A transparent world

One of the most repeated new year forecasts in the worlds of business and communication is to foretell the decline of trust in business and political leaders. It was forever thus. That said, the decline has perhaps been accelerated in recent years as representatives of both have proceeded to squander whatever trust they may have once had and earned.

Governments and political parties across the world seem to have created more distance between themselves and their citizens and core supporters across party divisions. Business leaders from multiple sectors and geographies seem startled in the headlights of increased scrutiny and expectations of transparency.

The public trust seems to have transferred from institutions and experts to individuals and crowds. Along with globalisation in the 1990s, web 2.0 in the last decade and the growth of networked enterprises now, a shift to people focus, social responsibility leadership, fiscal prudence, economic austerity and concerns over scarcity of natural resources, this may be one of the most significant global trends, a growing and universal boundaryless expectation of transparency.

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