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all about Enron
14-part story
cows and venture capitalism
Related articles:
The lesson of Enron: regulation is not a dirty word - Business Week 24 Dec 2001
From the Hungry Poet in Kathmandu, Nepal:
A new entry in the English Dictionary in particular the Houston edition
should read as follows...
ENDRON / noun - pronounced en'd-ron. end as in terminated; ron
the past participle of run (run, ran, ron) as in Rapid Oblivious Non-stoppable
distancing of. Used as a business term, endron commonly refers to a very
large and powerful business enterprise that collapses abruptly and completely
after achieving phenomenal growth and having rapidly distanced itself
from competition in unparalleled manner.
Bon Journal
"Endron"
In 1996, the company conducted market research and found that most people had never heard of the name. One video showed a London cabdriver responding with "oh, I've heard of it. Is it from the song - En - run - run, Do - run - run?" Others thought it was a flower.
For its retail power campaign, branding was very important. So they spent loads of money to create the image of trust for residential buyers.
Eventually, the marketing campaign did pay off. By then, various business school case studies had been written about the company's innovative culture. And certainly within the energy industry, the name was synonymous with success and overachievement.
Ironically, in a matter of weeks, without a multi-million dollar ad campaign, the company became a household name for its rapid demise. Its imminent collapse was reported in a news clip on Classic FM radio station.
Moral of the story? sometimes it's easier to be infamous.
17 December 2001 Monday
Related links
Houston Chronicle section in particular, the letters
Platts features
Scientech and more!
Satire Wire
Business Week - use search
The New York Times - use search
Bloomberg - search by stock symbol
Business Wire - use search
Alumni sites
The European version
"I've been laydoff" - T-shirts and more
1400 Smith Street
ENRONX: Discover the power of why not but you need Internet Explorer 5+ & Windows Media Player 6+ to view this page
The Crooked E
Illustrations
Main, 1, 2
Songs
Do the Enron Ron Ron
