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Ken Lay was never satisfied and in his efforts to achieve more and more monetary gains, he implemented coercive power to shape his corporate culture. This power was most prevalently seen in the company’s employee review process; wittingly nicknamed “rank and yank” if employees of Enron ranked in the bottom 20% in regards to performance they would be conveniently railroaded out of the company (Farrell, 2013, up. 395-405). Mr.. Lay wanted the best executives working for him, with a goal to motivate individuals to be the best they could be, but in my opinion, he created conflicts of interest that drove he company into bankruptcy. . Did Enron’s bankers, auditors, and attorneys contribute to Enron’s demise? If so how? None of the scandals that took place at Enron would have been possible without the support of their attorneys, bankers, and auditors. Enron’s lawyers, Vinson & Alkies’, wrote opinion letters supporting the legality of many of their dealings. Without these letters, Enron would not have been able to follow through with many of their transactions. Enron’s leading bank affiliate, Merrill Lynch made internal hiring and firing decisions based on he recommendations and pressuring threats of Enron executives (Farrell, 201 3, up. 95-405). The party with the highest level of contribution to the demise of Enron would have to be their external and internal auditing firm Arthur Anderson ALP. Investors and stakeholders both internally and externally use this certified information to make critical business decisions. Anderson ALP was one of Enron’s major business partners, with more than 100 employees dedicated to this account with an estimate of 50 million dollars a year in consulting services (Farrell, 201 5, page 492).
The unfortunate common denominator for all of these external companies is the level of influence Enron had on their profit margins. Enron was almost 10% of Vinson & Alkies annual revenue; Enron held similar if not greater margins with many of the other companies that helped with all of the unethical decisions (Farrell, 2013, up. 395-405). The threat of losing the profits associated with Enron’s business clouded the ethical judgment of organizations that conducted business with them. 3. What role did the company’s chief financial officer play in creating the robbers that led to Enron’s financial problems?
In researching the case study, it is to my understanding that Mr.. Andrew Fast was hired for the sole purpose of developing an elaborate network of special purpose entities to cover up over $1 billion in debt (Farrell, 201 3, up. 395-405).