Jeff Skilling's Enron

Jeff Skilling's vision of Enron as 'asset-light' trading company represents how intellectual arrogance can destroy value. The McKinsey consultant-turned-CEO believed trading and 'intellectual capital' mattered more than physical assets. When mark-to-market accounting met reality, the intellectual edifice collapsed. Like an organism that believes it can live on air, Skilling's Enron had no foundation.