Trust is yours to build

As I was reading about the trust deficit on Wall Street this morning in the NYT business section, I was struck by our conventional notion of trust. We tend to think of trust as something that one has or doesn’t have and it’s almost out of our control. Kind of like the weather. Either it rains or not and we can’t change that. But trust is a company’s most valuable asset and the key to building long term wealth. The sooner Wall Street understands that, the better off everyone will be: banks, financial markets, the public and the entire economy. Canadian financial leaders seem to get it. I just came back from Toronto where I gave a presentation on “The Integrity Opportunity” to the Investment Industry Association of Canada. It was their annual conference and the entire theme was about building trust in the financial industry. Why aren’t our banks and financial institutions talking about how to build trust? Until they do, their economic fortunes will suffer and ours too.