There is absolutely no reason as to why organizations and small organizational teams cannot debrief their daily tasks and missions. I am sure that within the scope of the normal organizational roles, there would be time frames such as end of product release, end of campaigns, end of sales processes, or end of production campaigns that could be debriefed and learned from. Similar to our flight, asking team members to provide an outline of the what, where, when, why, and how of their role during these periods would provide an invaluable source of proprietary information for the organization and would also allow for greater control and communication between board-level executives and team members. Remember that the “skeleton” of the debrief …show more content…
(CC) As outlined in the Airmic report, lack of requirements for a formal debrief process was the cause of many of the fatal collapses of the largest companies in the world. An example of where a formal debrief process could have potentially saved an organization was illustrated in the case of Arthur Anderson. It was well known within the organization that there were inherent risks associated with client selection and retention. Several waves of “high-energy” organization development campaigns had led to bringing on poor-performing or unscrupulous clients, Enron being one. It was commented by team members within Andersen, “[We must] have the courage to say no to relationships that bring unacceptable levels of risk to our firm.” Had the organization had a process of debriefing on the completion of each of these business development campaigns, they potentially would have realized what was staring them straight in the eye: “Our clients are going to cause issues.” The procedures for and ways of recruiting new clients, the way in which business development managers were recruited, and the selling points and standard of onboarding clients could have been shared, via debrief learning points, to other areas of the organization as well as to the industry as a whole. I am certain that their methods of client onboarding and retention were very similar to those methods employed by other major accounting firms at the time. By broadcasting their best practices,
During the year 2000, Enron was exceeding all expectations, its stock was through the roof, and the company seemed to be on top of the world. The next year Enron declared bankruptcy. So how did a company rise and fall so quickly? The key in analysing this question lies in Enron’s organizational culture, which is defined as “a shared meaning held by members distinguishing an organization” (Robbins and Judge, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 269). During its prime, Enron appeared to be a successful and innovative company, but in reality was a company rooted in an organizational culture of corruption and greed. The five culture dimensions of stability, risk taking and innovation, attention to detail, outcome orientation, and aggressiveness are key to understanding how unethical behavior became such a problem at Enron.
Determine the fundamental challenges that organizations face in general in regard to protecting organizational assets and information.
Organizational issues are often the most difficult part of managing projects. Taking the time to analyze an organization can help identify, understand, and solve potential problems. All organizations consist of four different frames: structural, human resources, political, and symbolic. Each of these frames describes a particular way of looking at organizations and how they function. For example, it can be used to identify the project stakeholders to help meet their needs and expectations or simply can be used to decide which college to attend.
Arthur Andersen (AA) contributed to the Enron disaster when it has failed to the management by failing to have Enron establish and enforce its own internal control. There has been flaws to AA‘s internal control. There has been assumption that AA partners were too motivated by revenue recognition thus, overlooking several criteria when providing their services to Enron. Additionally, AA also recognised the retention of audit clients as vital and a loss of any clients would be disadvantaged to an auditor’s career. In AA internal control, the person who is able to make most of the decisions is the person who is most concerned about the revenue or losses of the client’s company.
Between the years 2000 and 2002 there were over a dozen corporate scandals involving unethical corporate governance practices. The allegations ranged from faulty revenue reporting and falsifying financial records, to the shredding and destruction of financial documents (Patsuris, 2002). Most notably, are the cases involving Enron and Arthur Andersen. The allegations of the Enron scandal went public in October 2001. They included, hiding debt and boosting profits to the tune of more than one billion dollars. They were also accused of bribing foreign governments to win contacts and manipulating both the California and Texas power markets (Patsuris, 2002). Following these allegations, Arthur Andersen was investigated for, allegedly,
The ways in which the aims of this mission are going to be achieved will be specifically outlined in the vision statement provided. The importance of hitting our mark is paramount, for our children are our future, and making sure that they are successful, competitive citizens should be our highest concern. Sometimes this process can be more challenging when put into practice.
Zaremba (2010) points out that “crisis is any unanticipated event, incident, situation, or development that has the potential to damage or destroy your organization’s reputation”. (P.234) This definition indicates two attributes of crisis: unexpectedness and destructiveness, so effective communication is crucial to manage a crisis. The Nuance Group, a successful management consulting company, with a reputation of experienced and highly educated consultants, was facing the crisis brought by its great “reputation”. As a consultancy, it’s their profession to market themselves. A glossy brochure with specific introduction of consultants’ information, which is the highlight of the company’s reputation, is a fabulous method to market
“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” shows us how basic human nature does not change, whether it is firing as a means to resolve disputes, or in the
In the late 1990 and 2000, Enron’s traders had great passion on prove themselves. The principle of “priority of profit” at any costs led to considerable agency problems for shareholders of Enron. Undoubtedly, company owners desired high return from investment. The “arrogant culture” could meet investors’ need of profit, although the “arrogant culture” achieved short-term profit by sacrificing company’s long-term stability and wellbeing. It exacerbated the agency problems which accumulated by principals neglecting agency monitoring mechanisms.
The case study is about Enron and about their biggest failure that lead the company towards bankruptcy. Enron got bankrupt to the extent that was no point of returning back and reversing its wrong doings. The only thing that the company had to think about was how to return the losses of its creditors. Enron Corp. was left with $12 billion in assets which was to be distributed among more than 20,000 creditors. Around 80% of creditors of Enron backed the long-awaited reorganization plan of the company. Creditors were seeking to recover more than $1200 billion. According to Stephen F. Cooper, who was the interim chief executive officer of the company said that only $67 billion was the justified amount. The amount of assets that was available to creditors could grow if the management of Enron succeeded with the mega-claim against financial institutions and leading banks that helped the organization in creating complex deals which helped it inflate cash flow and hide debt (Niskanen, 2005).
Elements that Contributed to Enron and AA’s Demise Through Answering two Sets of Case Study Questions (500-750 Words per Case study): (a)=Enron case study questions, and (b)=Arthur Andersen case study questions
Power Failure is a book that tells the story of Enron from the point of view of one of the book’s authors, Sherron Watkins. The basic premise of the book is given in the first chapter when Tom Peters warns the attendees of a corporate conference that “An excess of self-confidence kills companies” (Swartz & Watkins, 2003, Loc. 306). First, the authors describe the November management conference of 2000. The point describes Sherron’s experience at the conference and her interaction with several key people, among whom were Jeff Skilling and Andy Fastow. Next, the authors of the book advance through a timeline starting with a brief biography of Ken Lay. The timeline of Enron carries into company’s desire to continue to expand and grow. Secondly, the narrative symbolizes the rise of Andy Fastow who ultimately ran the various shell companies that were instrumental in keeping debts off the balance sheets. Thirdly, the book describes Sherron Watkins’s attempt at getting her leadership to correct the problems and admit to the stakeholders the true financial situation of Enron. Power Failure highlights the letters she sent to Ken Lay. Ms. Watkins wrote to
The key factors or critical issues presented in the case are the downfalls of Enron, which originated out of Houston Texas by Han, Henry(n.d.). He was one of the highest paid Chief Executive Officers in 1999. This organization was aware of the first gas pipeline company that implied known worldwide. The company covers the world’s leading electricity innovations, personnel management, and risk management processes. Also, further studies the company 's dramatic failed complex issues that the forced company to file bankruptcy. These items consisted of its trading strategies became under attack or questionable by others within the business sector. Their methods of financial reporting problems (showed the company as attaining, loses, however, the owners and other factors of the organization showed an excessive amount of profit and growth), and governance breakdowns inside and outside the organization. The case offers students a prospect to explore the rise and fall of Enron and to understand the systemic issues in management that affected its board of directors, the audit committee, the external auditors, and financial analysts. Therefore, this was the beginning of the end at Enron: Jeff Skilling publicly announced he was quitting as Chief Financial Officer. "For many of those working within the organization, this is when the downfall and it became (Skilling Takes a Hike (2001) evident. The CEO and CFO or Enron 's regarded as the villain my personal perception are that they
Many questions are still being raised concerning the collapse of Enron. The aftermath of Enron’s fall has brought review of the actions that took place prior to the collapse. Many of these questions may be left unanswered. The company’s executive management, board of directors, and auditors hold the responsibility for the ultimate collapse of a once dominant force in the energy industry. Team A developed several options in a plan that could have possibly helped Enron avoid their demise. The plan is designed to discuss the benefits and challenges of communication, collaboration and conflict management. It will provide an opportunity to the management team of Enron the benefits of developing strong communication between all employees
The case of Enron Corporation and Andersen, LLP can be noted as one of the most infamous fraud scandals in US history. Investors lost millions of dollars and ruined the public’s trust. Enron was once the seventh largest public company in the United States and Andersen LLP was the world’s largest and most respected business organizations. Enron’s stock prices soared to approximately $100 to less than $10 in 2001. How did these two big giants fall into oblivion and what could have been done to avoid the disaster of these companies?