Revisiting Enron twenty years later: Eight executive blind spots worth remembering

Abstract

It has now been over twenty years since the downfall of the corporate giant, Enron. Yet, researchers continue to ponder the leadership decisions carried out by its executive leadership. How is it that a company poised to become the new benchmark in global business could seemingly implode overnight? How could the executive leadership model strength without weakness, only to be shrouded by blind spots that ensured their ultimate doom and failure? In response, Enron’s downfall was not due to a lack of intelligence or technical acumen. The executive leadership possessed the experience and connections to grow a multi-national organization. The organization had positive inertia and public support. Yet, Enron remains one of the greatest examples of corporate failure and scandal. In this article, I will argue that Enron’s downfall was the result of a series of eight negative cultural artifacts sown deeply into the fabric of the organization by its leadership, resulting in internal chaos and almost total corporate communications failure. I will then provide a best-practice research response to each artifact as to how the leadership at Enron could have saved the organization and achieved its global vision. While culture is not everything in an organization, I believe it shapes the heart. If an executive leadership team gets the culture right, ensuring that employees align their actions with the corporate vision, I believe that profit margins will take care of themselves. While Enron’s fate is sealed, its mistakes continue to offer leadership wisdom by foresight, rather than hindsight.