DISQUS

AccMan TalkBack: The lessons of Enron – an ex-Andersen perspective

  • David Maister · 3 years ago
    Bravo, Brian. I'm not an insider, but everything you say echoes what others insiders told me. It's a simple lesson: when you switch from "let's make money by adhering to high standards" to "let's make money any way we can" decay and rot has set in. It might not show up immediately but (to change the metaphor) the fatal poison has been taken. You don't explain Enron (or Andersen's) demise by what happened at the end, but, as Brian has brilliantly laid out, by trying to understand the path they had been on for awhile, and what led them to take that path.
  • lister · 3 years ago
    surely the only lesson to learn from enron is not to believe everything you read or are told? if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is!