PwC Malaysia launches thought leadership publication on trust in business

Businesses can proactively manage and measure trust
to the benefit of all their stakeholders

KUALA LUMPUR, 1 June 2016 – Authenticity is arguably one of the most crucial ingredients in building trust in business. Several business leaders in Malaysia told PwC that authenticity is a factor that makes trust work, however, putting it into practice and getting the buy-in of the people across an organisation, can be a challenge in itself.  

The Malaysian public, meanwhile, are hopeful that businesses can build trust if they are:

• authentic in their intentions
• transparent about their business
• committed to carry these values throughout the organisation, led by the CEO

These were among the key findings of a PwC Malaysia thought leadership publication ‘Trust in business: Delivering authentic value’. The publication explores the dynamic nature of trust through a series of conversations with business leaders, a public opinion poll and a focus group. It was launched at a press conference today in conjunction with the 2016 World Economic Forum on ASEAN.

“Trust is dynamic – it can evolve in line with the growth of a business and the landscape around it. Increasingly too, many businesses are beginning to recognise that trust can be a tangible asset. However, many are still struggling to understand where it lands on the list of priorities in this challenging environment. We believe that as an emerging market, this presents an exciting opportunity for businesses to shape the conversation in Malaysia. And this is what has inspired PwC to embark on a journey to help Corporate Malaysia make trust building a priority,” said PwC Malaysia Executive Chairman Dato’ Faiz Azmi.  

“This publication is part of PwC’s research into trust, following on from our inaugural Building Trust Awards, which recognised the efforts of public-listed companies in building trust with their customers and investors. In this publication, we compared and contrasted the Voice of the people (via a poll and focus group) with the Voice of business (via interviews with six business leaders). We hope that readers will find this collection of stories and thoughts helpful in answering some of the tough questions they may have on this provocative topic,” he continued.    

The poll and the focus group, i.e. the Voice of the people, provided a diverse range of views on trust from the larger public based on their interactions and experiences with businesses. Their views were compared and contrasted with the Voice of business. 

The business leaders interviewed were:

• Alois Hofbauer, Managing Director, Nestlé (Malaysia) Berhad
• Dato’ Feisal Zahir, Group Head, Global Banking, Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank)
• Dato’ Seri Johan Raslan, Senior Advisor, AmBank Group
• Malek Ali, Founder/Managing Director, BFM Media Sdn. Bhd.
• Sarena Cheah, Managing Director, Property Development Division, Sunway Berhad
• Datuk Shahril Ridza Ridzuan, Chief Executive Officer, Employees Provident Fund

What the results told us

Both the Voice of the people and the Voice of business were largely in agreement on the following questions:

1. Can you purposefully work on building trust and remain authentic?
This was the easy one. Unequivocally everyone feels that yes, it’s absolutely vital to be authentic while

purposefully building trust. In fact, there is no concern around losing your authenticity when you design a programme around trust because trust is steeped in being real and genuine. 88% of the poll respondents agreed to this too. As Malek Ali said: “It’s hard to build trust if you’re not authentic. It’s a necessary condition. You can’t say you’re one thing, and act the other.” 

2. Is transparency really in the best interests of a company?
Yes, it is a key ingredient for any successful business of today, and for the business of tomorrow. 79% of the poll respondents agreed. In fact, leaders should be prepared for the day when they will have to be completely transparent regarding their own personal assets. However, Datuk Shahril Ridza cautioned, “There’s transparency, and then there’s legibility. So you have to make sure that in being transparent, you’re also at the same time presenting a clear story that people can understand and follow.”

3. Is the CEO the face of trust for a business?
The superficial answer is yes. But the business leaders and focus group qualified this to say that trust is equally dependent on the entire organisation. This is the challenge then for businesses – to ensure that the right values are carried through to the rest of their organisation. One of our focus group participants said, “The first perception [of a business] would be the CEO. For me, whenever I see that so-and-so is the CEO of the company, my first reaction is that, that should be a good company as so-and-so is the CEO and he’s a trustworthy, credible person.”

However, the business leaders and the people seem less aligned on the following questions:

1. Is it easier for “big” businesses to build trust as compared to small businesses?
“As your company gets bigger, not only do you have more people in the organisation, you find that you have more stakeholders. Managing multiple stakeholders is massively complex!” said Dato’ Seri Johan Raslan. This was a view echoed by the rest of the leaders who have been part of both small and large organisations. The people were almost split equally but in the end, more than half say it is indeed easier for big businesses to build trust. Perhaps at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what size you are but rather the fundamentals you have in place, i.e. a belief that trust is an asset, and ability to identify whose trust is most important to you and your purpose as a business.

2. Can there be a one-size-fits-all model for building trust?
The quick answer is no, and 83% of poll respondents felt that way. But business leaders said there is a set of basic principles – integrity, walking the talk, ethics and a code of conduct – which are relevant to any organisation. Those are your building blocks to create trust. Alois Hofbauer said, “Although trust for certain industries is different, the base values remain the same.”

What next for companies?

“There is a trust deficit at a global scale. However, the good news is that from our conversations, we have found that the Malaysian public and business leaders are hopeful that businesses will take the lead to repair this deficit. So we urge organisations and leaders to consider trust-building as an integral part of the way they do business – there has never been a better time to do so than right now, ” said Dato’ Faiz.

ENDS