I have been thinking about trust and pricing for a long time. Not trust as a soft concept or a brand value, but trust as the structural force that determines whether a customer believes your price is worth paying. It is the central argument of my upcoming book, The Last Mile of Trust.

That thinking led to a new piece I wrote for Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, published as part of their Oxford Answers series.

The argument is this: the market environment has changed. Customers have more alternatives, more information, and less patience for anything that feels misaligned with what a business claims to stand for. How they perceive value, and what they are willing to pay, is being reshaped by forces that move faster than most pricing strategies can keep up with.

The companies that recognize this and respond through deliberate, trust-building pricing decisions will see it show up in their growth and in the quality of their customer relationships. Those that don’t will find themselves competing on price in a race they cannot win.

I call the gap between customer interest and willingness to pay the last mile of trust. Closing that gap credibly is one of the most important strategic challenges founders face right now.

You can read the full piece here: The Trust Economy Is Here

I would love to hear what resonates with you.