End of Enron era sparks new hope.

• Author: Silverstein, Ken

The notorious Enron trial has ended. Jurors handed over their verdicts and former Chairman Ken Lay was found guilty on six felony counts while former CEO Jeff Skilling was convicted of 19 felony charges. The judgments mark the symbolic end to an era wrought with greed. But, it also signals the beginning of a new period--a time when the system of checks and balances worked and investor confidence has rebounded.

Because more Americans now participate in the stock market than ever before and mostly through corporate pension systems, awareness in markets and ethics is at higher levels. When share prices were rising at unprecedented levels in the latter part of the 1990s and through the early part of this decade, neither board members nor investors were asking the tough questions. But, when the bubble burst and ethical violations came to light, the scrutiny began in earnest.

Toward that end, policymakers and business leaders alike have tried to outline rules and regulations as well as codes of acceptable conduct that give individual workers clear visions from which to operate. That commitment is essential and must be applied all along the corporate chain of command.

"There has been a sea of change," says Adam Turteltaub, corporate relations executive for Los Angeles-based LRN that provides legal information to companies and particularly as it relates to ethical standards. "People have recognized that just meeting the letter of the law results in gamesmanship and complacency. Companies need to look at what kinds of culture they are building. We need to manage our companies by tomorrow's expectations--not today's standards."

Surely, if there are profits to be made, some type of scheme that attempts to skirt the law or even cross boundaries will occur. It's been that way throughout history. But, with each passing scandal, new rules and codes emerge that surpass those of the past. And while Enron won't be the last case of corporate malfeasance, its tumultuous saga did initiate a new age in business ethics.

Enron, once a sleepy natural gas pipeline company, grew to become the nation's seventh largest publicly-held corporation. But shoddy business practices in combination with bankers and advisors who placed more emphasis on profits than ethics brought down the company in December 2001. Altogether, about 16 former Enron execs along with Lay and Skilling have been or will be sentenced to prison.

It's a sad "ending" to what appeared to be a promising...