Enron, Ethics And Today's Corporate Values
Enron, Ethics And Today's Corporate Values
Enron’s heyday has long ended. But its lessons will long endure. The global business community is now watching a painful new chapter is this saga — one where its former high-riding chief executive officer, Jeff Skilling, is getting a decade shaved off of his prison term that should now end in 2017.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The company’s failure in 2001 represents the biggest business bankruptcy ever while also spotlighting corporate America’s moral failings. It’s a stark reminder of the implications of being seduced by charismatic leaders, or more specifically, those who sought excess at the expense of their communities and their employees. In the end, those misplaced morals killed the company while it injured all of those who had gone along for the ride.
“Just as character matters in people, it matters in organizations,” says Justin Schultz, a corporate psychologist in Denver.
Surely, if there are profits to be made, some type of scheme that attempts to skirt the law or even cross boundaries will occur. It’s been that way throughout history. But with each passing scandal, new rules and codes emerge that surpass those of the past. And whileEnron won’t be the last case of corporate malfeasance, its tumultuous tale did initiate a new age in business ethics.
Enron, once a sleepy natural gas pipeline company, grew to become the nation’s seventh largest publicly-held corporation. But its shoddy business practices, aided by bankers and advisors feeding from the gravy train, brought down the company in December 2001.
Altogether, 16 former Enron execs including Skilling had been sentenced to prison. Its former chairman, Ken Lay, was also convicted but because he passed away before his guilty verdict could be appealed, that case was thrown out. Now, though, an appeals court has reduced Skilling’s sentencing because it said that the trial court had miscalculated the codified penalty.
Enron’s heyday has long ended. But its lessons will long endure. The global business community is now watching a painful new chapter is this saga — one where its former high-riding chief executive officer, Jeff Skilling, is getting a decade shaved off of his prison term that should now end in 2017.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The company’s failure in 2001 represents the biggest business bankruptcy ever while also spotlighting corporate America’s moral failings. It’s a stark reminder of the implications of being seduced by charismatic leaders, or more specifically, those who sought excess at the expense of their communities and their employees. In the end, those misplaced morals killed the company while it injured all of those who had gone along for the ride.
“Just as character matters in people, it matters in organizations,” says Justin Schultz, a corporate psychologist in Denver.
Surely, if there are profits to be made, some type of scheme that attempts to skirt the law or even cross boundaries will occur. It’s been that way throughout history. But with each passing scandal, new rules and codes emerge that surpass those of the past. And whileEnron won’t be the last case of corporate malfeasance, its tumultuous tale did initiate a new age in business ethics.
Enron, once a sleepy natural gas pipeline company, grew to become the nation’s seventh largest publicly-held corporation. But its shoddy business practices, aided by bankers and advisors feeding from the gravy train, brought down the company in December 2001.
Altogether, 16 former Enron execs including Skilling had been sentenced to prison. Its former chairman, Ken Lay, was also convicted but because he passed away before his guilty verdict could be appealed, that case was thrown out. Now, though, an appeals court has reduced Skilling’s sentencing because it said that the trial court had miscalculated the codified penalty.