After a year of salvaging, the Costa Concordia cruise liner that wrecked in the Mediterranean has finally been lifted from the rocky Tuscan coast. The captain of the cruise liner, Francesco Schettino, has been charged with manslaughter, after his carelessness killed 32 vacationers and injured many more.

Now, Carnival Corporation has a major task of rebuilding the trust of its employees and clients. This one major accident will take countless little steps to counteract. Where does Carnival Corporation go from here? How does any company come back from major wreckage like this?

• Of course, the first step in real lasting change is a change of heart. Re-evaluate your core values and principles. You might have to change those you have held on to for too long or implement some that you have slacked in. 
• It starts with transparency. Carnival Corporation must acknowledge the magnitude of broken trust. In addition to the Costa Concordia wreck, they’ll need to acknowledge the multiple times their cruise liners have stalled and had technical issues in the last year. 
• They must also recognize that they need a major re-branding of their company.
• It might be time for a leadership change.  Analyst Karl Burns said, “The Management have been there a long time and there has not been much impetus to change the company and adapt to a different economic and trading environment.” In addition, The Guardian recently shared, “Carnival has been crying out for governance changes…,” and rightly so. A leadership change could be the best place to start a rebrand.
• They need to update their policies. Previous ineffective policies must be taken out or evolved. 

So how do they keep going? They need to acknowledge what’s happened, begin a rebrand, have a leadership change, update their policies, and take little steps of rebuilding trust. If they do, their cruise-liners and company will stay afloat.

 -AR

Costa Concordia, Building Trust, Salvaging Trust, how to rebuild trust