<P> Lay hires Jeffrey Skilling , a visionary who joins Enron on the condition that they use mark - to - market accounting , allowing the company to record potential profits on certain projects immediately after contracts were signed , regardless of the actual profits that the deal would generate . This gives Enron the ability to subjectively give the appearance of being a profitable company even if it was n't . With the vision of transforming Enron from an energy supplier to an energy trader , Skilling imposes his interpretation of Darwinian worldview on Enron by establishing a review committee that grades employees and annually fires the bottom fifteen percent , a process nicknamed within the company as `` rank and yank '' . This creates a highly competitive and brutal working environment . Skilling hires lieutenants who enforce his directives inside Enron , known as the `` guys with spikes . '' They include J. Clifford Baxter , an intelligent but manic - depressive executive ; and Lou Pai , the CEO of Enron Energy Services , who is notorious for using shareholder money to feed his obsessive habit of visiting strip clubs . Pai abruptly resigns from EES with $250 million , soon after selling his stock . Despite the amount of money Pai has made , the divisions he formerly ran lost $1 billion , a fact covered up by Enron . Pai uses his money to buy a large ranch in Colorado , becoming the second - largest landowner in the state . </P>
<P> Lay hires Jeffrey Skilling , a visionary who joins Enron on the condition that they use mark - to - market accounting , allowing the company to record potential profits on certain projects immediately after contracts were signed , regardless of the actual profits that the deal would generate . This gives Enron the ability to subjectively give the appearance of being a profitable company even if it was n't . With the vision of transforming Enron from an energy supplier to an energy trader , Skilling imposes his interpretation of Darwinian worldview on Enron by establishing a review committee that grades employees and annually fires the bottom fifteen percent , a process nicknamed within the company as `` rank and yank '' . This creates a highly competitive and brutal working environment . Skilling hires lieutenants who enforce his directives inside Enron , known as the `` guys with spikes . '' They include J. Clifford Baxter , an intelligent but manic - depressive executive ; and Lou Pai , the CEO of Enron Energy Services , who is notorious for using shareholder money to feed his obsessive habit of visiting strip clubs . Pai abruptly resigns from EES with $250 million , soon after selling his stock . Despite the amount of money Pai has made , the divisions he formerly ran lost $1 billion , a fact covered up by Enron . Pai uses his money to buy a large ranch in Colorado , becoming the second - largest landowner in the state . </P>
who pushed the idea of mark-to-market accounting for enron
who pushed the idea of mark-to-market accounting for enron
Jeffrey Skilling
Jeffrey Skilling