Customer Reviews

Board Betrayal: The Weirton Steel Story: Failed Governance and Management Hand in Hand with Arthur Andersen: An Esop Fable

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This story broke my heart. My family has served at Weirton Steel for over three generations from the ranks of the hourly to the in-house engineering staff, to the management team. The account of Phil Smith has been known for a while, but this is the first time I have seen it in print. Hopefully, business students will take these events to heart to prevent a future tragedy such as this.

I found Philip Smith's book to be a factual, detailed, and data-driven account of a promising company (and town) wrecked by unadulterated personal greed. While I have never met Mr. Smith, I do know several of the principles named in the book and Mr. Smith describes them accurately and honestly.

The book is a fascinating look at the behind-the-scenes behaviors of senior management. Unfortunately, it is not all that clear what lessons can be taken away from the event. Honesty and fair-dealing cannot be injected into scoundrels like a vaccine. And when a majority of board members decide to loot the corporation for their own gain, what can realistically be done?

I do know that the aftermath has been devastating to Weirton, and its future is very uncertain. And after living there during the glory days, it is very strange to come back and see the devastation that has become my little town.

Phil Smiths courages book about the Betrayal of Weirton Steel is heartbreaking.
National Steel was one of the greatest Steel companys to work for in the 50's60's and 70's.
Most of my Uncles and cousins had a great life,with secure pay and early retirements.
Everyone thougth Esop would save the company,and for awhile it looked like it was,with profit sharing checks,and growing pay,untill the betrayal of the management hit the fan.

Wow! I was shocked. This book lays bare the terrible things that happened through greed and corruption. I guess I am just naive, but I cannot believe people have gotten away with these things. We need better checks and balances throughout businesses.

Your blood will boil at the betrayal of not only the employees of Weirton Steel but the whole Steel Industry of the United States of America by a New York Lawyer (Harvey Sperry)and his puppet--CEO Herb Elish. Original CEO Loughhead made ESOP owned Weirton Steel profitable and employee/shareholders ecstatic at the success of the business and appreciative of a CEO who respected his employees. Bob Loughhead saved 2 towns by steering Weirton Steel on the road to recovery and saving the jobs of thousands of people. Harvey Sperry deposed a hero in order to install Herb Elish; a "yes" man he could control. Sperry convinced the unions to provide him sensitive information that he shared with a foreign competitior that orchestrated the end of America's Steel Industry.

The machinations of the Machevellian Sperry and his nuanced methods to a profitable end for himself and his hidden clients is a soul shattering read. This true life account of the death of a steel mill and the 2 towns dependent upon the jobs it provided is a glimpse inside the reality of the "Turning of the Screw": a sinister man manipulating an Executive Board and the Steel Union to its own destruction.

I have always been suspicious of books that seem to spring from the author's need to settle a grudge against a person or organization. This book reminds me why. Its somewhat shrill and patently one-sided arguments do not do justice to the subject at hand. While I'm sure that there are kernels of truth in this account, I believe that the topic would be best served by a more objective approach.