America's Most Innovative Company In Huston

Enron was firstly a natural gas pipeline company that combine as the combination of Nebraska and Omaha’s natural gas company, Houston Natural gas and InterNorth. It took 15 years from 1985 to 2000 to climb up into the one of the largest gas company in North America. Behind the successful of the company, it was a story of betrayal and

Enron Corporation was once known as Northern Natural Gas Company, Founded in 1932 in Omaha, Nebraska as a provider of natural gas. Through its early stages, Northern Natural Gas Company was unsuccessful in their business venture. They experienced problems in persuading consumers to use natural gas to heat their homes because of fear that natural gas leaks lead to explosions. Thanks to the great depression, many people were taking the risk because of how relatively cheap natural gas was. As the company’s revenues and profit grew, northern began to acquire many of its smaller competitors resulting in their apparent growth as a company. In 1947 its stock was listed on the New York stock exchange, providing the company with more finances which it needed to continue its growth in acquiring its competitors to becoming the largest natural gas supplier in the United States.

Enron Corporation was one of the largest energy trading, natural gas and Utilities Company in the world that was based in Huston, Texas. The downfall of Enron is one of the most infamous and shocking events in the financial world, and its reverberations were felt around the globe. Prior to its collapse in 2001, Enron was one of the leading companies in the U.S and considered among top 10 admired corporations and most desired places to work at. Its revenues made up US $139 to $184 billion, assets equaled $62 to $82 billion, and the number of employees reached more than 30,000 people in 20 countries around the world.

In 1985 after federal deregulation of natural gas pipelines Enron was formed through a merger of Houston Natural Gas, and Nebraska pipeline company Internorth. Enron went on to create energy derivatives and in 1990 formed Enron Finance Corp. By 1996 Enron had also formed Enron Capital and Trade Resources increasing their growth from $2 billion to $7 billion and increasing division employment from 200 to 2,000. In 1999 Enron entered the technology market by creating Enron Online (EOL). By August of 2000 Enron stock hit its zenith at $90.56/share and the firm was widely admired and emulated. Behind the scenes Enron faced increasing market competition and energy prices began to decline as the world economy entered into a recession. Enron began to use related party transactions and special purpose entities (SPEs) to obscure the firm’s leverage ratios in order to maintain their credit rating. It would be the use of the SPEs that eventually cause Enron to materially restate their financials resulting in their insolvency and demise in 2001 (Thomas, 2002).

On April 1, 1976, one of the greatest American companies was created: Apple Incorporated. From that point on, tablets were never the same. Apple has paved the way for tablet devices in the field of technology. Apple is mostly known for their Macintosh computers, which were first unveiled on January 4, 1984, but on April 3, 2010 Apple outdid themselves once again with the the invention of the iPad. The iPad is an all-in-one tablet-like device. With the iPad learning is able to “go way beyond the classroom” (www.apple.com). With the invention of the iPad, it has changed the way people learn, especially in the field of education.

Enron began by merger of two Houston pipeline companies in 1985, although as a new company Enron faced a lot of financial difficulties in the starting years, though the company was able to survive these financial problems (Enron Ethics, 2010). In 1988 the deregulation of the electrical power markets came into action and flipped the company from up to down, after deregulation company business updated from delivering energy to becoming an energy broker and soon after this Enron once a company struggling

The Fortune 500 Company chosen for this paper is the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Lockheed Martin is a global securities and information technology company headquartered in Bethesda, MD. Lockheed Martin employs roughly 126,000 people in several facilities throughout the world. The company's main business is in research, design, development, manufacturing, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. Lockheed consists of four operating units, or business areas, which consist of Aeronautics, Electronic Systems, Information Systems and Global Solutions, and Space Systems (LMC, 2011).

Enron began as a pipeline company in Houston in 1985. It profited by promising to deliver so many cubic feet to a particular utility or business on a particular day at a market price.

The company Enron was formed in 1985 after two natural gas companies, Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth merged together. Kenneth Lay, former chief executive officer of Houston Natural Gas was named CEO of Enron and a year later, Lay was assigned to the chairman of Enron. A few years later, Enron launched a website to allow customers to buy stock for Enron, making it the largest business site in the world. The growth of Enron was rapid; it was even named seventh largest company on the Fortune 500 list; however things began to fall apart in 2001. (News, 2006). In the third quarter of that same year, Enron posted an enormous loss of over $600 million in four years. This is one of the reasons why one of the top executive resigned even though he had only after six months on the job. Their stock prices fell dramatically. Eventually, Enron filed for bankruptcy protection. This caused many investors to lose money they had invested in the company and employees to lose their jobs and their investments, including their retirement funds. The filing of bankruptcy and the resignation of one of the top executives, also led to an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Committee, which proved to be one of the biggest scandals in U.S. history. (News, 2006). All former senior executives stood trial for their illegal practices.

Enron Corporation was an energy company founded in Omaha, Nebraska. The corporation chose Houston, Texas to home its headquarters and staffed about 20,000 people. It was one of the largest natural gas and electricity providers in the United States, and even the world. In the 1990’s, Enron was widely considered a highly innovative, financially booming company, with shares trading at about $90 at their highest points. Little did the public know, the success of the company was a gigantic lie, and possibly the largest example of white-collar crime in the history of business.

In the film “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” directed by Alex Gibney, Enron was one of the largest Corporate energy based Company in America that went into bankruptcy in 2001. Ethics are based on a system of sound moral principles and philosophies that may be considered morally right. In the film ‘Enron’, a lot of ethically ambiguous practices are seen in the form of actions, affirmative statements, omissions and schemes. One such ethically ambiguous practice was ‘mark- to- market accounting’ where one can “book potential future profit” just by speculation as to whatever you wanted your profit to be.

In 1985, Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, a natural gas pipeline company, merged, and Lay became CEO of both houses. In 1986, after many changes and more growth, the firm changes its name to Enron and relocated to Lay’s hometown of Houston, Texas. At this time Enron was both a natural gas and oil company. The company specialized in the moving of natural gas through its pipelines, extending thousands of miles across the continental United States. As the firm continued to flourish, it reformed its commercial approach by becoming a leading producer and distributer of energy in both the United States and the U.K., as well as becoming more involved in the trading market. Ambition and determination truly carried Enron to new heights, helping it to become one of the most powerful and innovative companies in the United States, even being “voted Most Innovative among FORTUNE'S Most Admired Companies” for “six years running” (Helyar). However, with much success, temptation arose, and good intentions were led astray. Damaging arrogance, risky behavior, and deception ultimately warranted the demise of the mighty Enron.

Ethics in the business world can often times become a second priority behind the gaining of profits and success as a company. This is the controversial issue that led to the Enron scandal and ultimately the fall of this company. Enron Corporation was an energy company, and in the peaks of their success, they were the top supplier of natural gas and electricity throughout America. Enron Corporation came about from a merger between Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth. Houston Natural Gas was a gas providing company formed in Houston during the 1920’s. InterNorth was a company formed in Nebraska during the 1930’s and owned one of America’s largest pipeline networks. In 1985, Sam Segnar, the CEO of InterNorth bought out Houston Natural Gas for $2.4 billion. A year later in 1986, Segnar retired and was replaced by Kenneth Lay, who renamed the company and created Enron. Enron was the owner of the second largest pipeline in America that measured over 36,000 miles. The company was also the creator of the “Gas Bank”, which was a new way to trade and market natural gas and served as an intermediary between buyers and sellers. As the company continued to develop, it became more of a trader rather than a producer of gas. This trading extended into coal, steel, water and many other areas. One of Enron’s largest successes was their creation of a website called, “Enron Online” in 1999, which quickly became one of the top trading cites in the world. By the year 2000 Enron as a company was

The story of Enron begins in 1985, with the merger of two pipeline companies, orchestrated by a man named Kenneth L. Lay (1). In its 15 years of existence, Enron expanded its operations to provide products and services in the areas of electricity, natural gas as well as communications (9). Through its diversification, Enron would become known as a corporate America darling (9) and Fortune Magazine’s most innovative company for 5 years in a row (10). They reported extraordinary profits in a short amount of time. For example, in 1998 Enron shares were valued at a little over $20, while in mid-2000, those same shares were valued at just over $90 (10), the all-time high during the company’s existence (9).

Enron was formed in 1985 from the merger of two gas companies from Texas and Nebraska. Enron became the first company with all-American network of gas pipelines. In 1997 Enron bought power generating company "Portland General Electric Corp." worth $ 2 billion. Before 1997 ended, the management turned the company into "Enron Capital & Trade Resources" which became the largest American companies that trade in natural gas and electricity. Revenue increased dramatically from $ 2 billion to $ 7 billion by employees grew from 200 to 2,000 people.