Foreword

The events of the past two years have taught us that we can never truly be prepared for any crisis. When the pandemic hit, we joined businesses the world over in the largest ever work-from-home experiment. As virtual calls and Google Jamboard sessions took the place of meetings and collaboration, it was evident that we wouldn't have been able to smoothly transition to working from home if fundamentals like trust and staying agile weren't in place. We also have  an established digital platform from years of investment, to thank for our smooth transition to remote working. 

The latest edition of our Annual Report shares how we have evolved as a firm during these extraordinary times. It is written using the principles of the Integrated Reporting <IR> Framework and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). In this edition, we continue to report on how we have utilised our capitals to achieve our business priorities and outcomes from our business activities as well as highlight our impact to different stakeholders. 

The four priorities of our four-year strategic plan (2020 - 2024) shape how we deliver value to our clients and the community : 

• Growth: Quality growth delivered as One Firm
• Building trust and quality: A resilient and agile One Firm, delivering quality outcomes while advocating societal values of trust, environmental, social and governance (ESG), education and digital.
• Future ready: Building a diverse and inclusive culture for a future-ready workforce that is able to adapt to new ways of working and sustainably grow their careers
• Digital: Embedding our digital strategy and growing a digital mindset throughout the firm

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly shaped the way we worked with our clients, how we interact with our people and reshape our firm’s strategies to be more resilient. In this report, we have featured our work in helping our clients build trust and deliver sustained outcomes, our people and the community to not only weather through the challenges of the pandemic but also thrive. 

Our Building Trust Programme, digitalisation, upskilling and sustainability initiatives were set in motion even before the pandemic, inspired by our PwC Purpose 'to build trust in society and solve important problems.' 

Our effort to digitalise the way we operate at PwC has defined how we worked virtually for almost two years, expanding the way we view work. As we’re no longer confined to a physical space, we’ve had the chance to truly test borderless collaboration, by exploring virtual secondments and virtual work arrangements. Although we have also been spending more time apart, our people have made an effort to show care and recognition for their colleagues, and support each other’s wellbeing.

The opportunities - and challenges - of climate change have risen to be one of the biggest issues businesses face today. ESG is a growing priority for clients everywhere, and it’s also an area of focus in PwC's new global strategy, The New Equation. We have invested in our sustainability practice for over 15 years now, and are pleased to be recognised as thought leaders and subject matter experts in the ESG space. Our plan for the coming year will be anchored on building our influence among corporates and policy makers and lending our expertise in sustainability strategies and practices. Building on our years of conducting ESG training programmes for clients, we are also committed to upskilling our people on climate change.  We will also be rolling out more structured training to our clients through our ESG Academy. 

Internally, as outlined in PwC’s global strategy, we have committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030, by reducing 50% of our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. You can read about our carbon emissions and our strategy and plans to reduce them in this report. 

Extreme weather events like the floods in December 2021 showed that it is critical to ensure that we are resilient to potential risks through ongoing investment in digitalisation and reimagine remote work. We will continue considering our resilience to potential disruptions from extreme weather events and their impact on our people and how we can provide support if they are affected by adverse weather. 

Beyond the environmental (E) dimension of ESG,  we have been investing in social (S) priorities as well, with Education as one of our ongoing commitments. Read about how we are upskilling our people through our Future Skills programme as well as how we are providing teachers and students with digital skills through our 'New World. New Skills' programme, as part of our global commitment to upskilling for a digital world. We are also playing our part to address the needs of businesses, growing our presence in upskilling organisations with specialist capabilities through PwC's Academy.

The pace of change around us will continue to be relentless. Yet these are the experiences which will spur us on in our quest to stay relevant and agile. In the words of American author Napoleon Hill, 'every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or a greater benefit'. 

I hope you enjoy reading this report and if you have any questions or feedback, do drop us a note. 

Soo Hoo Khoon Yean
Managing Partner, PwC Malaysia
Twitter: @SooHooKY