Ferrarese (CSQA): "Trust is an invisible infrastructure: without it, the market costs more."

In economics, trust is often talked about as an " asset ." But how much is it actually worth to a market? Maria Chiara Ferrarese, general manager and CEO of CSQA , has no doubts:

"It's worth a lot, even if it doesn't appear on the balance sheet." The reasoning starts from a basic principle: a market works when buyers trust the information of sellers—contracts, declarations, labels. "When this trust is missing, everything becomes more expensive: more controls, more guarantees, more time, more litigation are needed." Economists have a name for this imbalance, information asymmetry: the seller knows things the buyer doesn't, and that distance has a cost. This is where certification comes into play.

"It introduces shared rules, independent controls, and verifiable evidence, and makes trade faster and economic relations more efficient. Trust, in other words, is a factor of productivity and competitiveness." The fact remains that many entrepreneurs still view it as a cost, or as a mere obligation. Is it really an investment? "The value is understood when you move away from this logic," he replies. Certification has a cost, of course, like safety, training, or innovation. "But the real question is another: how much does it cost not to have processes under control? How much do a product recall, fraud, litigation, or loss of market confidence cost?" It makes processes more robust, demonstrates compliance to customers, facilitates market access, and responds to the demands of banks, investors, and large clients: "It doesn't create value because it adds a brand, but because it reduces uncertainty and increases trust. And trust is one of the most important economic assets of any business." Can we then speak of a true economic infrastructure of the market?

"It's an invisible infrastructure, like accounting rules or technical standards." It reduces asymmetries between producers and buyers, lowers costs, and facilitates exchanges. And the scope is expanding: "It's no longer just agri-food or manufacturing. It's entered sustainability, cybersecurity, digital services, and increasingly artificial intelligence. Wherever there's a promise to be verified, there's an infrastructure of trust that helps the market function better." But how much does it cost a company not to have processes under control? An out-of-control process sooner or later translates into a defect, a non-compliance, a complaint. And the costs aren't just direct (recalls, rework, fines) but above all indirect: reputational damage, the loss of a strategic customer, exclusion from a tender or a supply chain.

Then there's the dimension of access: to markets, banks, investors. "Today, competitiveness isn't just about price or product quality, but the ability to demonstrate reliability, transparency, and responsibility." Evidence verified by third parties, he explains, is the language a company uses to unfamiliar interlocutors: a large client that must qualify a supplier, a bank assessing risk, an investor attentive to environmental and governance criteria. "Increasingly, certification is a prerequisite for entering a regulated market or supply chain."

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Source: The Reformist

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