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The Smartest Guys in the Room
Book

The Smartest Guys in the Room

The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron

Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind
Portfolio, 2013
First Edition: 2003-01

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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Innovative
  • Eye Opening

Recommendation

Enron seems like old news, but its history is still deeply informative. Its spectacular, 2001 collapse was the first in a series of notorious corporate scandals. Most of the stories Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind tell already had appeared in the news media and the rush-to-publish books that appeared shortly after the scandal. Still, McLean and Elkind offer what may be the most comprehensive, detailed account, written like an anecdote-rich, lively business novel. Their reporting is intriguing and engrossing, though the book could use a timeline. If you’re going to read just one book on the Enron scandal, this is the one that pins it down as much as possible. As the authors note, “Everything was perception; nothing was real.”

Take-Aways

  • Enron, a massive energy management firm, was a house of cards. Its strong code of ethics apparently never shaped its operations.
  • CEO Jeff Skilling spun fantastic tales about Enron’s rich prospects. Analysts, auditors and reporters believed him without skepticism.
  • Instead of stopping the fraud, Enron’s board endorsed the firm's management. In 1998, the board made Andy Fastow CFO despite his lack of accounting expertise.

About the Authors

Bethany McLean also wrote All The Devils Are Here and Shaky Ground. Peter Elkind also wrote Client 9, Rough Justice and The Death Shift.

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