In 2002 I wrote “Lessons from Enron”. It was story of power, fear and greed by the people at the top of the company. The non-executives who were there to hold them to account failed to restrain it.
People close to the operation knew there was much that was smelly. Brave whistle-blowers tried to draw attention to the problems but were slapped down.
Does any of this sound familiar this week?
There are differences, of course.Enron was listed company with dispersed shareholders. News Corp is a hybrid, with listed status but family control through preferential voting structures.
In Enron the performance pressures led to fraud and corruption. In News Corp they led journalists and executives to break the law, invade personal privacy, ignore the industry’s codes of practice and pay police for information. How much their managers then covered up this wrongdoing is still emerging.