Trust has become the crisis CEOs can’t ignore at Davos, as new data show 70% of people turning more ‘insular’

Everywhere you turn in Davos, Switzerland, this year, people are talking about trust. And there’s no one who knows trust better than Richard Edelman. Back in 1999, Edelman was on the cusp of taking over the PR firm founded by his father, Daniel. Spurred by the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, he decided to try to measure the level of trust in nongovernmental organizations compared with business, government, and media. Edelman surveyed 1,300 thought leaders in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and Australia, and the Edelman Trust Barometer was born. 

While the survey sample long ago expanded beyond elites to include about 34,000 respondents in 28 nations, its results are still unveiled and debated every year at the ultimate gathering of elites: the World Economic Forum. This year’s findings are grim: About 70% of respondents now have an “insular” mindset: They don’t want to talk to, work for, or even be in the same space with anyone who doesn’t share their world view. And “a sense of grievance” permeates the business world, Edelman finds. At Davos, debating such findings have spawned a series of dinners, panels, cocktails, and media briefings on-site. What better place to bring people together than the world’s most potent vi...