PwC Malaysia's Trust Builders Challenge returns

So you think you can rebuild trust?

• PwC Malaysia’s Trust Builders Challenge returns, a platform for Malaysian undergraduates to have a say on trust

KUALA LUMPUR, 8 December 2017 – If you were the CEO of a sales agency and your company was found to pay your female staff less commission than their male counterparts, what would you do to rebuild trust among your stakeholders? This is the scenario at the heart of PwC Malaysia’s Trust Builders Challenge 2018, a team competition for undergraduates studying in Malaysian universities or colleges.

According to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) The Global Gender Gap Index 2017, women across the world are still, on average, earning less than men by a large amount. Given the continued widening of the economic gender gap, the WEF says that the gap will not now be closed for another 217 years.

Returning for a second cycle, the competition challenges teams to showcase their critical thinking and business acumen by presenting a solution to rebuild trust in business.

Divided into two stages, the Challenge tests the teams’ ability to lay the foundation in the submission stage where participants are required to explain how they would solve the issue at stake and rebuild trust among their stakeholders. The top 10 teams selected will go on to the final stage where they will build their case by presenting their solutions to a panel of judges.

So what’s in it for the participating teams? Participants stand a chance to win a trip to Vietnam (to support PwC Vietnam’s onboarding programme), an internship with PwC Malaysia, an opportunity to shadow PwC’s senior management and be recognised as PwC Trust Ambassadors.

Pauline Ho, PwC Malaysia Assurance and People Partner, said: 

“I was very impressed with the quality of the solutions and ideas presented by the students in our inaugural Challenge. The teams demonstrated maturity in their viewpoints and understanding of trust as an asset to business. Their response to an impact survey post the Challenge showed a significant increase in their level of appreciation of the importance of trust to a business. 92% of the participants knew why trust matters for a business after participating in the Challenge, compared to only 33% of the participants initially.

I hope this year’s Challenge will unveil more bright ideas on trust as a critical business priority. We see this as a platform for our younger generation to join in the debate on trust.  As a firm, we are looking forward to working with more universities to encourage our future leaders to have a point of view on trust so that they can influence what trust looks like in Corporate Malaysia tomorrow."

PwC will also be hosting a #HeyPwC Talk Show with one of the Finalist teams and a judge from the past Challenge to share their insights and tips for the 2018 Challenge. Interested students can tune in to the talk show via Facebook Live on PwC Malaysia’s page at 3pm on 12 December 2017. During the show, they will have the opportunity to interact with the speakers and ask questions.

This competition is part of PwC’s wider Building Trust programme conceived in 2015 to stimulate dialogue among Malaysian companies on trust as a business imperative. The Building Trust programme includes PwC’s Building Trust Awards which celebrates companies in Malaysia that are making strides to build trust with their stakeholders.

Earlier this year, the inaugural Trust Builders Challenge saw a total of 137 submissions where the top three teams presented their trust-building solutions to a panel of judges in the Finals.

Arpan Chandra Sarker, whose team emerged as the winner of the first Trust Builders Challenge and who also took home the Best Presenter Award, said:

“We believe that trust is everything to the sustainability of the business and also to raise your business to a good level. Because if your customers don’t trust you, no one will want to do business with you. If your suppliers don’t trust you, they will not produce supplies for you. This is a good competition to enhance our knowledge.”

His team also shared that trust is finite – the trust bestowed by the public on a business can be ‘used up’ if the company does not make it a point to consistently honour its commitments to the public.

Interested to be a PwC Trust Builder? The deadline for submission is 11.59pm, 9 January 2018. Finalists will be announced on 23 January 2018 and will go on to compete in the Finals on 2 and 3 March 2018.

ENDS