Enron the smartest guys in the room paper essay

Here's the most recent example: The Post reports that inJohn Roberts sent a memo to Sandra Day O'Connor advising her to plead the 5th if asked about her views on legal questions. Roberts warned that answering questions would raise the "appearance of impropriety" and prejudice her views in future cases before the Court.

The Smartest Guys in the Room The Smartest Guys in the Room 2 February Life The purpose of this paper is consider three possible rationales for why Enron collapsed—that key individuals were flawed, that the organization was flawed, and that some factors larger than the organization e.

Like most successful leaders they possessed intelligence, ingenuity and a charisma that inspired those around them.

Unfortunately, those same characteristics instilled them an exaggerated sense of pride, arrogance and greed. While it was widely know that Ken Lay was a prime example of the American Dream, he proved to be an ethical nightmare for those around him.

Despite what one would imagine as an ethical upbringing as the son of a Baptist minister, Ken Lay showed none of those characteristics as an executive and leader of Enron.

What is an investment bank modelling test?

One of his first and possibly most telling unethical actions was that of his handling of the traders of the Valhalla, NY trading scandal. The Valhalla trading scandal erupted because of the discovery that rogue traders were diverting funds into their personal accounts.

This simple statement was evidence of what Ken Lay valued most, money. By ignoring suggestions that the rogue traders be fired, he further instilled this type of unethical behavior.

It seems evident that Ken Lay used Gellermans rationalization that because the activity helps the company, the company will condone it and protect the people that engage in the activity.

This rationalization comes into play on two levels in this instance. Since the traders were the ones making huge profits for the company, they believed that any superiors would condone their actions.

Likewise, Ken Lay believed that preventing those traders from being fired would ultimately improve the financial condition of the company and thereby improve its status with shareholders and the board.

Due to those rationalizations he believed his actions would be condoned. It was until the traders ceased to make large profits for the company that they were finally fired.

There was no other executive who personified that role greater than Jeff Skilling. From trading natural gas to pursuing the electricity market, Jeff Skilling was brimming with new and in some regards revolutionary business ideas.

They were in essence, future expected profits. Jeff possessed many characteristics that would label him as a charismatic tyrant. The most compelling part of his personality in this regard was his attitude toward his own ideas.

Part of his reasoning for moving to mark to market accounting was that people in the future should not be able to book profits for ideas that were not originally theirs.

Why do banks give modelling tests?

He also believed that his was uniquely intelligent and therefore should not have dissent from those surrounding him or even those above him. In accordance with this, because his traders were the main source of income for Enron, he believed that they should be catered to and admired, no matter how they achieved their profits.

The man who allowed Enron to continue operating despite massive losses from their core operating business was Chief Financial Officer, Andy Fastow.

These off balance sheet subsidiaries were created primarily to obtain additional financing without having to tarnish its balance sheet with additional long term debt. While complicit in the deception of investors and the general public, Andy Fastow most likely used the idea of diffused responsibility to justify his actions.

This would have left Andy Fastow with the sense that was he was doing was acceptable and therefore there were no impropriety on his part.

Even if this justification was not enough, Fastow, much like Ken Lay, could have used another rationalization from Gellerman. With their own improprieties being internally justified, Lay, Skilling and Fastow paved the way for immoral behavior to run rampant throughout Enron.

This resulted in associates at all levels approving of, and even modeling the behavior of their so called leaders. This created a flaw in the organization which contributed to furthering already great problems at Enron.

As with any company large or small, culture and ethics are shaped from the top down. Their adventuresome excursions hammered home the point that Jeff Skilling and Andy Fastow were risk takers. This risk taking behavior seeped into the very soul of Enron. It was no more evident than with the traders.

Specifically, the company showed its employees that risk taking behavior was valued and would be rewarded.

The traders took this idea and ran with it. One specific example of this was traders having California electrical plants go offline, so the price of electricity could be artificially inflated for their own gain.

This fits perfectly with how Trevino and Nelson described a reward system that encouraged unethical behavior. The traders at Enron were willing to go to whatever lengths to meet and exceed their goals, no matter what wake they had to leave in their path.

In accordance with this rewards systems, Skilling has further enforced this behavior by not disciplining those who engaged in this type of behavior but instead encouraged them to maintain that level of performance at all cost.Supporters of the Iraqi "Resistance": The Volokh post asking for names of respectable people who support the Iraqi resistance (that is, support the totalitarian terrorists trying to destroy Iraqi democracy) has, so far, yielded an apt quote from Michael Moore, and not much else.

Essay about Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room - The thing I liked most about this documentary was the fact that it focused on the guys at the top, the self-proclaimed "smartest men in the room", the so-called geniuses who knew the energy business so much better than the rest of the industry.

Reaction Paper on Enron Case Essay Sample. Reaction Paper on Enron Case September 9, Summary: After watching the documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and reading articles online about our first reaction paper all I can say is Ask why?

As the tag line of Enron company is to always ask why? So, with some fancy games and pliant appraisers, the bank recorded a $2 million gain on its deal making.

The reality, however, was that $9 million had gone out the door, the bank was paying 15% interest to depositors, and no money was coming in, not even interest payments. Essay on Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room Words | 21 Pages. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room The Enron scandal, revealed in October , eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas, and the de facto dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which was one of the .

Download-Theses Mercredi 10 juin