SALT LAKE CITY — “When you take a risk for your faith, your ethics, your integrity, it seems like you’re laying it all on the line.”
So said Sherron Watkins, the famed whistleblower and former vice president of Enron Corp., who tried to warn the firm’s then-CEO, Kenneth Lay, in 2001 of the company’s questionable accounting practices.
Enron, once the seventh largest company in America, filed for bankruptcy later that year after revelations about years of inflated profits, and Watkins testified before congressional committees investigating Enron’s downfall. TIME magazine named Watkins along with two other proclaimed whistleblowers as 2002 Persons of the Year for being “people who did right just by doing their jobs rightly.”
Watkins shared her story at the BYU Management Society’s Inaugural Moral and Ethical Leadership Conference on Friday, where more than 150 business professionals gathered in the interest of developing or promoting moral and ethical leadership practices.
“It was the bleakest time in my life,” Watkins said of the scandal, because at the time she was the primary breadwinner of her family, and she had a two-year-old daughter at home to take care of. Much was at stake — many before her had lost their jobs for trying to correct the firm’s corruption — and yet she said she knew she couldn’t stand back, not only ethically, but also spiritually.
“When you don’t stand against evil, when you don’t protest, you have to rationalize why you haven’t done that, and it starts to erode your soul,” she said.
Watkins spoke along with other business leaders, including Clayton M. Christensen, Harvard business professor, best-selling author and recognized national expert on disruptive innovation.
Edward Sawyer, BYU Management Society vice president of programs, said the conference was aimed at teaching professionals ways to allow ethical and moral practices to lift their management. He said in today’s business world, ethics aren’t discussed nearly enough, and it seems corrupt behaviors are present across many sectors of society, from sports, politics, and many business industries.
“Good business isn’t not just about the profits,” Sawyer said. “It’s really about how we can better those around us, and we need to have that moral courage and fortitude to be able to stand up for what we believe humanity out to be doing.”
Watkins and Christensen both shared a passionate message: In difficult, questionable times, when it seems one might have to sacrifice his or her values to keep climbing the ladder, faith is a powerful tool to stay on a moral path.
“Rewards come from having the courage to stand up,” Watkins said. “It seems like a risky maneuver, but I do think the power comes from on high when you take that leap of faith.”
She said she feels as though God helped her come forward and granted her a fulfilling life in return, as she now travels worldwide to speak about ethics and her experience with Enron.
Christensen referenced scripture, noting it can be applied to business decisions by helping people avoid unfair business practices that are only profit-driven, which can result in fewer jobs and unequal opportunities.
“There’s a theory that we use in the LDS Church that says God will build the kingdom on the shoulders of the weak and simple. And every time when you’re deciding who you should give responsibility, our instinct is to give it to the best people we can find, not the simple and weak.“
“And so the theory is very clear, and as a group we don’t really have the faith to use that theory, nearly as often as we should," he said.
He said from a business standpoint that means not discriminating against someone because of their background.
Email: kmckellar@deseretnews.com