Ldr_Week_1_Assignment

The downfall of Enron is one of the most memorable and unexpected events in U.S. financial history. The repercussions were felt around the world. The Enron Corporation was one of the most admired companies in the world at the time of its downfall. The company had revenues of over 139 billion dollars. The Enron Corporation was praised by outside sources, but on the other hand the company had a lot of internal issues. Enron was one the largest companies that dealt with global energy as well as services and goods. The company also dealt with natural gas and electricity. The company was originally based in Houston, Texas. Even at the beginning of its existence Enron had some very interesting accounting services. The two companies of InterNorth of Omaha in Nebraska and the Houston Natural Gas company combined to form Enron. The company began to evolve from not only delivering energy to also selling energy futures on the en energy market. Enron employed over 25,000 people globally by the beginning of 2001. Even though the company appeared to have a bright future in front of it, there were many things that needed to be addressed so that company could continue to prosper. There were many different reasons that caused the eventual bankruptcy of Enron. The main reasons why Enron went bankrupt are because of poor behaviors in the areas of leadership, management, and organizational structure. The leadership at Enron I believe forgot to cherish the responsibility and power that was bestowed upon them. One of the main responsibilities of leadership and a management is transferring the energy and time that is put into the company into valuable product that will benefit the company and its shareholders. It has always been believed if a company has a solid stream of revenue, then the company is solid in the three areas that were mentioned above. Management and Leadership are the key components to any successful business. The management at ENRON failed to fulfill the key elements of running a successful corporation. Some of those interests include making sure that the company is run in an ethical manner. Ethics, which is essential part to any reputable organization, is something that was obviously missing from ENRON. Ethics would have stopped some of the leaders from making the decisions that they did, which eventually led the company to bankruptcy. I believe that main philosophy of operations management should be focused on creating ethical values, competence, a strong sense of integrity, and most importantly a clear model of personal accountability. This aspect of leadership was definitely looked over by those involved at ENRON .Individual and corporate greed brought about the collapse of ENRON. The intent of the company was not always focused on greed. In fact the company actually took some steps to prevent its ethical structure from breaking down. The Enron Chief, by the name of Skilling, actually founded the Performance Review Committee. This committee gained the reputation of being one of the strictest employee-ranking systems in the whole country. The system was actually based on the values of ENRON which are respect, integrity, communication, and excellence. The employees in spite of the committee believed that as long as they produced strong profits for the company, that the company would continue to prosper. The company as a whole had to unfortunately learn a lesson in proper ethical behavior. This is why the company experienced the failure that it did. In conclusion, the downfall of ENRON is still one of the most shocking events in U.S. history. ENRON at one point was one of the top countries in the world. ENRON was praised by many people outside the company, but the corporation had many internal problems. It is always important for any company to have s strong foundation in the areas of leadership, management, and organizational structure. If a company does not possess these things they are subject to endure the same faith as ENRON.