Part IV: A Fever Dream
Enron seems like a fever dream, an illusion from the past that business unfettered could solve all problems, that all we needed to do was get out of the way of corporate titans like Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling and Bernie Ebbers and Dennis Kozlowski and the dot-com guys and the venture capitalists, and let them work their magic on the rest of us.
The convictions of Lay and Skilling write finis to that delusional era.
--"Laying Enron to Rest," Allan Sloane, Newsweek, June 5, 2006.
It's not just that, while Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay slathered $60 million on their defense attorneys while stockholders lost $60 billion in market value, long-serving employees lost more than $2 billion in pension money and 5,600 people lost their jobs. (And that's not counting 29,000 employees of Arthur Andersen who also lost their jobs. Enough to populate a small city of the unemployed and the destitute.)
And it's not just what corruption, greed, and hubris not seen since the Roman Empire has done to our own government and corporate culture, which are becoming increasingly one and the same, at least as long as the Republicans are in power.
It's what it does to us, the American people.
"Are we now less likely to fall victim to the next charismatic, innovative leader? I still wonder whether we truly recognize and value the appropriate traits in our leaders. We want honest leaders who are decisive, creative, optimistic, and even courageous, but we so easily settle for talk that marks those traits instead of action.
"Worse, we often don't even look for one of the most critical traits in a leader: humility. A humble leader listens to others. He or she values input from employees and is ready to hear the truth, even if it is bad news. Humility is marked by an ability to admit mistakes…We need to applaud the servant-leader, the one who clearly demonstrates that the interests of the organization…come first, not his own. Humility is a critically important trait in leaders...
"Will we stop and learn from the Enron lesson in leadership failures, or will we just shrug our shoulders and thank God we're not Ken Lay?"
--"Ken Lay Still Isn't Listening," Sherron Watkins, Time magazine, June 5, 2006.
"'Tis the times' plague when madmen lead the blind."
--"King Lear," William Shakespeare
The convictions of Lay and Skilling write finis to that delusional era.
--"Laying Enron to Rest," Allan Sloane, Newsweek, June 5, 2006.
It's not just that, while Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay slathered $60 million on their defense attorneys while stockholders lost $60 billion in market value, long-serving employees lost more than $2 billion in pension money and 5,600 people lost their jobs. (And that's not counting 29,000 employees of Arthur Andersen who also lost their jobs. Enough to populate a small city of the unemployed and the destitute.)
And it's not just what corruption, greed, and hubris not seen since the Roman Empire has done to our own government and corporate culture, which are becoming increasingly one and the same, at least as long as the Republicans are in power.
It's what it does to us, the American people.
"Are we now less likely to fall victim to the next charismatic, innovative leader? I still wonder whether we truly recognize and value the appropriate traits in our leaders. We want honest leaders who are decisive, creative, optimistic, and even courageous, but we so easily settle for talk that marks those traits instead of action.
"Worse, we often don't even look for one of the most critical traits in a leader: humility. A humble leader listens to others. He or she values input from employees and is ready to hear the truth, even if it is bad news. Humility is marked by an ability to admit mistakes…We need to applaud the servant-leader, the one who clearly demonstrates that the interests of the organization…come first, not his own. Humility is a critically important trait in leaders...
"Will we stop and learn from the Enron lesson in leadership failures, or will we just shrug our shoulders and thank God we're not Ken Lay?"
--"Ken Lay Still Isn't Listening," Sherron Watkins, Time magazine, June 5, 2006.
"'Tis the times' plague when madmen lead the blind."
--"King Lear," William Shakespeare
posted by Deanie Mills at 5:58 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home