Americans' trust in business remains "shaky," but companies can rebuild it by taking the lead on national challenges, practicing restraint in executive pay and relying on new voices and communication tools to respond to critics, the president of the world's largest independent public relations firm told those attending the Public Affairs Council's fall board meeting.

"We are in a tenuous recovery, just like the economy," said Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman Public Relations Worldwide.

Edelman, who addressed about 100 people at the annual meeting held this year in San Francisco, noted that his company's "Trust Barometer" found this past summer that 48 percent of Americans trusted U.S. businesses to do what's right - an improvement from a January survey that found only 36 percent of Americans felt this way.

"Trust in business is still very shaky," Edelman said.

"The idea that businesses can go it alone is no longer viable," he said, noting that to be credible, companies must work more closely with independent experts, average employees and NGOs - the latter of which enjoys unprecedented levels of public trust.

He said Americans believe businesses are not doing enough to address the economic crisis and that they have yet to fully embrace "soft power" assets such as treating workers well and communicating honestly. To change that perception, he said, companies need to take the lead on hot-button issues such as affordable health care, climate change, job creation and energy costs.

"Businesses should not wait for government to come up with solutions," he said. "They should not play defense, but offense."

Moreover, he said, companies must address perceived abuses of executive pay -- which have contributed considerably to the current climate of distrust - by embracing equitable compensation policies that spread financial sacrifices around.

"There is no issue more important... right now than executive compensation," he said, noting that the high compensation packages given to executives at a few federally bailed-out companies is affecting the image of all businesses. "It's seen as unfair. It's seen as piggish."

Finally, Edelman said, businesses must acknowledge that society sometimes respects and trusts passionate employees and customers as much - and in some cases more - than the company CEO, whom he said no longer has a "mandate to speak with authority." As a result, he said, companies must begin "communicating horizontally" to get their side of a story heard, using "real people with compelling stories" and relying on social media and other channels that quickly and broadly disseminate information.