PWC's Jude Curtis Speaks at Business Ethics Lecture Series

Jude A. Curtis, chief ethics and compliance officer for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), was the guest speaker at the Smith School’s Spring Business Ethics Lecture Series on Feb. 11, 2008. Curtis, a lawyer by training and experience, shared his thoughts with Smith students on professionalism and the role of ethics in the accounting profession and in business in general. Curtis’ primary responsibility is “to make certain that our people who service clients in these roles understand their compliance and ethics responsibilities and obligation to our clients, their colleagues, our firm, and themselves.”

Curtis began by talking about the role of judgment and integrity in the profession of accounting. He stressed the importance of a “judgment that is based on a strong ethical framework, judgment that is consistently applied, judgment that creates and sustains your personal reputation for quality and integrity, and judgment that leads to trust.” Curtis feels that trust is very important in accounting. As accounting professionals, students will have two key roles that include providing independent assurance of financial data and objective advice to clients. Curtis insists that with these roles come a number of responsibilities, which need to be fulfilled in order to facilitate trust in capital markets.

Curtis discussed a number of famous ethical scandals and pointed out that many of them were started by people who thought they would never become involved in anything illegal. Many ethical violations often grow out of minor transgressions and tend to snowball on the perpetrators, said Curtis. Curtis noted that according to a study done by the Ethics Resource Center, which shows that while most people consider themselves to be ethical; they reported frequent observations of unethical behavior occurring in the workplace.

Curtis warned that most ethics violations are committed by ethical people who cross the line and engage in inappropriate behavior. “It is often an error in judgment, or a misconception about what is acceptable, or the consequence of taking a shortcut when pressed for this, or in many cases, what I would characterize frankly as a stupid mistake,” Curtis said.

Instances of unethical behavior are often a product of the culture that surrounds the employees. Curtis listed the four major components of a strong ethical culture and showed statistics that demonstrated how instances of reported unethical behavior are drastically different in firms where there is a strong ethical culture as opposed to a weak one.

Curtis closed his lecture by talking with students about an area he calls “the grey zone.” According to Curtis, most decisions people in business are forced to make are not black and white, instead they fall into an area in between. At PWC, Curtis has an ethics program called “Navigating the Grey” in which the firm’s values are articulated and principles are provided to help guide employees. Curtis encouraged the students in attendance to seek out other opinions when faced with a difficult decision—to seek help and not go it alone.

Join us for these upcoming speakers in Van Munching Hall's Howard Frank Auditorium (1524) from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Date: March 24, 2008
Speaker: Lori Golden, Ernst & Young
Topic: Disability issues

Date: April 21, 2008
Speaker: Dean W. Krehmeyer, Executive Director, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics
 

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▓ Adam Weiner, MBA Candidate 2009, Smith Media Group