Dame Carolyn McCall on how to build trust in your business

Dame Carolyn McCall, chief executive of ITV, chose to talk about trust in business for this year’s Helen Alexander Memorial Lecture – a “Women on Business” initiative supported by the CBI, the Economist, Informa and the University of Southampton.

Here are some of her key points – and her experiences that bring them to life:

“Trust has to start with purpose”

McCall talked about the importance of an authentic purpose, that informs how companies behave with their people and customers, and how staff understand decisions that are made.

At ITV, for example, she highlighted the creation of the company’s first Social Purpose strategy. “We asked ourselves how we could use the power of our creativity and scale to create positive change in society and within ITV.”

The decision was taken to focus on making conversations about mental health and wellbeing as comfortable and common as those about physical wellbeing. It’s led to ITV signing up to the Time to Change employer ple