The Rise and Fall of Enron

Enron had the largest bankruptcy in America’s history and it happened in less than a year because of scandals and manipulation Enron displayed with California’s energy supply. A few years ago, Enron was the world’s 7th largest corporation, valued at 70 billion dollars. At that time, Enron’s business model was full of energy and power. Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling had raised Enron to stand on a culture of greed, lies, and fraud, coupled with an unregulated accounting system, which caused Enron to go down. Lies were being told by top management to the government, its employees and investors. There was a rise in Enron 's share price because of pyramid scheme; their strategy consisted of claiming so much money to easily get away with their tricky ways. They deceived their investors so they could keep investing their money in the company.

The tale of Enron presents a unique perspective on success. In the short span of 24 months, Enron transformed from being the top firm in its industry to one that filed for bankruptcy. The reflection about how the tides changed in such a short period uncovers many surprising truths. In its glory days Enron beamed billion dollar profits each quarter, however this success was all a part of an elaborate scheme. Behind the veil of smoke and mirrors was a series of deceptive and unethical accounting practices. For Jeff Skilling and Kenneth Lay it was always about outward perception and to them this revolved around the stock price. If the stock price kept rising, as far as they were concerned Enron was doing just fine. The case of Enron is the

In 1985, two companies, Houston Natural Gas, and InterNorth merged to form Enron. Kenneth Lay wanted to create a company that can supply electricity and natural gas at a much lower price. As time went on, Enron ranked as the nation’s sixth largest energy company with global internet trading commodities in plastics, steel, petrochemicals and waste water to name a few (Fusaro, 2000, p. 157). From the time they merged to form Enron up to the point of their collapse, Enron’s executive committee had squandered many of the company’s assets through bad strategies, hiding money, and creating an illusion of a stable financial company.

Definition of Key Terms SPE:- Special Purpose Entities SEC:- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision Rise and Fall of Enron The Beginning Enron was formed in 1985 after the deregulation of natural gas pipelines. it was formed from the merger of Houston natural gas and InterNorth. During the merger, Enron suffered a lot of debt, and due to the deregulation had no longer exclusive rights to its pipe lines. In order to survive, it had to come up with something fast, which was both effective and efficient. Kenneth Lay, the CEO of Enron, hired Jeff Skillings, a young consultant who had a background in banking and asset and liability management and assigned him to develop a strategy in boosting Enron’s business. He came up with a revolutionary idea to boost Enron’s credit, cash and profit woes. Skilling proposed that Enron

Lessons from the Enron Debacle: Corporate Culture Matters! Enron’s collapse has sent shockwaves all over the financial world raising serious questions about corporate governance. Arthur Andersen turned a blind eye as the money disappeared. As long as there where a set of off the books, unregulated private partnerships to take on debts, hide losses and kick off inflated revenues, the executives were able to keep bond rating agencies happy. Andrew Fastow took the most blame because he was working on both sides of every transaction manipulating Enron financial statements to enrich him and other service executives.

This now bankrupt company, misappropriated investments, pension funds, stock options and saving plans after deregulation and little oversight by the federal government. However, with deregulation an increasing competitive culture emerged as the CEO Jeffry Skilling motto to his organization was to “do it right, do it now, and do it better” this was the rally cried that pushed ambitious employees to engage in unethical behavior as Enron use deceptive “accounting methods to maintain its investment grade status” (Sims, & Brinkmann, 2003, pp.244-245). As Enron continued to flourish and received accolades from the business community this recognition drove executives to continue the façade of bending ethical guidelines before their public fall from

Introduction Enron made greater use of social control as a means of guiding employee action, however, the company did have limited methods of formal control in place. By using social influence tactics, limiting dissenting opinion, and inflicting a sense of high cohesion among employees, Enron deceived millions into believing the company

The story of Enron is truly remarkable. As a company it merely controlled the electricity, natural gas and communications sectors of the world. It reported (key word, reported) revenues over one hundred billion US dollars and was presented America’s Most Innovative Company by Fortune magazine for six sequential years. But, with power comes greed and Enron from its inception employed people who set their eyes upon money, prestige, power or a combination of the three. The gluttony took over sectors which the company could not operate proficiently nor successfully.

Whenever someone hears the word "Enron" today, they usually think of the transgressions committed by the top-level executives who successfully managed to destroy the company's reputation and achievements.

Enron was a publicly traded energy company formed in 1985 by Kenneth Lay when Internorth acquired Houston Natural Gas; the company, based in Houston Texas, Enron (originally entitled “EnterOn”, but was later subjected to abbreviation), worked specifically in power, natural gas, and paper and even ventured into various non-energy-based fields as they expanded, including: Internet bandwidth, risk management, and weather derivatives. Several years after the founding of the company, Enron hired a man by the name of Jeffrey Skilling, a former chemical and energy consultant, who, upon promotion, created a team of high-level administrative employees who, by using special purpose entities, lackluster reporting of finances, and unethical accounting practices, hid billions of dollars of debt from unsuccessful arrangements and ventures from stock holders and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Enron executives achieved this scheme by using a controversial accounting method entitled “mark-to-market accounting,” which in essence, assigns value to financial commodities based on their projected market values; mark-to-market accounting is the opposite of cost-based accounting which records the price of a commodity at the purchase price. As a result of this new method, Enron’s worth skyrocketed to over $70 billion at one time, only to collapse miserably several years later—ultimately costing thousands upon thousands of people their jobs, pensions, and retirements. Enron’s employees

Enron incurred massive debt as a result of the merger which led to it losing exclusive rights to its pipelines. Enron at this point had to come up with a new innovative business strategy in order to survive. CEO, Kenneth Lay hired services of McKinsey & Co. to aid in the process of developing a business strategy. Jeffrey Skilling, a young consultant was assigned with the responsibility. Skilling proposed a revolutionary solution to convert operations from energy supply to energy trading.

Enron was a company that operated one of the largest natural gas transmissions networks in North America. At the top of its game, Enron was a successful multi-billion dollar company that marketed electricity and natural gas. Enron also provided financial and risk management services to consumers around the

The Organization Behaviors of Enron Introduction Enron is considered America’s largest corporate failure in history and is a story about greed, fraud, and human tragedy. In 1986, Houston National Gas and Internorth, a natural gas pipeline company, merged to create Enron with Ken Lay as the chair and chief executive officer (CEO). Lay transformed the company into a high tech global operation that traded water, energy, broadband, and electricity. In less than a year, problems arose of fraud and an investigation confirmed inaccuracies with the companies accounting records. In 2000, Enron’s gross revenues exceeded $100 billion, yet no one really knew how Enron was making its money (Stein & Pinto, 2011). In September 2001 when bankruptcy was imminent, top executives secretively took their stock options worth millions while encouraging employees to keep theirs in the company. Three months later, more than 20,000 employees lost their jobs, insurance, and pensions when Enron announced bankruptcy. The movie Enron, The Smartest Guys in the Room, is about how management, leadership, and organizational structures failed and caused unnecessary harm to many people (Gibney, 2005). This paper will look at how organizational behaviors including; ethics, culture, and leadership styles of top executive leaders caused the debacle of Enron.

That change with the deregulation of electrical power markets, a change due in part to lobbying from senior Enron officials. Under the direction of former Chairman Kenneth L. Lay, Enron expanded into an energy broker, trading electricity and other commodities.

Most of the world has heard of Enron, the American, mega-energy company that “cooked their books” ( ) and cost their investors billions of dollars in lost earnings and retirement funds. While much of the controversy surrounding the Enron scandal focused on the losses of investors, unethical practices of