This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 6, 2021 - December 12, 2021

PwC Malaysia’s Building Trust Awards recognises companies that have gone the extra mile in championing the trust agenda in their organisations, by making consistent efforts to build trust with their stakeholders.

A total of 100 companies qualified for this year’s Awards, with 20 finalists — comprising 10 companies on the FBM KLCI and 10 companies on the FBM Mid 70 Index — shortlisted.

To shortlist the FBM KLCI constituents, PwC benchmarked their annual reports and sustainability reports against the Value Reporting Foundation’s Integrated Reporting Framework, using PwC’s benchmarking tool.

The FBM Mid 70 Index constituents were shortlisted via an artificial intelligence-assisted online listening exercise, where online conversations on the companies in the media, blogs, forums, social networks and other publicly available information were collected between January and December 2020. The data collected was analysed against PwC Malaysia’s Trust Analytics Framework.

This online listening exercise was part of PwC’s public trust perception measurements, and was also extended to the FBM KLCI companies at the subsequent stage of the methodology. The public trust perception measurements also included a public poll to gauge how well Malaysians think the 20 finalists were doing to build trust. Internal trust perception was not overlooked, and this was measured through a leadership survey among employees of the finalist companies, in collaboration with the Asia School of Business (refer to pwc.com/my/bta for more details on the methodology).

Due to the increasing value of environmental, social and governance (ESG) as a business imperative, for the first time ever, PwC measured all 20 finalist companies’ reporting of their ESG strategy and material ESG issues through a questionnaire. Using this 52-question assessment, the ESG reporting by the 20 finalists was benchmarked based on quantitative and qualitative disclosures presented in the companies’ annual and/or sustainability reports for clarity and transparency.

Results from this benchmarking exercise did not influence the shortlisting, but were presented to the judges as additional data points to help them determine the Awards winners.

The winners

Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) was once again named the winner of PwC Malaysia’s Building Trust Awards 2021 in the FBM KLCI category, marking the third time the banking group picked up the accolade after past wins at the Awards held in 2019 and at the inaugural Awards back in 2015.

The country’s largest banking group did well across all dimensions of the Awards’ methodology, in communicating the positive and negative outcomes for 2020 and its outlook for 2021 in its annual report, while also disclosing the material risks and opportunities.

Trust perceptions from the public and its own employees were also above average. In the eyes of the public in particular, it came across as transparent, capable and reasonable, leading to its above-average trust perception in these areas.

Coming in at second place in the FBM KLCI category was Sime Darby Bhd. The group, which is involved in the industrial, motors, healthcare and logistics business segments, stood out in its ESG and Integrated Reporting, as it was clear and transparent in communicating how it would respond to market trends, especially for the affected business segment.

Axiata Group Bhd, which snagged the third spot in the FBM KLCI category at the Awards, did well in articulating how it embeds its sustainability strategy within its governance structure, and in putting that into action through its corporate social responsibility activities during the pandemic.This was apparent in the quality of its ESG reporting, and further corroborated by the public’s perception of the company’s sense of responsibility.

As for the FBM Mid 70 Index category, Sime Darby Property Bhd was named the winner, as the property developer had demonstrated through its reporting that it was clear about its sustainability strategies and authentic about how it was tackling its ESG issues through transparent reporting of targets and progress made on material environmental issues.

The FBM Mid 70 Index category also saw two companies — KPJ Healthcare Bhd and Yinson Holdings Bhd — being named as joint second place winners.

KPJ Healthcare was one of the few companies that were perceived very favourably by the public, based on PwC Malaysia’s Trust Analytics Framework as well as the Building Trust Public Poll. The private healthcare provider’s actions in mitigating the impact of Covid-19 through its activities for the wider community, and the emphasis it put in reporting its ESG practices in a transparent manner were praised by PwC’s judges.

Meanwhile, energy infrastructure and technology company Yinson Holdings found itself sharing the second spot with KPJ Healthcare. The company has built solid trust with its employees. Its commitment to and progress made in reducing its carbon footprint were also detailed in its annual report in a transparent manner.

Sime Darby Property Bhd
Datuk Azmir Merican, Group Managing Director

“Trust plays a very important role in the property industry. Buying a new home or a new business premise is usually one of the most important financial decisions buyers make. I believe that we have established trust with both our internal and external stakeholders and the onus is upon us to maintain this for years to come.”

KPJ Healthcare Bhd
Ahmad Shahizam Mohd Shariff, President and Managing Director

“Any business that does not have the ability to foster and engender a stronger sense of trust that is mutual will not be successful ultimately. For us at KPJ Healthcare, it’s the cornerstone of what we do as a healthcare provider.”

Yinson Holdings Bhd
Lim Chern Yuan, Group Chief Executive Officer

“Trust always reduces the cost of doing business. Every minute or capital we spend policing could be redeployed into building a much more sustainable business, rather than having to second guess each other and doing countless check in processes throughout the business.”

Special Mentions for their efforts in building trust as indicated by:

Axis REIT
Leong Kit May,
Chief Executive Officer

“Similar to respect, trust has to be earned. It’s not an overnight thing, but can only be built over time. But once you have earned their trust, be sure to guard it.”

CIMB Group Holdings Bhd
Datuk Mohd Nasir Ahmad, Chairman

“Communicate generously, preemptively, and in hindsight. There is no single, more important aspect of building trust. Ultimately, we believe trust is built when our stakeholders believe that we are not only committed to doing the right thing, but also making demonstrable progress towards achieving our commitments.”

Duopharma Biotech Bhd
Leonard Ariff Bin Abdul Shatar,
Group Managing Director

“Having the trust of our stakeholders is immensely meaningful in situations where there are delays, when we need to change the way we operate, and when we introduce new processes and products. They have been endlessly understanding, empathising with us when it comes to external factors that we cannot control.

IHH Healthcare Bhd
Dr. Kelvin Loh,
Managing Director and
Chief Executive Officer

“The foundation of all meaningful relationships is trust. Every interaction, whether it’s a child with a bad fall coming to our A&E, or a patient with a critical blood result waiting anxiously, is an opportunity to break, or build, trust.”

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