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Over the past few years multiple corporate scandals, Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries have demonstrated that there is an impact on public perception for companies found to be transgressing ethical standards. Research into community opinion confirms the impact on public perception and provides a warning for various companies as to the precarious nature of their social licence to operate. In equal measure, it is also warning to corporate Boards and their senior executives that there are consequences for engaging in what can be described as 'moral blindness'. Rio Tinto, AMP, the large banks, various technology providers and media organisations being clear examples of companies found wanting.
The Roy Morgan Risk Monitor for 2021 (based on research carried out during 2020) has provided an insight into the current positive or negative standing of various companies -
Most trusted brands
- Woolworths
- Coles
- Bunnings
- Aldi
- Qantas
- Apple
- Kmart
- ABC
- Microsoft
- Myer
Most distrusted brands
- Telstra
- Amazon
- NewsCorp
- AMP
- Rio Tinto
- Huawei
- BP
- Westpac
The ranking of trust and distrust was clearly influenced by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, nonetheless this was only one factor influencing the result. Various scandals involving the technology sector (privacy, selling of data to third parties, misleading information publication) have also had an impact.
