The Reputation Gap

Well, you know, somewhat influenced by knowing a little bit about you and what your company does, this week I wrote a piece on the great traits of a leader.

And in there, I... one of the points I spoke about was integrity and trust, and I defined integrity as the doing and the trust as the reputation bank that gets built, right? And to your point, reputation is the differentiator, but you don't build it just by saying it.

You have to do it.

And, uh, so that I think sets that up correctly.

Now, clearly, you know, today and when we speak today, I just read that the Starbucks that had made a huge Deal for years about sustainability and sustainability goals, laid off most of its sustainability teams, and basically decided they don't care about those goals, which is, you know, another indication of, I think, your thesis that right now people seem to be, in many ways, um, running from where the world is.

So what I'd like to do is I'd like to set up your thesis and then have you speak about why it's important, and then we can go through sort of the arc of the conversation.

But the idea that you have is the return of belief, why companies retreating from corporate conviction are about to discover the real cost.

Yeah.

That's right.

That's right.

And that is counterintuitive and against the grain of what we're hearing or seeing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And obviously something that you believe and you have data and research.

So tell us a little about why you believe that is true.

Well, I think that, uh, th- first all, first of all, I would like to differentiate what's going on in the US versus what's going on in the rest of the world.

Uh, if you look at, you know, Europe, uh, even if you look at, um, China, uh, it's, it's really interesting, or Asia, around, um, communication of commitments is very different in those parts of the world.

So of course there's a, there's a political factor in the US as to why that has, uh, has happened.

But I, I just returned from Climate Week and, uh, in New York, uh, alongside the UN General Assembly, and it was fascinating to be, uh, sharing stages with heads of sustainability for some of the largest brands in the US, including, you know, Amazon and IKEA and Unilever, um, and all of these companies were all talking about the incredible investments that they're making in regenerative supply chain, in, uh, the ways that they're, uh, taking care of their people around innovation, around their governance, all, um, all factors of, um, of, of how they take care of their stakeholders and creating a bigger public benefit.

But the guise that they're using for that, uh, and the reason they're driving towards that is really a risk management strategy.

They're not talking about it, but they're viewing it workforce risk or supply chain risk.

It's real- in that conversation that they're, that they're having, uh, they're making those investments.

The, the incredible part about it though is that they're not talking about it.

And, and to me, that's the, that's, that's I think what is interesting, 'cause I'll take a, um, I'll use an example that's, uh, that's in the cultural sphere right now, and that example is, um, the, um, what just happened recently, um, uh, you know, with, um, the, um, the, the, the, the, uh, the, the concert with, uh...

Oh my God, I can't believe I'm blanking on his name now, but, uh, um, um, Ed Sheeran.