After an individual at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Australia allegedly breached confidentiality agreements and disclosed upcoming government tax policy to colleagues and clients, the incident was always going to be a major problem.

But the company’s handling of the issue and reliance on a litany of corporate clichés guaranteed it would become an unfolding, existential reputational crisis.

When companies get caught out doing the wrong thing there is a well-thumbed catalogue of popular explanations to draw on – it was just a few bad apples; this is not a systemic problem; we couldn’t have seen this coming; we will investigate and tighten up our...