated the broader ‘licence to operate’ argument. Gunningham, Kagan
and Thornton (2004) find that being trustworthy helps gain the organisation a ‘social licence’.
4
In the academic literature, this capturing of information and intelligence shows up as customer retention.
For example, Ang and Buttle (2006) find that demonstrating trustworthiness through an active
complaints-handling processes drives improved customer retention.
5
This difference in regulatory relationship is picked up in the academic literature, with Murphy (2004)
showing that being a trustworthy organisation in the eyes of a regulator leads to improved reciprocity and
fairness in treatment.

4. Being trustworthy allows
organisations to be true to
themselves
A theme that recurred in our
conversations with organisations of all
types was the desire to ‘be ourselves’
almost in spite of stakeholders’
demands. Organisations feel there is a
lack of reciprocity with stakeholders: the
organisations themselves are expected
to act in a trustworthy manner, but even
when they meet this requirement their
stakeholders do not always reciprocate
by bestowing trust. For example,
investors may withdraw, regulators may
change their levels of scrutiny,
journalists may wage campaigns and
employees may question the direction of
the organisation. Our research found
that where sufficient levels of trust
existed with stakeholders, this gave
organisations the breathing space to get
on with their missions.
“Trust is about integrity of purpose and
integrity of people.” – A customer
A key insight that emerged from our
research was that ‘being ourselves’ – or
being ‘authentic’ – brings real business
benefits, both internally and externally.
Internally, authenticity means employees
are proud to work for the organisation,
an effect that in turn drives up
productivity and brand promotion
amongst employee networks.6
“Being trustworthy gives you
permission to be authentic.”
– A senior manager at a
pharmaceutical corporation
Externally, stakeholders appear to be
able to discern and punish ‘inauthentic’
behaviour.7
“If you lose morality it’s hard to
maintain trust. They lost [sight of]
what banking was about – they lost
trust and jeopardised the relationship
with customers.” – A customer
“MS deliver what they say. You know
what you’re going to get. Treated fairly.
Do what they say they will do. Decent
deal and service, returning customers.
A better way of making money.”
– A customer
Investors in particular want
organisations to be trustworthy, in the
sense of presenting a sustainable
investment opportunity.8
“The law requires [organisations] to
focus on their financial objective. But
there are also other factors that are
relevant to the long-term sustainability
and the delivery of the financial
objective. If you completely surrender
trust, you’re not going to maximise
shareholder value over the long term.”
– An investor
6
This link between authenticity and performance seems to occur particularly at business unit level.
According to the academic literature, being a trustworthy organisation drives employee engagement
according to Matzler and Renzl (2006), which in turn drives business unit performance according to
Harter, Schmidt and Hayes (2002).
7
Being a trustworthy organisation helps customers choose between products and services that they
perceive as functionally similar according to Pavlou and Dimoka (2006). Being a trustworthy organisation
drives customer loyalty to the store as well to the salesperson according to Sun and Lin (2008).
8
Being a trustworthy organisation increases the propensity of investors to invest in that organisation
according to Bottazzi, Da Rin Hellmann (2011). Using a dataset of 750 European venture capital
investments made between 1998 – 2001, they find that trust has a significant effect on the investment
decisions of venture capital firms, even after controlling for a host of other variables, including
geographic controls, differences in information, languages, legal systems, and taste based preferences.
Our research found that where sufficient levels of
trust existed with stakeholders, this gave
organisations the breathing space to get on with
their missions.

PwC | Measuring organisational trust and using it for competitive advantage | 5

The drivers of trust
To identify how to be trustworthy, an organisation first needs a solid understanding of the trust drivers of trustworthiness.
In order to help us understand what those trust drivers might be, we conducted a four-stage research project.
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
Our model of trust is
derived from a review of
the recent international
trust research from
business, management,
economics and sociology.
It was then tested for
robustness using
extensive onsite focus
groups at five large UK
organisations.
Our model of trust (see
Figure 1) is based on the
three types of trust and
the underlying trust
drivers (see Figure 2)
that we identified in our
research. Our study
defined three typesof
trust–Competence trust,
Experience trust and
Values trust – that
influence the overall
level of trust held by
each stakeholder group,
and which apply across all
types of organisations.
Within each of these
types of trust we
identified a series of
trust drivers that
organisations can
measure and manage in
order to improve their
overall trust levels.
To further test the
unique model and its
twelve trust drivers
across different sectors
and stakeholders, we
conducted a qualitative
research study with a
number of major
organisations. Six
further focus groups
were conducted with
customers, regulators,
investors and journalists
To confirm the
robustness of the model,
surveys were conducted
of the customers,
employees, regulators,
investors and journalists
from five organisations
in four sectors:
healthcare, media,
energy, leisure and
gaming. These surveys
were supplemented by
digital data searches to
populate the trust model
for a further twenty
companies. We collected
and coded more than
350,000 pieces of online
data. By analysing all
this data on a scale from
1 to 7, we were able to
derive a net trust score.
This score shows the
level of trust that each
stakeholder group has
towards the
organisation.
To test the suitability and
replicability of the trust
drivers, surveys were
conducted with
customers, employees,
regulators, investors and
journalists in the
following sectors:
healthcare, high street
retail, telecoms,
technology, transport,
public sector,
pharmaceuticals,
professional services,
and an industry body.

Oneoff
Ongoing
Iterative
Understandsbeneﬁts|T
ransparency
Vision|Communitarian
Experti
se|Responsiveness
Deliverspromise|R
eliability Individuali
sation|Pointofview
Compete
nce
Values
Exp
erience
Trust
U
nderstands my needs|Sociabilit
y
Figure 1: Our model of what drives organisational trustworthiness
Quantitative research sample
Pharmaceuticals
ProfessionalServices
Retail
LeisureandGaming
Technology
Energy
Media
Telecoms
Transport
Healthcare
PublicSector
15 12 12 5 5 5 4 4 4 3 2
Total number of
participating
organisations 71
Measuring trustworthiness
Most organisations undertake some kind
of stakeholder analysis, such as
calculating a ‘net promoter score’ – but
only look at single metrics in isolation. A
more holistic view of trust – integrating a
number of different measures – enables
organisations to interpret their current
situation more accurately; pinpoint
previously unidentified linkages between
stakeholders which affect their overall
trust levels; and create and execute a
strategy focused on the right priorities.
We believe our model for understanding
what drives trustworthiness is different
from existing trust frameworks and
measures, for three main reasons:
• We treat trust as a multidimensional
concept, enabling us to create a more
holistic picture encompassing all the
organisation’s stakeholders, not just
one group at a time.
• We succeed in modelling these
various relationships within the
same model for all stakeholders, so
organisations have one frame of
reference, not multiple sources.
• We have found that the same three
types of trust operate for all key
stakeholders and most types of
organisations, so we can work with a
single concept of a trustworthy
organisation rather than many.

The one-off, transactional
relationship between an
organisation and its
stakeholders.
Whether or not the organisation
‘does what it says on the tin’
Competence trust
Understand benefits
is about the extent to which the
stakeholder understands how the
organisation benefits them and the
public.
Transparency
is about the perceived accuracy and
truth of the organisation’s
marketing.
Delivers promise
is about delivering on the promise
of an organisation, whether to
customers in terms of products or
services, or other stakeholders in
terms of treating them in line with
the organisation’s purpose.
Reliability
is about being able to rely on the
organisation to do what it says it
will do.
The iterative relationship
between a stakeholder and
organisation.
Whether the organisation
consistently meet the stakeholder’s
expectations
Experience trust
Expertise
stakeholder perceives the
organisation to be shaping the sector.
Responsiveness
is about whether the organisation
listens to what its stakeholders say
and makes improvements
accordingly.
Individualisation
is the stakeholder’s perception that
the organisation treats them as an
individual.
Point of view
is the extent to which the
stakeholder understands the
organisation’s point of view, even if
they don’t agree with it.
The ongoing shared beliefs
between an organisation and its
stakeholders.
Whether the organisation and the
stakeholder share common values
Values trust
Understands my needs
is about whether the stakeholder
feels the organisation is reacting to
the stakeholder’s self-defined needs.
Sociability
organisation is perceived to care
about the impact its activities make
on society as a whole.
Vision
is about the stakeholder’s
perception of what kind of business
the organisation is trying to be.
Communitarian
is the extent to which the
organisation is perceived to put its
stakeholders’ interests before its own.
Figure 2: The trust drivers

Measuring and managing trust
in practice
Our view is that a strategy for realising the value of organisational trust has three components. First, an assessment of the
status quo in a trust profile, then a trust diagnostic which looks at an organisation’s optimum trust profile based on its business
objectives, and finally the trust advantage which is where organisations start to realise the value in managing their trust asset.
trust profile
Who trusts your
organisation and
how much?
trust diagnostic
What trust strategy
does your
organisation need to
achieve its business
objectives?
trust advantage
How can your
organisation
generate value from
managing trust?
Components
• A trust profile using publicly
available data.
• Comparison of data to industry
benchmarks.
• Insight to help guide the
organisation’s next steps.
• Periodic updates of trust profile.
Components
• Assessment of how trust links to an
organisation’s business strategy.
• Gap analysis between current and
ideal trust profile.
• Identification of trust KPIs across an
organisation.
• A tailored trust measurement tool.
Components
• Specific to strategic questions an
organisation wants answering.
• Recommendations on how to
improve trust levels.
• Links between trust profile and
other data sets.
• Measurement frameworks.

The trust profile
By measuring stakeholders’ views of
an organisation across the three trust
types and the 12 trust drivers, we can
generate a unique trust profile for
every organisation. Our view is that if
organisations want to manage their
drivers of trust, they first need to
measure and understand them.
A trust profile illustrates an
organisation’s level of each type of trust
with the five main stakeholder groups
(see Figure 3) and enables an
organisation to start answering several
important questions – including:
• How do our trust levels compare
with those of our competitors?
• In what areas are we falling behind
our peers?
• Are there any stakeholder groups we
need to make more effort with?
• What does a ‘good’ trust profile look
like for us?
• What actions can we take to improve
our trust profile?
Figure 3: Example of a large charity’s overall trust profile across stakeholders (trust type level)
64%
57%
50%
94%
90%
90%
Employees Customers InvestorsRegulators Journalists
Competence Experience Values
75%
66%
75%
57%
51%
44%
28%
51%
52%
Trust profile across stakeholders of a large charity

Figure 4 illustrates the trust profile of a
gaming organisation that has focused its
offer on delivering a well-defined and
consistent product to its customers
around the country. However, the lower
scores for Experience trust indicate
operational issues; and the lower scores
for Values trust indicate a disconnect
between how management see the
brand and the empathy that customers
have for the brand. Managers need to
address the apparent gap between
support for the current offering
(evidenced by high Competence trust
scores) and the evolving/future offering
(evidenced by the two weakest trust
drivers ‘Understands my needs’ and
‘Communitarian’). This apparent gap is
a leading indicator of an emerging risk
around customer retention.
Figure 4: Example snapshot of a gaming organisation’s trust with its customers (trust driver level)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
69%
Understandbeneﬁts
Transparency
Deliverspromise
Reliability
Expetise
Responsiveness
Indidualisation
Pointofview
Understandsmyneeds
Sociability
Vision
Communitarian
54% 55% 56% 57%
38%
46%
43%
31%
41%
43%
30%

The trust diagnostic
The trust diagnostic connects trust
levels to business goals. By
measuring the drivers and levels of
trust, an organisation can
understand how trust links to its
business objectives – thereby
enabling it to focus on the trust
types and stakeholders that
matter, and helping it to build a
robust and actionable strategy. In
doing this, the organisation gains
the ability to answer the following
questions:
• What do key stakeholder
groups expect from us?
• How does trust drive high
levels of employee
engagement?
• How much trust is enough to
keep our customer base?
• How much should I invest in
trust?
• What would be the business
outcomes of increased trust
levels?
Answering these questions gives
managers a much stronger
understanding of the specific
drivers of trust relevant to specific
stakeholder groups. In this section
we highlight five insights that can
be gained from a trust diagnostic.
An organisation should be seeing a return
on the investment it makes in ensuring
trust levels are adequate for its business
strategy – whether that’s building
resilience to weather external events, or
gaining competitive advantage.
Figure 5 compares the trust levels of four
organisations. Over time, different levels
of trust are required as organisations are
tested by events.
• Organisation A has exceptionally
high trust levels. This means it is
resilient in the face of all adverse
events, but for the rest of the time it
sees no additional benefits from the
trust it has worked hard to achieve.
• Organisation B has trust levels that
are above average for its sector, and
so gains a competitive advantage
over Organisations C and D. Though
it would benefit from higher levels of
trust occasionally, it overall appears
to be getting its trust levels right.
1
How much trust is
enough?
• Organisation C has comparatively
low levels of trust relative to its
sector, and loses significant amounts
of management time and focus every
time an adverse event happens. As a
result, this organisation is at a
competitive disadvantage to its
industry peers.
• Organisation D has very low levels of
trust, has little trust reserves to weather
adverse events, and is struggling to
retain its licence to operate.
Figure 5: Comparative example showing how much trust is enough
Organisationaltrustlevels
Organisation B
Organisation C
Organisation D
Time
Organisation A
Required level of trust for resilience

Our research showed clearly that
different organisations are trusted by
different stakeholders in different ways.
Looking across all the organisations in
our study, we found that:
• Customers’ trust is driven
predominantly by Competence trust,
with Experience trust and Values
trust being less influential.
• Employees’ trust is driven by Values
and Experience trust, with
Competence trust being less
influential.
• Investors’ trust is driven by
Competence and Values trust, with
Experience trust being less
influential.
• Regulators’ trust is sector-specific,
but Experience trust is consistently
important to regulators.
• Journalists’ trust is driven by
Competence trust and Values trust,
with Experience trust being less
influential.
From the data gathered, we can create and
analyse an organisation’s trust profile
across stakeholders to identify and isolate
areas where trust levels are low, and
understand whether this low trust is
having a negative impact on the
organisation’s ability to deliver its strategy.
Having enough trust with stakeholders
is essential for many organisations’
business models. For example, online
retailers need to be trusted to deliver
goods on time; banks need to be trusted
to keep their depositors’ money safe; and
healthcare organisations need to be
trusted to deliver high standards of care.
If these organisations have insufficient
trust with their key stakeholders, they
won’t be able to deliver their strategic
goals regardless of their best
advertising, marketing and
commercial efforts.
2 3
Understanding what
drives trust for
different stakeholder
groups
Assessing the
organisation’s trust
profile against its
strategic goals

Figure 6: Comparison of Competence, Experience and Values trust across competing companies in the leisure and
gaming sector
Competitor 1
57%
45%
32%
43%
28%
8%
66%
48%
34%
66%
48%
45%
14%
(32%) (8%)
Competitor 2 Competitor 3 Competitor 4 Competitor 5
Many organisations face similar
challenges that are fundamentally about
whether they have enough trust with
their stakeholders: examples of these
trust-related challenges include
regulatory pressure, market
fragmentation, shrinking market share,
reputation damage, customer
defections, declining employee
engagement, and difficulties in the
successful execution of change and
innovation. Over the past three years,
PwC and its research partner Mettle
Consulting have deployed our trust
model with more than 70 organisations.
Drawing on this library of trust profiles,
managers can learn from best practice in
their sector and understand which trust
drivers to influence and by how much.
5
Learning from other
organisations in a
similar business
position
Some stakeholder groups will be more
important than others to the success of
an organisation. From the original
research it was clear that organisations
typically know which stakeholder
groups are most important at the
current point in the business cycle, and
that understanding these stakeholders’
likely future behaviour is key to business
success. However, organisations often
struggle to compare their drivers of trust
against their competitors’, so they have
no way of gauging their relative
advantage or disadvantage.
Using our methodology, industry
expertise and experience of working
with other organisations we can then
4
Comparing the
organisation’s trust
drivers with those of its
immediate competitors
show what a productive trust profile
would look like for an organisation’s
particular situation, and pinpoint which
of the 12 trust drivers most require
improvement. By way of example,
Figure 6 shows a trust profile analysis of
customers in the leisure and gaming
sector. Following a series of adverse
events, Competitor 5 is losing market
share to Competitor 1, Competitor 3 and
Competitor 4. In this sector, Competence
trust drives licence to operate and
Experience trust drives customer
satisfaction. Competitor 4’s advantage is
based on strong Values trust, giving it
customers with high willingness to spend.

The trust advantage
The trust advantage is a tool which helps
organisations turn trust into an
organisational asset. By understanding
how trust can be used to add value to
the business, managers can answer
questions including:
• Which stakeholders influence each
other when it comes to trust in our
business?
• How can we best position ourselves
to move up the value chain?
• How should we use trust to retain
customers and counteract
defections?
• How can we measure the
effectiveness of our marketing
campaigns in creating the right trust
with the right stakeholders?
• Do we have the right trust with the
right stakeholders to expand
successfully into new markets?
Specifically, the qualitative and
quantitative outputs from our research
found four areas of potential extra value
for the organisations in the research
project:

By understanding what drives trust for
each stakeholder group, managers can
change their organisation’s trust profile
to better deliver its strategy. Customers
require a different trust profile from
employees and regulators, and
managers need to apply the right tools to
Looking across the organisations
involved in our research study, we found
that trust is already being used as a
leading indicator for specific
performance outcomes. While some of
this effort was ad hoc and unstructured,
in most instances the approach was
derived from managers’ intuitive
understanding that the right level of
trust with stakeholders was essential to
improving performance. For example,
professional services firms were using
trust levels as a leading indicator of
Case study
Major retailer – Customer
defection
In the midst of the recession, this
organisation used trust drivers
analysis to identify competitive
disadvantages. As a result, managers
focused on Experience trust with
customers and prospects. The
Experience trust drivers were
weighted according to customer
research, client interviews and
strategic review. This led to a focus
on a single driver (“treating the
customer as an individual”) and the
opportunity to engage with new
customer segments. As a result, the
organisation’s mobile commerce
revenues grew by 89% to account for
18% of total sales. Overall, annual
sales for the quarter rose by 3%
compared to the previous year.
Case study
Energy supplier – Customer
acquisition
This organisation uses trust metrics
to understand the evolving drivers of
customer acquisition in a highly
competitive market. In particular,
managers track the Competence and
Values trust levels with prospects. In
cases where these levels exceed those
of competitors, customer acquisition
rates are higher and customer
acquisition costs are lower than the
sector average. This approach has
enabled this energy supplier to gain
significant market share over the past
twelve months.
employee retention issues; the
pharmaceuticals corporation of
customer satisfaction; the aerospace and
defence group of the recovery time and
effort from regulatory intervention; the
public sector service organisation of the
extent of user engagement; the large
charity of donor sentiment; the energy
supplier of customer acquisition; the
first leisure and gaming organisation of
employee recruitment; and the second
leisure and gaming organisation of
investor sentiment.
the job. Managers also need to prioritise
which trust drivers to influence so that
they are maximising their organisation’s
return on trust investment. Adopting an
analytical approach to strategy delivery
empowers managers to make and
implement these critical decisions.
1 Benefits to the delivery of a strategy
2 Trust as a leading indicator of performance

By understanding which trust drivers
are most important to which stakeholder
groups for each organisation, we can
gain an understanding of the causal
relationships between the various
stakeholder groups. In the process of
collecting the research data, we were
able to identify and isolate which
stakeholders influence the behaviour of
the wider trust ecosystem by tracking
the trust drivers that were shared across
all stakeholders in that sector. For
example, in one of the sectors covered in
the research, regulators’ trust levels
appeared to be heavily influenced by
customer’s trust levels. As a result, the
organisation in that sector was able to
address the regulators’ concerns by
demonstrating improving customer
trust levels over time.
The process of collecting the stakeholder
groups’ trust data during 2013 and 2014
showed that trust levels in the
organisations involved in the project
were volatile. In some sectors this
volatility was pronounced and closely
correlated to events in the particular
industry. In other sectors, overall
volatility was low but there were sharp
‘spikes’ that affected individual
organisations. By looking at trust over
time in this way, managers can identify
ongoing trends and themes relating to
Case study
A global pharmaceutical
company – Product uptake
This organisation uses a ‘trust
ecosystem’ approach to increase the
likelihood of success for its new drugs.
Trust levels are measured at the
various stages of a drug launch:
• initial announcement to investors;
• regulatory submission;
• payor negotiations;
• educating prescribers; and
• patient advocate recruitment.
By managing the organisation’s trust
ecosystem the organisation is able to
focus its time and resources, ensuring
there are no surprises and maximum
commercial benefit at each stage of
the launch process. It does this
particularly through isolating which
stakeholders influence other
stakeholders and amplifying this effect.
Case study
A leisure and gaming
organisation – Trust
monitoring
This organisation uses trust metrics as
an input to a continuous business
measurement process that predicts
risks and opportunities related to its
business performance. By monitoring
stakeholder trust levels on an ongoing
basis, the organisation can better
understand the impacts on its business
from new market entrants and rising
investor scepticism, learn lessons from
its success with online services, and
mitigate its risks around the sector’s
social responsibility issues. The
benefits from this approach have been
evident in the company’s relatively
higher degree of strategic clarity
following a period of market
uncertainty, better resource
management, and stable market share.
During events that challenge their
business resilience, organisations that
understand and manage their trust
ecosystems are able to weather the
turbulence – and prosper – more
effectively than their competitors. As
Alison Cooper, CEO of Imperial Tobacco
Group, put it in the PwC Global CEO
Survey 2014, “A few years ago, Imperial
would have seen shareholders as the key
stakeholder, and almost the only
stakeholder we really focused on. It’s
absolutely valid and right for a plc to
focus on driving shareholder returns,
but the reality is you do that through
focusing on other stakeholders. That’s
the key shift that we’ve made over the
last couple of years: If we want to drive
those shareholder returns we’ve got to
get other stakeholders right. That means
changing our approach in terms of our
employees, in terms of our customers
and in terms of our suppliers.”
trust in their organisations. Using trust
levels as early indicators of potential
risks to the organisation creates an
opportunity to undertake continuous
measurement around the organisation’s
stakeholder trust. Deploying continuous
measurement enables organisations to
predict forthcoming risks and
opportunities to their business. For
example, in the pharmaceutical sector,
using specific trust levels as a forward-
looking indicator of stakeholders’
behaviour allowed managers to avoid
costly mistakes around product pricing,
and identify and neutralise product
safety issues in advance.
3 The ‘Trust ecosystem’
4 Continuous measurement

Trust matters – understand
what actions you need to take
We can help your business do this. The
method of measuring the drivers of trust
that we’ve presented here is not the only
way to tackle this challenge. But we
firmly believe it’s one of the most
effective approaches developed to date,
as well as being supported by a large
and robust library of data and our
substantial experience in this field.
Trust is an asset every bit as valuable –
and as enduring – as any other that your
business possesses. Managers in every
organisation need to think hard about
how trustworthy their organisation is –
and should be – in order to gain
maximum value from their trust asset.
Managers need to think more clearly
how their actions and decisions will
impact and influence their various
stakeholder groups, and what
implications those effects may have for
business performance.
Looking across our research
findings and interviews, two key
messages emerge for
organisations and their leaders.
First, stakeholders’ trust in an
organisation fundamentally
shapes their future behaviour
and actions towards it. And
second, by using the approach
we’ve described, organisations
can gain the ability to measure
trust – and therefore to manage
it. Putting these two facts
together, it follows that
organisations can derive
maximum value from their trust
asset by planning and executing
the right strategies and actions
to enable it to flourish.
Greater transparency and
understanding of stakeholders’ trust
perspectives provide businesses with
invaluable information to shape their
future more effectively. Drawing on our
research, we’ve now developed the
solutions that organisations need to help
them do this.

Contact
If you would like to find out more
about the themes discussed in this
paper, please visit our website
www.pwc.co.uk/trustinsight
For help understanding your
organisation’s trust profile and planning
your trust diagnostic and trust
advantage, please call:
Simon Friend
+44 (0) 7764 902878
simon.d.friend@uk.pwc.com
or
Helen Tuddenham
+44 (0) 7841 567416
helen.tuddenham@uk.pwc.com
PwC | Measuring organisational trust and using it for competitive advantage | 19

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