The movie The Smartest Guys in the Room is a perfect way to show how intelligence, a God given gift, can be used to harm many. Enron was one of the most admired and looked up Organizations during its time. So many dreams were built around it not just by its owners, but also employees and investors. It started from humble beginnings and rose up with the extravagant aspirations of its owners and executives. It has reached its peak and enjoyed so many financial rewards until one day everything went away. Enron collapsed.
It was considered as one of USA's controversial corporate scandals in the history and has drawn so much attention even from the Government. After all the financial successes of Enron, it appeared that everything was orchestrated and made out of anomalies. Enron was no longer profiting as a business but the executives did not show this to the stakeholders but hid the truth by manipulating financial data and reports. What's worse is that during the time that the Company is about to fall and prices of stocks are still high, they were the first to cash in their stocks. When everything was exposed and Enron has declared bankruptcy, the rest of the stakeholders were left with nothing. Stock prices plunged to its lowest, investors lost their investments, employees lost their jobs, and worse those who have given their loyalty and half of their lives serving Enron was left with very little to zero pension fund.
Being a leader in an Organization is a calling and the talent we use to run a business is a gift. That being said, everything that we do must be for the benefit of the many. I believe that the personalities behind Enron are gifted. They had the vision and the influence to make people's lives better. However, this gift was not utilized well when Enron started to become successful. The top level executives were consumed by greed for money and totally forgot their purpose and the purpose of Enron to the society which led to the fall of the Company and many dreams being shattered.
There are so many things that can be learned from Enron. I believe as Business Leaders, it is a must that we uphold integrity and always bear in mind the common good. Earning so much many will make a huge difference in one's life. However, I don't think wealth will be meaningful if one cannot sleep peacefully because of so many anomalies and destroying so many dreams because of a wrong doing. It is still better to live a simple life knowing that you were able to do things rightfully and you were able to make use of your gifts for the betterment of those who work with you.
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