Enron: Re-visiting the legend

This article in the New Yorker is a must read for anyone interested in business, management, or has an acute case of tall poppy syndrome. It argues that the new age thinking of ‘recruit talent, let the rest work itself’ is a flawed methodology as a core business unit, and cites Enron as an example of what he calls a “narcissistic organisation”. I found the article fascinating, despite its length.

Moneyquote:

They were there looking for people who had the talent to think outside the box. It never occurred to them that, if everyone had to think outside the box, maybe it was the box that needed fixing.

To be honest, I haven’t performed much study on Enron. I always see these big corporate blow ups as outliers, something not worth researching because they typically don’t represent the mean, which is far more useful and profitable to study. I still welcome reading the research of people that have studied these companies, though.