Portrait of an Embryonic CEO
Enron's Jeffrey Skilling at Harvard Business School
by Michael Ryan
[Excerpt]
John LeBoutillier, a conservative commentator and a graduate of the Harvard Business School, recounted an incident in a management class he took there. The professor asked his students what the CEO should do if he discovered that his company was producing a product that might be harmful or even fatal to consumers.
One bright young man named Jeff -- LeBoutillier calls him "a natural leader" -- raised his hand and gave the memorable answer, "I'd keep making and selling the product. My job as a businessman is to be a profit center and to maximize return to the shareholders. It's the government's job to step in if a product is dangerous."
LeBoutillier's reaction to that answer reminded me that Barry Goldwater was right: it is possible for conservatives to have consciences (although like truffles, they are highly prized because they are so hard to find, rare, and usually, deeply buried).
"What if the product really did harm consumers?" LeBoutillier reflected. "What about the company's employees? Were they in danger during the manufacture of the product? What would happen to the company if the CEO's decision was wrong?"
Nobody actually asked those questions, because, as the ex-Congressman recalls, "at Harvard Business School -- and at business schools nationwide -- you're considered soft, a wuss, if you dwell on morality or scruples."
As you may have guessed by now, young Jeff did become a CEO; his full name is Jeffrey Skilling, and the company he ran was called Enron. As thousands of pensioners, former employees, small investors, and even widows and orphans around the country wondered where their nest eggs went, Mr. Skilling escaped from Enron as a centi-millionaire.
[snip]