ENRON'S MANY STRANDS: A CASE STUDY; A Video Study Of Enron Offers A Picture of Life Before the Fall
By SHAILA K. DEWAN
Published: January 31, 2002
Correction Appended

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In April 2000, Enron was still flying high, at least publicly. Jeffrey K. Skilling, the president and chief operating officer at the time, faced a video camera and spoke enthusiastically about the corporate culture that would, he insisted, enable Enron to go from the world's largest energy-trading company to the world's leading company, period.

''People have an obligation to dissent in this company,'' Mr. Skilling said, detailing Enron's core values of respect, communication, excellence and integrity as company posters of a sunflower and a smiling baby girl flashed on the screen of what became a multimedia computer presentation. ''I mean, I sit up here on the 50th floor, in the library. I have no idea what's going on down there, so if you've got a problem with it, speak up. And if you don't speak up, that's not good.''

The video was part of what was supposed to be and, for a few months, was a case study of a phenomenal transformation, prepared by two University of Virginia business professors with exclusive access to Enron's top executives. But what was meant to inspire students has become a cautionary tale, a study in hubris all the more valuable for its intimate picture of life before the fall.

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British Online MBA for Managers Upgrade your career today ! www.college.ch The professors, Robert F. Bruner and Samuel E. Bodily, who teach at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, first saw Mr. Skilling in November 1999, when he spoke at the school. What they saw then was someone, they said, who might be the next John F. Welch, leading a company whose story could be told alongside those of