Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: So business leaders have spoken, they've been speaking out about
Speaker 1: the chaos in the nation's capital last week. They've backed
Speaker 1: off political contributions, uh, from politics overall, from the president specifically.
Speaker 1: We've also seen social media limiting uh, certainly the president,
Speaker 1: but also thousands of others when it comes to their post.
Speaker 1: So time will tell if all of this has more
Speaker 1: of a lasting impact. Now. As I've said before, our
Speaker 1: next guest is constantly getting gut checks from his clients,
Speaker 1: and I bet he got an earful over the last
Speaker 1: week and a half since the capital riot. His trest barometer, too,
Speaker 1: has been a valued gut check for us and our
Speaker 1: listeners in terms of how the public is feeling about
Speaker 1: the business world and really the world at large. He
Speaker 1: has founder and CEO of the Global Communications From Edelman,
Speaker 1: Richard Edelman is back with us and he joins us
Speaker 1: on the phone in New York City. Richard, nice to
Speaker 1: have you here. Happy New Year, although it doesn't feel
Speaker 1: so happy and reading through your massive report, Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of Americans aren't happy about their leaders, and
Speaker 1: they really in terms of who they trust, right now
Speaker 1: how are you look. I think the most important finding
Speaker 1: in the Edlement Trust parameter this year is that business
Speaker 1: is the most trusted institution and that business is supposed
Speaker 1: to step into the void left by government. Last we talked,
Speaker 1: which was about May, government had become the most trusted
Speaker 1: institution because it was wartime and we were doing lockdowns
Speaker 1: and big spend to keep people afloat and you know,
Speaker 1: being fired in the pandemic. And now we're in a
Speaker 1: different point. Leaders of government have deeply disappointed and we
Speaker 1: feel like we've been lied to. UM. There is no
Speaker 1: really sign that the pandemic is ebbing, and so it's
Speaker 1: been handed over to business to fix. And UM in particular,
Speaker 1: CEOs have to speak up and stand up and talk
Speaker 1: not just about COVID, but about systemic racism and about
Speaker 1: sustainability and UM. You know, it's really adults in the room,
Speaker 1: and whether it's Jamie Diamond or or or or Scott
Speaker 1: Kirby of United Airlines, everybody has to talk about how
Speaker 1: we get back to travel and how we get back
Speaker 1: to UH normal. Well, so let's talk about, as you say,
Speaker 1: business leaders now the most trusted institution here uh and
Speaker 1: certainly not government. Leaders here, and we have seen members
Speaker 1: of the business community backing off on political contributions, you know,
Speaker 1: being very outspoken about President Trump, uh and what happened
Speaker 1: in the nation's capital. Where were they though, although I
Speaker 1: will say many members of the business community were pretty
Speaker 1: critical of President Trump as well through over throughout the
Speaker 1: past four years. But I think some would say, well,
Speaker 1: why didn't why didn't business leaders speak up even more
Speaker 1: um strongly to say that these things weren't right early on?
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's a new learned behavior for ceo
Speaker 1: s to be public figures their their normally you know,
Speaker 1: trying to serve Wall Street and serve their employees, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, with this leadership vacuum, we we
Speaker 1: have a necessity of decency and of making sure Carol,
Speaker 1: the biggest stat that's fascinating is my employer is the
Speaker 1: most trusted institution, even fifteen points higher than business in general.
Speaker 1: So and it's my employer. CEO is trusting in my employer.
Speaker 1: UM Media in fact is more trusted than mainstream media.
Speaker 1: So therefore, people who are employees are looking desperately for
Speaker 1: quality information and that's what we're lacking in society now.
Speaker 1: That's a new deal for companies. They're not used to
Speaker 1: being information purveyors. But that's the demand, that's the necessity
Speaker 1: right now. Richard, What how did the pandemic help create that?
Speaker 1: Because I do feel like you know individuals you know
Speaker 1: who were able to keep their jobs and stay employed,
Speaker 1: like the lifeline and the communication between the employee, especially
Speaker 1: working from home, it had to change, UM. And I
Speaker 1: do wonder how the pandemic impacted the employer employee relationship.
Speaker 1: It became, as you say, um, in a way, the
Speaker 1: normalizing force, UM was the connection to the office, um,
Speaker 1: even if you weren't in the office, and that you
Speaker 1: were getting better facts from the company about return to
Speaker 1: work or the opportunity to get vaccinated from the company,
Speaker 1: not from the government. I mean early on the government
Speaker 1: did this well, Governor Cuomo, others, regular briefings and and
Speaker 1: it dissipated over the summer and it hasn't returned. And
Speaker 1: the magic cures hyde roxy chlora queene. All that just deeply,
Speaker 1: deeply hurt any credibility that government leaders had. And beyond that,
Speaker 1: the media has all of a sudden been categorized as
Speaker 1: politicized biased. Um. You know, people are in thought bubbles
Speaker 1: and the media has been crippled as source of information.
Speaker 1: So again, government and media typically in a crisis period
Speaker 1: are the reliable sources. Not now it's business is turned. Hey,
Speaker 1: I want to get back to your Edleman trust barometer
Speaker 1: that you just put out the Richard. What I want
Speaker 1: to ask you, becauld you do you're constantly talking with
Speaker 1: CEOs from all different industries. What are the conversations you've
Speaker 1: been having in the last week. Well, one is about
Speaker 1: the position of America in the world. Our trust barometer
Speaker 1: found that the US is actually third from the bottom
Speaker 1: in terms of how its owned residents feel about its institutions.
Speaker 1: So we're just ahead of Russia and Japan. Japan still
Speaker 1: reeling from Fukushima and the nuclear accident in Russia as
Speaker 1: it is, um and trusting brand America and trust in
Speaker 1: American government has really eroded. It's only globally, and it's
Speaker 1: just above China. We're down there with Italy and Spain.
Speaker 1: We're not up there with Germany, Canada, et cetera. So
Speaker 1: that's a big concern. I'm also hearing from CEOs about
Speaker 1: how we're going to work with government and the idea
Speaker 1: that some of these problems for example, up skilling, job training, etcetera.
Speaker 1: That has to be done with government. Uh and and
Speaker 1: similarly sustainability has to be done with government. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: can get people to do cold water wash, but you
Speaker 1: know the big big ideas, you know, Starbucks taking straws
Speaker 1: out of the cups, that those are all big moves.
Speaker 1: But there has to be a strategy over time about
Speaker 1: UM car efficiency, you know, oil do they do? They
Speaker 1: feel it's going to be more difficult with this incoming
Speaker 1: by the administration than it was with the Trump administration.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be a different set of
Speaker 1: objectives and you know, to rejoin the Paris Accord, A
Speaker 1: lot of the CEOs are in favor UM to be
Speaker 1: more UM front and center about infrastructure, so America is
Speaker 1: more competitive. Everybody's for that. And we also have to
Speaker 1: get through the next four or five months until the
Speaker 1: number of people get vaccinated. And our study was so
Speaker 1: scary about to the number of people who were prepared
Speaker 1: to get vaccinated right away, only one third of Americans
Speaker 1: and one third in a year, and one third never.
Speaker 1: And that's completely against what everybody expected about the solve,
Speaker 1: which is you get to vaccine. Everybody does it. No,
Speaker 1: we have a lot of disinformation out there, and we
Speaker 1: we have to tell people who's in the clinical trials,
Speaker 1: why are they there, what's the success levels, the low
Speaker 1: level of side effects, and get them to take the shot. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think this is like not playing at all. How
Speaker 1: we all anticipated right with you know, for so long
Speaker 1: over the summer we were talking about, you know, everybody
Speaker 1: just wants the vaccine, let's just get it. But it
Speaker 1: is playing out very differently. And this coming just on
Speaker 1: the heels of the President kind of laying out his
Speaker 1: plans and to try and get more vaccines out to
Speaker 1: people much more quickly than they have because we know
Speaker 1: this is key to reopening the economy. Talk to me
Speaker 1: a little bit about traditional media and what the findings were,
Speaker 1: because I find this interesting and I think, you know,
Speaker 1: our country is doing a bunch of soul searching. I
Speaker 1: think media is too in terms of how we cover things. Well.
Speaker 1: I think that uh, you know, Bloomberg and others have
Speaker 1: played it up the middle, and you need to lead
Speaker 1: the way in not just following tweets. You know, there
Speaker 1: needs to be original reporting. The media needs to have
Speaker 1: the story agenda as opposed to politicians who tweet and
Speaker 1: then the media follows. And also the media needs to
Speaker 1: be seen as a middle ground player as opposed to
Speaker 1: associating with one side or the other. And again we
Speaker 1: need to be sure that what you say is true. Right. Well,
Speaker 1: so okay, I'm important. I'm curious about because it's interesting
Speaker 1: and I'm sure the CEO that you talked with, I mean,
Speaker 1: everybody has been leaning in for years is about digital
Speaker 1: platforms and social media strategies and the importance of them
Speaker 1: right in terms of getting corporate messages out are reaching
Speaker 1: consumers at the same time. UM, I wonder if there's
Speaker 1: any consensus or anything that you're hearing in terms of
Speaker 1: the responsibilities of the big tech and the big social
Speaker 1: media companies here who have all of a sudden now
Speaker 1: stepped in and you know, kind of limiting the president
Speaker 1: and certain other platforms. But I just do wonder what
Speaker 1: you're hearing and what might be Carroll part part part
Speaker 1: of it. Part of it is our own problem, which
Speaker 1: is information hygiene, which is to say, check multiple sources,
Speaker 1: don't share stories until you're sure that what is in
Speaker 1: something is accurate. Um, And we have to do better.
Speaker 1: Only a quarter of the people do at in our
Speaker 1: studies say that they share stories right away without checking
Speaker 1: the source, and only say they actually go to multiple sources.
Speaker 1: And so we're causing our own problem. Uh. Also, I
Speaker 1: think that business in particular and government as well, contribute
Speaker 1: to the social media flow, make sure that quality material
Speaker 1: is getting in front of people so they can make
Speaker 1: good decisions, as opposed to just going off of what
Speaker 1: one person's experience was on the basis of you know,
Speaker 1: some bad event, right, which is the truth? That's not
Speaker 1: that's not true. It's an experience, but it doesn't make
Speaker 1: a truth correct. That's a conversation we've been having a lot.
Speaker 1: I certainly in my personal life, but even around the news.
Speaker 1: I mean, truth is truth and the truth is fact checked.
Speaker 1: Truth has third party corroboration, it's not just one person's view. Well, UM,
Speaker 1: got about forty seconds. You gotta kind of take away
Speaker 1: from this latest trust parometer that you guys have put out.
Speaker 1: I just think it's a moment for business to speak
Speaker 1: up and stand up in business. You know, over the
Speaker 1: summer did a lot during um in the wake of
Speaker 1: the murder George Floyd, and now business has to do
Speaker 1: even more on vaccination, on job retraining, on getting us
Speaker 1: back to work safely. Um, but most of all, ceo
Speaker 1: s to be adults in the room and bring the
Speaker 1: two parties together and demand that they stop being political
Speaker 1: and and and and that we have work to do
Speaker 1: in this country. This is a time for de politicizing.
Speaker 1: That's the word. Well, I'm going to leave it on
Speaker 1: that note. I think it's a good note for us all. Uh,
Speaker 1: certainly as we head into the inauguration next week. Richard,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Stay safe. Richard Edelman, chief executive
Speaker 1: officer at Edelman, on the phone in New York City,