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Item Upon - The Collapse of Enron: Managerial Aspects
In this world, we have set some rules for ourselves. We break them as we wish, and we fear to break some of them. Education and employment has one such rule. It is called ‘qualification’.How does one know if a person is qualified? Grant them a piece of paper. That piece of paper, in civilized language, is called a ‘degree’. This degree tells the outside world that this person is ‘qualified’ to do the job listed in the degree details. That the degree holder has had NOT a minute of practical real world experience is another matter.There is a person who has been doing his job, say, getting sales, for about 7 years, say. He has been doing his job well, that is why he is still holding it, right? In comes a young fellow, with a paper stating that he is ‘qualified’ for the job – that he has had ‘specific education’ for the job. You, the employer, would immediately begin favoring the scales towards the paper holder than the bloke who was working with you for 7 years and providing you continuous business – without the paper in his hand.Think about it, how do you propose to justify the preposition that a person who is *living* the situation ranks lower than the person who has merely *studied for* the situation? The paper holder claims that he has *studied about* the situation, and he is *ready* to tackle it when the situation comes. The present employee without the degree says that he is not only *ready* for the situation, he actually
Since Enron was always considered a blue chip stock, the bankruptcy was a disastrous and unprecedented event in the global financial world. Enron's downfall was definite when it was found out that a considerable share of its profits resulted from deals with so-called special-purpose entities, limited partnership under control of Enron. It resulted in the possibility of not reporting many of the company's losses in its financial statements. The final plan of Enron's bankruptcy included creation of three new businesses which would be spun off the company.
The reorganization process started in 2003 with the creation of three companies - CrossCountry Energy, Prisma Energy International, and Portland General Electric. CrossCountry Energy wa
Change is not a unique property of the social reality we see around us. In fact, the social reality is constantly changing and this is not experienced as something strange. The social reality, in turn, consists of organizations. If a group of people organize themselves for some purpose, an organization is born. Whether this group of individuals has organized itself to run a company which manufactures a certain product or for social purposes (friendship, charity, etc.), the most important fact is that people are subjected to numerous kinds of organizations in their daily life. Each person organizes part of his or her life, and the remaining part is organized by other forms of organizations. Organizational change is always difficult because behavioral patterns must be completely rearranged. This aspect will result in a tendency to resist change. The question is: how and when do organizations change? In this article three theories of organizational change will be discussed.The first theory is that of Lewin who proposed a theory of change based on empirical data. This theory sees change as a three step procedure: unfreezing, moving, and freezing. According to Lewin, the study of conditions for change begins with an analysis of the state of equilibrium or the state where there is no change at all. This state of equilibrium is not a stationary, but a quasistationary equilibrium. Social change can be compared to a river which alters its velocity
Its revenues made up US $139($184) billion, assets equaled $62($82) billion, and the number of employees reached more than 30,000 people in 20 countries around the world.
While Enron Corporation was so highly praised by the outside observers, internally it had highly decentralized financial control and decision-making structure, which made it practically impossible to get coherent and clear view on corporations' activities and operations. Of course, the problem was not exclusively due to poor managerial performance, all the departments of the corporation were involved in the ruining corporate ethical values and principles, but executives and managers bear primary responsibility for the absence of corporate culture, clear accountability and transparence of the company. If operations management worked properly, in its full force, and if it was given possibility to work in such a way, there could be a chance of escaping the tragedy.
Enron Corp brief history
Enron Corporation was one of the largest global energy, services and commodities company. Before it filed bankruptcy under chapter 11, it sold natural gas and electricity, delivered energy and other commodities such as bandwidth internet connection, and provided risk management and financial services to the clients around the world.
Enron was based in Houston, Texas, and was founded in July 1985 (though company with Enron name emerged still in 1930 (Swatz, Watkins, 2003)) by the merger of InterNorth of Omaha in Nebraska, and Houston Natural Gas. Enron Company quickly developed from merely delivering energy to brokering energy futures contracts on deregulated energy markets. In 1994, the company started to sell electricity, and in 1995, it entered European energy market. By the middle 2001, Enron employed about 30,000 people globally (McLEan, Elkind,2003).
Questionable accounting methods and techniques provided Enron with possibility to be listed as seventh largest United States company and was expected to dominate the market which the company virtually invented in the communications, weather and power securities (Bryce, 2002). But instead the corporation became the largest corporate failure in the global history and an example of well-planned and institutionalized corporate fraud. Enron became wealthy due to its pioneering marketing and promotion of power and communications bandwidth services and risk management derivatives, including such innovative and exotic items as weather derivatives.
In 1999, Enron launched an initiative of buying and selling access to high-speed Internet bandwidth, and also Enron Online was launched as a Web-based trading site, making Enron e-commerce company. In 2000, the reported revenues of the company made $101 billion. It had stakes in almost 30,000 miles of gas pipelines, either owned or accessed 15,000 miles of fiber-optic network and had stakes in global operations on generating electricity (Thomas, 2002).
In the result, for five years in a row, from 1996 to 2000, Enron was named "America's most innovative Company" by Fortune magazine, and headed the list of Fortune's "100 best companies to Work for in America" in 2000. Enron reputation was undermined by rumors on bribery and political pressure with the objective of securing contacts in South and Central America, Philippines and Africa. The Enron was blamed to use its connections with Clinton and Bush administrations to express pressure in their contracts. The events were followed by a series of scandals involving irregular accounting methods bordering on fraud which involved Enron and Arthur Andersen accounting firm and led Enron on the verge of undergoing the largest bankruptcy in economic history in November 2001 (Emshwiller, Smith, 2001).
Since Enron was always considered a blue chip stock, the bankruptcy was a disastrous and unprecedented event in the global financial world. Enron's downfall was definite when it was found out that a considerable share of its profits resulted from deals with so-called special-purpose entities, limited partnership under control of Enron. It resulted in the possibility of not reporting many of the company's losses in its financial statements. The final plan of Enron's bankruptcy included creation of three new businesses which would be spun off the company.
The reorganization process started in 2003 with the creation of three companies - CrossCountry Energy, Prisma Energy International, and Portland General Electric. CrossCountry Energy was
Your network consists of family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and former employers. It also consists of your dentist, your barber or hair stylist, your accountant and your local grocery store manager. Networking is not only who you know, but who knows you. You may know a lot of people, but how well do they know you – especially in terms of your skills, talents, creativity and potential? How familiar are these people with your value proposition -- your unique gifts?It is your value proposition that differentiates you from the crowd; it is what stands out in the minds of those with whom you are networking. Your value proposition is the cornerstone for all self-introductory communication. It sets the tone. It’s how you make your mark. It is how you describe yourself during any networking scenario.The best way to network is to communicate your qualities to the people you know, so they in turn will know you better. Practice doing this in as concise and clear a way as possible. When you communicate your value proposition in a lasered way, you will be extremely effective.Networking is never about asking someone for a job. It’s about letting people in, and asking questions such as “Who do you know?” and “Who else should I be talking to?” This process can truly mushroom, especially if you don’t wait until you are out of work before making contact with people. The results can be quite amazing.Networking is also ab
Enron Corp brief history
Enron Corporation was one of the largest global energy, services and commodities company. Before it filed bankruptcy under chapter 11, it sold natural gas and electricity, delivered energy and other commodities such as bandwidth internet connection, and provided risk management and financial services to the clients around the world.
Enron was based in Houston, Texas, and was founded in July 1985 (though company with Enron name emerged still in 1930 (Swatz, Watkins, 2003)) by the merger of InterNorth of Omaha in Nebraska, and Houston Natural Gas. Enron Company quickly developed from merely delivering energy to brokering energy futures contracts on deregulated energy markets. In 1994, the company started to sell electricity, and in 1995, it entered European energy market. By the middle 2001, Enron employed about 30,000 people globally (McLEan, Elkind,2003).
Questionable accounting methods and techniques provided Enron with possibility to be listed as seventh largest United States company and was expected to dominate the market which the company virtually invented in the communications, weather and power securities (Bryce, 2002). But instead the corporation became the largest corporate failure in the global history and an example of well-planned and institutionalized corporate fraud. Enron became wealthy due to its pioneering marketing and promotion of power and communications bandwidth services and risk management derivatives, including such innovative and exotic items as weather derivatives.
In 1999, Enron launched an initiative of buying and selling access to high-speed Internet bandwidth, and also Enron Online was launched as a Web-based trading site, making Enron e-commerce company. In 2000, the reported revenues of the company made $101 billion. It had stakes in almost 30,000 miles of gas pipelines, either owned or accessed 15,000 miles of fiber-optic network and had stakes in global operations on generating electricity (Thomas, 2002).
In the result, for five years in a row, from 1996 to 2000, Enron was named "America's most innovative Company" by Fortune magazine, and headed the list of Fortune's "100 best companies to Work for in America" in 2000. Enron reputation was undermined by rumors on bribery and political pressure with the objective of securing contacts in South and Central America, Philippines and Africa. The Enron was blamed to use its connections with Clinton and Bush administrations to express pressure in their contracts. The events were followed by a series of scandals involving irregular accounting methods bordering on fraud which involved Enron and Arthur Andersen accounting firm and led Enron on the verge of undergoing the largest bankruptcy in economic history in November 2001 (Emshwiller, Smith, 2001).
Since Enron was always considered a blue chip stock, the bankruptcy was a disastrous and unprecedented event in the global financial world. Enron's downfall was definite when it was found out that a considerable share of its profits resulted from deals with so-called special-purpose entities, limited partnership under control of Enron. It resulted in the possibility of not reporting many of the company's losses in its financial statements. The final plan of Enron's bankruptcy included creation of three new businesses which would be spun off the company.
The reorganization process started in 2003 with the creation of three companies - CrossCountry Energy, Prisma Energy International, and Portland General Electric. CrossCountry Energy wa
Perhaps, the hardest thing a person will have to do is find the right career that suits their personality. The fact is, most of us have to work but how many of us are actually working in our dream job? One difficulty in getting there is not knowing what would make us happy professionally. Sure you may think you know the answer, but without indepth research you are only guessing.For most people, the process of finding a career starts in college. As a senior in high school you are expected to not only decide on a college to attend, but also to choose your profession. Then you head off to a university and begin your quest to become educated in your chosen field with the hopes of landing a terrific job. How can you expect to decide on your future if you haven't looked at all the possibilities? Perhaps this is the reason that so many undergraduate students either change their majors or leave school altogether. Maybe with a little more direction upfront this would be avoided.So How Do You Get The Career Direction You Need?A couple great places to start is at career centers and job fairs. You can begin networking with many professionals to gain some insight into what they do at their jobs. You can also talk with counselors to assess your strengths, weaknesses, and goals to find the best career matches. Notice how I said 'matches' there (plural). There likely are several careers that match your needs, and you should identify a
Questionable accounting methods and techniques provided Enron with possibility to be listed as seventh largest United States company and was expected to dominate the market which the company virtually invented in the communications, weather and power securities (Bryce, 2002). But instead the corporation became the largest corporate failure in the global history and an example of well-planned and institutionalized corporate fraud. Enron became wealthy due to its pioneering marketing and promotion of power and communications bandwidth services and risk management derivatives, including such innovative and exotic items as weather derivatives.
In 1999, Enron launched an initiative of buying and selling access to high-speed Internet bandwidth, and also Enron Online was launched as a Web-based trading site, making Enron e-commerce company. In 2000, the reported revenues of the company made $101 billion. It had stakes in almost 30,000 miles of gas pipelines, either owned or accessed 15,000 miles of fiber-optic network and had stakes in global operations on generating electricity (Thomas, 2002).
In the result, for five years in a row, from 1996 to 2000, Enron was named "America's most innovative Company" by Fortune magazine, and headed the list of Fortune's "100 best companies to Work for in America" in 2000. Enron reputation was undermined by rumors on bribery and political pressure with the objective of securing contacts in South and Central America, Philippines and Africa. The Enron was blamed to use its connections with Clinton and Bush administrations to express pressure in their contracts. The events were followed by a series of scandals involving irregular accounting methods bordering on fraud which involved Enron and Arthur Andersen accounting firm and led Enron on the verge of undergoing the largest bankruptcy in economic history in November 2001 (Emshwiller, Smith, 2001).
Since Enron was always considered a blue chip stock, the bankruptcy was a disastrous and unprecedented event in the global financial world. Enron's downfall was definite when it was found out that a considerable share of its profits resulted from deals with so-called special-purpose entities, limited partnership under control of Enron. It resulted in the possibility of not reporting many of the company's losses in its financial statements. The final plan of Enron's bankruptcy included creation of three new businesses which would be spun off the company.
The reorganization process started in 2003 with the creation of three companies - CrossCountry Energy, Prisma Energy International, and Portland General Electric. CrossCountry Energy wa
If you think, 'it's just an interview for a temp job -- no big deal,' that's where you're mistaken. Some wonderful opportunities, networking connections and careers have resulted from temporary positions.Temporary assignments today run the gamut from receptionist to CEO and beyond. And since an agency is usually the first contact with the company, much of the marketing and negotiations have been done for you.And if you believe 'but the interview is set up and all I have to do is show up,' you're wrong again. The mind set you bring to that interview will make a big difference as to whether or not you get the job.Most employers like to conduct interviews for temporary positions, even though they are slated only for a few weeks or months of service. They are particularly concerned about people in positions of higher responsibility. The employer is interested in selecting quality people who can be trusted with company information, knowledge and secrets.Steps to Take to Prepare For Your Interview-- Step #1 - Do Your Research.Many companies have Web sites where you can access valuable background information to use in your interview.By finding out information about the company, like annual revenue and the organization's mission, you will show an interest in what you will be contracted to do. Showing some enthusiasm about the position will demonstrate a positive attitude toward the assignment that you're s
In the result, for five years in a row, from 1996 to 2000, Enron was named "America's most innovative Company" by Fortune magazine, and headed the list of Fortune's "100 best companies to Work for in America" in 2000. Enron reputation was undermined by rumors on bribery and political pressure with the objective of securing contacts in South and Central America, Philippines and Africa. The Enron was blamed to use its connections with Clinton and Bush administrations to express pressure in their contracts. The events were followed by a series of scandals involving irregular accounting methods bordering on fraud which involved Enron and Arthur Andersen accounting firm and led Enron on the verge of undergoing the largest bankruptcy in economic history in November 2001 (Emshwiller, Smith, 2001).
Since Enron was always considered a blue chip stock, the bankruptcy was a disastrous and unprecedented event in the global financial world. Enron's downfall was definite when it was found out that a considerable share of its profits resulted from deals with so-called special-purpose entities, limited partnership under control of Enron. It resulted in the possibility of not reporting many of the company's losses in its financial statements. The final plan of Enron's bankruptcy included creation of three new businesses which would be spun off the company.
The reorganization process started in 2003 with the creation of three companies - CrossCountry Energy, Prisma Energy International, and Portland General Electric. CrossCountry Energy wa
Many people want to start a mobile car wash business and want to do it as cheap as possible. Have you ever considered; starting a Mobile Car Wash Business? Perhaps you have but you want to do it for as little money as possible. Well you can do it inexpensively if you are very careful. You may have seen mobile car washers in your city operating on a shoestring budget; many are even illegal aliens, which are doing the work. Who do not follow the rules, have business licenses, driver’s licenses or even remove their waste water.The start up costs for a mobile washing system depends entirely on how you go about it. You could put the unit on a trailer, buy a plastic Agricultural water tank. Then buy a pressure washer from Home Depot that will cost about $2,000. There are some rules too that require that you do not let the water go into a storm drain so you will need some equipment to prevent that potential eventuality as well.So, buy some storm drain blockers and an extra water tank, along with some garden hose and a vacuum, which sucks water from Wal-Mart and be ready to go for about which should cost you another $1,000 or a grand total of about $3,000 I suppose? Mobile car washing can be a rewarding business indeed and if you work hard you will even lose some weight. Consider this in 2006.
Since Enron was always considered a blue chip stock, the bankruptcy was a disastrous and unprecedented event in the global financial world. Enron's downfall was definite when it was found out that a considerable share of its profits resulted from deals with so-called special-purpose entities, limited partnership under control of Enron. It resulted in the possibility of not reporting many of the company's losses in its financial statements. The final plan of Enron's bankruptcy included creation of three new businesses which would be spun off the company.
The reorganization process started in 2003 with the creation of three companies - CrossCountry Energy, Prisma Energy International, and Portland General Electric. CrossCountry Energy was sold to CCE Holdings L.L.C., with the money to be used for the repayment of the debts, while Prisma Energy International and Portland General Electric should emerge as independent companies descendant of Enron (Swatz, 2003).
Operations management scope of functions
To understand the reasons of this bankruptcy and the level of managerial implication in the quality performance of the company, particularly that of operations management, it is necessary to outline the main functions of operations management and impact it should have of functioning of the organization.
The principal task of operations management is effective transformation of inputs into "desired outputs" of the company (Shafer, 1997). The outputs are traditionally understood in manufacturing and profit-making context within the organizations. But recently it has been recognized that operations management is a discipline which is not limited with such narrow functions; it can be deployed in practically any area where the organization aims at achieving its objectives (Barnett, 1996). For instance, non-profit or public sectors have to learn to optimize their internal operations and processes in the situation of limited resources; service companies come to conclusion that by reappraising their delivery process they can revolutionize and significantly improve their approach to manufacturing companies and their marketplace. Robin Wood (2001) gives the example of such operations management implication in Daewoo company, which understood that it can specialize and differentiate its product by adding definite bundle of benefits to its product which includes additional supporting services. Operations sector is the heart of these changes that are made by leading companies to improve their performance and increase customer base.
The survival of commercial company depends on ability of the organization to focus and shape its operational resources to meet the expectations of its stakeholders: customers, employees and shareholders, expressed in organizational strategy (Russel, 1995) . Irrespective of economic sectors the company operates in, the ability of operations management of this company to fulfill those above-mentioned tasks depends on their understanding that it is necessary to make trade-offs. They cannot avoid the situation of working under constraints and have to understand their capabilities and constraints to provide significant inputs into strategic decision-making process involving further resources of the organization.
Operations managers in the organizations are not empowered to make strategic decisions, but they play important role in shaping the organization's strategy and contribute to the strategic thinking ( Pasternack, Viscio, 1998). Operations managers should be able to translate strategic aims and objectives into clear operational objectives and actions and to implement, design and improve the products of the company themselves and the processes of their delivery. They have to know how changes incorporated to external factors influence the operation and how changes in one aspect of the operating system influence other aspects.
Also, operations managers need to know how technological changes impact organization's capability of delivery, and to incorporate their conclusions into strategic process (Peters, Waterman, 1982). Therefore, the heart of operations thinking includes the ability to think dynamically and systematically across time and space (Miller, 1998). Besides traditional tasks of operation management, new perspectives and objectives emerge connected with the emergence o
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