When a Company Loses Trust

In this episode of Accountability in Compliance, our hosts Sam Silverstein and Tom Fox and get into the details surrounding the recent speculation around KPMG for fraudulent conduct such as bribery to PCAOB employees to obtain audit schedules, and cheating scandals around ethics in compliance. Stepping on the Accountability ScaleAs talked about on last week’s show, accountability is about showing commitment to people and to values. Sam finds it ironic that, on the KPMG website, the CEO states their core values but over the last few years, KPMG has been found guilty of many, many fraudulent conducts, which pretty much brings their so-called core values down to a lie. He questions the fact that people would still want to do business with liars even after the facts have been publicly exposed. Sam says the lack of accountability is not only to be blamed on KPMG; it is also on our society for allowing such an organization to continue. Is Change Possible?According to Sam, if KPMG wants to make a change, first of all, the senior leadership has to believe in the supposed core values of the organization. If the senior leadership goes around the values, then everyone else in the organization will feel it is acceptable to go around the values, as well. As soon as you are making a decision that doesn’t connect to the values, you are sending out the message that value doesn’t count. Another - albeit more drastic - way to make a change is to not allow anyone who doesn’t share the values to stay in the organization at all, thus ensuring that everyone in the organization understands that values matter and so, there are no ethical problems encountered. It has to be a full-on commitment from the top down. Building Trust AgainSam says in order for customers to regain trust in KPMG, the CEO has to first ‘clean the house from the top down’ and prove over time that they are changing things and that in the future, they make sure to hire people that are from the get-go aligned with the core values of the organization.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices