Building Public Trust: The Future of Corporate Reporting

• Publisher:   Wiley
• Number Of Pages:   192
• Publication Date:   2002-06-14
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   0471261513
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9780471261513

From the World’s Leading Accounting Firm, A Blueprint for the Future of Corporate Reporting

"PricewaterhouseCoopers should be commended for its forward thinking on this subject. They have been promoting the benefits of greater corporate transparency long before Enron. We are impressed with their refreshingly candid views on the obligations of corporations, accountants, standard setters, and regulators. Their three-tier model of corporate transparency for building investor confidence in corporate reporting is yet another contribution for how to make this happen."
—John Connors
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Microsoft

Building Public Trust, by Samuel A. DiPiazza Jr. and Robert G. Eccles, couldn't be more timely or necessary. Arriving in the wake of a seemingly endless stream of corporate accounting scandals--which in a matter of months have bankrupted Enron and brought WorldCom and Global Crossing down to earth--this book offers a bona fide framework for a new, open form of transparent financial reporting that should prove more palatable to businesses and their stakeholders, and more effective than any of those in misuse today. DiPiazza, CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Eccles, president of Advisory Capital Partners, certainly know of which they speak, and they lay out a highly informed and quite feasible system that actively involves every member of the so-called corporate reporting supply chain: executives, boards of directors, independent auditors, information distributors, third-party analysts, investors, and various other stakeholders. They propose specific ways to develop three key elements (a spirit of transparency, a culture of accountability, and people of integrity) that work together to "create public trust in markets." Based on their extensive firsthand experiences, they further show how using these principles can lead to a scenario where "capital is being allocated more efficiently all over the world." The timeliness of this book is one thing, the content within its pages another, and on both counts Building Public Trust definitely delivers. --Howard Rothman

The future of corporate reporting was a good read for someone with no background in accounting and auditing. It painted the after-Enron picture very clearly and described the necessary next steps to move the profession forward and rebuild public trust. As a former business reporter I found it very insightful to learn from the auditors' perspective how the different players impact the game.

There is a bitter irony to the heads of PriceWaterhouseCoopers issuing a publication about inspiring trust in the public in large corporations in the wake of Enron and Worldcom scandals when PwC constantly undermines the trust of its own employees. With an infrastructure that makes it nearly impossible for employees to find their own project work and employment practices that left thousands of employees without a job and insufficient experience to get another one (while still continuing to hire new employees), PwC does a horrible job of taking care of those who work for them. In addition, they are just another example of a company that engages in the same shady, conflict-of-interest business practices as Arthur Andersen, yet they just have not been caught yet. Yet, here they are, trying to issue some sort of definitive work about restoring public trust. If a company like this shows no understanding of how to take care of their own employees, how can one even remotely think that they have any business providing a framework of how to take care of the public.

There is a bitter irony to the heads of PriceWaterhouseCoopers issuing a publication about inspiring trust in the public in large corporations in the wake of Enron and Worldcom scandals when PwC constantly undermines the trust of its own employees. With an infrastructure that makes it nearly impossible for employees to find their own project work and employment practices that left thousands of employees without a job and insufficient experience to get another one (while still continuing to hire new employees), PwC does a horrible job on taking care of those who work for them. In addition, they are just another example of a company that engages in the same shady, conflict-of-interest business practices as Arthur Andersen, yet they just have not been caught yet. Yet, here they are, trying to issue some sort of definitive work about restoring public trust. If a company like this shows no understanding of how to take care of their own employees, how can one even remotely think that they have any business providing a framework of how to take care of the public.

Kudos to the authors and their editorial team for managing to publish this quickly enough to become part of the debate. With luck, some of what the authors have to say may even become part of the solution.

In the current marketplace, its refreshing to see men of stature like Sam DiPiazza and Robert Eccles taking a step in the right direction. If you are an investor, if you have money in public companies, this is a book you must read!

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