In the past few years, we have seen many examples of the breakdown between company

governance and stakeholder interests. Do you think these corporate scandals might have
played out differently if the corporations involved had built their businesses on the basis of
becoming trusted agents for their customers? Is it really possible for companies to be trusted?
What about governments? Political candidates and officeholders? Nonprofit organizations?
What is the difference between the ones that are untrustable and those that are trustable?

Answer:

Do you think these corporate scandals might have played out differently if the corporations
involved had built their businesses on the basis of becoming trusted agents for their
customers?

- As pointed out in question itself, I pretty much agree with the statement that “corporate
scandals might have played out differently if the corporations involved had built their
businesses on the basis of becoming trusted agents for their customers”. Some students
may argue that dishonest and selfish individuals will always exist in the business world,
as in other spheres of influence, and that no type of corporate orientation, customer-
focused or not, trust-oriented or not, will be capable of altering such behavior. Others
may be more optimistic and suggest that if a strong managerial focus on developing
customer trust is infused throughout the organization, then, at a minimum, individual
efforts at odds with such an approach will be "outed" early on, rather than filtering
throughout the organization's players without being revealed. A recent example
concerns the mutual fund industries' treatment of millions of individual investors who
were harmed by some traders' behavior on behalf of a few larger clients. If the
cumulative value of the small investors had been calculated, in total their worth would
likely exceed that of the few major investors on whose behalf the questionable activities
took place. Such customer knowledge may have prevented the widespread practices at
some fund families implicated in the recent scandals.

Is it really possible for companies to be trusted?

- It will still really possible for companies to be trusted if the customer does not know
about the scandal, but when one day the customer knows about the scandal will
suddenly change their thinking about that company, it will still be trusted if the
company build a relationship with the customer, knowing that the company has
changed since their last scandal, even the customers knows the past scandal someday,
but it is very hard for customer to get back his/her trust to that company so the
company needs to work it.
What about governments?

- The government can be still trusted if there are showing transparency to the people,
trust is also a foundation of government so that everyone there will work without
hesitation, but if the government doesn’t show some transparency be alarmed because
there is something wrong happening in your government.

Political candidates and officeholders?

- They can be trusted too if they have good works from their recent term or they show
love to the people by doing community livelihood projects, building projects that may
help the people, constructing accessible roads, and lastly, they show transparency how
their assets go.

Nonprofit organizations?

- An organization that wants to operate as a tax-exempt nonprofit can organize itself as a

trust as well. Trusts operated this way are called private foundations. A non-operating
foundation simply exists to distribute its income and principle assets to other charitable
organizations. How do you set up a trust for a non-profit? First, determine what assets
you want to add to the trust. Remember that your donations are irrevocable. Secondly,
determine what assets you want to add to the trust. Remember that your donations are
irrevocable. And lastly, Work with a professional to draw up a trust document.

What is the difference between the ones that are untrustable and those that are trustable?

- I just have a simple answer to this question, Untrustable not able to be trusted: He is an
utterly untrustworthy, unreliable source. Trustable implies able to be trusted, and
trustworthy implies worthy of trust. Being trustable doesn't necessarily imply
trustworthy.