I thoroughly enjoyed the story of two journalists painstakingly uncovering Enron Corporation lie by lie. Brilliant insight into the little-known world of how the WSJ reporters approach major companies. This is an important read for all corporate PR departments and top managers. In todays world, exevcutives must know how to deal with the press. ... However, I am disappointed the authors didnt simplify the accounting transactions and take time to really spell them out. They could have used some illustrations to give an idea of what Enrons CFO was doing. I read the book carefully, but still cant explain to others the basics of "off-balance-sheet partnerships". So, you will find this book insightful. It is well written. The reporting has the WSJ truthfulness about it. But,I just wish they took the time to explain off-blance sheet partnerships. Many companies use them legally/ethically. So what are they? I am still not exactly sure what Enron did.
This is a pretty decent book. It gives a fairly good overview of what went wrong with Enron and a fairly good look at the process the authors worked through in reporting on Enron for the Wall Street Journal. So, why dont I rate it a 5-star book? Mainly because it doesnt excel in either area. As an Enron story, its far less revealing than "The Smartest Guys in the Room". As a book about what its like to be reporters breaking a huge story, I think it fails to convey the sense of excitement and accomplishment they must have felt. So, in my opinion, they produced a good, interesting book that fell far short of its potential. My memory of the events unfolding around Enrons spectacular failure places The Wall Street Journal in a leading role in terms of pressuring the company to start to be more forthcoming in its public dealings. Surely there was a lot of intrigue and tension involved with being the reporters driving this story. But this book doesnt really give the reader a feeling about what that was like. Maybe it was as nearly routine as the feel of the book suggests, but I have to believe it was more gripping than that. And as far as telling the Enron failure story, this book gives a decent overview, but there are better chronicles of that story. So, was I disappointed that I read this book? No, it was pretty good. I just felt it could have been a lot more. I think Im coming to the conclusion that writers for periodicals dont tend to write the best books. Theyre good at "just the facts, Maam" storytelling, but to deliver a really outstanding book, a writer has to be able to use the larger canvas to paint pictures that he can place the reader in. These authors dont do that and, Id say that unless youre pretty interested in the Enron story, you could skip this one.
As a busy law student, I heard the hub about the Enron and Andersen demise. But I never knew the big players or how things happened. This book gave me a great background on how things unraveled. I felt as though I had read the newspaper reports on Enron from beginning to end. The authors made this book a quick-read. Despite the complexity of the Enron transactions that lead to its downfall, the authors tried to make reading comprension easier for those unfamiliar with corporate dealings and the accounting/financial industry tactics used to further Amercian business. This is a great book that underscored the importance of caution in investing, and also highlights the side of corporate America that are unrevealed to the average investor. Wonderful especially for those who didnt keep up with the scandal when it was initially unfolding.
