...Question 3: To the outside world, and as mentioned in Michael Novak’s book, Kenneth Lay came across as an intelligent, responsible leader with a good head on his shoulders. Lay said that he was fully exposed to not only legal behaviour but moral and ethical behaviour and what that meant from the standpoint of leading organisations and people. Lay also wrote in an introductory statement to the revised Enron Code of Ethics that they (officers and employees of Enron Corp.) were responsible for conducting the business affairs of the companies in accordance with all applicable laws and in a moral and honest manner. Lay mentioned that the Enron enjoyed a reputation for being fair and honest and that the company was highly respected. Jeff Skilling, on the other hand, implemented a very rigorous and threatening evaluation process for all Enron employees. Known as the “rank and yank” – this process was aimed at getting rid of the lowest ranking employees – probably an attempt to get rid of all the bad apples. But this too backfired when employees intentionally ranked peers lower to enhance their own position and ranking. So with leaders like these, who harboured only “good intentions” for the company… Enron was sure to be headed for success. Along with Enron’s ethic codes based on respect, integrity, communication and excellence; Enron looked like an excellent corporate citizen, with all the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business ethics tools and status symbols in place...
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...ENRON CASE STUDY Title of the Article: * The first article of critique, talks about the ethical cultures and values of Enron and how this values and credence contributed to the collapse of this once corporate giants (Li, 2010). * Enron failures, the who, the how, and the why, that contributed to malpractices of its business practices (Gudikunst, 2006). Purpose of Research: The purpose of the first article of research is to depict the ethical views and practices of Enron’s Executives. During the Enron scandal several executives were charged with criminal acts from money laundering to insider trading and fraud (Li, 2010). This article of research shows how morals and ethical values differ in the eyes of different individuals. Second article of research explicate, how each stakeholders in the Enron scandal played a huge role in the collapse of the once was energy giant company (Gudikunst, 2006). Dr. Gudikunst explains how each executive and external stakeholder mislead employees and vested stakeholders in believing the organization was financially buoyant in their day to day business practices, and the reasons for the misappropriation of investors capital. Final this article touches the legal aspect of accounting practices. Research Questions Understanding an organization’s ethical values or business core practices is the baseline in understanding any defects which took place during the Enron’s scandal. Some of the purpose research questions for the first...
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...* Enron Questionable Transactions Question 1 The question which segment of its operations got Enron into difficulties is simple to answer, everything. Almost every all segments of their operation were improper. First of all, they practice unethical and dishonest practices which victimized workers, consumers, taxpayers and stockholders. Enron created partnerships within their own organization which led to them creating new financial instruments, called SPE’s (special purpose entities) which was used to falsify the accounting. The improper financial reporting was to make the company look good, instead of assuring that the figures are accurate and reliable. Enron's legal department wrote up contracts that were irregular. Enron executives were so focused on the pursuit of profits, regardless of economic fundamentals. Enron had excesses of difficulties and they also cause their law firm and accounting firm to become involved in a web of dishonesty. Question 3 All of Enron’s directors were involved in the dishonest scheme and they understood how profits were not honorable. One of the directors, Andrew Fastow who was responsible in creating many of the partnerships such as JEDI, Chewco, Kopper & Dodson’s and Dodson Companies knew exactly how the profits were being made along with several other directors such as Ben F. Glisan, Jr., Jeffrey K. Skillings who was on the board of directors. These directors were all part of a financial scheme to continue to...
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...Enron Company Ethical Issues Case Analysis Format I. Time Context After the scandal revealed on Enron Corporation on October 2001 up until in present time (2014) it is still discussed. II. Point of View Enron was founded in 1985, and as one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications and pulp and paper companies before it bankrupted in late 2001. The Enron scandal, revealed in October 2001, eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas, and the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which was one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world. Although Enron went bankrupt and disappeared ten years ago, the impacts it has made on the ethical standards never faded. It took Enron 16 years to go from about ten billion dollar assets to more than sixty-five billion dollar assets, and took twenty-four days to go bankrupt. (McLean & Elkind, 2004) III. Statement of the Problem The said company projected itself as a highly profitable, growing company – an image which quickly turned out to be an elaborate mistrurth. Enron’s statements about profits were shown to be untrue, with a very big debts concealed so that they didn’t show up un the company’s accounts. Moreover, the company was seen to have been extraordinary active in political lobbying – with large numbers of legislators close to the company in one way or another. This fact had not been enough to save it, but raised...
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...bepress Legal Series Year Paper Enron and the Special Purpose Entity. Use or Abuse? The Real Problem - The Real Focus Neal F. Newman Texas Wesleyan Law School This working paper is hosted by The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress) and may not be commercially reproduced without the permission of the copyright holder. http://law.bepress.com/expresso/eps/1165 Copyright c 2006 by the author. Enron and the Special Purpose Entity. Use or Abuse? The Real Problem - The Real Focus Abstract In December of 2001, Enron Corporation filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code; one of the largest corporate bankruptcy filings at that time. When the investigations commenced and the tangled Enron web was unraveled, it was discovered that Enron had perpetrated a very sophisticated form of accounting fraud through its repeated use of what are referred to as Special Purpose Entities (“SPEs”). In their most basic forms, SPEs are business entities formed for the purpose of conducting a well specified activity such as construction of a gas pipeline, or collection of a specific group of accounts receivable. However, because of their complex nature, SPEs can be used to manipulate a corporation’s financial results, which was the primary use for which Enron employed the SPE structure. As a result, the investment and financial community has cast a dark cloud over the special purpose entity, depicting the SPE as an inherently evil structure whose only purpose is to...
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...A CASE ANALYSIS Of Enron SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF MBAC422: Business & Society Case 2 BY RAHUL DADA 2011H149219 UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF Prof. Anil K Bhat & Dr. Sarvesh Satija Management Department BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE PILANI, RAJASTHAN – 333031 1 Introduction Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and Services Company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 20,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion in 2000. Fortune named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years. At the end of 2001, it was revealed that it’s reported financial condition was sustained substantially by institutionalized, systematic, and creatively planned accounting fraud, known as the Enron scandal. Enron has since become a popular symbol of willful corporate fraud and corruption. The scandal also brought into questions the accounting practices and activities of many corporations throughout the United States and was a factor in the creation of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002. The scandal also affected the wider business world by causing the dissolution of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm. The Enron scandal, revealed in October 2001, eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an American energy company...
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...Enron Case Analysis-Assignment Enron Corporation (former NYSE ticker symbol ENE) was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 20,000 staff and was one of the world's major electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion during 2000.[1] Fortune named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years. At the end of 2001, it was revealed that its reported financial condition was sustained substantially by an institutionalized, systematic, and creatively planned accounting fraud, known since as the Enron scandal. Enron has since become a well-known example of willful corporate fraud and corruption. The scandal also brought into question the accounting practices and activities of many corporations in the United States and was a factor in the creation of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002. The scandal also affected the greater business world by causing the dissolution of the Arthur Andersen accounting company.[2] Enron filed for bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of New York during late 2001 and selected Weil, Gotshal & Manges as its bankruptcy counsel. It ended its bankruptcy during November 2004, pursuant to a court-approved plan of reorganization, after one of the most complex bankruptcy cases in U.S. history. A new board of directors changed the name of Enron to Enron Creditors...
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...BACHELOR OF COMMERCE YEAR 3 - ACADEMIC CALENDER | | | Appendix A: ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET | | | | | | | | | | Date Received: ………………………….. | | | | Date Returned: ……………....………… | | | Programme | BACHELOR OF COMMERCE DEGREE | Module Name | BUSINESS MANAGEMENT 3 | Assignment Number | ASSIGNMENT 1 | Surname | De Villiers | First Name/s | Cornèl | Student Number | BCOM 1121041 | Date Submitted | | Postal Address | P O Box 252 | | Henties Bay | | Namibia | | 9000 | E-MAIL | | myregent email addresss | (Please note that confirmation of assignment receipt as well as | | return assignment will be forwarded to this e-mail address) | E-MAIL | renier@iway.na & Cornel.deVilliers@hbaymun.com.na | (alternate e-mail address) | | Contacte Numbers | Cell: 0812575079 | | Home: 064-500694 | | Work: 064-502022 | Alternate Contact: Name | Renier Henning de Villiers | Relationship | Husband | Contact Number | 0812403219 | | | I hereby confirm that the assignment submitted herein is my own original work. | | | | | Signature of Student: | ……………………………………………………………….Date: ……………………………….. | BUSINESS MANAGEMENT 3: ASSIGNMENT 1 Table of Content: Question: Page: Question 1 3-6 Question 2 7-9 Question 3 10-12 Question 4 13-14 Bibliography 15 QUESTION 1: (40) Read the...
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...TAB B TOPICS: THE CASE OF ENRON REQUIRED: After reading the case and articles in the Tab B readings, answer the questions below. You should download this document and include the question above your answer to make it easier to grade. Your answers should be in complete sentences. Based on the nature of the questions, one or two short paragraphs for each question should be adequate. You should print out your article write-up and submit it in class on the due date. 1. What was the nature of Enron’s business in 1985? How about in 2000? In 1985, it was a natural gas pipeline company. By 2000, it built leading businesses in energy trading and international energy-asset construction. 2. How could Enron earn money by trading in gas contracts? They would buy natural gas at spot prices instead of bundles (which was what was required before the deregulation of gas). This made the price of gas more volatile. Skilling suggested that Enron sell the gas in long-term fixed-price contracts with customers. To prevent the company from losing money due to price fluctuations, Enron would also enter long-term fixed-price contracts with producers by using swaps and forward and future contracts to make sure it met the energy requirements of customers. 3. Enron expanded its trading model to markets other than gas. What other markets did they expand into? Were there any concerns from expanding to these other markets? They...
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...Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 17, Number 2—Spring 2003—Pages 3–26 The Fall of Enron Paul M. Healy and Krishna G. Palepu F rom the start of the 1990s until year-end 1998, Enron’s stock rose by 311 percent, only modestly higher than the rate of growth in the Standard & Poor’s 500. But then the stock soared. It increased by 56 percent in 1999 and a further 87 percent in 2000, compared to a 20 percent increase and a 10 percent decline for the index during the same years. By December 31, 2000, Enron’s stock was priced at $83.13, and its market capitalization exceeded $60 billion, 70 times earnings and six times book value, an indication of the stock market’s high expectations about its future prospects. Enron was rated the most innovative large company in America in Fortune magazine’s survey of Most Admired Companies. Yet within a year, Enron’s image was in tatters and its stock price had plummeted nearly to zero. Exhibit 1 lists some of the critical events for Enron between August and December 2001—a saga of document shredding, restatements of earnings, regulatory investigations, a failed merger and the company filing for bankruptcy. We will assess how governance and incentive problems contributed to Enron’s rise and fall. A well-functioning capital market creates appropriate linkages of information, incentives and governance between managers and investors. This process is supposed to be carried out through a network of intermediaries that include professional...
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...number of pages including this cover page Submission Date Students’ ID NRIC/Passport No. Module Name Lecturer’s Name 01st Aug 2013 Due Date 018800020682 UOP Hemis Code G0703121T/B1889671 Strategic and Module Code Comparative HRM Mr Cheah Cheng San U22712 OFFICIAL USE ONLY Marker’s comments Marker’s name: Initial marks awarded Penalty on late submission Penalty for plagiarism Final marks awarded /100 /100 T213 U22712 Assignment September 2013 QUESTION (TASK 1 weighting factor: 40% of total CW marks) Enron: What Caused the Ethical Collapse? Kenneth Lay, former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Enron Corp., in an introductory statement to the revised Enron Code of Ethics issued in July 2000, wrote: “As officers and employees of Enron Corp., its subsidiaries, and its affiliated companies, we are responsible for conducting the business affairs of the companies in accordance with all applicable laws and in a moral and honest manner.” Lay went on to indicate that the 64-page Enron Code of Ethics reflected policies approved by the company’s board of directors and that the company, which enjoyed a reputation for being fair and honest, was highly respected. Enron’s ethics code also specified that “An employee shall not conduct himself or herself in a manner which directly or indirectly would be detrimental to the best...
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...Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 17, Number 2—Spring 2003—Pages 3–26 The Fall of Enron Paul M. Healy and Krishna G. Palepu F rom the start of the 1990s until year-end 1998, Enron’s stock rose by 311 percent, only modestly higher than the rate of growth in the Standard & Poor’s 500. But then the stock soared. It increased by 56 percent in 1999 and a further 87 percent in 2000, compared to a 20 percent increase and a 10 percent decline for the index during the same years. By December 31, 2000, Enron’s stock was priced at $83.13, and its market capitalization exceeded $60 billion, 70 times earnings and six times book value, an indication of the stock market’s high expectations about its future prospects. Enron was rated the most innovative large company in America in Fortune magazine’s survey of Most Admired Companies. Yet within a year, Enron’s image was in tatters and its stock price had plummeted nearly to zero. Exhibit 1 lists some of the critical events for Enron between August and December 2001—a saga of document shredding, restatements of earnings, regulatory investigations, a failed merger and the company ling for bankruptcy. We will assess how governance and incentive problems contributed to Enron’s rise and fall. A well-functioning capital market creates appropriate linkages of information, incentives and governance between managers and investors. This process is supposed to be carried out through a network of intermediaries that include professional...
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...INTRODUCTION Enron was formed during 1985. Enron was a very powerful company that was doing very well in the market. Enron had been a power supplier to utilities. Its business began through the merger of Houston Natural Gas and Omaha-based Inter North. In the following 20 years, Enron grew quickly and became the largest energy trader in the world. By the end of the twenty century, Enron had many honorable titles, such as “one of the world’s leading electricity, natural gas, and communications companies”, “the world most admired corporations”, and so on. In the following years, with the increase of competition, Enron decided to use diversification and international investment to keep its market position. Actually, these activities brought Enron an unexpected large amount of losses rather than profits. In 1999, after a foray into fiber optics and the broadband market, which was a wrong decision again, Enron suffered too many substantial losses and began bleeding quickly. However, Enron had never declared any information about its losses until October 2001. Instead, in these years, Enron achieved a phenomenal bottom-line through overstating revenues and hiding liabilities. Besides manipulated the financial statements, Enron never mentioned the risks which it should disclose to its investors. On the contrary, the executives of Enron disclosed a great earnings forecast through the media and encouraged investors to purchase Enron’s stocks. They also suggested their...
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...www.ccsenet.org/ijbm International Journal of Business and Management Vol. 5, No. 10; October 2010 The Case Analysis of the Scandal of Enron Yuhao Li Huntsman School of Business, Utah State University, Logan city, U.S.A E-mail: wyl_2001_ren@126.com, carolee1989@gmail.com Abstract The Enron scandal, revealed in October 2001, eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas, and the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which was one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world. In addition to being the largest bankruptcy reorganization in American history at that time, Enron undoubtedly is the biggest audit failure. It is ever the most famous company in the world, but it also is one of companies which fell down too fast. In this paper, it analysis the reason for this event in detail including the management, conflict of interest and accounting fraud. Meanwhile, it makes analysis the moral responsibility From Individuals’ Angle and Corporation’s Angle. Keywords: Enron scandal, Accounting fraud, Moral responsibility, Analysis 1. Review of Enron’s Rise and Fall Throughout the late 1990s, Enron was almost universally considered one of the country's most innovative companies -- a new-economy maverick that forsook musty, old industries with their cumbersome hard assets in favor of the freewheeling world of e-commerce. The company continued to build power plants and operate gas lines, but it became...
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...www.ccsenet.org/ijbm International Journal of Business and Management Vol. 5, No. 10; October 2010 The Case Analysis of the Scandal of Enron Yuhao Li Huntsman School of Business, Utah State University, Logan city, U.S.A E-mail: wyl_2001_ren@126.com, carolee1989@gmail.com Abstract The Enron scandal, revealed in October 2001, eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas, and the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which was one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world. In addition to being the largest bankruptcy reorganization in American history at that time, Enron undoubtedly is the biggest audit failure. It is ever the most famous company in the world, but it also is one of companies which fell down too fast. In this paper, it analysis the reason for this event in detail including the management, conflict of interest and accounting fraud. Meanwhile, it makes analysis the moral responsibility From Individuals’ Angle and Corporation’s Angle. Keywords: Enron scandal, Accounting fraud, Moral responsibility, Analysis 1. Review of Enron’s Rise and Fall Throughout the late 1990s, Enron was almost universally considered one of the country's most innovative companies -- a new-economy maverick that forsook musty, old industries with their cumbersome hard assets in favor of the freewheeling world of e-commerce. The company continued to build power plants and operate gas lines, but it became...
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