A presentation given in Mumbai, on 17th November 2007 by Pavan Sukhdev, a Managing Director in the Global Markets division of Deutsche Bank AG and member of Green Indian States Trust, about the measurement of sustainability. For more information visit www.gistindia.org

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.

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.