What went wrong at Arthur Andersen.
3/31/2003
Final Accounting provides an inside scoop on what went wrong at the venerable Arthur Andersen. The authorsToffler a professor at Columbia Business School, Reingold a business reporterrecount the history and impressive rise of this firm as well as its dramatic fall, all the while describing Toffler's personal experiences as former partner-in-charge of Arthur Andersen's Ethics and Responsible Business Practice consulting services. What is fascinating about their account is that while the firm certainly succumbed to the greed and the poor business judgment that afflicted many during the fast-paced 1990s, other factors were at play, too, which they detail. A cultural clash was one: top-heavy and paternalistic, the company was less and less appealing to top-flight business and accounting gradsits traditional hiring baseand it recoiled from any outside viewpoints though it increasingly needed them.