The Smartest Guys in the Room, The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind unfolds the scandals that occurred at Enron through the 90’s to 2001. This book has been made into a documentary by the same title. Not having seen the documentary, I don’t know how they could communicate all the intricacies of this company and this saga. While I enjoyed this book, let me say a few things before you rush out and order this book.
First, it is long. While 414 pages may not sound like much, you really have to keep up with all the names and the schemes that were taking place. They did consider themselves to be on the cutting edge on a lot of these business ideas so sometimes it takes awhile to wrap your mind around what they were doing.
Second, it is technical. They go into what really went on and how it came back to hurt or help them in the end.
Third, it is unresolved. The book was written before the verdicts were handed out. A short news search or wikipedia takes care of that though.
I worked though this bit by bit for the past couple of months but it was worth it. Spiritually, it was very enlightening – you get to see pride, greed, disloyalty, lust – all unpacked in one volume. You don’t get this sort of insight from fiction; the sin was raw, real, and terrifying. You get the impression that those who were convicted didn’t feel like they did anything wrong. The Lay family continually reflected on their trust in the Lord to get them out of this situation, while the authors painted Ken as one who refused to recognize the ugliness within Enron (or his own). The reality of this debacle is: this could be me; this could be you.
The authors did a wonderful job in piecing together this business tragedy to make it understandable and compelling. It will be a source of sermon illustrations for some time.
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