Business is the only institution viewed as ethical and competent

By Aurel Constantin

Radu Marcu has been appointed co-CEO at Connections Consult. He will lead the company alongside the founder of Connections Consult, Bogdan Florea, who remains the leader of the company. Marcu joined Connections Consult in November 2021 and held the position of Software Chief Operating Officer. So far, he has led the bidding, delivery, and postimplementation operations of the software development team and was part of the Management Board of the Connections Group. He has over 15 years of experience in managing software development activities.

The 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that business is now viewed as the only global institution that’s both competent and ethical. Business now holds a staggering 53-point lead over government in competence and is 30 points ahead on ethics. Its treatment of workers during the pandemic and return to work, along with the swift and decisive action of over 1,000 businesses to exit Russia after its invasion of Ukraine helped fuel a 20-point jump on ethics over the past three years. Business (62 percent) remains the most and only trusted institution globally.

“The increased perception of business as ethical brings with it higher than ever expectations of CEOs to be a leading voice on societal issues,” said Richard Edelman, the CEO of Edelman.

“By a six-to-one margin, on aver- age, respondents want more societal involvement by business on issues such as climate change, economic inequality, and workforce reskilling. But business must tread carefully, as more than half (52 percent) of our respondents do not believe business can avoid being politicised when it addresses contentious societal issues.” page 5

This year’s report finds that economic optimism has collapsed globally (from 50 to 40 percent), with half of the countries surveyed showing a year-over-year double-digit decline in the belief that their families will be better off in five years’ time. Further, not one developed nation has over 36 percent of its people confident that their family will be better off in five years, and 24 of the 28 countries surveyed dropped to all-time lows in optimism including the US (36 percent), the UK (23 percent), Germany (15 percent), and Japan (9 percent).

Mateja Podgornik was appointed Managing Director for Mondelez Romania and Slovenia. She previously held the position of Category Planning & Activation Lead for South Central Europe (SCE), after a period in which she had managed business activities related to the acquisition and integration of the Chipita company, as Senior Manager for M&A Project, Commercial Planning. Mateja has extensive and varied experience within Mondelēz International, having been with the company for 14 years.