Final Accounting : Ambition, Greed and the Fall of Arthur Andersen
Author: Barbara Ley Toffler, Jennifer Reingold
List Price: $24.95
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ISBN: 0767913825
Publisher: Broadway (04 March, 2003)
Sales Rank: 19,093
Average Customer Rating: 3.31 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4 out of 5
Ex Andersen Androids - A must Read
I found this book a compelling and interesting view into the daily workings of this once great firm. I worked for Andersen for neary 8 years and was not surprised by much in this book. Throughout my tenure at Andersen, I was witness to many of the same practices as well as many other unethical and unprofessional behaviors. What became glaringly apparent to me early on in my career is that as long as you have a powerful partner on your side, you can pretty much get away with anything (overbilling, expense fraud, selling unnecessary services, manipulating time reporting to meet goals, sexual harassment, etc.). Ms. Tofflers' representation of the culture, values and mission of this once fine organization are true and accurate (it's all about money!!). Unfortunately, Mr. Andersen's vision was bastardized by greed and hunger for power. Great book and a must read for all accounting professionals aligned with the remaing "final four".
Rating: 4 out of 5
From another Ex-Andersen Person
The book provides an indepth analysis regarding the real story behind the inner workings at Arthur Andersen. As a former Andersen employee, I was still searching for answers as to what went wrong and couldn't continue carrying the company line of "we did nothing wrong." Sure, we all didn't work at Enron or Worldcom, but her perspective forced me to question the ethics and driving forces (both historical and current)behind what really did happen. In fact, once you read the book and abstract yourself from your own personal experiences and convictions regarding AA, you'll start to say "Yeah, we were greedy and the constant struggle to sell more and more work caused us to neglect the core reason we existed- to protect the investing public." The book explains things such as the infamous inner battles fought among offices for billable time. The weird implications for our astronomical rates and associated PFAs. The inside scope on many of the partner meetings that we never got to attend- much less hear about. The book does a wonderful job of explaining the historical, political, and current events that unfolded to lead to Enron and World Com. I'm sure many of your experiences will be similiar to the authors. However, she neglected an important component of what made Andersen so great. For the most part, the people from Staff to Manager were intelligent, personable, driven, and natural leaders. It's something I haven't been able to replace in my current position and frankly don't think it will happen again. It's ashame that we had such poor leadership and that we lost sight, as a Firm,of our ultimate purpose- to protect the public via real AUDITS and not "business" audits!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Physician, heal thyself...
This is an odd book, because it's actually two separate books in one cover. The first book, which is essentially a short history of the rise and fall of Arthur Andersen, was no doubt written by the ghostwriter, Jennifer Reingold, and is actually fairly informative. This is the part that gets the three stars - not great by any means, but at least informative.The second book is interspersed with the first, and purports to be a scathing indictment of the culture of Arthur Andersen, a respected American institution that was subverted and destroyed by arrogance and greed. It's easy to read a lot into this story, since it's really just the current American business ethic in microcosm. Nothing matters here but greed and taking pleasure in stepping in the other guy's face.
What's interesting here is the fact that Barbara Toffler, who clearly considers herself to be an "ethics expert", openly confesses that she was just as ruthless and greedy as everyone else at Andersen. But the reader is left wondering if she ever really quite gets it - does she understand she's just as morally culpable as the Andersen partners she eviscerates? She certainly doesn't seem to be too troubled by her own long list of questionable actions, in any case. The old joke about the definition of "chutzpah" being a person who murders his parents and then pleads for mercy because he's an orphan gets an update here: an unethical peddlar of "ethical services" who turns a quick buck by selling her story. You might feel like taking a shower after you finish this one.
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