very simple

At this rate, I’m definitely not going to meet the 50 books challenge – more like 15 books. But hey, that’s still pretty good on my schedule…

This is the second book that I’ve read on the Enron debacle, the first being The Smartest Guys in the Room. Reading about these crooks (on the eve of the Lay/Skilling trial no less) just makes my mind boggle. These guys (and Fastow in particular) were just off the charts. After reading this, I’m almost convinced that Fastow was a sociopath, Skilling needed a therapist (and some Prozac) really bad, and Lay…well, Lay needed to spend more time running his company and less time playing golf with the President (both Bushes and Clinton).

But it’s a fascinating story of greed, ego, and bad management. The entire company was structured in a way that encouraged short-cutting, bad deals, and petulant behavior.

And Anderson…Back when it happened, I didn’t really understand how the entire company could implode over the behavior of one set of accountants on one account. But now I do…Did no one think there might be something wrong when trunks full of documents (trunks!) were shipped to other offices to be shredded?

This is definitely a necessary read for anyone who works with any sort of corporation. And it’s hella entertaining too…

Tags: books