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The transcript of a speech made by professor Charles Handy in 1990 looking at what a company is for.

The paper proposes a framework to help organizations monitor levels of trust for different stakeholder groups.  Part I, contained in a separate document, examined various trust indicators to measure the relative presence or absence of trust, and the nature of that trust, in typical commercial relationships.  It also introduced new trust concepts and proposed a novel framework for classifying conditions that indicate trust.  Part II builds on these foundations and examines trust indicators for investors.  Examples are used to demonstrate various ways the framework can be applied to measure trust indicators for investors with distinct needs.

Higher levels of trust in business are known to reduce costs and improve business performance. This paper proposes a framework to help organizations monitor the efficiency of their business practices for indicating trustworthiness to stakeholder groups.  In Part I various trust indicators for customers are examined. Part II, contained in a separate document, examines trust indicators for investors.  New trust concepts are introduced and a novel framework is proposed for classifying conditions that indicate trust (such as the presence of name-brand products, organizational transparency, and warranties).  Examples are used to demonstrate various ways in which the framework can be applied to measure trust indicators for customers.

This paper introduces the Trust Enablement™ approach to corporate governance, as a natural and harmonizing counterbalance to prevailing risk management practices.Recent attempts to restore confidence in capital markets have been based largely on risk management practices that place greater emphasis on protecting organizations from further erosion of trust than on establishing higher levels of trust and confidence. Efforts focused on proactively building trust yield better results than recent risk management reactions to mistrust.  A complementary, offensive trust and confidence-building strategy is therefore proposed as more effective for reducing director and officer liability exposures and enhancing business value than a prevailing defensive, risk management strategy.Comparative examples of current governance practices and proposed initiatives when mapped to the Trust Enablement™ model reveal a deficiency in trust and confidence-building governance mechanisms.  Trust Enablement™,...

  There is plenty of research evidence documenting the business benefits from high-trust business relationships. Unfortunately at times like this (2009), the knee-jerk crisis reaction of many companies is to squeeze suppliers harder rather than to combine a call for greater efficiency with a collaborative approach to finding sustainable solutions. One study documented in A Guide to Trust (by the Relationships Foundation with Ci) examined supply chain relationships in the motor industry and found dramatic benefits for those with high-trust relationships: Design and distribution ideas were shared, and purchasers handled twice the value of goods when dealing within highly trusted manufacturers. In another industry, Jim Sierck of Xerox USA estimated that the bureaucratic structure created to handle the lack of trust in their buyer/supplier relationships cost them around 7 cents in the dollar.The evidence is clear: If you want efficiency, you need to release all the available talent,...