The Rise of the Rogue Executive: How Good Companies Go Bad and How to Stop the Destruction

Introduction

As in everyday life, we often worry about the wrong things. The predictions that the new millennium would bring catastrophic computer failures proved wildly exaggerated. Instead, the new millennium brought unanticipated, massive failures in our business system. We have learned that the illicit practices that deceived investors, cost so many jobs, and tarnished the reputation of American business had begun at least a decade earlier.

Enron and what followed deserved an explanation. That has been our obsession for four years. Our focus was why and how American business developed vulnerabilities and distortions that were more ingrained and worrisome than the deflation of the infamous stock market bubble. And then, what were feasible changes ...