Speaking at the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London overnight, du Plessis said the failure to spot the credit crisis was a collective failure on the part of bankers, businesses, investors, central bankers, regulators, and governments.

“In the world of business, society's support was mostly taken for granted,” he said.

“But when the global credit bubble burst – incredibly, already some five years ago – that relationship began to change.

“The powerful link between economic progress and trust was yet again demonstrated.

“The single most important reason why this trust has so completely broken down and why people are today asking questions that for so long remained unasked, is of course simple.

“In the memorable words of Bill Clinton: ‘it's the economy, stupid’.”

South African-born du Plessis said governments could not create wealth, but businesses required confidence to be able to grow.

“And for confidence to be re-established we will not only require a considerable change in mood music, but it is absolutely critical that we re-establish the relationship of trust between society and business,” he said.

“Because, whilst it might be tempting for business to blame politicians and journalists for the music they make, frankly it is up to business to change the score.”

Du Plessis said economic livelihoods would need to be restored before trust could be re-established, putting business in a tricky position.

“Economic recovery will require trust, but I am afraid trust will be very hard to re-establish in the absence of a meaningful recovery. So, how do we get around it?”

“Starting at the top, this is going to require leadership within the business community.

“We are going to have to accept that trust is no longer a given and we are going to have to make every effort to re-earn and re-build the trust that we all so desperately need.”

He added that large multinational corporations such as Rio needed to take up that challenge to thwart perceptions that large companies lack communication skills.

“We need to reassess how we do business and the decisions we make, in order to identify those areas where we know stakeholders rightly expect us to do better,” du Plessis said.

“But once we have done that, we also need to go out proactively and explain to the numerous stakeholders around us why they need big business.

“Business – in particular big business – has a good story, but unless we are going to stand up and be counted, we cannot expect others to do so on our behalf.”

Du Plessis criticised big business for its collective failure to explain to society why it needed companies to be successful.

“Many of the essential things in life that we all take for granted can only be produced by companies that sometimes operate in highly capital intensive industries,” he said.

“Unless those industries are allowed, indeed encouraged, to be profitable so that, in addition to serving their shareholders, they can set aside enough capital to re-invest, the world will find it very hard to prosper.”

Rio is extremely profitable, posting full-year earnings of $US5.9 billion ($A5.7 billion) from underlying earnings of $15.5 billion.

Du Plessis highlighted executive remuneration as one area that businesses needed to address, saying the “spiral” in executive pay over the past two decades could not continue.

“Unfortunately, too many businesses sometimes appear to have lost all touch with reality and for too long boards and remuneration committees of public companies have been all too prepared to support remuneration levels that were not necessarily demanded by the marketplace,” he said.

“We are going to have to be much more responsive to how the public perceive us, more responsive to how our shareholders perceive us and more sensitive to how our employees perceive us.”

Du Plessis said businesses must listen to stakeholders and as a mining company working in remote locations, it was particularly important to listen to stakeholders and deal with environmental and community concerns with sensitivity.

Failure in this area will jeopardise our business and we know that enshrining fairness and responsibility as core values that guide our approach, are essential to ensure that our work is sustainable,” he said.

As for Rio, du Plessis said he was sure it sometimes made mistakes but it would always try to do better.

“We now live in a world where society is continually upping its expectations of companies – in particular those that operate in the multi-national arena,” he said.

“If we show trust at the top and move the debate into something more dignified than that which we have seen in recent times, we can begin the long, slow process of rebuilding trust with those whom we seek to serve.

“There is a long haul ahead, but we must start the work of rebuilding trust today, because without trust there can be no confidence and without confidence we will struggle to build the road to a genuine, sustainable economic recovery.”