The End of Enron’s Empire

Abstract

Enron Corporation was the seventh largest company in the U.S. when its collapse shocked the nation. Enormous assets and careers staked on those assets went up in flames. It was the largest single failure in U.S. corporate history at the time and remains the most egregious case of corporate irresponsibility. Yet aside from the infamous fraudulent accounting practices, the Enron story has much to tell us about online commodity trading, decentralized IT management, and a hyper-competitive working environment. Pioneering new methods in e-commerce, Enron used electronic technology to facilitate business transactions and managed to create the largest e-commerce Web site in the world. While pushing off-the-books accounting to new levels on the one hand, Enron, on the other hand, innovated some very forward-looking projects, and what began as a smart business plan ended in disaster.