Free Custom «The Tao of Enron» Essay Paper

The Tao of Enron is a book with a collection of stories of businesspersons who increased their profits by taking advantage over other people and using corruption to overcome competition. Such business executives ensure that they often have the most out of people who are working for them at their businesses. The book portrays a society of people who do not uphold ethics at all. Instead, they are individuals who do not consider that ethical standards that are key in the operation of their businesses. In the same context, they are people who do not consider the peoples plea as they are focused on getting more profits every time they engage in business. On the contrary, it is a divided society with the rich getting richer and the poor losing their strong holds. This is primarily due to the high level of corruption amongst the rich business people.

The book The Tao of Enron is a clear narration of the corporations, which are currently running under the leadership of people and business executives who are not reliable and self centered. Seay (the author) focuses the book’s theme on the dubious characters of rich people who are running a company in selfishness. It is an informative literature that can be a significant revelation to any person who is in a corporate business or running any formal form of buying and selling of products in the market bearing in mind the parts played by investors, employees, and customers. The author of the book highlights some key issues that affect daily running of businesses. These are challenges that cannot develop the companies. The book is a reflection of a company, which is demanding for morality. It is a company, which had potential business leaders in the beginning. However, they changed their focus from the building and establishment of Enron.

Enron began in 1985 as a merger between of two small oil enterprises. These were InterNorth and Houston Natural Gas. The company began with a high note of dedication in order to ensure that they are working towards the vision of the company. At least for about 15 years, Enron   had grown significantly. The company made 100 billion dollars the year 2000.

Lack of ethics is a primary reason behind the collapsing of the company because it led to Enron’s Corporation bankruptcy. This is evident because the company’s key executives had selfish interests, which were not geared towards growth of the company. According to the author, Enron had a weak ethical foundation that led to the development of a weak point that heralded its collapse. These selfish interests of the leaders were contrary to the strong values that the company was renowned to have before the public eye. For instance, the company executives were noted to be misusing company resources. Some had extravagant expenses of up to 50000 dollars in a month (Seay 12). Nonetheless, others ensured that they worked hard at the company. The misuse of funds thus became one of the key reasons that led to its immediate bankruptcy. As the company was falling apart, some of the leading people at Enron decide to compensate themselves. These took huge amounts of money as they left. Enron was thus left without any financial back up to uphold its investors who lost multiples of investment money.

Employees were some of the key stakeholders who were extensively affected. The employees were left without sources of income once the company became bankrupt. Like the investors, the employees lost their source if livelihood.

The author of the book points out to various subjects that closely relate to religious virtues. These are virtues such as primary issues of faith, which contribute to a strong company. The factors that led to the falling of Enron thus became a light, which many use to reflect on the level of their companies. The religious inclusion of this writing imposes an aspect of responsibility and ethical decision-making, which lacked at Enron Corporation.

The Rockefellers highlights of an exceptional experience that relates to the making of a company right from its grass roots. The story illustrates the path taken by a young dedicated man who gets an opportunity to start a business who was only the son of a gambler. The Rockefeller is born and bred in the comfort of his parents. He grows up the understanding of business management and entrepreneurship. This resulted in the making of a new reliable company at the age of 25 years (Public Broadcasting Service 1). Although his father was not reliable, he pursued with a small beginning and developed a remarkable business in the mid-1800. The oil business turned to be one of the most influential businesses known in the world.

Rockefeller’s story gets better when he gets married to Laura Spellman with whom they get four children. By the year 1880, Rockefeller had started Standard Oil, which was one of the major suppliers of oil across the world (Public Broadcasting Service 1). The oil company had a significant profit margin of about one billion dollars. However, challenges began to arise against the well-being of the company under the leadership of John Rockefeller Jr. This was primarily a criticism due to a serious coal strike, which in turn affected the company significantly.

Comparison of Enron and Rockefeller

Enron and Rockefeller are stories that reflect closely on the running of influential businesses at the international level. Although both stories have clear details on the activities that the protagonists did, they have various aspects that can be clearly used to illustrate critical matters, which can affect international business management. While one story describes the fall of a business the other demonstrate the resulting efforts of a dedicated person establishing a company.  

Rockefeller is a detailed story that highlights the humble beginnings of a young man who is devoted in the making of an oil company. Unlike his own father, Rockefeller remains focused until his small oil company turns to be an influential international business. The oil company, Standard Oil, is one of the leading suppliers of oil in the world. Hence, it makes a lot of profit on its own. Rockefeller ensures that he puts his eyes on the mark to ensure that he establishes Standard Oil on proper values that will enhance strength of the business. On the other hand, Enron is an international corporation that comes due to a mix of two companies. Although the two companies are small, the leaders begin with upholding religious values, which lead to the establishment of a strong company.

 Both companies (Standard Oil and Enron) are renowned for their reputable and reliable company operations. The leadership in both cases has focused on the growth of the company with maximum output from its employees. It is evident, that the executives in both cases have the upheld certain values which are paramount in the establishment of the companies. For instance Enron executive begin with effective ethical Standard that play a leading role in running the corporation (Seay 10). It is imperative to realize that the foundation of both international businesses had a similar scenario. Rockefeller made it through with the oil business despite being the child of an irresponsible father. He began the business with very little mentorship. Nonetheless, he managed to raise an oil supplying company to the global level. Consequently, it can be concluded that these two pictures used ethical standards to ensure discipline and remains in line to the success of the companies.

Both companies were established at grass root levels. Enron Corporation is well known at the international market as a giant oil entity up to the time it was declared bankrupt. While Enron  is a mere product of InterNorth and Houston Natural gas, Standard oil is a company that was began by a lone man who was only a son of  a gambler. The achievement of both companies is a clear effort of the founders. Although Rockefeller begun his business alone, it is clear that he put his best foot forward to ensure that he accomplishes the set goals. Likewise, in the case of Enron Corporation, once the two businesses were merged, the executives were careful to follow certain protocols that worked to the best interest of growing the business.

Corruption is one of the major factors that affected the foundations of both Enron corporations and Standard Oil. While the executives of Enron begun having corrupt activities and extravagant spending, the company was gradually affected as it went down to bankruptcy. On the other hand, Rockefeller did not hold to his primary values while running the oil company. Instead, he involved other corrupt measures as he countered with his opponents in the business. This resulted to a significant change on the end, which became an obstacle to the growth of Standard Oil. In the end, the influential pipeline and oil companies began losing their grip in the oil market. As Enron became bankrupt, Standard Oil began facing remarkable challenges as critics concerning the business sprout up.