Elorn’s Reviews > Greed and Corporate Failure: The Lessons from Recent Disasters > Status Update

Recurring themes:
- poor strategic decisions
- overexpansion, especially through often ill-judged acquisitions
- dominant CEO or 'one man band'
- the greed, hubris and lust for powers of CEOs and other 'start' performers
- poor risk management and weak internal controls, particularly with regards to cash
- ineffective boards and their audit committes

'Profit is an opinion, cash is a fact'
Recurring themes:
- poor strategic decisions
- overexpansion, especially through often ill-judged acquisitions
- dominant CEO
- greed, hubris and lust for power of CEOs ans other 'star' performers
- poor risk management and weak internal controls, particularly with regards to cash
- ineffective boards and their audit committees

Marconi

Worldcom and Tyco

Enron: paper profits, cash losses

Was allowed to continue to trade even when on vacation, using remote access. Most organizations, if they have any sense, have mandatory holidays and rotation of personnel. Well known that frauds are often uncovered during the perpetrator's absence.

The cult of the individual and the high profiles and remunerations packages must, in themselves, give cause for concern.

Matrix management systems carry special risks