As we wait for the next car manufacturer to be found out for not being entirely economical with the truth about fuel efficiency and emissions, I wonder who is losing the most sleep?

The auto trade has been on a slippery slope since Volkswagen admitted to cheating on emissions tests in the US. Since then, Mitsubishi has owned up to falsifying fuel economy data for 625,000 cars over the last 25 years.

The company’s president and chief operating officer has denied any personal involvement in the scandal but has apologised to customers and shareholders, and is taking responsibility and stepping down.

It was the right thing to do. When you’re the person in charge, you must have a good enough relationship with your people at all levels to know what is going on that could seriously affect your brand’s reputation and, more importantly, sell your customers short.

This will not be lost on the bosses of Nissan, which has been accused of having some of its UK-built Qashqai vehicles fitted with so-called emissions defeat devices, and another Japanese car maker, Suzuki, which found ‘discrepancies’ in its fuel and emissions testing.

While Suzuki denies cheating, it has confirmed that its testing method for 16 models was not in line with official regulations, and the problems are traced back to 2010, with around 2.1 million vehicles affected.

The biggest loser in all of this to date is VW, which is having to make compensation payments to hundreds of thousands of car owners in the US and have set aside 16.2 billion euros (Dh67.1 billion) to cover costs.

But while the company suffered its first quarterly loss — 2.5 billion euros — for 15 years in October last year after the scandal broke, sales for the first quarter of this year were 0.8 per cent up on the same period in 2015.

This tends to suggest that consumers aren’t as concerned about the problem as the media would have us believe, and that buying habits aren’t seriously affected on a long-term basis.

The strength of a brand determines how much of an effect there is, and the biggest effects will be felt in its own territory. If a Japanese automaker is caught cheating in Japan, that’s where sales will be affected, not in the Middle East for instance, and not globally.

The problem that we’re seeing in the auto industry starts with greed. The CEO can have complete trust in the way that his organisation is working in terms of integrity and transparency, but the entire organisation needs to buy in to that vision.

If you don’t have people at all levels working towards the same goal, some individuals may start working towards their own personal goals, and consequently have a huge effect on how that organisation is perceived.

The onus is absolutely on the leaders to set an example. Transparency is so important.

Setting a culture to be part of the team means that sharing success and failure together is key. Teams should share ideas and methods of how to be successful, and the only way to do that is to be open and transparent.

Some years ago I was faced with a big decision regarding a large-scale public event in the UK that had become hugely popular with residents over many years.

For safety reasons, and following advice from the police and local council, it was clear to me that the event could not be delivered safely and would need to be staged in a different way. I knew this was in everyone’s best interests, but I also knew that it would be a very unpopular decision.

It would have been easy to bury my own concerns and stage the event as per previous years. But I went with the decision to stage the event differently to ensure public safety.

It was an extremely unpopular decision at the time with the local politicians and I was forced to move on shortly afterwards. But I lost no sleep over that decision; it was the right one.

Sometimes a leader has to make a call that will have a huge personal impact on their career and their advancement, and some don’t because of the trappings that go with a high profile position.

Others like Richard Branson build their businesses, and their own brands and reputation, based on honesty and transparency, and by building a team of people around them that they can trust to do the right thing. Virgin hasn’t done badly out of it.

The writer is Head of PA Consulting Group, Middle East and North Africa. All opinions expressed are his own.