The Dark Side of Alliances: The Enron Story

Before its recent demise, the Enron Corporation was the "poster child" for how to effectively manage today's successful corporation. It boasted a web of influential networks and alliances, was lauded by Gary Hamel and other successful consultants, and strongly recommended by analyts for their cliencts to invest in. Considering that elite MBA curricula all strongly espouse developing organizational networks and alliances, we need to better addresss their limits and more effectively warn against the "tipping point" of taking them too far. Enron provides a valuable instance of when to pull back from substituting the "dark side" of networks and alliances for honestly providing better goods and services at a fair price. We need to include this important caveat in the course of praising the added power which the formation and use of beoming so "connected" can bestow. With this balance in place, our graduates will be better educated, and our Schools will have contributed more towards a healthy combination of both ethical behavior and higher earnings.