The Power of Reframing
"The World's Leading Company," the lobby banner proclaimed in the gleaming corporate headquarters in Houston, Texas. With some justification. For six years running, Enron had been voted the most innovative of Fortune's "Most Admired Companies" (McLean, 2001, p. 60). In September 2001, with reported earnings of over $1 billion a year and an annual growth rate of 68 percent, it ranked thirtieth on Fortune's list of America's hundred fastest growing companies. Small wonder that CEO Kenneth W. Lay was one of America's most powerful business leaders, sometimes mentioned in the same breath with Jack Welch, GE's legendary CEO. Lay had the added advantage of a long-term friendship with President George W. Bush. He cemented this personal tie by giving more than half a million dollars to Bush's presidential campaign (the biggest individual donor). What could be better than a big, innovative, fast-growing, profitable, politically connected company?
The trouble was the book ... read full excerpt from Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership, 3rd Edition ebook
