Reading to (Not) Lead - The Smartest Guys in the Room
We’ve recently highlighted business books that profile leaders and successful business traits. But if you want some great insight on what NOT to do in a corporate environment, look no further than “The Smartest Guys in the Room” by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind.
McLean and Elkind provide an extensive account of what went wrong with the former Fortune 500 energy company, and how they took out accounting powerhouse Arthur Andersen in the process. They look at the biographies of all the major players as well, such as:
- CEO Kenneth Lay, whose ‘weakness allowed [his] greedy lieutenants to run amok’.
- Jeff Skilling, the Chief Operating Officer who fatefully introduced the mark-to-market accounting practices that eventually lead to Enron’s demise.
- Andy Fastow, who was named CFO at age 36 by Skilling. He is described by various colleagues and acquaintances as “unstable emotionally”, a “take-no-prisoners political animal”, and one boss was even quoted as saying, “I don’t know that he [Fastow] ever had a moral compass.“ Just the kind of guy that should have complete control over a company’s finances!
It’s a simply fascinating in-depth look at how greed and pride drove a corporation to completely fabricate it’s books and eventually destroy itself. Of course, if you don’t have time this summer to read a 400+ page book on the beach, you can always see the documentary film that was made a couple of years ago. Here’s the trailer:
Enron: the poster child for what not to do in business.
Book List, Enron, The Smartest Guys in the Room, corporate corruption
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