EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

We were asked to conduct research regarding the current corporate ethics policies and social responsibility strategies for Deloitte and their main competitors. We accomplished this task by searching the company websites, reading recent articles and news releases, reading through interviews conducted with ethics officers, and interviewing current employees of the firm. From the information we gathered we were able to make conclusions and recommendations that will help Deloitte to stand out above their competition in these areas.

Findings
Our initial search showed that the Big Four are all very similar in how they conduct themselves ethically. In a very regulated industry, and with frequent opportunity for unethical behavior, these major firms have put in place many systems to prevent poor behavior. All of the firms provide a significant amount of ethical training to all employees, and they all have well-established lines of communication to report any ethical issues that arise. The differentiation occurs in the frequency of ethical trainings. In this regard, Deloitte stands above the rest by providing frequent, in-depth training.
Deloitte also performs well when measuring its corporate social responsibility initiatives. Once again all of the firms are very similar in what they espouse as their active pursuits, however in digging deeper we found reason for skepticism among some of the main competitors, but we were more convinced that Deloitte truly cares. Deloitte’s initiatives are quantified in an annual report and verified by employees at the company, facts which did not hold true for all companies studied.

Recommendations
In regards to ethics we recommend that Deloitte leverage their existing training facility, Deloitte University, to provide additional ethical training. This facility provides an ideal setting to practice ethical case problems in group settings. We feel that by implementing ethical training at D...