How Companies Lie: Why Enron is Just the Tip of the Iceberg

A. Larry Elliott and Richard J Schroth
Nicholas Brealey £12.99
ISBN: 1 85788 3225

Entrepreneurs are not dead. They've just switched to writing management books. Hot on the heels of the recent corporate scandals has come a flood of books, trawling through the wreckage to bring us pearls of wisdom and important lessons. These have pushed aside some of the more inspirational messages we were perhaps getting a little too used to. Now, we are given lessons on business sins rather than virtues.

This is a reasonable analysis of the Enron situation; well, I suppose I should say plausible since the truth is certainly not out yet - and perhaps never will be. We do know that 'bad' things were done - both to create the situation and in trying to avoid coming out into the open. Much of the rest is reasonable but speculative.

Elliott and Schroth argue that the primary responsibility for the spectacular crashes we have seen, and the resulting crisis of confidence within the US investment community, lies firmly with boards of directors and management teams. Most of us would probably have got that far on our own!

There is some interesting material in here. It doesn't however hang together as a coherent argument arising from the situations it purports to analyse. As a background essay on the perils of complex accounting schemes it has merit but we have to wait for the 'real' book on the Enron scandal - if we ever get it. Perhaps the sum total of the words written post-Enron will make some difference - make US directors and executives think about their real role and responsibilities. If this book is a minor contribution to the changes necessary, it will not have been in vain.