Leadership, “Reputation Matters” Forbes, August 17, 2015
“Never get into a car with a stranger” my mom told me throughout my childhood. “Don’t trust your safety to someone you don’t know really well, and even then be vigilant, because they may not have your best interests at heart the way we do.”
But how does this old-school advice jibe with the Airbnb, Uber, “sharing economy” generation who are driven by unlicensed strangers and stay in people’s — who they don’t know — homes around the world? What happens when your Airbnb host turns into Norman Bates? (Or your guest turns out to be the Zodiac killer?)
It is indefensible how ill-prepared Airbnb, Uber, and a host of other high-flying, trust-based sharing companies are for crisis, and customer and provider protection when trust goes awry. It is equally shocking how unprepared their trusting customers and providers are when they realize their trust is misplaced.
“Trust is hard won but easily lost,” the saying goes. But in the new sharing economy, it actually might be the exact opposite: trust is too easily given, and too hard lost. And the lessons, to individuals as well as companies, are tough ones. So, what lessons should companies, and the consumers who patronize them, learn? […read more]