gladwell dot com / The Talent Myth
I found this article about Enron a couple of weeks ago. Apparently it is famous and I’m late to the party.
The management of Enron, in other words, did exactly what the consultants at McKinsey said that companies ought to do in order to succeed in the modern economy. It hired and rewarded the very best and the very brightest—and it is now in bankruptcy. The reasons for its collapse are complex, needless to say. But what if Enron failed not in spite of its talent mind-set but because of it? What if smart people are overrated?
Such silliness seems appropriate in a city like Houston, founded by selling the idea that a mosquito-infested swamp was a tropical paradise.