1. Media Release
For Immediate Release
A Crisis in Leadership, says Indonesia findings of the 2013 Edelman Trust
Barometer
Business and government leaders not trusted enough among general population; Trust in
government has risen from last year but of those that trust government less, honesty is the
leading concern
Indonesian trust in media and business remains amongst the highest in the world, but
Indonesians say business needs to do more good purpose
January 31, 2013, Jakarta– Trust in government rebounded last year in Indonesia, says the 2013
Edelman Trust Barometer, but there are still big hurdles for government in winning people’s trust.
Overall trust in government has increased from 40% to 47% in 2013.
In line with a global drop in confidence in traditional authority figures, less than 30% respondents in
Indonesia believe business and government leaders will tell the truth in their policy, regardless of
how complex or unpopular it may sound to their stakeholders.Business and Government Leaders
are also perceived by the majority of the Indonesian public surveyed this year as not trusted enough
to solve social issues, to correct issues within the industry and to make appropriate ethical and moral
decisions.
In its 13th year globally, and fifth year in Indonesia, the 2013 Trust Barometer has surveyed more
than 31,000 respondents in 26 countries including 1,200 in Indonesia.
“Leaders are now expected to adapt to a changing world which demands dialogue and an inclusive
approach in decision making. Top-down leadership doesn’t build trust in an era of many-to-many
social media communications”, said Stephen Lock, CEO, Edelman Indonesia
250 Hudson Street New York New York 10013 Tel +1 212 768 0550 Fax +1 212 704 0117 www.edelman.com

2. Added Lock, “For foreign investors, the message from the Indonesian Trust findings for 2013 is also
stark. Indonesian trust in companies headquartered in Brazil, India and China remains much lower
than trust in firms headquartered in places like Korea, Germany and Japan. Foreign investors and
business in general, our 2013 results found, need to spend more communications effort on
employee engagement, community engagement and ethical standards, while Indonesians put the
lowest importance in our survey on the value of profiling business leadership.”
Following the trend of low trust in leaders, this year’s Barometer also reveals that academics,
technical experts and a person like yourself are trusted more by Indonesians than a chief executive
or government official when communicating news.
For Indonesians in the general population who trust government less over the past year, corruption,
fraud and wrong incentives driving policy decisions were cited by 71% respondents as the main
reasons for having less trust in government leaders, while globally only 50% cited these reasons.
For government, about one third of those who trust government less over the past yearglobally cite
incompetenceas a reason, while in Indonesia only 22%. “This suggests, looking forward to 2014,
that to build credibility and trust, political leaders need to convince their electorate on honesty more
than effectiveness,” said Lock.
In a vote of confidence in a robust democracy and economy, institutions overall remain trusted in
Indonesia with trust in media at 77% and business at 74%, significantly higher than the global
average of 57% and 58%respectively. NGOs in Indonesia, in one of the continued lowest scores
recorded globally, were trusted by only 51% compared to a global average of 63%trusting NGOs.
For building trust in companies, the general public in Indonesia place higher importance on
engagement and integrity building attributes:
- Treating employees well and listening to customers tied (both engagement factors) as the most
important trust building attributes with 70% saying both were important to build trust. However,
only 38% of Indonesians surveyed said companies were actually performing on treating
employees well and only 45% said companies are performing on listening to customers.
- Exhibiting ethical business practices (69% in importance vs. 47% in performance)wasseen as
the mostimportant trust building integrity factor.
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3. Apart from engagement, Indonesia also gives much higher importance to business’sgood purpose
attributes than was recorded in the global average:
- protecting the environment (68% in Indonesia vs. 53% globally)
- positively impacting the local community (67% in Indonesia vs. 47% globally)
“The voice of a consumer today may have more credibility than a CEO. Influence and authority is
moving away from CEOs and government leaders towards experts and peers. To truly make a
difference and govern effectively, there is a need for leaders to listen to key stakeholders and
engage civil society to make an impact. These are the clear global results of the 13th Edelman Trust
Barometer and are part of a trend we’ve seen emerging these last few years,” said Alan
VanderMolen, President and CEO, global practices, Edelman and vice chairman DJE.
Other key findings from the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer include:
- Technology (94%) and automotive (93%) were again among the most trusted industry sectors.
Banks continue to enjoy high trust in Indonesia (90%) against extremely low trust in the sector in
most of the rest of the world (50%).The energy industry sawa significant jump in trust from 71%
to 84% this year
- Trust in various media sources is almost equally divided in Indonesia with traditional media
(75%), online search engines (76%), social media (68%), and company owned media (67%) all
seen as trusted sources of information. When looking at social media, Indonesia (trusted by
68%) isalmost three times as trusting as developed markets (26%).
-ends-
About the Edelman Trust Barometer
The 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer is the firm’s 13th annual trust and credibility survey. The 2013 survey
th
is the 5 successive year the Trust Survey was conducted in Indonesia.The survey was produced by
global research firm, Edelman Berland, and consisted of 20-minute online interviews conducted October
16, 2012 – November 29, 2012. The 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer online survey sampled 26,000
general population respondents with an oversample of 5,800 Informed Publics ages 25-64 across 26
countries. All Informed Publics met the following criteria: college-educated; household income in the top
quartile for their age in their country; read or watch business/news media at least several times a week;
follow public policy issues in the news at least several times a week. The General Population sample was
constructed to mirror the demographics of each country in which they survey was carried out. For more
information, visit http://trust.edelman.com/
About Edelman Indonesia
Formerly known as IndoPacific Edelman, it has rebranded as Edelman Indonesia. With over 140
full-time employees, Edelman Indonesia is Indonesia’s largest public relations firm, offering its clients
services through five key divisions : Corporate & Public affairs (including financial PR); Digital (social
media PR and digital content production ); Marketing communications (consumer and technology PR);
Health and Human Services (healthcare PR; NGO services, community relations and employee
engagement services); and Research and Client Services. The firm was named 2012 Financial PR Firm
of the Year for Indonesia by Corporate INTL magazine and 2011 three-time International Business
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4. Awards winner for best consumer marketing, best tech PR and best country promotion campaigns. For
more information, visit www.edelman.com/office/jakarta/
About Edelman Globally
Edelman is the world’s largest public relations firm, with 66 offices and more than 4,500 employees
worldwide, as well as additional affiliates in more than 30 cities around the world. Edelman was named by
Advertising Age as one of its “A-List Agencies” in both 2010 and 2011; Adweek’s “2011 PR Agency of the
Year;” PRWeek’s “2011 Large PR Agency of the Year;” and The Holmes Report’s “2011 Global Agency of
the Year” and its 2012 “Digital Agency of the Year.” Edelman was named one of the “Best Places to
Work” by Advertising Age in 2010 and 2012 and among Glassdoor’s top ten “Best Places to Work” in
2011 and 2012. Edelman owns specialty firms Edelman Berland (research), Blue (advertising), A&R
Edelman (technology), BioScience Communications (medical communications), and agencies Edelman
Significa (Brazil), and Pegasus (China). Visit http://www.edelman.com for more information.Edelman
group also has a global sister agency, Zeno. In Indonesia this operates as Zeno Stratcom. An entirely
separate agency from Edelman Indonesia and itself one of the country’s top-5 PR firms.
For more information, please contact :
Maria Tobing
Deputy Manager
IndoPacific Edelman
Tel: (62-21) 721 59000 Mobile: +62 816 901 601
Fax: (62-21) 727 86980
E-mail: maria.tobing@indopacedelman.com
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