part three trust Trust is at the root of any economic system based on mutually beneficial exchange. In vir- tually all transactions, we rely on the word of those with whom we do business. . . . If a significant number of business people violated the trust upon which our interactions are based, our court system and our economy would be swamped into immobility. --Alan Greenspan, retired chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System of the United States 1 The Internet start-up craze of the late 1990s was followed by crashes, bank- ruptcies, and failures. By the beginning of the next decade, it was clear that the devastating financial impact extended well beyond the doors of the start-up companies to organizations that had put their faith in the potential that those companies represented. Too much came too fast. . . and too many promises were fueled by an excitement that didn't match reality. The dot-com era opened up new opportunities by testing both the boundaries of the information age and the development of the technol- ogy that dramatically changed the way people communicate and gain access to information. However, it also provided testimony to the need for trust in business. Funding for start-up Internet companies came fast and furious. Venture capital firms saw an opportunity to get in at the ground floor of an industry with potentially large growth opportunities. The excitement continued, spurned by marketing dollars, but the revenue didn't follow. American Management Association / www.amanet.org