Editor's Note: As questions surrounding Nvidia and Jensen Huang put corporate leadership and accountability in the spotlight, Jessica Berk Ross, Managing Partner and Global Public Affairs Practice Leader at FINN Partners, reports from the B20 Summit in Washington, D.C., where trust in business, government, and global institutions is taking center stage.
Global businesses from around the world have gathered at the The Wharf in Washington, DC at the B-20 Summit this week. People from the world’s twenty largest economies are here to discuss and debate their recommendations ahead of the G-20 Summit, which takes place later this year in Miami. There is also in-process recalibration just a week after from the world-rocking U.S. mid-term elections that were about affordability and the economy, but also fundamentally about faith in government to keep its promises--which really comes down to an issue of trust.
The Jensen Huang situation has been a huge sidebar conversation. This is no kiss-cam scandal – – it is one of vital importance to national security and speaks to the current irregular nature of uneven enforcement of and oversight. The ripple effect of this touches on every aspect of industrial policy, trade policy and foreign policy. It is at the heart of global competitiveness, and speaks to the busted-trust moment we find ourselves in. Indeed, here at the summit, trust has been top of mind in the all the conversations about Artificial Intelligence and in a post-trust world, what is the role of government? Can trust be restored?
You can’t really legislate trust, it is a relational and cultural dilemma, which brings us to a bigger question of can you build back trust in institutions trust and trust across borders. Who holds leaders–business and political to account?
Maybe it begins with dialogue. And then continues with connections. People all over the world have come to Washington for this very thing. I have rarely been at a summit where people have been so eager to connect and to share. Perhaps, just perhaps, this moment does spark turning point on the road to return to trust.
