This week I’ve been attending the PwC Trust Academy in Phoenix, Ariz., a multiday conference PwC hosts as part of its “New Equation” global strategy, which aims to help business leaders earn trust in an evolving multi-stakeholder world.
It’s a striking location. From my window I can watch the sunset over the sands of the desert, glinting off the towering slides of the hotel’s mini waterpark. But PwC, which covered my travel and room for the trip (and is also a Trust Factor sponsor), didn’t bring people to this oasis for the pool.
“The firm belief that sits behind the New Equation is that all companies will need to do two things as the world turns: build trust with their stakeholders, and deliver sustained outcomes,” says J.C. Lapierre, PwC U.S.’s chief strategy and communications officer, who spearheaded the Trust Academy in 2021.
There are approximately 80 attendees joining this iteration of the invite-only event—guests Lapierre describes as mostly “C-suite or C-suite rising”—for two and a half days of expert seminars, workshops, and discussions on the practice of building trust.
Regular readers will be familiar with some of the themes that emerged: trust as a business value, the challenge of re-earning lost trust, strategies managers use to build trust with teams, as well as more industry-specific subjects. But for me, another (and often overlooked) theme emerged from the portion of the programming from which observers were excluded: the value of privacy.
“We are very careful about [ensuring] we have small groups that are closed groups with a facilitator we bring in to help aid these discussions. [Attendees] have the confidence that those conversations go no further than where they are and they really build an unbelievable trust amongst themselves as cohorts,” Lapierre says.
Although executives in a lot of my previous interviews for Trust Factor have focused on the importance of transparency in building trust with stakeholders, transparency typically only comes after decision-making, where security is more valuable.
In those breakout discussions at PwC’s event, attendees workshop how practices they’ve been presented apply to their own businesses in cohorts made of peers from different industries. The sessions are kept behind closed doors so that the guests can be candid about the challenges they’re facing. This reflects the manner in which executive teams typically make decisions.
For business leaders, the question is how to balance maintaining privacy—needed to build trust among members of an executive team—and practicing transparency—needed to build trust between leadership and stakeholders. With too much privacy, stakeholders feel misinformed. Too little, a company can fumble its inherent business advantage and leadership can falter.
(I’d be remiss not to mention that Wes Bricker, PwC U.S. trust solution co-lead, highlighted that a similar dichotomy exists in crafting regulations when governments rely on corporate expertise to inform guidelines but need to prevent private interests from influencing decisions.)
That’s a tight wire to walk. As we approach the new year, I’m interested to hear how readers plan to manage that balancing act in the year ahead.
Eamon Barrett
eamon.barrett@fortune.com
IN OTHER NEWS
Here comes carbon capture
The COP28 climate talks in Dubai ended in a deal that saw a commitment to transition away from all fossil fuels, marking the first time world leaders have agreed on limiting oil and gas production. The closing agreement called for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.” The text does not call for a complete elimination of fossil fuels but does uphold the target of achieving ‘net zero’ emissions by 2050.
Citations for ChatGPT
OpenAI and German media giant Axel Springer have signed a first-of-its-kind deal that would see the AI developer pay to license content from the latter’s news sites, which include Politico and Business Insider in the U.S. and several publications in Germany. Under the deal’s terms, ChatGPT will provide summaries of Axel Springer articles for relevant queries that will include links and proper attribution.
Sick of subscriptions
Adobe said U.S. regulators are probing the company’s cancellation rules for software subscriptions, which require customers to either cancel within two weeks of contract renewal or forfeit a substantial cancellation fee. Users have complained about the peculiar pricing mechanism for years and the FTC’s involvement now comes as Adobe is seeking approval for its $20 billion acquisition of design software maker Figma.
What are you watching?
Netflix dropped a dataset this week of 18,000 shows and movies (which make up 99% of its catalog), listing how many hours of viewership they each amassed in the first six months of 2023. The data dump is a marked change for the streaming service, which has historically kept viewing figures secret. Netflix says it’s opening up its data banks in the name of greater transparency demanded by striking actors and writers.
TRUST EXERCISE
“Organizations are not preparing their teams to tap AI to do it better and smarter, but on top of that, it’s a vulnerability for the workforce because AI, I think, is the ultimate bar-raiser.”
The tech community might well debate whether AI will enhance the average working experience, by providing a new tool for efficiency, or simply eliminate jobs. Either way, the rapidly evolving tech poses a disruptive shift to the labor market. Atif Rafiq, founder and CEO of Ritual and author of Decision Sprint, told Fortune’s Brainstorm AI conference in San Francisco on Monday that he thinks businesses are “woefully unprepared” for that.
