 First keynote address speaker. He joined the ABP group in January 2018. Prior to this, Shiv was chairman and CEO for PepsiCo for four years and before that with Nokia as CEO for India and later emerging markets for nearly a decade. Shiv has been a CEO for half his career and was one of the youngest CEOs in India. Shiv has worked in HUL for a number of years, mostly in marketing. He has also worked with over 50 brands in his career and seen many business transformations. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Mr. Shiv Sivakumar, Group Executive President Corporate Strategy and Business Development Aditya Birla Group. He will be sharing his views on role of leaders in building trust. A very warm welcome to you, sir. Thank you very much. And let me start, guys. I know you're running behind schedule, so I'll jump straight in. Thank you very much for inviting me to do this session on trust. I remember I did something similar in Goa I think two years ago, but that was a different topic and a different audience. Okay, will you move my slides, please? Can you put on my slides? Okay. So the first slide is up. Okay, so the topic I've chosen is the role of leaders in building trust. Okay, so let me start by defining trust to you and then I'll give you my definition of trust. Next slide, please. Okay, trust. Trust is simply the firm belief in the reliability, truth, capability of someone or something. That's how, you know, most people define trust. So, you know, I did something interesting. I just Google trust, put on the word trust Google and see what happened. Next slide, please. So I typed in trust into a search engine, which was Google, and then see how many results I got in under one second. Next slide, please. I got 1.18 billion results in one second as the search engine signals to you. So after that, I sat back and said, let me take some of the big names and what's happened in the last one year and type in those names and see how many do I get. Trump had 733 million results in one second. Biden had 697. Merkel had 85. Boris Johnson at 234. Messi had 115. Roger Federer had 337. COVID had 5.64 billion. And Prime Minister Modi, every time I do this, somebody says, why don't you have an Indian example? Prime Minister Modi, I think, had some 234 million. So clearly, trust is very, very high on people in our radar. That's the simple message that I want to give you. Next slide, please. For me, however, especially in today's world, trust means that you will not hurt me when I am vulnerable. That's what it is. I think a lot of people in business, in society, are feeling vulnerable. And basically, they're saying, don't hurt me when I am at my lowest. Because normally, when you're doing well, you're moving ahead, you've got great tailwind, and that's when most people, most leaders and everybody is arrogant when they do well. The real challenge is when you're down, when you're not doing well, that's when you don't want people to hurt you. Next slide, please. Thanks to what we've gone through over the last 11 months, people are feeling vulnerable right now. If you look at citizens, they've cut back on their EMI repayments by 200 basis points. They're saving more. They're worried about their jobs. 63% of corporations and people believe they're going through a disruption and 40% more believe that, yes, it will impact them. Individuals are worried about whether they'll keep their jobs, they'll keep their jobs at the right salary. Citizens are feeling vulnerable. At a very basic level, citizens are saying, if I go out, what's the guarantee that I will not be impacted by COVID? Citizens are feeling vulnerable. Society is feeling vulnerable. Because societies are feeling vulnerable, we put barriers and said you can't travel. Even if you travel to my country, you need a seven day quarantine or a 14 day quarantine or whatever it is. So every gated community is putting barriers. Every city is putting barriers. If you want to come back to Bombay today and if you're traveling either from Delhi, Goa, Rajasthan, Gujarat or Kerala, you need a rapid test result which says that you haven't tested positive for COVID. So the state of Maharashtra has put that. The state of Singapore has put that. The state of Indonesia has put that. So everybody's feeling vulnerable at this point of time in terms of what's happening. Next slide please. If you go through the trust report which comes out every year, what's funny this year is that business is more trusted than government, NGOs and media. The word trust has appeared. I was counting 13 times in the last 21 years in the headline of the communication of the trust report. 13 times out of 20, that's 65%. So business today is more trusted than government, NGOs and media. And we need to ask ourselves why is that and what can leaders do about it. Next slide. The credibility of CEOs is actually the lowest all-time low in India, Brazil, France, Argentina, Russia and Japan. So you have Brazil, Russia, India, part of the BRICS. CEO credibility is of all-time low in these six countries at this point of time for various sets of reasons. Next slide please. So now you have a very strange situation where people don't trust business and the CEO though it's better than the others. People don't trust media at all and I think media needs to wake up someday or the other. They are like ostriches, they're just buried their heads in the sand and I think most PR professionals also have done the same and that's the reason you are in this very wrong log jab. So you have a very strange situation where CEOs are not trusted, media is not trusted then you have to ask yourself how the hell do I build trust? If two of the things which are in my command which is my CEO, my leader, his voice and the media which propagates that if both are not trusted then what do I do? And I think this is a serious issue. So it goes back to the question why aren't CEOs trusted? Next slide please. CEOs are not trusted because I think there's a bit of a history to it because they think he or she is all about money, is all about himself or herself, it's about inequality which is hurting. Remember go back to what I said people are worried about their jobs, people are worried about their salaries, people are worried about their EMI. In that situation they see hey you know what there's a fat cat CEO, this inequality always existed why should I trust this guy? He doesn't you know really empathize with what I'm going through. And I think many past CEO actions whatever they are have hurt you know the trust in CEOs and I think CEOs themselves need a good hard look at themselves to say what can we do different? What should we do? Next slide please. Why don't people trust media? They don't trust media because they believe that media is biased. Their interest is about the person and not the issue. Okay a Burger King on whose board I am just released an ad talking about why media makes everything sensational. Okay we have lost the ability to be balanced in media and hence people don't trust you. Okay if people don't trust media, people don't trust CEOs for whatever set of reasons then I think we are in deep trouble. Next slide please. So whom do people trust? People feel they can trust someone like themselves, they can trust their employer. In fact post the pandemic trust in employer is one of the highest across the world. In India I think trust in employer is as high as 80% plus. Okay they can trust their employer and they can trust the employer's website for information. It's funny the reason they feel that they can trust the employer's website for information is because they believe that's better curated, better thought through and will not have a bias. That's the reason they actually trust the employer's website and maybe that's a place where you need to start to say put out authentic information but more important put the source down to say this is the reason why we are seeing this. Imagine like for example in all our products in all our advertising etc if you make a claim in advertising you say claim tested with so many consumers this is the research research done by Quantum or XYZ or Nielsen that's what we put out. Now what stops media from putting that out? Imagine somebody writing an article which says at the foot line we have talked to 30 people, we have researched 200 articles before we've written this. If they did that I believe those type of people will have higher credibility as journalists. If you just write your opinion which is biased favoring X over Y I think you are in serious trouble and I think you will see that more and more in the coming years. Next slide. So if you go back to individuals today in society their biggest challenge as a citizen is to get relevant and truthful information. So all of you as people who are you know communicating the company messages the CEO messages down to the public down to society need to ask yourselves what can we do to signal that this is truthful information to the public what proof points can we give the consumer or what proof points can we give society that this is the truth till you find this holy grail I don't think people will trust either the CEO or the media. Next slide. This is compounded by another simple fact in the 1960s a CEO was measured on a maximum of three to five parameters. Today a CEO is measured on about 50 to 60 parameters okay there's reporting on every single measure by a company and a CEO and many of these 50 to 60 parameters are in conflict with each other. So this is a serious challenge this is actually a no win situation so hence as you report each of these key variables you have to be very very clear about the veracity and the truthfulness of what you're communicating. You cannot say one thing one quarter and something else the other quarter and that's the issue. You know many times when companies go for growth somebody asks them what's your profitability no no no we are not worried about profitability we are fine and they're bleeding like mad okay this is the reason and the Indian media is you know smart enough they pick up these they talk to various people etc so when companies themselves are fibbing about simple things they cannot be trust from media even on CEOs. Next slide. So I would say if you want to build trust back I would start with leadership let the media sort itself out that is their job but having been a CEO and having practiced what I'm going to tell you of the next three slides this is what I believe CEOs need to think about very seriously and many of them don't do that. If you open the newspaper pages the business pages today every CEO says the same thing every CEO says we are a you know growth company we are an innovative company we are a people-centered company okay and finally every CEO says we'll double turn over in four years. You can do a cut face job everybody's saying the same that's one of the reasons why people don't trust CEOs because this has become standard you know a typewriter language. So next slide please the first thing I believe CEOs need to do if they have to build trust is I think they need to reach out and build positive relationships in the company and outside. It's a sad fact today that CEOs don't know more than their direct reports they have not met the frontline they have not met the customers etc I've been traveling from August 17 trust me when I go and meet my customers in the textiles business or the cement business etc they haven't met anybody else so if the CEO does not know more than his direct reports 10-12 people how the hell does he expect people in the company to trust him equally if the CEO doesn't go and pump fist with the customers with stakeholders how does he expect to build trust with anybody. The worst thing about leadership is leadership cannot be from a closet leadership is not a discipline which you can practice in a vacuum leadership is practiced with people trust is when people say I trust you it is not when you say I've told you something you better trust me it doesn't work like that so trust is innate it's a soft value and you can only generate that when you go out and meet people look at them eye to eye resolve their issues show empathy both in the organization and outside the organization till you do that CEOs will not be trusted next slide a very important issue of trust always is competence you have to be competent at what you do okay and you have to be very very competent at it apart from being competent you have to be ethical in all your details you know a lot of CEOs forget they say different things in different meetings and they think they're extremely smart they've got away with it the challenges remember the subordinates and people in the company and the media are dissecting every single word you say very carefully it matters to them and if you tell the truth I always tell my people you don't need to remember it if you tell a lie you need to remember whom you told the lie to why you told the lie and what was the data and I've always believed and there are some people on this call who have worked with me I always tell people the media has a role tell the truth as it is it doesn't matter okay they might hammer you for a day but in the long term they will always support you so believe bloody good at your job your CEO has to be bloody good at his job but more importantly has to be ethical in all his dealings if he's not then you're not going to get trust that's the second one first is building positive relationships inside the company and outside the company second is being competent and ethical and the last one which is actually a very difficult one next slide please to be consistent and meeting all commitments I cannot tell you one of the things the media tells me regularly society tells me regularly is that CEO's fix appointments and cancel it the last minute they cancel a day before they cancel on the day that's what they do now that place is you as the intermediary between the CEO and the media or society or investors in very bad shape this is terrible so if the CEO does not have the consistency in meeting his commitments if he cannot manage his diary how can he manage his company I can understand sometimes they might be a sense of urgency but if you've given a date to somebody two weeks out three weeks out then it's a job to be there in all my 17 years as CEO I might have missed one or two appointments that I've given might be because of a delayed flight or something like that otherwise never for example this call I logged into this call at 1135 I've been struggling to get on to this network okay it was just not working I got the IT guy luckily the previous session kept going and finally we were able to get in just about five minutes before the session the previous session ended so I would say going back to what I started with I think the CEO must reach out and build positive relationships more than his direct reports it's not enough for the CEO to hobnob with his direct reports number two the CEO has to be competent you cannot have incompetent CEOs in the corner office anymore and third the CEO must keep his commitment especially time commitments to the stakeholders and therein you are compromised when your CEO keeps canceling next slide please I've just written a book on the dilemmas of a career from being a management trainee to a managing director these are 10 career dilemmas this book releases on 15th it's in pre-order right now and as I tell people I can guarantee you that your CV value will improve if you read this book and you just practice diligently some of the inputs which are given here okay so please do order the book and please do spread the word amongst your friends you're the best source that I could think of as ambassadors of the dilemmas that somebody faces next slide please so in summary the word trust if you type in under one second you get 1.18 billion search results except covid I haven't found any other word which generates a billion results President Trump gets 733 President Biden gets 697 Prime Minister Modi gets 234 it's like that so trust obviously is on top of everybody's mind trust has become even more of an important word post what we've gone through over the last you know 11 months for me trust is simply you will not hurt me when I'm feeling down when I'm vulnerable today I submit to you individuals are feeling vulnerable society is feeling vulnerable large communities are feeling vulnerable and countries are feeling vulnerable today we are in a situation where business is not trusted media is not trusted business is not trusted because people feel that the CEOs have been playing their own game they see high degree of inequality and when they go through hard pangs in terms of will I keep my job for them to see that their CEO or whoever it is you know is at an unequal level hurts them okay so when people don't trust CEOs and people don't trust the media what do they trust them they trust individuals like themselves they want authenticity okay people feel they can trust other kind of people the biggest challenge for us as professionals of this industry what I call the engagement industry or the positive communication industry whatever you want to call it I think our biggest challenge is to give people truthful information we give them information but we need to layer that saying this is the proof why this information is correct this is the proof why this information is truthful if we don't do that it's unlikely it's unlikely that we will be trusted in the 1960s a CEO was measured on three to five parameters today the street of the city of London or the large street or wall street measures a CEO on 50 to 60 parameters and some of those parameters are in conflict with each other and that's a real challenge so CEOs need to practice which is your leader because you represent him number one they need to have positive relationships in their organization and outside they need to go and meet the ecosystem partners they need to meet more people in their company it is not enough for CEOs to just meet their direct reports that is the sad truth today of 99% of CEOs second the CEO needs to be competent he needs to be relevant he needs to skill himself he needs to learn and unlearn to be relevant for the future world and finally the CEO has to meet his commitments when it comes to external engagement many a time CEOs are not doing that and when they don't know that they place you in a bad situation and as I've said in the 17 18 years that I've been a CEO I might have missed two or three not because I didn't want to do it but because of other reasons so once you're committed you must go through with that so that's all I had to say ladies and gentlemen thank you very much IPR CCC for inviting me for this session it's always a pleasure to do this for you guys I did this you know a few years ago in Goa it is a fantastic feeling and there were a number of you who have worked for me and a number of you helped build my particular and my personal reputation and I would always want to thank you guys wherever you are I can't list out everybody but I truly owe you a debt of gratitude for all that you've done for me and all the hard work you put in for me thank you very much thank you so much for sharing your insights on the topic I think your ending note shows what a leader should do the gratitude for the journey that you've just mentioned shows what a leadership should look at and how they should move forward thank you so much for your time and for sharing your insights with us thank you so much sir