Ethics count when it comes to shareholder value creation

The Enron story once again reinforces the message that business leaders must always do the right thing. Shareholder value creation does not mean that unethical and illegal methods are acceptable even if you are never caught.

Enron was a great company (despite the books being cooked) in many ways:
1. It provided some of the brightest people in the world a great place to work.
2. Enron developed several innovative products and powerful business models.
3. Enron made the world of commodities exciting by leveraging the tools of knowledge economy.

What destroyed Enron was the lack of ethics on part of a just a handful of business leaders.