Veritatem Fidei

La confiance. Vertrou. Güven. ثقة. Tumaini. Confianza. Доверие. Zaufanie. Fiducia. の信頼. אמון. Vertrauen. Εμπιστοσύνη. Trust. One word, fourteen different languages – trust. This work forms an introductory analysis of the complex characteristic that all humans are familiar with, that all languages have a word for, which all people desire; trust. During my qualitative field research in Australia and New Zealand I extensively interviewed twenty franchisees from four different food retail franchise systems. I explored areas of their franchisee/franchisor relationship focusing on the central critical aspect of trust. It doesn’t take a genius to believe that without trust in a relationship, not only is it more likely to fail, but it will never be as effective as it could be with confianza (Italian) present. I propose that trust is crucial; trust is a fundamental relational characteristic that needs to be placed at the foundation of the franchisee/franchisor relationship. If the trust is broken, if the trust is lost…the relationship will inevitably fail.