Building Enterprise Trust: Essential for Indian Businesses in the Digital Era

As Indian businesses navigate a rapidly evolving landscape, the importance of building and maintaining enterprise trust has never been more critical. In this piece, we explore why trust is paramount, the factors eroding it, and actionable steps organizations can take to foster trust, leveraging data and analytics for greater transparency and accountability.

Trust is the cornerstone of long-lasting institutions, and for Indian businesses on a growth trajectory, nurturing this trust is vital. The benefits are manifold: enhanced financial performance, brand protection, improved employee morale, and customer loyalty. Highly trusted entities gain a ‘trust premium,’ influencing consumer decisions significantly. For instance, over 80% of consumers in the consumer industry view trust as a deciding factor when making purchase decisions, according to Deloitte US’s “The Four Factors of Trust.” In the realm of digital operations, trust becomes even more crucial due to compliance requirements with data protection laws and the heightened expectations around the responsible use of third-party data. Stakeholders today seek sustainable growth with greater resilience and credibility, shifting away from short-term, ad hoc growth.

In an insightful conversation with Minu Sirsalewala, Executive Editor at Dataquest, Sriraman Parthasarathy, Partner at Deloitte India, elaborates on why trust is essential for Indian businesses now and how they can proactively build and maintain it to position themselves for the next level of growth.

Why is managing “enterprise trust” critical for Indian businesses now? How have stakeholder expectations changed?

Trust is critical for building institutions that are long-lasting. India is on a growth path, and this is an opportune time for Indian corporates to nurture trust to their advantage since it enhances financial performance, protects the brand, improves employee morale, and builds customer loyalty. Highly trusted entities gain the trust premium compared to others. For example, over 80% of consumers in the consumer industry view trust as a deciding factor when evaluating a potential purchase decision, according to “The Four Factors of Trust” by Deloitte US. In digital operations, the importance of trust is very high given the compliance requirements with data protection laws and the heightened expectations around the responsible use of third-party data. With changing dynamics, companies are witnessing a change in stakeholder expectations, and short-term and ad hoc growth no longer matter to the stakeholder community. They are keen on sustainable growth with greater resilience and credibility. Organizations now more than ever need to think differently and proactively build greater trust, not only within their country but also abroad, positioning themselves for the next level.

Trust is the cornerstone of long-lasting institutions. For Indian businesses on a growth trajectory, nurturing this trust is vital for enhanced financial performance, brand protection, improved employee morale, and customer loyalty.

What factors erode enterprise trust today (data breaches, ethics, transparency)? How do social media and “conscious consumers” impact trust dynamics?

Poor communication, lack of transparency, inconsistency in service delivery, not addressing gaps in stakeholder expectations, and inadequate focus on culture and diversity are some factors eroding trust in enterprises today. In light of the significant influence of social media, reputations painstakingly built over time can be tarnished in mere moments if trust issues are not promptly and effectively addressed. The pervasive reach and impact of social media highlight its critical importance, making it imperative for organizations to actively engage with it. Furthermore, an unhappy customer can now wield greater influence over the trustworthiness of a product or service, given the rise in consumer activism. Whether stemming from perception or reality, individuals and organizations alike bear the responsibility of transparently monitoring and addressing incidents that erode trust. In today’s interconnected world, this cannot be overlooked, regardless of an entity’s position or market dominance.

What key steps can organizations take to build strong enterprise trust? How can data & analytics be used for transparency and accountability?

Engage with internal stakeholders (employees) and assess the extent to which they trust the organization; if employees do not trust the organization, the same will mirror externally as well. An organization’s talent is its most important asset, and equally significant is how the internal workforce perceives leadership and their role in cultivating trust and fairness within the organization.

Periodic external sensing of social media, news, blogs, and microblogs to assess the level of trust across several domains—be it customer satisfaction, cybersecurity, or financial performance—since external perceptions have a direct impact on customer and brand loyalty and also how regulators perceive the organization.

Benchmarking with industry peers across various areas to assess the level of trust of an organization compared to the industry.

Making trust a key agenda of the Board/CEO and putting a framework to measure and monitor trust periodically, taking the required actions swiftly.

Leveraging data with the power of AI is poised to be a game-changer in trust assessment. As we accumulate and interpret increasingly large datasets, the potential for deeper research in the field of trust significantly expands.

Data and analytics play a significant role in converting subjective elements into objective and measurable metrics. With the power of large language models and Generative AI, the barrage of information collected from various segments can be easily interpreted and converted into measurable metrics. What gets measured gets done, and this is absolutely true for trust as well. The myth of trust being an abstract concept is no longer relevant these days with the power of technology, and smart use of data and analytics can support leveraging trust for greater transparency and accountability.

How does Deloitte help Indian businesses build trust? Can you share success stories?

At Deloitte, we help corporates set up and drive their trust agenda by measuring trust through a time-tested assessment framework that can be leveraged for continuous monitoring of trust. In addition, we also help corporates carry out independent trust assessments using our proprietary Trust IQ framework, which not only provides a trust score across various domains and drivers but also identifies actionable insights to enhance and nurture the trust quotient in specific areas.

What emerging trends or challenges will impact enterprise trust? What advice do you have for Indian business leaders?

Leveraging data with the power of AI is poised to be a game-changer in the field of trust assessment. As we accumulate and interpret increasingly large datasets, the potential for deeper research in the field of trust significantly expands. With a focus on comprehensive metrics encompassing both financial and non-financial aspects, there is growing interest among C-suite stakeholders in consolidated assessments.

Having a comprehensive trust framework to assess various core areas such as governance, compliance, sustainability, and cybersecurity is particularly impactful for Indian boards.

When responsibility is shared across everyone, effectively measuring and monitoring it, as with trust, can be challenging. Therefore, a dedicated focus on trust with a clear monitoring framework is invaluable. Given that the concept is new and emerging, increasing awareness among Indian corporates is essential. As everyone recognizes the importance of trust, now is the opportune time to leverage it for improvement. 

Sriraman Parthasarathy

Partner, Deloitte India

minus@cybermedia.co.in