Eric Ries

I call it the most underrated asset in the world today, trustworthiness.

When people can trust you, you're going to make more money.

You're going to have these huge competitive advantages.

You're going to have higher employee morale.

You're going to have longer customer retention.

There's amazing data about this.

Companies that are trusted can raise money cheaper.

Customers are more likely to stick with you if you make a mistake.

Customers are more likely to try your new products.

I mean, just the benefits of trust, it's a compounding asset.

And yet most leaders today are horribly naive about this.

It's as if we've taught them how to create this vault full of this incredibly valuable asset, the most valuable asset in the world.

And we're like, just leave it unlocked.

If someone tries to steal it from you, act shocked.

It's like, why are we shocked?

It's valuable.

Of course, people are going to try to steal it from you.

So you need to learn to build organizations that are strong enough to resist.

And we see some of these structures like employee ownership, like having an industrial foundation, a perpetual purpose trust, being a public benefit corp, are structural mechanisms.

They're just locks on the door to prevent outsiders from taking what you've made.