Event highlights

Date:
30 November 2015

Opening remarks:
Dato’ Mohammad Faiz Azmi, Executive Chairman, PwC Malaysia

Keynote speech:
Sir David Tweedie, Chief Judge for the Awards (Past Chairman, International Accounting Standards Board and current Chairman of the International Valuation Standards Council)

Host:
Umapagan Ampikaipakan, Anchor, BFM Radio

The winners and finalists of PwC Malaysia’s inaugural The Building Trust Awards were revealed at an awards ceremony attended by industry captains and leaders of Malaysia’s top public-listed companies and regulatory bodies.

Almost 150 guests and PwC partners attended the awards ceremony, a black tie affair, at Le Méridien Kuala Lumpur. 

The Building Trust Awards 2015 assessed how Malaysian companies are perceived in the eyes of their investors and customers via Trust Profiles (based on analysis run by PwC’s in-house measurement framework and diagnostics tool), as well as how they performed in their corporate reporting (via their annual reports).

The event kicked off with an opening video, providing an overview of the Awards. The event’s host Umapagan Ampikaipakan of BFM Radio shared an anecdote, shining the spotlight on trust in the current business environment.

PwC Malaysia’s Executive Chairman Dato’ Mohammad Faiz Azmi delivered the opening remarks highlighting the rationale for the Awards and why trust was important. “Trust is built and maintained by small actions over time and is seen as being central to a company's brand. But it is also difficult to maintain. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it,” he said quoting Warren Buffet.

Through these Awards, Dato’ Faiz emphasised, PwC wanted to highlight  that trust can be converted into a valuable organisational asset – moving it away from being an often misunderstood and unquantified intangible, to something real, measurable and truly manageable. “We firmly believe that corporates can take on the mantle to rebuild trust at a time when trust in institutions and businesses is low.”

As a firm with a 166-year history, enhancing public trust and confidence in the audit profession and the capital markets has been the fundamental reason for PwC’s existence and the bedrock of our practice, he said, citing the PwC Purpose: To build trust in society and solve important problems.”

The keynote speech was delivered by our Chief Judge, Sir David Tweedie who reiterated the need for the private sector to take the lead in building trust in Corporate Malaysia.

Sir David, Dato' Faiz and Sri presented the trophy to the
Building Trust Awards 2015 Winner - Maybank

“There is a real thirst for transparency today. Clearly, trust building isn’t a unique proposition or challenge for Malaysia alone. At a global level, we are all, in some form or another, still reeling from the effects of the global financial crisis – which showed how important trust in institutions is, and how easily it can be damaged,” he said.

Sir David explained the Awards methodology used by PwC Malaysia, highlighting the individual Trust Profiles developed by PwC UK for the shortlisted companies, a unique element to the Awards. “No longer is trust a fluffy, nice-to-have but a real, tangible, business asset,” he pointed out.

Touching on the winners, Sir David said that the companies that stood out were making good strides in building trust with their investors and customers as seen in their Trust Profiles. For more details, read the Building Trust Awards Report.

The event concluded with the Awards presentation, the highlight of the evening.

From the 10 finalists, Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank) emerged as the Winner, whilst both Nestlé (Malaysia) Berhad and Sime Darby Berhad were named as Runners-Up for their efforts in building trust among their stakeholders. Each company received a Building Trust Awards trophy in recognition of their commendable efforts. 

PwC Malaysia Managing Partner Sridharan Nair, Dato’ Faiz and Sir David presented the awards to the winners and acknowledged the finalists.

The Building Trust Awards was inspired by PwC UK’s Building Public Trust Awards (now in its 13th year).