Horasis, Roadside Oranges and the Importance of Trust in Global Business

While speaking at the most recent Horasis global event, I was reminded of a story about trust in business.

Trust is something we think about and act on every day at Global Chamber®, and specifically we're building trust in order to facilitate easier and more productive global business for members. Read more.

If any of our activities involve normal, random 'networking' in business development, it makes 'safe' trade difficult.

That adds a higher level of risk to the mix that we don't appreciate, and I'm sure you don't either.

That's because it takes more due diligence and time to reduce risk, and on any given deal, that's not always possible. That's why we're creating the global tribe of leaders worldwide, continually vetting everyone in the global tribe to make is safer to trade for everyone.

Definitely check out every potential client and partner that you plan to work with, and always ask if they're members of Global Chamber® and for how long. Almost certainly if they've been a member for multiple years, you've found someone you can trust.

A challenge in global business is shown in a short story about a trade at a roadside stand while I was driving through the Peloponnese Peninsula nearby my wife's family's home town of Koutsopodi, Greece (Κουτσοπόδι, "crooked foot'). A trade was done, but only one party was satisfied, and it wasn't me, despite the two of us doing a 'due diligence process'. But it wasn't enough.

Koutsopodi is in the region of Argos, about a 2 hour drive from Athens. While we were driving around the area, my wife, daughter and I came upon a roadside stand selling oranges. 'Stand' is a bit of an over-statement since it was a guy, a table and some bags of oranges. That region is known for oranges, and so it seemed like a good idea to stop and pick some up. I pulled the car over and got out in the countryside on another beautiful sunny day in Greece - blue sky and blue ocean - magnificent!

Issue number one was that the vendor didn't speak English. I don't speak Greek.

Issue number two was that he was smoking a cigarette and offered me one. I'm not a smoker.

So I took the cigarette and there we were, the two of us, on a country road in Greece overlooking the sea, each smoking a cigarette, and 'connecting', some sort of due diligence. Finally we spoke across languages and I was able to understand the price, so I purchased a bag. We stood there in silence until we both had nearly finished our cigarettes, I waved good-bye and got back into the car.

That all did NOT go well with our daughter, who had been watching from the car with my wife, and who couldn't believe that I had smoked a cigarette. I got quite a scolding! She didn't understand the need for that. I did my best to explain but I wasn't successful.

We got back to the hotel in Napflio and I set the oranges on the table. I opened up the bag and I came face to face with two surprises. First, each orange had a stamp of "Sunkist" and "California" on them. And second, they were overripe and mostly rotten.

The illusion of trust through that cigarette on the side of the road was simply that, an illusion. He got his money. I got a free cigarette and a story to talk about forever about building trust in a business transaction. We can do better!

Anyone in global business will have a comparable experience somewhere, sometime. That's why we've built and continue to build a trusted network everywhere around the world... so that you don't need to smoke a cigarette on the side of a road to determine if a potential deal is going work out. To be fair, you should ALWAYS be careful and do your due diligence. But working with the global tribe reduces the time from meeting-to-deal, and eliminates the smoking, too.

As the world comes out of lockdown, there are additional issues as we weave in more virtual aspects to our business development, fulfillment and overall. You've managed to be successful till now, and we just ask you to make the adjustments needed now to stay one or two steps ahead. We can do this! Reach out for help along the way.

Let's work toward a world of trade built on a foundation of honesty, high ethics, transparency and cross-cultural understanding in a new age of globalization driven by technology and leaders that raises standards of living worldwide.

Now fast forward to this year, in a discussion at Horasis in March. The pandemic lockdown has accelerated the speed of technological change, and even the event recording at the link below is only possible thanks to technology.

Our growing dependency in technology has led many to recalibrate their relationship with it. People enjoy reaping the benefits of technology, such as increased connectivity, flexibility, access, speed, etc—although the ones reaping most these benefits skew younger (under 45) and wealthier.

Tech issues like security hacks, inappropriate or illegal surveillance, misuse of personal data, spread of fake news and misinformation, algorithmic bias, and lack of transparency are regularly hitting the headlines, feeding a ‘techlash’ and result in distrust.

Many can feel a gap between the individual and societal benefit of technologies. With emerging technologies like AI, blockchain and self-driving vehicles, there are similarly concerning consumer sentiments, as people worry about job loss and being unable to quickly adapt to new skill sets and knowledge requirements, leading to a fear of being left behind.

We need digital trust to drive business growth and shared prosperity in the communities where we live and work. How do we achieve it in a reasonable time frame? With so much at stake, it is imperative that we rebuild and rethink “trust” in digital among consumers, employees and citizens. And hence the discussion below.

Horasis Panel March 18, 2021

Trust: The Currency of America’s Digital Revolution

Watch the conversation on Youtube HERE.

The ways in which Americans connect with others is being transformed through digital technologies despite the rigors of COVID and widespread public distrust. How to rebuild trust to successfully drive the country’s digital transformation? And how to shape systems offering open navigation leading to a fully digitized and integrated economy?

• Andrew Bate, Chief Executive Office, Safely
• Brendon Dennewill, Chief Executive Officer, Denamico Inc
• Stacy Kenworthy, Chief Executive Officer, HellaStorm
• Supreet Manchanda, Founding Partner, Raiven Capital
• Doug Bruhnke, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Global Chamber®

Chaired by

• Sylvia Vaquer, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, SocioFabrica

Connect to the NEXT Horasis global event on June 8th, too and read more HERE.

Doug Bruhnke - Global Chamber®

Global Chamber® is a growing and collaborating community of CEOs, executives and leaders in 525 metro regions around the world... connecting member businesses to new opportunities and advancing growth and success. It's the only chamber of commerce in the world operating in hundreds of locations that helps exporting, importing and investing members to connect through warm introductions to clients, partners, projects and resources.