The role of CEO is a success label. Wall Street and investors view the CEO as the fiduciary leader who will drive an enterprise’s performance to greater shareholder financial results. The shareholder mindset tends to be short-term rather than long-term, which puts brands at a disadvantage.
Building, nurturing, growing, maintaining brands is a significant part of the CEO job. Brands are promises of a relevant, differentiated, trustworthy experience. Brands take time to build.
The role of the CEO has been in the news recently. There is buzz around the hiring of seasoned, sometimes retired, ex-CEOs, according to The Wall Street Journal. It writes that hiring a new CEO, especially with a resume of past winning performance, is “meant to reassure investors.”
The replacement of Cracker Barrel’s CEO with a seasoned CEO, seems to reassure investors due to lost credibility with shareholders and the public.
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Referring to Boeing and Verizon as other examples of seasoned leadership, The Wall Street Journal points out that “… an established executive brings instant credibility…” (even though data show that results can be mixed).
Credibility and the trust – aka reassurance – of investors are paramount when hiring a CEO.
True.
But, having a CEO who investors trust is only one side of the trust equation. CEOs must build, nurture and grow trust among all stakeholders and in the brand.
Just look at some of the headlines castigating and worrying about Meta, such as “Meta Lost its Mojo this Year – Can Zuckerberg Restore Investor Trust in 2026?”
Whether a new CEO or a seasoned vet, trust is an increasingly necessary component for successfully managing in a world experiencing declining institutional trust, aka the trust deficit syndrome. The CEO is the leader in safeguarding and growing organizational wealth. Trust must be at the top of the CEO to-do list.
Why?
Of the three major sources of organizational wealth – Financial Capital, Human Capital and Intellectual Capital, enterprises must focus on a fourth source of organizational wealth: Trust Capital. Trust Capital accrues like money in the bank. It is the confidence stakeholders have that you will live up to your promises and behave in a responsible manner. Trust Capital is the confidence suppliers have in doing business with you. Trust Capital is the confidence employees have in your leadership. It is the confidence investors have in your business future. Trust Capital helps a company or brand to bounce back after a crisis.
The CEO cannot delegate the leadership necessary for building corporate Trust Capital. Trust Capital is a CEO responsibility. The CEO is the Chief Trust Officer. Chief Trust Officer is a fundamental, ongoing, leadership responsibility. Trust-building begins at the top.
The role of Chief Trust Officer is more than a title: it is an indispensable, Trust Capital-building task of major cultural and financial significance inside and outside the organization. Studies show that increased brand trust is a critical factor leading to increased customer preference and loyalty, generating high quality revenue growth.
Although analysts and investors focus on quarterly money, it is important to understand that without brand value there is no institutional value. Brand value relies on trust. If customers, whether consumers or business, do not trust the brand, becoming unwilling to purchase that brand, there is no enterprise value. Trust is a multiplier in the value equation: if there is zero trust, then there is zero value.
For those new CEOs who look forward to another shot at running an organization and for all the other CEOs already in place, here are some guiding principles for building Trust Capital.
- When strategy and culture conflict, culture wins. Implement this straightforward internal marketing program. As the newly appointed CEO of Cracker Barrel said in a 2024 interview, “I probably spend 60% of my time on culture and leadership and people selection.”
- Education: Communicate to all employees what Trust Capital means and why it is important. Create a sense of urgency.
- Implementation: What will we do differently? Address structures, policies, and practices that may be undermining trust-building. Articulate accepted behaviors. Use common language (definitions): words matter. As CEO, set the example for the entire organization.
- Inspiration: Reinforce, reinforce, and reinforce. Recognize behaviors that are anchored in shared values.
- Evaluation: If it is important enough to do, it is important enough to measure. Measure progress. People will manage what management recognizes and rewards.
- Do what you say you will do. This is the foundation upon which trust is built. It is a cliché to say that actions speak louder than words. It is a cliché because it is so true. FedEx created a strong corporate reputation for its ability to achieve its promises of on-time delivery. FedEx convinced customers that they can trust them to deliver on time. Trust must be demonstrated before it can be claimed. To deserve trust, we must demonstrate trust. To be trusted, we must first be worthy of the customer’s trust. Tide made laundry washing more trustworthy because Tide cleans best. Tide once demonstrated its cleaning power when a kid’s sock was inside of another sock in the pocket of the kid’s shorts. The “sock-in-the-sock-in-the pocket” allowed Tide to prove that if it’s Tide, it has got to be clean. Saying, “trust me” does not track with customers. Trust is the growing conviction that a brand will live up to expectations. Do not overpromise. Promise what you can deliver and deliver what you promise. Live up to expectations consistently. Create a pattern of predictable behavior.
- Generate a plan to boost leadership, credibility, integrity, and responsibility.
- Leadership must be demonstrated, not merely claimed. Be a thought leader. Is your company perceived to be innovative? And, are you growing in size? Dyson is considered to be highly innovative and has grown exponentially. In its first years, Dyson was a small brand. But, a competitor’s data showed that people perceived Dyson to be the most trusted brand. Dyson extended its innovations and trustworthiness in vacuums to hair dryers, fans, and hand dryers.
- Credibility means your statements/actions are plausible. Be dependable. Be capable, competent, and an expert in your field. Provide superior complaint resolution (e.g., Nordstrom is all about promising and delivering exceptional customer service that goes above and beyond a typical service experience. It is rumored to have once accepted the return of a set of tires, even though the store has never sold tires).
- Integrity means having customers’ interests at heart. Refrain from taking unfair advantage. Be accountable for actions. Behave ethically. Patagonia is a great brand to model for ethical behaviors.
- Responsibility provides competitive advantage. Demonstrate good global corporate citizenship. Corporate Social Responsibility is not a separate division. It is a way of doing business. Some companies are making it a core of their operations. Starbucks has created its C.A.F.E. Practices guidelines designed to ensure the company sources sustainably grown and processed coffee. Unilever has focused on sustainability for decades.
- Focus on The Trustworthy Value Equation
Build Brand Value. Ignore Brand Value at your peril. Every customer has a value equation in their head when shopping. A customer-perceived value equation is what you get (functional, emotional, and social benefits) for what you pay (the costs to the customer in terms of money, time, and effort); this creates brand value. Trust acts as a multiplier when consumers take mental assessments of a brand’s worth. Without trust, brands have little value. This is the new value equation: what you get (expected experience) for costs you pay multiplied by trust. Understanding the drivers of Trustworthy Brand Value is one of the greatest opportunities for brands. Building Trustworthy Brand Value needs to be embedded within the organization and its brands. It needs to be part of the daily brand discussion. This is a conversation that puts all executives at the C-suite table because trust is an essential factor in every relationship, external and internal. Are we increasing or decreasing our brand’s Trustworthy Brand Value? Do we measure it? What must we do, continue to do or stop doing to increase Trustworthy Brand Value? Have the goal of ensuring that employees are focused on what creates, nurtures, builds and grows Trustworthy Brand Value.
Brand should strengthen competitive position, pricing power, and enterprise value. The Blake Project helps make that happen.
The Wall Street Journal wrote that hiring a new CEO requires finding someone who not only has “industry experience” but also has “the trust of Wall Street.” This perception of trustworthiness must satisfy the concerns and hopes of investor shareholders while taking the interests of all stakeholders to heart. Part of the CEO job is to manage the four sources of organizational wealth. Organizational wealth includes having a trusted brand.
Being among the most trusted brands is a big competitive advantage. A company name is a branded signature of the promise an organization makes with its all its stakeholders. It is the role of the CEO as Chief Trust Officer to make that signature worthy of people’s trust.
Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by Joan Kiddon, Partner, The Blake Project, Author of The Paradox Planet: Creating Brand Experiences For The Age Of I
At The Blake Project, we help leaders turn brand into a disciplined driver of financial performance — strengthening pricing power, competitive position, and enterprise value. Email us to start a conversation about enduring profitable growth. For The EBITDA.
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