Suggested Reading

Final Accounting: Ambition, Greed, and The Fall of Arthur Andersen

By Barbara Ley Toffler--LTS Review

Barbara Toffler, a former professor at Harvard Business School, joined Arthur Andersen as Partner In Charge of Ethics Consulting in 1995. In this position, she had a first-hand view of the “make the numbers” mentality nurtured in the late 90’s at “The Firm.”

And, although her responsibility for Andersen’s internal ethics was limited, Toffler clearly saw that things were bad and getting progressively worse in “The Andersen Way” of doing things. Soon, she too was a full-fledged “Android,” the term used by Andersen partners for committed employees and associates.

As an Android, she aggressively billed clients, sold unnecessary services, and watched as the need to increase revenue over-whelmed the strong ethical approach to business that Andersen had built over 85 years. Eventually, the Enron scandal exposed Andersen’s dubious activities, and one of the oldest and most respected accounting firms in history collapsed in shame.

While this book provides few new insights about Enron’s nefarious activities, it does provide a valuable perspective. It shows how honest, dedicated and conscientious people can be slowly drawn into actions that are, when viewed clearly from a distance, horribly wrong—wrong both in terms of ethics as well as business success.

This book is worth the modest effort required to read it.