Industry Agenda

The report identifies a fundamental disconnect between how business leaders and the public perceive trust, noting that while leaders focus on product delivery, the public prioritizes values and behavior. It builds an economic case for investing in trust, citing benefits in M&A success, capital access, employee retention, and crisis resilience. The document proposes a new framework for rebuilding trust through multistakeholder engagement, transparency, and co-creation, illustrated by case studies from Burberry and the NHS.

• There is a critical misalignment in the perception of trust: the general public focuses on "values, fairness and behaviour," whereas business leaders emphasize the "delivery of products and services."
• Investing in trust provides five tangible business benefits: improved business terms and conditions, enhanced innovation and competitiveness, more engaged employee relationships, stronger value chain relationships, and increased resilience to crises.
• Trust acts as a financial buffer during crises; while operational crises like product recalls cause an average day-one share price drop of 37%, behavioural crises such as corruption lead to sharper declines averaging over 50%.
• High levels of employee trust correlate with increased profitability and lower turnover; for example, in the US and Canadian hotel industry, a small increase in a hotel's trust score can boost profitability by 2.5% of revenues, exceeding US$ 250,000 per year per hotel.
• Trust is a significant driver of capital investment; research across 15 European countries indicates that a 1% increase in high trust toward another country correlates with an almost 7% increase in the probability of venture capital investments in that country.
• To rebuild trust, businesses must move beyond 'talking past' the public by adopting a framework that balances operational delivery with a demonstrated contribution to society and a commitment to responsible values.

APA

World Economic Forum (2015). Industry Agenda. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_EvolutionTrustBusinessDeliveryValues_report_2015.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Industry Agenda. 2015. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_EvolutionTrustBusinessDeliveryValues_report_2015.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Industry Agenda |date=January 2015 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_EvolutionTrustBusinessDeliveryValues_report_2015.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2015industry, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Industry Agenda}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2015}, month = jan, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_EvolutionTrustBusinessDeliveryValues_report_2015.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }