The Rise and Fall of Enron - 1170 Words

The Enron Corporation was founded in 1985 by Kenneth Lay and based in Houston, Texas. Enron was known as one of the world’s leading electricity, natural gas, communications and pulp and paper companies. By the late 1990s Enron was considered one of the country’s most groundbreaking companies constructing power plants, gas lines, buying and selling electricity and gas, and partaking in a unique trading business; creating whole new markets for oddball commodities. In 1995 annual revenues were around $9 billion and rose to over $100 billion in 2000. (Yahao, 2010) â€Å"White-collar crime is planned or organized illegal acts of deception or fraud, usually accomplished during the course of legitimate occupational activity, committed by an individual or corporate entity† (Benson, 2009 pg. 11). In October of 2001 it was revealed that Enron’s financial condition was only sustained by systematic and creatively planned accounting fraud. Enron’s stock price dropped from $90 per share to $1 a share, with shareholders loosing around $11 billion. Enron found to have a loss of $586 million in the previous five years after reviewing financial statements. Enron fell to bankruptcy on December 2, 2001. The Enron scandal is recognized as the largest bankruptcy reorganization in American history at that time and also the biggest audit failure with the termination of Arthur Andersen, one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world. (Yahao, 2010) In this occurrenceShow MoreRelatedThe Rise And Fall Of Enron1008 Words   |  5 PagesIntroduction Enron began as an energy company in 1985. After the deregulation of oil and gas in the U.S., Enron lost its’ exclusive rights to natural gas pipelines. The CEO, Kenneth Lay then hired a consulting firm to reinvent the company in order to make up lost profits. He hired Jeffery Skilling, who was in banking, specifically; asset and liability management. Under the topic â€Å"The Beginning Presages the End†, C. William Thomas (2002) writes: â€Å"Thanks to the young consultant, the company createdRead MoreThe Rise And Fall Of Enron1900 Words   |  8 PagesThe Rise and Fall of Enron One of the most basic tenets of all companies, whether small or large, is to create a principled corporate culture. Those ethical principles must start with the executives of the organization and trickle down to the individual employees. Leaders affect the employees’ decision-making process, yet they tend to adopt the same rationale as their leaders when reaching a decision. The leadership of a company needs to find a balance between risk and creating opportunity. WhileRead MoreThe Rise and Fall of Enron2970 Words   |  12 PagesThe Leadership of Kenneth Lay 5 Contributing Factors for Enron’s Debacle 7 Power Abuse 7 Fraudulent Accounting Practices 7 Employees and Board members 8 Investors Grief 9 Auditors and external regulatory agency 9 Conclusion 9 The debacle of Enron, led not only the company to bankruptcy but also its employees and shareholders. Unethical leadership and vested interests played a significant role in its imminent failure. Very few had the courage to challenge authority and leave when faced withRead MoreThe Rise and Fall of Enron1532 Words   |  6 PagesMost of the world has heard of Enron, the American, mega-energy company that â€Å"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 executives and questionable accounting tactics, there were many others within close proximity to the turmoil. It begs the question- who was really at fault and what has been done to prevent it fromRead MoreThe Rise And Fall Of Enron Essay860 Words   |  4 PagesThe Rise and Fall of Enron The objective of every company is to maximize profit, become a big player and remain viable. Enron was no exception the key players at the time were Kenneth Lay CEO, Jeffery Skilling who was hired by Lay in 1990 to head the Enron Finance Corporation and by 1997 Skilling was made President and Chief Operating Officer. Andrew Fastow, CFO who was the chief financial officer of Enron. Enron merged Houston Natural Gas in 1985 with another natural gas pipelineRead MoreRise and Fall of Enron Essay872 Words   |  4 PagesThe rise and fall of Enron is a company that was lead to its own demise by it’s own leadership and ill business decisions. The motivational theories explained from the readings of Organization Behavior can correlate with the failure of Enron’s internal organization. Even though a company may appear to display successful business practices, the influence of leadership through management can ultimately lead the company to fail. Enron’s code of ethics prided itself on four key values; respect, integrityRead MoreThe Rise and Fall of Energy Giant, Enron Essay1540 Words   |  7 PagesThe Rise and fall of energy giant ‘ENRON’ Introduction: The main aim of this essay is to analyse business ethics in the context of the Enron scandal. Enron scandal became notorious for violating ethical standards. There are several business motives involved in the rise and fall of Enron. In today’s world, adopting ethical standards is a must for a company to protect shareholder’s interest. Even though the rules of playing business are obvious, still several companies adopt short cut mechanismsRead MoreThe Smartest Guys At The Room : The Amazing Rise And Scandalous Fall Of Enron1654 Words   |  7 PagesSmartest Guys In the Room† the amazing rise and scandalous fall of Enron goes into great detail of what happens when a company has no ethics. It could be said that ethics was the last thing on the minds of the executives that worked at Enron. People employed at Enron cared about two things the stock price of the company, and the money they could put in their own pockets. This was what caused the fall of one of the biggest energy companies in the U.S†¦ Enron failing did not happen overnight it tookRead MoreWhat I Learned from Studying the Rise and Fall of Enron693 Words   |  3 Pagestolerated and can lead to the fall of anything from a small mom and pop business to massive a Corporation. That is exactly what happened to the Enron Corporation back in 2001. In this essay I will discuss what exactly Enron is, the unethical business practices that occurred, and my opinion on the scandal and how I would have handled the situation. I will have help accomplishing this with quotes from other credible sources. Honestly, I didn’t know what exactly Enron was before this assignment. OfRead MoreThe rise of Enron took ten years, and the fall only took twenty days. Enron’s fall cost its1600 Words   |  7 PagesThe rise of Enron took ten years, and the fall only took twenty days. Enron’s fall cost its investors $35,948,344,993.501, and forced the government to intervene by passing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) 2 in 2002. SOX was put in place as a safeguard against fraud by making executives personally responsible for any fraudulent activity, as well as making audits and financial checks more frequent and rigorous. As a result, SOX allows investors to feel more at ease, knowing that it is highly unlikely