Enron Scandal Reaction
Jean F. Baylon
BSBA4 – Marketing Management
Corp.Gov. – Assignment
The documentary film,
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
It is a story about the greed in corporate America that is always exposed after the fact. The film examines the 2001 collapse of Enron. At the time of the collapse, Enron was the largest bankruptcy in history. The Enron story is one of money and politics, which are two areas that embody the culture of big business in America. The film does a great job of illustrating the laissez-faire culture that allowed Enron to rise to prominence while simultaneously exposing the rabid fraud behind the façade of success. Along with the rise and fall of the Enron stock price, one of the consistent themes of the film is the scandals and the lies behind the company’s success. The film separates each scandal and builds off that scandal to show how Enron was able to manipulate the public into believing its greatness. The name Enron is now synonymous with fraud; the reality is that greedy smart people created the tragedy. The film examines the fraud starting with the Enron Oil trading scandal, the tenure of CEO Jeff Skilling, the mystery of Enron executive Lou Pai, the hiring and tenure of Andrew Fastow as CFO, the California energy crises, and the eventual bankruptcy of Enron. During each of thesemini Enron eras the person who always loomed in the background was Kenneth Lay the man who based his career on the belief of deregulation. The Enron Oil trading occurred in the late 1980’s. This involved traders for Enron Oil who made risky bets that eventually proved to be disastrous. The traders lost over $85million with no oversight or care from upper management. The film makes an effort to connect Kenneth Lay, who was CEO at the time, to the risky bets. Lay claims to have had no knowledge of the risky bets and alleges to have been kept in the dark about such trades. Ultimately, Enron survived this $85 million dollar financial loss but it opened the company
BSBA4 – Marketing Management
Corp.Gov. – Assignment
The documentary film,
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
It is a story about the greed in corporate America that is always exposed after the fact. The film examines the 2001 collapse of Enron. At the time of the collapse, Enron was the largest bankruptcy in history. The Enron story is one of money and politics, which are two areas that embody the culture of big business in America. The film does a great job of illustrating the laissez-faire culture that allowed Enron to rise to prominence while simultaneously exposing the rabid fraud behind the façade of success. Along with the rise and fall of the Enron stock price, one of the consistent themes of the film is the scandals and the lies behind the company’s success. The film separates each scandal and builds off that scandal to show how Enron was able to manipulate the public into believing its greatness. The name Enron is now synonymous with fraud; the reality is that greedy smart people created the tragedy. The film examines the fraud starting with the Enron Oil trading scandal, the tenure of CEO Jeff Skilling, the mystery of Enron executive Lou Pai, the hiring and tenure of Andrew Fastow as CFO, the California energy crises, and the eventual bankruptcy of Enron. During each of thesemini Enron eras the person who always loomed in the background was Kenneth Lay the man who based his career on the belief of deregulation. The Enron Oil trading occurred in the late 1980’s. This involved traders for Enron Oil who made risky bets that eventually proved to be disastrous. The traders lost over $85million with no oversight or care from upper management. The film makes an effort to connect Kenneth Lay, who was CEO at the time, to the risky bets. Lay claims to have had no knowledge of the risky bets and alleges to have been kept in the dark about such trades. Ultimately, Enron survived this $85 million dollar financial loss but it opened the company