http://www.nymag.com/page.cfm?page_id=5737 this media life Spread Thin Enron's Kenneth Lay and Global Crossing's Gary Winnick weren't just spreadsheet jockeys, they were the last great heroes of the self-delusional business culture.
BY MICHAEL WOLFF QUOTE: Financial engineering (the term of art for the business that grew up around working a spreadsheet) becomes as complex as any activity becomes when you increase the variables exponentially. "Can he keep track of the moving pieces?" was what got asked about prospective managers of high-flying companies. The question was not, "Can he work hard and focus on the many details of the business?" Rather it was, "Can he appreciate that business has become a Rube Goldberg system of effects and counter-effects, of balancing one representation against its counter-representation (what the Street is told versus what the media is told versus what the employees are told), of keeping not two sets of books but as many sets as can be imagined (the spreadsheet accommodates all fantasies)?" In short order, business became way too complex for mere businessmen -- the pallid, gray dad types of the past. Business suddenly demanded a different caliber of brain power and temperament. ===== Darryl Think Galactically -- Act Terrestrially __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Try FREE Yahoo! Mail - the world's greatest free email! http://mail.yahoo.com/
