CEO Insights

Although advertising’s platforms, technology, and techniques have changed dramatically, the system of independent industry self-regulation has sustained, and thrived, proving itself as an adaptable model to evolving business environments. Today, that model of responsible businesses allowing themselves to be held publicly accountable by independent self-regulation is timelier than ever.

Recently I wrote about the proliferation of dark patterns and tried to give readers a sense of just how widespread these practices are. But it is not just the pervasiveness of dark patterns that has lawmakers and regulators concerned, it is the intent behind them and their impact on consumers. Nonprofit leaders, in particular, should be aware of this and how to guard against it given that they are well-positioned to garner and enhance consumer trust.

Where is the line between ethical, persuasive design and dark patterns? Businesses should engage in conversations with IT, compliance, risk, and legal teams to review their privacy policy, and include in the discussion the customer/user experience designers and coders responsible for the company’s user interface, as well as the marketers and advertisers responsible for sign-ups, checkout baskets, pricing, and promotions. Any or all these teams can play a role in creating or avoiding “digital deception.”

Today, businesses’ strategies and tactics to prove they are good corporate citizens go beyond the environment to include social and governance practices, otherwise known as ESG. Though consumers rely on businesses for information about their current corporate environmental efforts and their approaches to social and governance issues, ESG messaging is not something that consumers can easily confirm for themselves. A widespread commitment to accountability in ESG messaging to consumers would be an outstanding complement to the work that is already being done in communicating ESG policies to investors.

Nonprofit organizations are often viewed as fundamentally different than for-profit enterprises, but those of us known as “bridgers” see striking similarities, albeit through a professional bifocal lens. We bridgers have transitioned in our careers from publicly traded or privately owned for-profit enterprises to nonprofit organizations, often with a goal to grow these nonprofits in pursuit of their missions. Our insights from both sides of “the bridge” provide us a dual perspective, where we can see that the needs, limitations and goals of for-profits and nonprofits are closer than they may seem at first glance.

As business and nonprofit leaders navigate the Fourth Industrial Revolution, consumer and stakeholder privacy has become a matter of defining trust. As new digital services and connected devices fueled by personal data flourish, consumers’ reasonable expectation of privacy shifts. If expectations do not match reality, it can lead to gaps in trust and new paths for litigation and regulatory enforcement. In this piece I outline a few 2021 privacy developments business and nonprofit leaders should note.

With results from the presidential election officially in but the U.S. Senate in a state of uncertainty until Georgia’s runoffs in January, businesses are contemplating what a divided government could mean for them. Yet while it is only prudent to assess how executive and legislative decisions might reshape marketplace conditions over the next several years, I suggest there is a more pressing problem for businesses to address right now: a lack of trust in the marketplace.