Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : High Tolerance Plasticity -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (15158)	7/16/2002 11:17:25 PM
From: pvz	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 23153

Speaking of Enron, slightly OT, I read the Emperor's New Clothes to my three year old this evening. Most of the story was lost on him, but I read it to the end because it really has some very interesting parallels to what has been happening in the past couple of years. It also makes me think of the Fortune article from March 2001, which in hindsight put up all the right red flags: fortune.com

To: stockman_scott who wrote (15158)	7/17/2002 10:22:45 AM
From: kodiak_bull	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 23153

Stockman, I love that "talent myth" story. It's just too good. Do you know the commercials where the advertising team is sitting around a table, brainstorming "good ideas" for car campaigns? One's a chain letter that ends up killing a guy, another strands a guy on Mt. Everest and he freezes to death, in another they decide to put house movers on roller skates and you get a group of skanky looking guys, butt cracks showing, unloading a big truck on roller skates? Well, with that in mind, re-read this part: "When an Enron executive named Kevin Hannon started the company's global broadband unit, he launched what he called Project Quick Hire. A hundred top performers from around the company were invited to the Houston Hyatt to hear Hannon give his pitch. Recruiting booths were set up outside the meeting room." Raising my kids, I keep telling them that the strongest power in the world, for good and evil, is the power of ideas and the belief instilled in them. You can think and believe your way to greatness or ruin. This "good idea" started with some airhead opining that, well, competition and hiring separates the wheat from the chaff and builds teams, so why not do that inside the company (without regard for the crucial distinction between inside and outside). This "open season" for hiring on the company, Enron in this case, must have just turned the whole thing into a freak show. Where's John? Down in Houston. When's he coming back? Didn't you hear? He's not coming back, he's part of Hannon's new group (subtext: he's going places, you're not), and you now have to take over his workload. Sucker. Quel comedie. Kb