CNN: the most trusted name in news? Must be on the web, because television is loosing ground to the Internet as a trusted source for information. From that I segue gracefully into… the Edelman trust barometer found Microsoft is the most trusted name in business.
The Edelman Trust Barometer found Microsoft Corporation the most trusted global company, followed by iconic companies in their home markets, including Toyota in Japan, Haier in China, Samsung in South Korea, and Petrobras in Brazil.
I think MS is a great place to work, and having the company get this type of recognition feels good (especially for someone who used to be a closet MS employee). I realize that Edelman is a PR firm which counts MS as one of its biggest clients, but this was, after all, a survey.
While I led off with the fun part of the survey… for me this is the really interesting part:
In the U.S., trust in “a person like me” increased from 20% in 2003 to 68% today.
In other words, most people in the US find the average employee is a more trust-worthy spokesman than the CEO. Any connection to the surge in blogging? It’s pretty hard to preen cause from effect here but I, for one, am hugely thankful for the change in culture at Microsoft which made it possible for employees like me to feel comfortable blogging in relative freedom about our work.
I suppose that brings me back to the beginning… perhaps the trust in Microsoft will not be limited to a single survey or a fleeting one-year occurrence. With any luck, as more people are able to get a glimpse of the people working at Microsoft and the pride they have in their work, the world will realize that for us it’s really about building cool software, not crushing your enemies and seeing them driven before you. While our moniker of “the evil empire” is something I look on with amusement, it’s not a nickname I view with pride.
For a deeper dive on the topic of what can happen for company trust when the employees step out from behind the protective shadow of a company’s CEO and PR machine I recommend you check out Richard Edelman’s essay The Me2 Revolution on his blog.