LOGAN — Integrity through personal poise still has a place in the business world, the leader of a major accounting company told Utah State University students Friday.

The featured speaker at the College of Business Dean's Convocation, James H. Quigley, chief executive officer of Deloitte & Touche USA, said a values-based approach results in individual poise that can be aggregated to create institutional poise.

That's why, he said, a recent survey of 650 high school students "breaks my heart." The survey showed that 45 percent of respondents said they would act unethically to get ahead if they knew there were no risk of being caught. A similarly-sized group said "yes" or weren't sure if they would act unethically if instructed to do so by a boss. The response was the same to a question about lying to a boss to cover a mistake.

"I find this tragic, but it proves my point that we can't take for granted this idea of personal integrity," said Quigley, a 1974 accounting graduate at USU who now leads a $7 billion organization of 31,000 employees.

"This notion of acting unethically to get ahead is not how you get ahead. It's how you get out of an organization, because you won't last in my firm. You'll be gone. One strike like that and you're out, as far as I'm concerned. And I believe the way to get ahead is to act ethically."

Quigley said it is a "fascinating time" to be in the accounting industry, with change both internal and external, and at a never-before-seen scope and speed as the result of the dot-com bubble burst, the slowing and then rebounding of the economy, corporate scandals and subsequent increased regulation.

"We've always had change, but we've never seen change with the magnitude that we see today and with the velocity that we see today, so I am very proud of this profession of which I am a part. I'm very proud of this firm that I have the privilege of leading, and I believe we today stand tall in those ferocious winds of change because of a values-based approach and because of a principles-based approach to who we are," he said.

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Quigley said the industry has been "painted with a pretty broad brush" over the past four to five years "in a way that I don't believe is fair." But the reality is that reputations built over long periods can be destroyed in an instant, "then you have to go to work to rebuild," he said.

While stressing the need for integrity, Quigley also took time to dispel the mentality of entitlement. People who believe they are entitled to something will "miss some massive opportunities because there are going to be a hundred people who are going to out-hustle you" for what is desired.

"That entitlement thinking is hazardous. It will cost you a fortune, because what you're entitled to in this country is opportunity," Quigley said, "and it is completely up to you what you do with that opportunity."


E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com

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