Just as Watergate was the defining political story of its time, so Enron is the biggest business story of our time. And just as All the Presiden...
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Jan 05, 2009
George
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This book is a must for just about everyone. It reads like a novel, but unfortunately its all non- fiction. This book proves that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.
For anyone who has an interest in protecting your wealth and hard earned money, this is a must reead. I learned how important it is how your personal actions and behaviours can have such a detrimental affect not only to those around you but way beyond those that might seem unafected. The enron scandal was something that e More...
For anyone who has an interest in protecting your wealth and hard earned money, this is a must reead. I learned how important it is how your personal actions and behaviours can have such a detrimental affect not only to those around you but way beyond those that might seem unafected. The enron scandal was something that e More...
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May 29, 2008
Katherine
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This book takes accounting fraud so complex that Wall Street write large didn't understand it for years and boils it down in a way that is understandable and, more surprisingly, fairly riveting. I am a bit of a junkie for this kind of story (I'd really like to be a prosecutor of white collar crime, I think), but the writers do a pretty incredible job, and given what a major issue Enron has been in our economy, in the law, and in the regulation of corporations, I think this is a worthwhile read
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Jul 15, 2007
Ryan
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Detailed history of Enron from its foundation to collapse, with particular attention paid to the critical characters (Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, Andrew Fastow, etc.) Interesting if you think fall of Enron is an interesting subject (I do, but don't blame you if you don't). My biggest takeaway was the question of whether getting "the smartest guys" all together in a room will lead to good results, since it was clearly such a catastrophe in this case. And, if getting the smartest guys
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May 31, 2007
Mathias
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Another excellent work that provides insight into how financial incentive regimes (Regulations, Markets, Competitor Behavior)influence the actions of micro-players (CEO's, divisional managers, etc) in the business world.
Enron's collapse is a case study of what can go wrong in an economic system that lacks adequate checks and balances coupled with the increasing disempowerment of other important economic actors (labor unions etc). Unfortunately whatever lessons have been learned from More...
Enron's collapse is a case study of what can go wrong in an economic system that lacks adequate checks and balances coupled with the increasing disempowerment of other important economic actors (labor unions etc). Unfortunately whatever lessons have been learned from More...
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Jan 03, 2010
S
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The Enron scandal is old news now. The company collapsed at the end of 2001, officially declaring bankruptcy on December 2 of that year. Up to that point, it was the biggest corporate bankruptcy filing in American history. But the fallout from the scandal continued for years afterwards. There are still creditors still trying to collect money from the now-defunct company today.
The story of Enron's meteoric rise and stunning fall is a lesson in the dark side of corporate ambition. More...
The story of Enron's meteoric rise and stunning fall is a lesson in the dark side of corporate ambition. More...
Dec 13, 2008
Kate
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If you scratch your head trying figure out all of these acronyms in finance, it's worth going back and reading about some of the boys who took off-balance sheet transactions to a whole new level. So much has been written about the rise and fall of Enron, but this book does it succinctly and at a layman's level. Plus they give you the whole People magazine backstory on these traders, including the names of the strip clubs in Houston the frequented and Ken Lay's difficult childhood.
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Jan 02, 2011
DW
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A very intensive read. It took me two months to finish it. I probably read and completed a dozen other books along side this one because you'll poke your eyes out if you read it straight through, haha. It's an amazing story. Probably not for everyone though. It's partly written like a novel and partly written like a newspaper article. Some portions are entertaining while others or written more dry, but interesting nonetheless. I did learn A LOT from reading this book. Not just about the Enron sc
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Apr 18, 2011
Heather
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When the Enron scandal broke I devoured everything I could get my hands on, including this book and several others. I followed journalism coverage online throughout the trials and recriminations, particularly the Houston Chronicle's excellent reportage. There are witnesses who will attest that as late as July 2006 I was seen shouting "you fking cheat!" to my computer screen upon reading the news of Ken Lay's all-too-convenient death.
Having just read Bethany McLean's recent More...
Having just read Bethany McLean's recent More...
Jan 23, 2011
Paul
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The unbleievable story of the energy company Enron is deetailed in this book. Their rise and fall is one of the biggest business stories of my generation. This is really a story about how greed and power can blind even the smartest of businessmen and women and it shows us a peak at the "I can do no wrong" mentality that is created in the busines world. The saddest part of this story is the fact that the lower level employees had their retirement accounts frozen while the top execu
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Mar 10, 2011
Nicola
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The Smartest Guys In the Room is a well-written, well-researched attempt to unravel the financial shenanigans that led to Enron’s bankruptcy. It’s a compelling (and sometimes soapy) indictment of the worst side of business, and it queasily foreshadows the financial crisis of 2008.
I can’t say enough about how well McLean and Elkind present the material in this book, but the fact remains that (a) it’s really, really long, and (b) it’s about finance. I learned a lot about securitization ( More...
I can’t say enough about how well McLean and Elkind present the material in this book, but the fact remains that (a) it’s really, really long, and (b) it’s about finance. I learned a lot about securitization ( More...
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Aug 05, 2011
Tony
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This 500 page giant details the life of Enron from beginning to end along with the life of its main characters. The accounting specifics get a bit detailed at times for a lay person but the general ideas of what happened can still be understood. The guys thought they were invincible, got corrupted by power and ambition and ran a good company into the ground, to the tune of several billion dollars into the ground. The story serves as a good example of why ethics in business are so important and w
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May 25, 2011
RYCJ
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Through clear, crisp, polished informative writing McLean and Elkind have done a fine job personifying what happened at Enron to a level that renews the deep respect I have for ‘making money.’ I recall as a child asking, “why can’t we just make money?” It seemed to be the easiest thing in the world to do. Simplicity has always been one of my models. Many years later I asked the same question in an economics class. I fully understand, and understood, the costs ‘making money’ would have on an econ
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Apr 17, 2010
Kevin
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In "The Smartest Guys in the Room," two Fortune business reporters show how Enron is not merely emblematic of the early 2000s corporate meltdown crisis - it's also more representative of how Corporate America functions than the well-oiled capitalist propaganda machine would ever admit. The authors provide substantial documentation to make the case that Enron was not a "bad seed" in the business world (though perhaps it was a particularly brazen one), but rather that it got aw
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Jan 24, 2012
Maura
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ok, the only reason i picked this up was because I saw Bethany talk at the Williams Math reunion last month. I figured why not expand my horizons in support of a former classmate? i figured i'd read part of it and then my brain (which hates financials and business talk and that sort of thing) would shut down and i'd return it to the library. instead, i ended up renewing it so that I could finish this 400 page tome. I'm not going to say that everyone should read it -- however, if you were conside
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Jul 18, 2011
Virgilio
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A great depiction of one of the biggest example, in modern history, of the "mafia" evolution to the highest levels, where the street violence and the low-level crime become high volume bribery and financial crimes that are capable of hitting way more people than the mob of the 70s.
I read the book in a few months... very interesting but hard to follow between so many numbers, episodes and not an easy narrative plot. When I was done with it I found the documentary on Netflix and af More...
I read the book in a few months... very interesting but hard to follow between so many numbers, episodes and not an easy narrative plot. When I was done with it I found the documentary on Netflix and af More...
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Feb 11, 2012
Rsheppar
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The one great thing about this book is its not necessarily about accounting or business, but more about the people behind the scandal. Bethany McLean did her research (it was her analysis of the company's Cash Flow Statement and her article about it in Fortune that brought attention to the company's fraud). She delves deep into what made Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay tick,and although having a background in accounting will help, you dont need to be a business whiz to understand what went on
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Apr 21, 2010
Kimftw
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Well written like Warren buffet quoted saying is the best description. If you get bored with the way they explain what Enron did to get around laws and loop holes then this book is not for you. It's a lot about how they wrote financial schemes to meet quarters end. Then again if you weren't interested in that I'm guessing you wouldn't have picked up the book?
Its a good book, worth reading. Very long! Before i got to half the book i felt like it could have ended fine just there, but More...
Its a good book, worth reading. Very long! Before i got to half the book i felt like it could have ended fine just there, but More...
Mar 26, 2009
Omar
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Everyone knows Enron collapsed, everyone knows they were crooks, but the real story is so complicated and almost no one knows the actual details of the fraud. As opposed to Worldcom and Tyco where the frauds were actually relatively simple (capitalizing expenses instead of booking them) Enron was a massive scheme where its hard to say any one person knew just how extensive but very easy to say everyone (and I mean every single employee) knew something was going on. This book breaks it down in
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Jan 15, 2012
Brian
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The Smartest Guys in the Room provides a comprehensive overview of the people behind the meltdown at Enron and the ideas that led a once great company to ruin. It is a story of greed, manipulation and egos that drove some of the "smartest" people in business to extraordinary ends. This book does assume a great deal of knowledge on financial tools and gets technical in its overview but having read several books on Enron this is one of the better ones. From the personality battles under
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Aug 06, 2010
Alan
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Although I'm from Ireland and far removed from the corprate world of energy, the Enron scandal has always interested me greatly. I've always wondered how one of the worlds largest companies could suddenly collapse. So when I randomly came across this book on Amazon I decided to give it a go and I have to say I wasn't disappointed.
Bethany McLean was a Fortune journalist who covered the story of Enron's demise and her orderly telling of the story is brilliant. She gives a complete bio More...
Bethany McLean was a Fortune journalist who covered the story of Enron's demise and her orderly telling of the story is brilliant. She gives a complete bio More...
Apr 13, 2010
Jarrod
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That I am an internal auditor at a major oil and gas company undoubtedly contributed to my interest in this book. Nonetheless, McLean and Elkind's ability to present a convoluted and complex topic in an intriguing way culminate in this page-turner that anyone with even a moderate interest in business, accounting, economics, or current affairs will enjoy. The authors strike an effective balance between providing the nitty-gritty details of the accounting, the bigger picture, and the gossip.
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May 06, 2008
Jack
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Wow, there really wasn't anything redeeming about this company at all. I had a newspaper reader's knowledge of the Enron scandal going into this book, and I had always assumed that the company started out with at least some kind of solid foundation, then became corrupted and slowly rotted from within. Instead, it seems to have been speculator capitalism posing as commodities brokerage from the beginning, inflating its profits and stock price and hiding its losses almost all the way along. Th
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Nov 12, 2007
Sendhil
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This is a copiously researched book that brings some order to the sprawling and complex Enron saga, focusing on the years from Fastow and Skilling's rise in 1997 to Enron's ultimate bankruptcy in 2001. The authors manage to make the events comprehensible despite the many people and entities involved (the "cast of characters" alone goes on for five pages).
Like the events themselves, the book raises more questions than it answers, since the authors maintain firm journalistic More...
Like the events themselves, the book raises more questions than it answers, since the authors maintain firm journalistic More...
Nov 01, 2011
Scott
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The book does a nice job of explaining, in general terms, the complex accounting schemes that allowed Enron to dupe the world about its actual business condition, but the real heart of this book is in its providing context for the many different human elements that enabled it all. Above all, the Enron fraud is a story of greed, hubris and delusion, and a sad reminder that, the more things change, the more things stay the same (e.g., Long-Term Capital Management, Madoff, etc.).
Sep 30, 2010
It is a mystery about how the Enron fall with all these so called genius nurturing its business. Everyone said the greed is a number one factor to cause Enron's demise. Personally, I think the fundamental reason should be lack of the core business decision, strategy, teamwork, and cohesion among the top & middle management. With everyone goes different direction all at once, Enron can no longer extend itself soundly in finance and the fall is inevitable.
Mar 20, 2011
Tim
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Already a big fan of the documentary in 2005, I decided to give the book a listen. I quickly found out there was a lot left out of the movie. It was truly mind blowing how almost every division in the company was involved in the scandal in a different way and how these incredibly "smart" executives made such absolutely stupid decisions.
It's scary to think that there are still corporations out there probably doing similar fraudulent accounting schemes.
It's scary to think that there are still corporations out there probably doing similar fraudulent accounting schemes.
Nov 14, 2008
Brandon
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I have always been fascinated with the Enron scandal, especially after focusing on it in some accounting and ethics classes. It's amazing just how unethical this company was, and how many people let them get away with it! So many people could have and should have said something, and even when some did, others just turned a blind eye.
I thought the book was very well written. The authors did a good job at simplifying Enron's complex financing structures, as well as explaining the vario More...
I thought the book was very well written. The authors did a good job at simplifying Enron's complex financing structures, as well as explaining the vario More...
Dec 16, 2009
Carla
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Bethany McLean started her investigation which ultimately led to the downfall of my first employer after college, Arthur Andersen. I have a special place in my heart for AA since I met most of my closest friends while working there. But while Bethany seemed to find the decisions and actions of the legal, finance and accounting professions incredulous, I was hard pressed to find anyone truly shocked by the actions, only the ultimate outcome. Since I am still part of the corporate world, I can
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Jan 09, 2010
skye
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I enjoyed this book a lot. Especially because I was in Houston when Enron went down, and heard a lot secondhand, but never took the time to learn what really happened. I also remember reading an "Inc" magazine feature on Lay / Enron in 2000 that impressed me. Then they blew up. What happened? Now I know...
Very well-written, though 25% of the financial concepts were over my head. Excellent look at the human side of it all.
Very well-written, though 25% of the financial concepts were over my head. Excellent look at the human side of it all.
Feb 08, 2012
Jamie
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Great book. If you want to know about why Wallstreet has been and still is morally inept and cant spell the word ethics, then this a great book to start with. Easy to read....but there is no agenda or angle that is being pushed on you. It's the story of brilliant people who, most importantly, destroyed many peoples lives. The book also shows what can happen with great success and, most importantly, how powerful greed can be.
