Trust and Mistrust

If we trust someone we put ourselves at risk, but we do so voluntarily. In business there may be no way of clinching that deal without engaging in that personal risk, but to deny or externalise that risk is to enter the world of blame and misuse of power. This book reconnects our intuitive understanding of trust with the roots of business risk.
When there is a strong enough trust between parties in a business environment, you can:
* Be aware of far more of the workings of the environment, including how to generate value for other stakeholders
* Strengthen business relationships which help to deal with unimagined opportunities and contingencies
* Understand how to develop lean business processes without unnecessary or counterproductive management activities
* Manage business risks that could otherwise play havoc with the business
When business people deny the importance of trust, when some of their business relationships become cynical and exploitative, then a cycle is formed: lack of trust leads to cynical actions and cynical actions lead to a further erosion of trust. In this book, Aidan Ward and John Smith teach how to trust others and pinpoint real ris k in business.Wenn wir jemandem vertrauen, gehen wir freiwillig ein Risiko ein, und wer in der Geschäftswelt einen Handel besiegeln will, muss zwangsläufig dieses Risiko eingehen.

Vertrauen ist heute mehr denn je ein wichtiger Aktivposten, um sich einen Wettbewerbsvorteil zu sichern.

Es ist mittlerweile allgemein bekannt, dass ein Unternehmen, das erfolgreich sein und bleiben will, über ein größeres Maß an Vertrauen verfügen muss.

In "Trust and Mistrust" zeigen die Autoren Aidan Ward und John Smith anschaulich anhand radikaler Risikostrategien, wie man anderen vertraut und wie man echte Geschäftsrisiken sicher erkennt.

Für sie steht Vertrauen im Zentrum jedes unternehmerischen Entscheidungsprozesses. Es wirkt sich auf die Unternehmens-Performance aus und auf die Fähigkeit von Unternehmen Wert für ihre Aktionäre zu schaffen.

Eine Vernachlässigung des Vertrauens führt zu einer Verschlechterung der Unternehmens-Performance und zu einer Vielzahl anderer Unternehmenskrankheiten.

"Trust and Mistrust" - die ultimative Pflichtlektüre für Risk Manager, die erfolgreich sein wollen. Preface.

Glossary.

An Introduction to Trust.

PART 1: AUTHENTIC TRUST IS THE GOLD STANDARD.

1. Authentic Trust.

2. The Authentic Trust Benchmark.

3. The Application of Authentic Trust.

PART 2: NETWORK TRUST.

4. Network Trust in Action.

5. Radical Strategies for Networks of Value.

6. A World Running on Network Trust.

7. Building Network Trust in an Adversarial World.

8. Network Trust and Federation.

PART 3: AUTHORITY

9. The Crucial Link between Authority Trust and Business Risk.

10. A Case Study in Authority Trust and Insiitutions: When POSIWIDS Collide.

PART 4: COMMODITY TRUST.

11. The Commodity Trust Deal and its Effects.

12. Commodity Trust and Radical Brand Solutions.

13. Commodity Trust in Contracts.

PART 5: MANAGING THE DIFFERENT SORTS OF TRUST.

14. The Philosophy of Managing Risk.

15. The Cultural Foundations of Trust.

16.Working with Trust, Power and Risk.

Annotated Bibliography.

Index.

About the Authors

Aidan Ward and John Smith are partners in Antelope Projects Ltd, a business risk management consultancy with a prime interest in authenticity and trust.

Aidan Ward has a background in large software projects and application architectures. For the last seven years he has run Antelope Projects, working within a network of distinguished specialists in many fields to bring out issues of trust and risk management in a proper context. Aidan is the author of many papers on the application of risk management insights in particular domains and of the Scimitar Risk Management System.

John Smith moved into retail systems from aircraft engineering, designing and implementing some of the earliest EPOS systems. He has successfully used Antelope’s SCIMITAR methodology in business projects in many parts of the world and in many cultures. Its adaptability and the ease with which it accommodates cultural context is a ceaseless source of wonder to him. John is a published author in his own genre, cliché fiction.

In this book Aidan Ward and John Smith propose that the key to understanding and improving the potential for business success lies in the power of trust. By delving into the complex issue of how an organization operates they uncover how relationships between people have a direct link to value creation. Through the authors’ discussion of the uncertainties and risks that face all business they demonstrate how the relationship between individuals needs to be actively developed in order to cope with, and capitalise upon, this environment. In essence we need to understand trust to see how it can work as a business model.

In today’s business environment the ability to manage trust to support change adds up to the strategic resource in developing effectiveness and innovation. You don’t need (and can’t have) absolute control – you need to know who you need to trust to do better.