Business ethics was a primary emphasis during my business education at Xavier University and Bowling Green State University. Among the sad stories of corruption over the last 20 years was the rise and fall of Enron. A number of officials at Enron managed to establish the energy/utilities company among a multitude of ambitious technology companies during the dot com boom and bust of the late 1990s/early 2000s.
While I missed the opportunity to see Sherron Watkins speak at Xavier in 2003, I did get to learn much more about Enron during MBA 583 class (now called MBA 5830) at BGSU in 2008. The lessons learned remain with me today as I strive to be an ethical business professional and look to avoid the greed and deception that destroyed Enron.
For reference, here is an article I wrote about Enron on Suite101.com. (As a side note, Suite101 has since changed its focus and no longer publishes articles like this.)