Arthur Andersen
Arthur Andersen
The name Arthur Andersen is a very well known name among households in the world today. At one time, the reputation of Arthur Andersen was very positive. However, the risky and unethical decisions that were made over the ending years by top management, gave Arthur Andersen a famous name with not such a positive reputation. Arthur Andersen became involved in many scandals with the largest being that of Enron Incorporated. Poor decision making by upper management and issues with ethics caused a rapid decline in the firm’s reputation.
“Arthur Andersen himself originally built his business by putting reputation over profit” (Brown, K. & Dugan, I., 2002, para. 7). He invested his life into his business and worked very hard to give his company the honest and trustworthy reputation it earned. “Andersen was considered one of the top five accounting firms in the world. It had built its reputation on high-quality work by skilled, dedicated people” (Squires, S., Smith, C., McDougall, L., & Yeack, W., 2003, pg.2). The company motto was “Think straight, talk straight” (Brown, K. & Dugan, I., 2002, para. 10). He felt that it was important for his employees to “provide good service to the client, produce quality audits, manage staff well, and produce profits for the firm” (Brown, K. & Dugan, I., 2002, para. 10). From the very beginning, Arthur Andersen the founder wanted his company to be a firm founded upon knowledge, information, and education (Goff, 2002). When Arthur Andersen passed away in 1947, the company he had built from the ground up was close to shutting its doors. However, Leonard Spacek who took over the company after Andersen’s death, was able to convince the other partners to stay together and fight thru the struggle. During his time as managing partner, Andersen became one of the top firms in the world. Company revenues jumped over $120 million in just 20 years (Goff, 2002). Andersen also opened their very first international
The name Arthur Andersen is a very well known name among households in the world today. At one time, the reputation of Arthur Andersen was very positive. However, the risky and unethical decisions that were made over the ending years by top management, gave Arthur Andersen a famous name with not such a positive reputation. Arthur Andersen became involved in many scandals with the largest being that of Enron Incorporated. Poor decision making by upper management and issues with ethics caused a rapid decline in the firm’s reputation.
“Arthur Andersen himself originally built his business by putting reputation over profit” (Brown, K. & Dugan, I., 2002, para. 7). He invested his life into his business and worked very hard to give his company the honest and trustworthy reputation it earned. “Andersen was considered one of the top five accounting firms in the world. It had built its reputation on high-quality work by skilled, dedicated people” (Squires, S., Smith, C., McDougall, L., & Yeack, W., 2003, pg.2). The company motto was “Think straight, talk straight” (Brown, K. & Dugan, I., 2002, para. 10). He felt that it was important for his employees to “provide good service to the client, produce quality audits, manage staff well, and produce profits for the firm” (Brown, K. & Dugan, I., 2002, para. 10). From the very beginning, Arthur Andersen the founder wanted his company to be a firm founded upon knowledge, information, and education (Goff, 2002). When Arthur Andersen passed away in 1947, the company he had built from the ground up was close to shutting its doors. However, Leonard Spacek who took over the company after Andersen’s death, was able to convince the other partners to stay together and fight thru the struggle. During his time as managing partner, Andersen became one of the top firms in the world. Company revenues jumped over $120 million in just 20 years (Goff, 2002). Andersen also opened their very first international
References: Brown, K. & Dugan, I. (2002, June 7). Arthur Andersen’s Fall From Grace Is a Sad Tale Of Greed and Miscues February 27, 2008, from http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/3006246 Squires, S., Smith, C., McDougall, L., & Yeack, W Shifting Values, Unexpected. Retrieved February 27, 2008, from http://books. google.com/books?id=MrmUWklBjYgC&dq=%22inside+arthur+andersen%22& Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. (2008). Arthur Andersen. Retrieved February 27, 2008, from http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pdf/2001-1-0026.pdf Weber, Joseph. (2003, March 17). How Andersen Turned to the Dark Side. Retrieved February 27, 2008, from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_11/