Enron Movie Review
Essay by walkerlarice • October 5, 2016 • Book/Movie Report • 580 Words (3 Pages) • 1,068 Views
LaRice Walker
Business Ethics
January 25, 2016
Enron Movie Review
The movie Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is about the seventh largest corporation in America, Enron and its corporate scandal. It starts off talking about the corporation founder, Kenneth Lay, whom was the chief of Natural Gas and the first scandal on oil. The scandal could have very well been avoided earlier on, but Lay supposedly tried to act as if he knew nothing and told them to continue on doing whatever it was that was making the money. Once the scandal is finally uncovered, Lay never did admit that he was involved in any of it. Another scandal came upon where Lay was taking the company’s money and using it for his own personal account. There were Auditors that caught the wrongdoing, but Lay still encouraged them to continue making the money. He was eventually sent to jail. Jeffrey Skilling was now the new guy in charge. He switched the company to mark-to-market accounting, which gave them the opportunity to book profits of projects even if they lost money. Their scheme was brought down by a whistle blower, which eventually led them to file for bankruptcy.
The main business ethic used throughout the movie was ethical shortsightedness. Every person that was in charge of this corporation was greedy and only cared about their self. They never once considered the fact that they were letting down people who actually cared for them and put their money into the company.
One business law that I know of that may relate to this movie is embezzlement. It’s when you steal or misuse the funds placed in one’s trust or belonging. I think that’s the perfect law for the entire scandal, which involved fraud. Lay and Skilling both found ways to steal money from the public to keep from filing bankruptcy.
There were a few points made in the movie that I seemed to agree with. I agreed with the fact that instead of blaming the corporations, we should look at the other insiders that could’ve found a way to catch financial scandals and how they should expose them right away instead of trying to sweep it under the rug. I do think that we business people as a community need to figure out a better way to keep the public from having to deal with consequences of unethical decisions most companies may make
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