Customer Reviews

Anatomy of Greed: The Unshredded Truth from an Enron Insider

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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!!

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.

Normally I am disappointed by "insider" books, which tend to be poorly written. This one was a pleasant surprise. It described vividly the experience of working at Enron, and the rape of the company, the employees, and the shareholders by top management, as seen from the view of an employee. It is well written, and Cruver manages to convey the essence of the businesses and the misdeeds of personnel without becoming bogged down in fact, law, and accounting rules. This is not a book for the reader intent on following the details of those rules and the precise nature of the corporate misdeeds. It is, however, fast without being dumbed down, and provides a great view of the world of the employees.

An interesting look inside Enron from a "regular" employee's perspective. Plus, Cruver has a good sense of humor. "Conspiracy of Fools" is a much more detailed account of Enron's criminal activities, but as you read it you keep thinking, "Were they really so obnoxious that they though they would get away with that?" Cruver has you laughing as you realize they really were!

This book goes a long way towards explaining the current (2009) economic crisis.

If the subhuman filth that inflicted this vile slime on the world is in any way typical or representative of what business schools are turning out, then the U.S. as a nation is indeed finished. The truly sad part of the book is the foreword, in which one of the author's business school professors held him up as a shining example of business ethics.

Well. Maybe at Enron he was.

You get the feeling that the writer was frustrated and outraged primarily by the fact that Enron collapsed before he too got a chance to steal millions of dollars. Early anecdotes are too sophomoric to be really offensive, but the outrage accumulates as you read. Or should, anyway. Of particular interest are the events that occurred after the bankruptcy. The author, a thirty year old M.B.A., managed to scam the bankrupt company out of a new computer. He was quite pleased with himself and mentioned it often. Congratulations on putting that degree to work! One of his buddies, disappointed that he wasn't included in a payroll snafu that left the author receiving paychecks after his termination date, snuck into the headquarters of the now bankrupt Enron to steal a few paychecks that were mistakenly left lying around after the bankruptcy.

These and other relatively minor offenses are related with a frat house snicker that is as disheartening as it is offensive. I credit the author with a slight and occasional effort to cloak his essential moral bankruptcy with a few pious platitudes. I'd prefer to interpret these as evidence of an awareness, however dim, of the concept of shame, but I suspect that I'm kidding myself.

There's very little new information to be had in the book--some office gossip, a few pilfered e-mails, some suspect anecdotes from a family friend ("Mr. Blue") who was a company executive. In addition to being amoral, the author is evidently too lazy to do real research. This book was marketed as a companion to the infinitely superior and highly recommended _Conspiracy of Fools_ by Kurt Eichenwald. I'm a bit embarrassed that the author is going to get a buck or two out of my purchase price--I was indeed suckered in by his lies. Perhaps he's getting better at what he does. The real value of the book, if it can be said to have any, is in the subtle clues it may provide for how to identify and hopefully contain similar people you may encounter in day to day life.

Brian, if you're out there, I've been laid off too. I didn't steal anything on the way out the door. Decent people don't do things like that.

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!

Naturally everybody is very curious about what really happened within Enron from an insider point of view. Unfortunately Mr. Cruver position was a junior one, and he didn't stay long enough - just a few months - to become senior. Probably just one or two years would do; he seems to be a smart guy and people at Enron seem to either move fast or get fired. To me it seems the author, after selling some small Enron memorabilia, such as cups etc. - decided to sell his "junior" Enron memories.

If some one is looking for a good, non technical book about Enron, I suggest "Pipe Dreams", by Robert Bryce. If someone is really serious about Enron's accounting and financial practices, I suggest Mr. Neal Batson report to the USA Banruptcy Court, Soutrhern District of New York.

By the way the second star is given because Mr. Cruver didn't loose his sense of humor despite all his troubles - and included some witty comments along the book. Also his periodic information about Enron's stock price is an interesting idea; one can compare the stock market's reaction to the sequence of Enron events.

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.

Unfortunately the title, Anatomy of Greed, does not give the correct impression of what the book is about. It is not the anatomy of anything. This is not a dissection of the motivations and events that led to the collapse of Enron. Rather it is a personal story of a low-level Enron employee framed by the public events of the end of Enron.

I found Anatomy of Greed to be riveting. It is interesting on many different levels. This is the story of the author's time working for Enron in Houston just before and during the meltdown. Cruver is a young man recently out of business school and thrilled to be working for Enron. A job at Enron is an immediate source of prestige and honor (and money), but soon Cruver realizes much to his horror and amazement that Enron is imploding. At first there are hints in the air, then a rapidly cascading series of disasters.

I found Cruver's changing attitudes and the entire story of the unfolding of the Enron debacle to be utterly gripping. Cruver was merely a munchkin who never personally knew Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, or the other witches, wizards, and warlocks of Enron. There are no stunning new revelations in this book, but there many levels of interest. Cruver tells what it was like on a day-to-day basis to be working for Enron on the trading floors. And what it was like to be in the bunkers as Enron was falling. Cruver also relates the responses of other munchkins. (One exception: Cruver was friends with one Enron higher up--a much older man who is described as a "family friend." He is called "Mr Blue" in the book. Cruver describes several conversations with Mr Blue which give a very negative slant on the events.) There is the constant refrain of emails and phone calls from Cruver's friends (often starting with "Hey, dooood...") who are working in the financial industry. So the reader gets the perspective of outsiders to Enron but insiders in the investment industry in New York on the dramatic news of Enron's demise as it unfolds.

There are many other aspects of the book that make it entertaining and enlightening. Cruver is an interesting guy who is perfectly normal but just a bit cynical and self-deprecating. I enjoyed his wry, but down-to-earth, humor. Also surprisingly Cruver is no Enron basher. He loved working for Enron and admired Enron in many ways. I got the sense that he was more heartbroken than angry by the revelations of fraud and deceit among the executives. Here he had his dream job with a top company, a bright, even glorious future, and unbelievably it all starts to dissolve around him. What a story of disappointment! Cruver and his fellow munchkins at Enron were no more greedy than the rest of us, and one cannot help sympathizing with their plight as they are caught in a morass that they did not create and do not even understand. I was especially absorbed by the way Cruver is able to capture the intensity, excitement, and anguish of working for Enron in its last year leading up to bankruptcy and his life in the months after.

Although there are no new exciting tidbits about the Enron bankruptcy in this story, I did learn many things that I had not known before, or had forgotten. This book is informative, entertaining, and absorbing. I don't know of anything else like this about the Enron story. This book must be read (or listened to) by anyone interested in the Enron story.

I listened to the CD which is very well narrated and well produced.