...Lessons from Lehman Brothers: Will We Ever Learn Learning Team B MGT/521 July 27, 2015 Sandra Griffin Lessons from Lehman Brothers: Will We Ever Learn The culture at Lehman Brothers was one of greed, excess, and corruption. According to Lawrence Serewicz (2011-2013) “…profits before prudence means risk that can never be avoided” (para 19). Lehman Brothers culture was clearly that of “…go along to get along” (para 20). The culture at Lehman Brothers was a culture that encouraged risk taking. Robbins & Coulter (2010) reveal that culture and reward system supported and handsomely rewarded employees that made questionable and risky deals, while those that questioned poor decisions were overruled or completely disregarded. Top executives failed to recognize or ignored the magnitude of the problem and continued to hide behind falsified documents and loopholes like “Repo 105”. The culture at Lehman Brother was an environment of “don’t ask, don’t tell”. Executives shunned employees for asking questions about the risky actions and deal-making of top executives, or those in a position to make financial decisions regarding the company. A lot of incidents that were knowingly harmful to the company financially were swept under the rug. Many employees went along with the decisions for fear of losing their jobs. In return for their silence and willingness to go along with poor decision making, they were over compensated for their employment. The textbook notes that individuals...
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..."Lessons from Lehman Brothers: Will We Ever Learn?" Maria Diana Lazaro, Freda Macaisa, and Patricia Molina MGTP/521 February 20, 2013 Richard Dettling "Lessons from Lehman Brothers: Will We Ever Learn?" #2.Discussion Question: What was the culture at Lehman Brothers like? How did this culture contribute to the company’s downfall? Discussion: The unethical culture by the top executives in the Lehman Brothers company was one of the major contributions to the downfall of this organization. According to the legal expert Anton R. Salukis, Lehman Brothers excessively used accounting manipulations. The negligence or the willful blindness of Lehman’s CEO, Richard Fuld, promoted the practice of filing misleading financial reports by abusing an accounting device, Repo 105. Through this accounting manipulation, they could remove fifty billion of unwanted assets off the balance sheets on 2008 [ (Robbins, 2012, p. 147) ]. Looking into the culture of this corporation, it can be said that this company was corrupted and the only purpose of its leaders was the appetite for money. Because of the company’s success, the leadership became greedy. This greediness motivated them to falsify information that covered up the true company’s financial health. They engaged into bigger and riskier deals just to maintain their image to the stakeholders. The Lehman Brothers executives used a corrupted strategic plan to create a picture of a respectful status and an excellent financial statement. The...
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...Lessons from Lehman Brothers: Will We Ever Learn? Steven Figueroa, Adrian Bland, Victoria Fabuluje, Amy Ramkey, Carmen M. Ortiz MGT/521 03/10/14 CHRISTINE GNIEDZIEJKA Lessons from Lehman Brothers: Will We Ever Learn? 2. What was the culture at Lehman Brothers like? How did this culture contribute to the company's downfall? Anyone knows that rewarding bad or illegal behavior can lead to the making of a person who is irresponsible and reckless. This is a general description of the type of employees involved in the Lehman Brothers company culture. The Lehman Brothers culture was out of control and a blind eye was turned to any high risk deals and or illegal modifications done to the company balance sheet. Many failed or wrong decisions made by management often went without consequence. In fact, individuals making any high risk or questionable deals were treated like superstars or moneymakers rather than irresponsible or uncalculated decision makers. This type of reward system can only draw the attention of the greedy and crooked minded. The type of culture created was a recipe of disaster for the Lehman Brothers company. There were some employees that did not agree with many of the choices made by upper management. But, when they attempted to voice their opinion or concerns they were ignored and overruled leaving them no choice but to follow suit. By ignoring any standards, ethics or controls to guide the Lehman Brothers culture the employees were left to express their...
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...Read Case Application 1, "Lessons from Lehman Brothers: Will We Ever Learn?" at the end of Ch. 5 of Management. Discuss the scenario with your team. Discuss the second, third, and fifth discussion questions at the end of the case with your team. Answer each question based on your team's discussion in no more than 350 words per question. Click the Assignment Files tab to submit your assignment. 2. What was the culture at Lehman Brothers like? How did this culture contribute to the company's downfall? The culture at Lehhman Brothers was questionable. Based on the readings, they gave their employees the ability to make high risk decisions to take in high financial rewards without approvals or collaborating with other team members. The culture was based on which employee made the most money, regardless of the risk. The top executives were also dishonest by manipulating the balance sheets to ensure short term financial results were beneficial to the organization, Lehman Brothers executives and employees lacked ethic and moral values resulting to the company's downfall. 3. What role did Lehman’s executives play in the company’s collapse? Were they being responsible and ethical? Lehman’s executives play in company’s collapse was caused by their conduct “serious but nonculpable errors of business judgment to actionable balance sheet manipulation.” Lehman’s executives were not being responsible nor ethical by balance sheet manipulation. They were dishonest in their finances...
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...Lessons from Lehman Brothers: Will We Ever Learn? On September 15, 2008, financial services firm lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy with the U.S Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York. That action - the largest Chapter 11 filling in financial history – unleashed a “crisis of confidence that threw financial markets worldwide into turmoil, sparking the worst crisis since the Great Depression.” The fall of this Wall Street icon is, unfortunately, not a new one, as we’ve seen in the stories of Enron, WorldCom, and others. In a report released by bankruptcy court-appointed examiner Anton Valukas, Lehman executives and the firm’s auditor, Ernst and Young, were lambasted for actions that led to the firm’s collapse. He said, “Lehman repeatedly exceeded its own internal risk limits and controls, and a wide range of bad calls by its management led to the bank’s failure.” Let’s look behind the scenes at some of the issues. One of the major problems at Lehman was its culture and reward structure. Excessive risk taking by employees was openly lauded and rewarded handsomely. Individuals making questionable deals were hailed and treated as “conquering heroes.” On the other hand, anyone who questioned decisions was often ignored or overruled. For instance, Oliver Budde, who served as an associate generals counsel at Lehman for nine years, was responsible for preparing the firm’s public filings on executives were paid,” Budde argued with his bosses for years about that matter...
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...Lessons from Lehman Brothers: Will We Ever Learn? MGT 521 September 9, 2013 Introduction Lehman Brothers financial services filed bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, in the New York Southern District U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Resulting in an immediate 500 point drop in the Dow Jones (Did Ernst & Young Really Assist Financial Fraud? 2011). This day became known as ‘‘Dark Monday’’ (Donaldson, 2012). This was to date, the largest bankruptcy filing in history unleashing a “crisis of confidence that threw financial markets worldwide into turmoil, sparking the worst crisis since the Great Depression.” However this financial icon’s fall is no surprise. The bankruptcy examiner released reports saying that the firm’s executives and auditor, “lambasted” for what they did to cause the collapse of the firm (Robbins & Coulter, 2010). The Lehman Brother culture was one of risk and reward. At the company, “Excessive risk taking by employees was openly lauded and rewarded handsomely. Employees knew they could give risky ideas and they would get rewards for them. Individuals making questionable deals were hailed and treated as ‘conquering heroes’.” (Robbins & Coulter, 2010, pp. 147-148). If anyone would question decisions made or speak out in disagreement, executives would not listen. In addition, the executives would overrule and go with the least desirable decision. Most companies would be wary of taking so many risks and only give reward after that...
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...Week 6 Balanced Scorecard, MGT 521 Week 6 Career Plan Reflection, MGT 521 Week 6 Learning Team Reflection,Week 6 Quiz 1- Write a reflection paper of no more than 350 words based on the Career Plan Building Activities completed throughout this course. In the paper, consider the following questions: What are the next steps in your career plan? What milestones have you established in the Career Plan to monitor your progress towards your career goals? Why do you think these steps are important in helping you progress? How can you focus your time and attention in future courses based on your career competencies and goals? Click the Assignment Files tab to submit your assignment. 2- Read Case Application 1, “Lessons from Lehman Brothers: Will We Ever Learn?” at the end of Ch. 5 of Management. Discuss the scenario with your team. Discuss the second, third, and fifth discussion questions at the end of the case with your team. Answer each question based on your team’s discussion in no more than 350 words per question. Click the Assignment Files tab to submit your assignment. 3-1. As a university student, your institution’s social principles and practices reflect on you, as a stakeholder, in the organization. Therefore, it is your right to question how these practices should be evaluated in relation to the social issues that your school is addressing. If your university was paying minimum wage when necessary and applying the minimum legal standards to its employees’...
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...Part A: 1. Introduction The Financial Crisis of 2007-2010 is often cited as the most significant downturn in the economy since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It erupted on August 9, 2007 and spread throughout the advanced market economies such as the US and the UK. The Financial crisis of 2007 is notably different from other crises we faced, for instance Anthony Herbst and Joseph Wu (2009) argued that ‘the financial crisis of this first decade of the 3rd millennium has features that make it both severe and somewhat intractable’. The crisis is argued to be not exogenous to our capitalist economic system, since it is intimately connected to financial innovation and de-regulation in financial markets. Furthermore, as Herbst and Wu (2009) advocate, ‘the current pandemic’ should be discussed in the light of ‘the political wrapper surrounding many aspects of it, and the threads running through it’. The economic situation and financial behaviour are always affected by political realm, so it is also necessary to consider political factors in evaluation of the crisis. General causes of this crisis are still being debated in the academic literature, and this paper aims to provide a relatively comprehensive outlook on the most common and empirically successful accounts of factors that contributed to the crisis. This report is organised as follows: part 1 provides a brief introduction to the current financial crisis; part 2 briefly evaluates the possible causes; part 3 examines whether...
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...TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTERS CHAPTER 1 – Abstract 3 CHAPTER 2 – Introduction 4 CHAPTER 3 – Body Paragraphs 4 CHAPTER 4 – Discussion 5 CHAPTER 5 – Conclusion 8 REFERENCES 8 Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis: What Went Wrong? Abstract: The crisis of subprime mortgages has become a huge problem in the U.S. financial industry in the last few years and has affected the global financial market too. The smaller mortgage companies fell one by one until Bear Stearns also fell; then the “Titanic” of the mortgage world – Lehman Brothers – also fell. The ripple effect of the fall of Lehman Brothers coupled with the near death of AIG, nearly crashed the financial market and sent shock waves through the global markets. The effect of the crisis is still being felt in the housing market with no clear resolution in sight. This essay emphasizes the caution of this crisis to our economy. I. Introduction The mortgage crisis in 2008 didn’t have to happen but it did. Why did it happen? At a first glance, it seems it came out of nowhere but a deeper analysis shows that a series of events such as the explosion of sub-prime mortgages on the market and the easy accessibility of credit set the stage for the meltdown. II. Body Paragraphs A. In 2000 when President Clinton was in office, he signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act which led to the unregulated trading of the Credit Default Swaps (CDS). B. Sub-prime originators invented the mortgage to sell...
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...corporate America does business and much, unfortunately, has remained the same, with new frauds and excessive risk-taking exposed all too frequently. "We did learn some lessons and people were more careful, but greed creeps back in again," said Lawrence Weiss, professor of international accounting at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Before the bankruptcy of WorldCom in 2002, Enron's bankruptcy was the largest in U.S. history. Names like AIG and WorldCom may have replaced Enron in the vernacular when referring to corporate meltdowns and greed. Enron executives Kenneth Lay, Jeff Skilling and Andrew Fastow -- all convicted of white collar crimes -- emblemized the bad side of the one percent before the term existed. Once the darling of Wall Street, Enron was the country's seventh-largest company with a soaring stock price that grew more than 100 percent in 2000. The company collapsed in a matter of months as the media and the public became aware of its faulty accounting and business practices. Conflicts of interest continue to occur Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the permanent subcommittee on investigations which reported on the role of Enron's board and investment banks' response to lessons learned from Enron, said the Enron scandal did not put an end to corporate malfeasance.. "One lesson we haven't learned from Enron is that corporations will engage in conflicts of interest, and some won't stop until action is taken," he said. Enron allowed its chief financial...
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...India and the Global Financial Crisis What Have We Learnt? 1 - Duvvuri Subbarao _________________________________________________________ Thank you for inviting me to deliver the 2011 K R Narayanan Oration. It is an honour to which I attach a lot of value. President Narayanan 2. Late President Narayanan was a distinguished diplomat, a reputed parliamentarian, a capable minister and above all an erudite scholar. Born at the very bottom of India’s social pyramid, he rose on to occupy the highest office in the country with no assets other than hard work, integrity and humility. ‘A working President’, as he described himself, he never allowed dogma to overwhelm his beliefs and convictions. 3. President Narayanan was in office from 1997 to 2002, a time when globalization, as we are experiencing it in the current times, was taking root. At the banquet he hosted for the visiting US President Bill Clinton in New Delhi in March 2000, President Narayanan remarked: “Mr. President, we do recognise and welcome the fact that the world has been moving inevitably towards a one-world... But, for us, globalization does not mean the end of history and geography, and of the lively and exciting diversities of the world.” This was a thoughtful remark. As much as globalization may be inevitable, history and geography need not be destiny. If we learn the lessons of experience, we will not repeat the same mistakes. This indeed is the topic for my 1 K.R. Narayanan Oration by Dr. Duvvuri...
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...as to prevent the controlled growth of safe and profitable financial service businesses. Analysis Up to 1999, banking regulation had been fairly constant since the Great Depression ended. The Golden Rule had been the Glass-Steagal Act. The Glass-Steagall Act, was passed by Congress in 1933 and prohibited commercial banks from engaging in the investment business. It was enacted as an emergency response to the failure of nearly 5,000 banks during the Great Depression. The act was originally part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program and became a permanent measure in 1945. It gave tighter regulation of national banks to the Federal Reserve System; prohibited bank sales of securities; and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insures bank deposits with a pool of money appropriated from banks. In 1999, Bill Clinton signed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, a bank deregulation bill that swept away the Depression-era Glass-Steagall law. The new law had such a chorus of bipartisan support that it passed the Senate 90-8. One of the few who raised concerns against it was Senator Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota). “I think we...
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...: LEHMAN BROTHERS HOLDINGS INC., : et al., : : Debtors. : ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ x Chapter 11 Case No. 08‐13555 (JMP) (Jointly Administered) REPORT OF ANTON R. VALUKAS, EXAMINER March 11, 2010 Jenner & Block LLP 353 N. Clark Street Chicago, IL 60654‐3456 312‐222‐9350 919 Third Avenue 37th Floor New York, NY 10022‐3908 212‐891‐1600 Counsel to the Examiner VOLUME 1 OF 9 Sections I & II: Introduction, Executive Summary & Procedural Background Section III.A.1: Risk EXAMINER’S REPORT TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME 1 Introduction, Sections I & II: Executive Summary & Procedural Background Introduction ...................................................................................................................................2 I. Executive Summary of The Examiner’s Conclusions ......................................................15 A. Why Did Lehman Fail? Are There Colorable Causes of Action That Arise From Its Financial Condition and Failure?..................................................................15 B. Are There Administrative Claims or Colorable Claims For Preferences or Voidable Transfers? ........................................................................................................24 C. Do Colorable Claims Arise From Transfers of LBHI Affiliate Assets to ...
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...seekers. We have designed this Insider Guide to save you time doing your job research and to provide highly accurate information written precisely for the needs of the job-seeking public. (We also hope that you’ll enjoy reading it, because, believe it or not, the job search doesn’t have to be a pain in the neck.) Each WetFeet Insider Guide represents hundreds of hours of careful research and writing. We start with a review of the public information available. (Our writers are also experts in reading between the lines.) We augment this information with dozens of in-depth interviews of people who actually work for each company or industry we cover. And, although we keep the identity of the rank-and-file employees anonymous to encourage candor, we also interview the company’s recruiting staff extensively, to make sure that we give you, the reader, accurate information about recruiting, process, compensation, hiring targets, and so on. (WetFeet retains all editorial control of the product.) We also regularly survey our members and customers to learn about their experiences in the recruiting process. Finally, each Insider Guide goes through an editorial review and fact-checking process to make sure that the information and writing live up to our exacting standards before it goes out the door. Are we perfect? No—but we do believe that you’ll find our content to be the highest-quality content of its type available on the Web or in print. (Please see our guarantee below.) We also are...
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...07975484 Word Count- 2,021 Introduction Dictum Meum Pactum- My word is my bond. Simple, powerful, trustworthy. Unfortunately, the world we live in is not simple, those that hold power (and those that do not) are not always trustworthy. Moral hazard is rife in everyday decisions we make, when multimillion amounts are on the line this does not simply fade. In fact, the temptation to break moral code is as high as it will ever be. As much as we would like to trust those in control to be acting in our best interest, we definitely feel better when there are safeguards in place to ensure we are protected. These safeguards are the beginning of the notion of corporate governance, “The process of supervision and control intended to ensure that the company’s management acts in accordance with the interests of shareholders” Parkinson (1993). Over the course of this essay I will investigate and explain how corporate governance has failed and how this failure is arguably at fault for, or at least contributed to, the recent financial crisis in the UK. Critically assessing the pitfalls in corporate governance I will present a reasonable case for where responsibility lies for resolving previous problems and from this move to suggest potential areas for improvement that may limit the potential for future failure. What has happened? We have experienced financial crisis. The causes have been widely debated. By examining what has happened may allow us to figure out what was at...
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