Flickr.com, CCL, Thomas Hawk

In my previous post, I came up with a few suggestions on how to overcome the “crisis of trust” that is currently impacting the financial services industry.

I drafted a very short list of actions that we as individuals within the industry can take to restore consumer confidence and rebuild the image of the financial services industry.

1. Those that carry responsibility acknowledge their role in past events and say mea culpa
2. We are all working hard very hard to ensure the current crisis is over as soon as possible, and are responsible in the actions we take, always taking into account their effects on the many that have entrusted us with their money
3. We are open to measures that will prevent this from happening in the future, and will work with governments and lawmakers to ensure appropriate measures are taken and implemented

Today, it seems like most everyone, including Tom Peters, supports Barack Obama’s “Call For Common Sense on Executive Pay”, which is a clear sign support for making changes is building.

But, I started wondering, how does public opinion really feel ?

Published yesterday, the article on nytimes.com got:

• 1161 comments, for the most part expressing support and understanding for Obama’s plans;
• No. 1 on the “Most Blogged”-list;
• No. 3 most e-mailed in the “Business Section”

But let’s keep in mind we are talking about the NY Times here.  
So what about the Wall Street Journal (bold intentional) ?

• No. 1 on “Most Read”
• 255 comments (No. 2)
• In a separate poll they ran (1647 people), 75% felt that “the government should be able to limit pay for executives at companies receiving federal aid”

 Where this is far from a thorough media content analysis, it serves to get the point across: the public eye is increasingly zooming in on the financial services industry and the past behaviours of a few individuals – and then continues to paint everyone else with the same brush.

 In “Curbing a few bankers’ earnings is a small price”,  FT’s John Gapper states:

 ”The last conclusion I draw from Wednesday’s crackdown is that it is a shame. It was originally a shame that investment and commercial bankers, spurred on by a distorted bonus structure, rushed into taking risks that forced governments to step in and bail them out.

 It is now a shame that, having done so, too few of them realised things would be different from that moment on. They could have avoided a second round of government intervention aimed directly at their wallets if they had reacted more quickly and smartly.

 Instead, they have had to be told what is good for them.”

In reality, there is no distinction: at one level or another, we are all employees, customers, shareholders, managers – but also readers, writers, viewers and listeners. We are all influenced by the actions of the few, and how the media portray them.

It remains to be seen what this will mean for corporate reputations – and how easy, or hard, corporate CEOs will find it to rally their troops in the future.