Reflection Paper About Enron Scandal
Reflection Paper About Enron Scandal
The ENRON Scandal reveals how intelligent executives of one company brought down
everything and became the reason why the company, being the 7th biggest company in the US
faced bankruptcy in less than a month. All of these happened because of greediness. "Greed is
like drinking salt water; the more you take it, the thirstier you become". This quote illustrates
how Jeffrey Skilling's rise and demise in the business world impacted everything including the
life of every employee of the ENRON company because of his overflowing greediness. Based on
the video I watched, ENRON's executives were involved in a couple of unscrupulous activities
including Kenneth Lay, the founder, found out that two of his traders were involved with
questionable trades that are putting the company in great risks. Lay, instead of discplining
them, he encouraged them to continue what they are doing as long as it makes more money for
the company. Another executive found about this but Lay ignored this again and when the
public knows about it he said that he didn't know any of these though there was evidence
proving it. ENRON's executives took advantage of the power deregulation law in the state of
California. The company manipulated the production of electricity to artificially increase its
price to ultimately help ENRON meets its financial targets. And lastly, when the masterminds of
all the above knew that ENRON will eventually collapsed, they sell their shareholding while
making the public believe that the company is still doing well. Many employees lost their jobs
because of what happened.
The lessons I learned from the story of ENRON Scandal is that intelligence is good and can take
you so far but if you did not use intelligence in doing right things then you will surely suffer its
consequences. Second, ENRON Scandal proved the importance of Audit in a company and the
power that leader's of a country hold in punishing those person's behind this huge scandal. This
also warns the public and shareholders as well as the investors to protect their resources from
people taking advantage of loop holes in the free market to unjustly benefit themselves.
Greediness will only bring you to downfall. Success isn't easy to achieve but taking greater risk
for sustainable long-term gains is much better than taking risk for unsustainable and short-term
gains.