BRICS Business Magazine English Edition No.5
To convince and attract means to inspire trust. There is no other tool that is more rational than trust – after all, it is capable of bringing down costs in any processes – from business to international relations. However, very few people are able to learn to trust and afford this luxury, which is rather unfortunate. In today’s world trust has truly become one of the most sought-after commodities. Expanding trust and its reach is a key priority, which I am sure can be addressed.
Naturally, the ‘attract – convince – inspire trust’ formula needs to be augmented to include the notion of ‘understanding.’ We need to fully recognize and take account of the difference between ourselves and other people and bear in mind that we think and perceive information in different ways. In any communication there is a risk of pseudo-communication when the difference between the meaning conveyed and the meaning perceived is too great. Many developing nations suffer from this problem to varying degrees.
Therefore, it is not enough to just accumulate soft power with all of its components in the hope that it will work out automatically by itself. One needs to have a long-term plan spelling out how this soft power will be used. This task can be simplified if we comply with the rules of the game that are the same for everyone. Deep down these rules amount to respect and the aforementioned trust. Not everyone seems capable of it – far from it – but each of us needs to strive to respect others while remembering to respect ourselves. The same can be said about trust.
Authors & Experts
Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University, Head of the International Laboratory for Political Demography and Macrosociological Dynamics at Moscow’s RANEPA
Professor of International Relations at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) in São Paulo
Director of New Products & Solutions at Google Enterprise, Head of Google’s Cloud Global Business Unit
Head of the Social Linguistics Centre at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development and Health Policy and Management, and Director of the Earth Institute, Columbia University
Director of the BRICLab at Columbia University, where he also teaches international affairs
Chairman of Roubini Global Economics, Professor of Economics and International Business at the Stern School of Business, New York University
Anselmo Rubiralta Professor of Global Strategy at IESE Business School, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Global Management at the Stern School of Business, New York University
Head of the Public Administration Department at Lomonosov Moscow State University, Director of Moscow’s Centre for Post-Industrial Studies
Head of Global Markets and Institutional Research, SKOLKOVO Institute for Emerging Market Studies
Founder of The Evian Group, an international coalition of corporate, government and opinion leaders, and Professor Emeritus of International Political Economy at IMD
independent policy advisor on strategies, author of the Nation Brands Index, winner of the 2009 Nobels Colloquia Prize for Leadership on Business and Economic Thinking
Nobel laureate and William R. Berkley Professor in Economics and Business at the Stern School of Business, New York University
Associate Professor at Tsinghua University, Resident Scholar at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy
