Anatomy of Greed: The Unshredded Truth from an Enron Insider

Brian Cruver was an expendable middle manager in one of Enron's flimsy business ventures, and got laid off when the company went into its infamous bankruptcy. So in this book we get an antidote to the far more common news accounts of Enron that have focused on the plight of ripped-off stockholders or the criminal actions of the executives. In this very readable and unexpectedly funny book, Cruver describes the collapse of the company from the point of view of hapless employees who only knew a little about what was going on, but couldn't do anything about it as they were too far away from the real power. We also get great insights into the plight of the thousands of laid off employees who had to comprehend the debacle they had witnessed, and try to shake off their reputation as former "Enronians."As a sort-of insider, Cruver has unique insights into the bizarre Enron corporate culture that demanded profits at the expense of ethics or even common sense. Cruver theorizes that the root of this evil was the company's ridiculous peer-review process, in which getting a favorable rating meant keeping your job, and the rating was tied to your generation of profits above all else. Thus every single employee was under immense pressure to inflate profit reports, ignore bad news, and crush all their co-workers. This went all the way to the top, as executives went to the extremes of unethical behavior to increase "shareholder" value. Executives also saw the whole company as a way to enrich themselves, through shady business ventures, partnerships with non-existent companies and entities, and a brazen disregard for accounting rules. Thus we have a group of greedy and power-hungry execs who forgot that they were running a real business with employees, customers, and vendors as they gluttonized themselves.Cruver does a great job describing the basics of Enron's disastrous accounting shenanigans, that made the company artificially prosperous before collapsing like a house of cards, without losing the reader in technical jargon. He also aptly describes the intense hatred that employees developed for execs like Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Andy Fastow, who all got extremely wealthy by essentially stealing from the public market and shafting their employees. Cruver has relieved his unemployment with this highly readable book that provides many keen insights, with a dryly sarcastic humor, into the Enron disaster that you probably won't find elsewhere. I understand that a movie will now be made from this book. Looks like Cruver has himself a fresh new career.

As an investment professional covering energy stocks I am intamately familiar with the Enron story, from it's humble beginnings in the mid 1980's to it's specatcular blowout late last year. "Anatomy of Greed" was right on the money in describing this horrible /fantastic meltdown and Cruver's insights and humor make this story educational, accessible, and entertaining for just about anyone. I have met some of the personalities in question (Lay, Skilling, etc.) and his characterizations were spot on. Likewise, his descriptions of the events that brought down the house of cards were simple enough for the lay person (sorry, bad pun!) to understand but thorough enough to see what really happened. You really get a feel for what it was like to be at Enron on the front lines while the company went from a new economy titan to the butt of late night talk show jokes. Though his time there was short, his is an invaluable perspective that outside journalists have not, nor will never be able to match. On top of which, some of the anecdotes he shares made me laugh out loud.

I bought this book thinking I would just learn about the Enron mess, and HOLY COW was I surprised! A tragedy? Yes, but also absurd. As strange as it sounds I was laughing out loud, couldn't put it down because it was fun to read. The author does explain Enron's business and what happened, and as he says it's "not about energy"...but this book also takes you through Enron's wacky culture, with real people and real events as they unfolded from the inside. I felt like I was getting the real story, with political and media agendas brushed aside. Anyone working in the corporate world should read this book to understand how/why Enron failed and to learn what the signs are (the signs that the author and others at Enron missed). This is one of those rare non-fictions that doesn't put you to sleep. A fun, easy, and extremely informative read!!

This is one of the most entertaining and educating books I've ever read. In some ways I feel like I just read tabloid trash, in other ways I feel like I just read a college business theories textbook. The characters are well-written and the plot is a colorful example of the old "truth is stranger than fiction" adage. I loved the sarcastic, smart a*! style of writing. His style is almost Bob Newhart meets Lee Iacocca. I really liked the day-in-the-life-of-an-Enron-employee details. I can visualize the trading floor where Brian's desk was, the meetings he had by simply swiveling his chair around, the fraternity culture (August), the footballs on Fridays, the 5s on the performance reviews (ouch), the goofy inspirational signs on each level of the parking garage, etc. I especially liked what the employees did when they saw the writing on the wall (3 hour lunches, keg parties, bowling, Dell computer partnerships). More importantly, I am glad to see that somebody was able to catch the spirit of the Enron culture for the rest of the world to see. What an experience!

This is the Enron book I've been waiting for - entertaining, the real story (from the inside, not a reporter with a note pad on the outside), and easy to understand everything you need to know about Lay, Skilling, Fastow, and others and how the company crashed...and the running stock ticker is just COOL. From parties... and car shows to the details of off-balance sheet financing, all tied together brilliantly. Classic.