PwC has teamed up with corporate philosopher Professor Roger Steare to help business leaders embed integrity in their business critical decisions.

Through the collaboration, which incorporates Professor Steare’s ethicability^® and MoralDNA™ research programmes, PwC will offer a unique and distinctive service to help businesses understand how they can use corporate ethics to enable their business to be more sustainable and profitable.

Tracey Groves, a partner in the PwC Forensic Services team, said:

“Business leaders are increasingly facing pressure to do the right thing but are often struggling to incorporate integrity and ethics into their business thinking. An enhanced global regulatory environment, increased boardroom focus on the mitigation of high impact risks and heightened expectations from stakeholders are all adding to that pressure. Unprofessional conduct and unethical behaviour can undermine reputation and share price and pose a serious threat to any organisation's longevity, and businesses that ignore ethics are missing a trick.

“Society expects business leaders to behave ethically and with integrity, and to create a culture that facilitates good decision-making. Regulatory rules alone are not always sufficient to ensure the probability that future failures are minimised. Addressing complex issues of integrity, ethics, behavioural risk and compliance is vital for businesses to make tough decisions that are ethically sound. This also provides a starting point for organisations to respond to the complex question of how to provide comfort, or 'assurance', on behaviours across their business, spanning diverse cultures and geographies.”

The joint offering will support leaders in developing a vision for integrity and ethical business conduct underpinned by corporate values and a sense of purpose. Working exclusively with PwC, Professor Roger Steare will enhance the PwC knowledge, skills and experience of organisational change, business strategy, and regulatory standards with his research and decision-making tools that will enable individuals and organisations to “do the right thing”.

The collaboration will define a broader purpose to the corporate vision, support the development of leaders to know what it means to lead by integrity and create an open and empathetic environment where sustainable and profitable business is conducted based on principles and values.