November 6, 2009

Lack of trust is expensive, and slows down everything in organizations and life - every decision, every effort to communicate and every relationship. It is not something "soft" - it is the key to being successful. How much is this lack of trust costing you today?

On Wednesday, December 9th Swiss Marketing* and IMD will host Stephen M.R. COVEY, international management guru and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 best seller “Speed of Trust”, to find out more about trust, the one thing that will dramatically impact everything else in your life.

Covey’s session, which will help the participants build a framework for increasing trust, will be followed by a roundtable discussion of CEOs and CFOs in Switzerland, moderated by Jonathan Elliott, BBC News journalist. Inspiring “trust” perspectives will be offered by Nicholas Staheyeff, the CFO of eBay International; James Leape, the Director General of WWF International; Ian Hudson, the President of Du Pont EMEA; Cédric Anker, the CEO of Vontobel Geneva; and Ambassador Johannes Matyassi, Head of Presence Switzerland, from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Trust is the one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most successful business, the most powerful government and the most influential leadership. Trust is a measurable accelerator of performance. When trust goes down, speed goes down and costs go up. Covey will lead participants in a speed of trust coaching experience. “This training can change your life,” states Covey. In this half-day workshop, Covey will show what a leader needs to do to establish, grow, restore and extend trust. Trust - high or low - impacts the bottom line. Covey highlights research showing that only 51% of employees have trust and confidence in senior management, and only 4 out of 10 employees believe their leaders act with honesty and integrity. Trust seems to be speeding towards the endangered species list.

“In my recent survey with Swiss entrepreneurs, for first-time startup founders, it was shown that building trust and developing the company's reputation was already the second most important motivation for networking just behind finding customers,” stated IMD Executive Director Jim Pulcrano. “An entrepreneur responded: ‘One of the most important results of networking for me is to have a pool of trusted people that can be asked spontaneously when problems arise.’ This is a theme close to the hearts of Swiss Marketing and IMD.”

“We have been working with Swiss business leaders and marketers for over 50 years, and trustworthy leadership and networking have always been a key theme for us – across our 34 regional network clubs in Switzerland,” explains Uwe Taennler, President Swiss Marketing. “This is why we are proud to partner with IMD on the topic of trust as IMD also has a strong heritage and focus on responsible leadership.”

Building on Mr. Taennler’s comments, IMD President Dr John R. Wells added: “IMD indeed has a strong tradition of developing responsible leaders. We are delighted to join forces with Swiss Marketing as a national partner for this cause.”

For more details and registration, go to www.inspireforexcellence.ch.

*www.swissmarketing.ch