half? double? zero? If so, revisit and research the matter until you can clearly show you're motivated by substantive factors that weigh in the company's best interest, rather than your personal financial interest. If you ever find yourself questioning a decision, ask yourself if you'd act differently if your pay or bonus was. There are many helpful courses on business communications. The reality is that you're creating risk and if people are laughing it's probably to alleviate discomfort than express humor. If your recorded statements and emails contain profanity, racial or gender slurs or nicknames that are the same as those overheard on a grade school playground or in a blockbuster movie, you need training. The best way to protect yourself and the company is to refrain from whatever discussions or actions you think you "shouldn't email." Period. You're actually creating risk and potential financial and government liability. If you hear colleagues saying "don't put that in email," ask yourself who this lack of documentation would protect? Nobody. Don't do things that you think you "shouldn't email." You shouldn't be sending legal memos and important matters via interoffice or ways that don't create a record. Maintain your inner compass so you can be guided by your own principles rather than blindly follow the orders of your boss (or CEO, parent or spouse). No person, idea or company is infallible. Here are some of the gems: - Your superiors won't always be superior. If you work in the corporate world, particularly in BD/ M&A or G&A functions like Finance and Legal, you'll find this tale particularly illuminating (and cautionary). This story of corruption is broadly applicable across sectors and the laws broken are relevant for corporations and public markets generally. I find his reading a bit slow, but perhaps it's good for complicated material. Dennis Boutsikaris is a fairly good reader for nonfiction. The Smartest Guys in the Room by Bethany McLean is a detailed account of the rise and fall of Enron and it gives the most insight into the actions of Lay, Skilling, and Fastow. It was a financial conglomerate, a deregulation-securitization-self-dealing disaster. Turns out, Enron wasn't really an energy company. I'm general counsel for a drug company, and I'm not too familiar with the energy space. Required reading for corp Legal & Finance I just wish that this one last chapter had been written. To return to the personal, I'm currently general counsel of a Houston company and I desperately want to make sure this doesn't happen to us. Business people, regulators, and investors need to know - perhaps more now than in 2002. Lord knows, after dealing with facts so well, she must have some serious insights on the subject. But there's no end chapter dealing with the take-home lessons. Here, Bethany McLean has a great deal of experience and comparative knowledge. McLean makes much of Enron's corporate culture, and perhaps that's the core issue. One has to do both, and Enron plainly refused to do either but that isn't the right question. Here, it's obvious she has never actually had the responsibility of running or growing a business. She often repeats a mantra about the evils of following the letter of the law while ignoring its purpose. McLean even expressly disavows any conclusion about where and when Enron top management crossed the line from aggressive business to fraud. There's no analytical conclusion - no real take-home lesson. In a strange way, McLean falls into the same trap as Ken Lay, progressively disengaging her analytical objectivity for the sake of telling a good story and, yes, making the extra buck. But the narrative from 1998 onwards is tightly focused on upper Enron management, and it takes on an increasingly simplistic, moralizing tone as the story nears its end. Her description of the pressures and temptations in the Houston energy community in the 1980's and most of the 1990's certainly hit the nail on the head from my perspective. Here's my gripe: McLean starts by giving a reasonable, thoughtful, and completely convincing account of the factors that gradually pushed Enron onto a slippery slope. Even better, Boutsikaris' narration is possibly the best of any Audible I've listened to in quite a while - possibly ever. This is more than worth the price of the book. She also does an exemplary job explaining Enron's rise and its culture. McLean does a wonderful job setting out the history. I always wondered what had actually happened. While the Enron story was passing from business legend to business nightmare at 1400 Smith Street in Houston, I worked in an office at 1200 Smith. An excellent book, but with a missing chapter
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