Mark Esper Quotes

'Power Play' is a morality tale for our post-Enron world and - not incidentally - wildly entertaining. Nothing wrong with that.

Excessive pandering to stockholders is as bad as any other form of pandering

I'm a corporate thug. That's the best way to be.

I think most corporate executives are good honorable honest men and women who do good work.

I happen to represent Enron here in Houston. We have many good corporate citizens here in Houston. Enron happened to have been one.

Shareholder meetings are not usually the occasion for utter candor - or for that matter, arch sarcasm - by chief executives.

The best discussion of trouble in boardroom and business office is found in newspapers' own financial pages and speeches by journalists in management jobs.

Before Enron, I think people were a bit more naive about the way things worked, and I think Enron pulled the curtain back on unsavoury practices that turned out to be a lot more widespread.

Not only is self-regulation largely a fantasy, but repeated scandals across multiple industries have proved that companies are fundamentally incapable of self-regulating for the greater good.

The future of any corporation is as good as the value system of the leaders and followers in the organization.

Killing Intel, I, I just had to resign from the Apple Board.

I don't represent corporations.

The corporate world has the resources to improve the world. It's where people live and work.

By the time of the '90s boom, CEOs had become superheroes, accorded celebrity treatment and followed with a kind of slavish scrutiny that Alfred P. Sloan could never have imagined.

I don't do any corporate work.

Industry leaders have the power to set standards.

My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it till now.

I will always do what's best for the company.

Excessive pay and rewards for failure are bad for shareholders, the economy and society.

Enron - although an extreme case - is hardly the only company with a hollow set of values.

I often wonder what the world would be like if more companies were like Apple.

The Enron scandal is worthy of the highest level of scrutiny, both because of the enormity of the crimes that may have been committed and because of what the largest bankruptcy in American history has already begun to reveal about the weaknesses in our nation's corporate structures and regulatory oversight.

Perhaps the single most effective antagonist of American business is Ralph Nader, who - thanks largely to the media - has become a legend in his own time and an idol of millions of Americans.

Doing good business - being ethical, being transparent, being caring, implementing values in your business - makes a difference, and you make money at the same time.

Companies and leaders are role models - not just with the business community - but in the broader world.