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A question of trust  (View Comments)

Walter E Vieira is a senior management consultant who started India’s first Marketing Consulting Company (MAS) in 1975. He offers consulting and training services to companies in India, S E Asia, Africa and USA, over three decades.

Posted On Tuesday, December 01, 2009 at 12:28:55 PM

It is an accepted fact that in the west, you first do business, and then build relationships – in the east, you have to first build trust, and then, maybe, you will do business. Trust is the key to doing business, east of Suez.

In the old days, traders in India used to count diamonds, worth millions of rupees, and having accepted the count, just shake hands, and accept the result of the tally. Does this happen anymore?  No. In the old days, diamond merchants would just put a “lot” of diamonds in an envelope and send them from Surat to Bombay by ‘angdia’ (the Indian predecessor to DHL) – with full trust for value and delivery.  Was there any problem? Seldom.  It was TRUST.  Unless the train was held up by bandits (which was once in 500 years) the parcel would have been delivered. With no doubt!

And therefore, diamond merchants trusted one another; all diamond merchants trusted the angdia services; and customers trusted the final sellers of diamonds from the showroom.

Does this work any longer?  Yes and No. Unfortunately in a world of changing values, it is becoming more ‘No’ than ‘Yes.’

How do you develop TRUST?  How do you know that the person you are dealing with is trustworthy?  Many Japanese, Europeans, Americans are concerned about the Trust – Index of Indians. Just as they are of the Trust Index of individuals and companies in many other countries!

A director of a company to whom I was a consultant, many years ago – was a good man (Jose) a technical expert; made a contribution to the business and every Sunday, spent time at this church.  He hosted the breakfast after the 8 am service for 200 people who attended the service.  The snacks and coffee was supplied by the cafeteria of the company of which he was a director.  He had not taken official permission for the supply. The owners of the company were Hindus who were kind enough to pay for the breakfast after a Christian ritual.  But Jose was really taking from Peter to pay Paul.  If he was honest – truly honest – he would have paid for this supply from his ‘personal’ funds. But he was cheating and the owners/directors knew this and overlooked this. However, Jose lost trust of the directors and everyone else who knew.  Yes, it was charity – but Jose was working out charity at his company’s expense rather than on his own.  And the directors and staff who knew about this, lost ‘TRUST’ on this simple and uncomplicated matter.

When I was a sales manager with Warner – I took an unscheduled personal visit to Belgaum. At the Belgaum train station, I accidentally met the Warner medical representative for Belgaum getting out of a second class compartment and moving towards the exit.  Warner MRs were paid first class fare to travel – so that they can travel in comfort and rest; and do a good job on the working day after. Shyam, was obviously cheating the company and traveling second class, when charging first class fares in the expense statement. For many years, I had held Shyam in high esteem. At the Belgaum station – I lost this; because I found he was not honest. I had lost TRUST.

TRUST is a strange and difficult to concept to describe.  Easy to specify, difficult to fulfil. TRUST is a one-mistake game. Very seldom you have a second chance. Either you are TRUST worthy or you are not. Westerners will do business, sign contracts and continue long-term relationships, as they keep building trust. In the East, they want to first build TRUST, and only then they will do business. That is why it takes longer to work out contracts/affiliation in the East.

At the beginning of your career you have to decide – are you going to build a career based on TRUST? Or are you going to join the ranks. If you want the India of tomorrow to join the ranks of New Zealand, Singapore, Finland and Sweden rather than remaining at the bottom 20 out of 170 nations – then you know what you must do!

Walter Vieira, is a Senior Management Consultant who started India’s first Marketing Consulting Company (MAS) in 1975.  He offers consulting and training services to companies in India, S E Asia, Africa and USA, over three decades. He is the author of 11 books including The Winning Manager; and Manager to CEO.  Has lectured at Kellogg, Cornell, NYU and many other business schools.  He has published over 700 articles in the business press.  Was the first Asian elected Chairman of the ICMCI (the world apex body of Management Consultants from 42 countries).  Walter was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 by IMC-India.

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