Rebranding through sustainability

The sustainability boom has moved trillions of dollars into environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds and brought a new stakeholder-led agenda to corporate boardrooms. The Big Four accounting firms — PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and EY, are jumping on the ESG trend. Not only do they hope to rebrand their profession, but they are also looking to capitalise on an opportunity to generate more fee income and improve profit margins. PwC has invested in ESG with a $12bn plan that involves adding 100,000 employees and launching ‘trust institutes’ to train clients in ethics. Deloitte announced a ‘climate learning programme’ this month for its 330,000 employees. KPMG has helped Ikea analyse social and environmental risks and advised on the first green bond issued in India. EY is seeking to set out new international standards for measuring sustainability. But as their sustainability focus looms larger in their marketing, some partners are raising questions: to what extent will it transform their businesses?

(Adapted from “Big Four accounting firms rush to join the ESG bandwagon,” by Michael O’Dwyer and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, published on August 30, 2021, by the Financial Times)

Are you considering a new job?

Whether you’re entering the market for the first time or switching roles to find a more suitable work environment, you should consider what it will be like on your new team before you make the jump — and that starts with understanding their culture. Culture is what differentiates one organisation from another, and can drive or diminish factors like inclusivity, flexibility, trust and innovation. Even more importantly, finding the right culture to work within can increase the level of purpose you find in your work and positively impact your well-being. Keep in mind that if you ask a recruiter about culture directly, you’ll likely get a summary of the mission statement on the company’s website.

To get a fuller and more honest picture, you’ll need to be intentional and strategic with your questions. The questions include: how has the team evolved as a result of the pandemic, how have team connections been maintained during remote work, how are team members recognised for their contributions, how are failures and difficult conversations addressed and how has diversity been incorporated.

(Adapted from, “Before Saying “Yes” to a Job, Consider Company Culture,” by Shanna Hocking, published in September 2021 by HBR Ascend)

The Pakistani attitude towards Covid

Gallup Pakistan released its findings from Wave 11 of its Coronavirus Attitude Tracker Survey. Among its key findings it reported 55pc of Pakistanis still hold the opinion that the threat of coronavirus is exaggerated. Therefore unsurprisingly, the willingness to get vaccinated has improved very slightly — as compared to 65pc in March, 66pc in July 2021 were willing to get vaccinated, provided it is safe to use. It is crucial to note however that as of July 2021, there has been a significant improvement in the percentage of people’s family members receiving the vaccine, with almost 45pc of Pakistanis claiming their family members have been vaccinated. There seems to be a certain level of faith in the government’s actions with 76pc of Pakistanis claiming that the government is controlling the Covid-19 situation well. However, almost 60pc of Pakistanis still do not know how to register through the government for vaccination, depicting a deficit of awareness amongst the masses.

(Adapted from “Coronavirus Attitude Tracker Survey Pakistan — Wave 11 Results,” by Gallup Pakistan, published in September 2021)

A racist algorithm

Twitter’s image cropping algorithm prefers younger, slimmer faces with lighter skin, an investigation into algorithmic bias at the company has found. Graduate student Bogdan Kulynyc won $3,500 in a Twitter-organised contest to find biases in its cropping algorithm. The algorithm chooses where the focus of an image is, so that when cropped in the social media feed, the main part of the image is still displayed. The social media giant apologised last year when users discovered the algorithm was ‘racist’ as it focused on white faces over black ones. Mr Kulynyc proved the algorithem is biased by testing it. The faces he used for his test were computer generated so that specific aspects of them such as width, skin tone, gender representation or age could be edited while the rest of the face remained the same. The skin was made progressively lighter, warmer and more saturated to see how much algorithm focused on the image. In 37pc of the cases, this increased how relevant the algorithm found the image.

(Adapted from “Twitter And AI,” published by the Guardian in August, 2021)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, September 6th, 2021