[.ca] Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at WorldCom (ISBN 0471647470)

The story is in the people.:
This book was really enjoyable to read. It was straight forward and informative but without taking sides or making excuses for the company which I expected, considering the author was a Mississippian, the home of WorldCom. The only negative I've seen about the book is that it isn't full of accounting analysis about the company and the fraud itself. I think that's the point. The fraud is as simple minded and immature. You have a very high profile, international company so crucial to the world's telecommunication system and yet Scott Sullivan pulls the most blatant of frauds by just posting as expenses line costs that weren't. There's really nothing complicated or sophisticated about the move. It's not like Enron that created layer upon layer of fraud and deceit. Indeed, we now see that Scott Sullivan is planning to use the "but everybody else does it" defense. The key in the tale lies in the mindset of the management team operating in the insular world of the Mississippi business climate. Also the look at how Bernie Ebbers went from a man selling stock in the company literally door to door facing his neighbors, to being a "front man" on Wall Street and deceiving the business community there with the help of Jack Grubman was incredible. That's where the story is. I agree the book is probably not for someone who is looking for an accounting mystery. That just wasn't the case at WorldCom. But the look at the people and their manner of dealing with others and the growing arrogance, tells the tale.

Personal Look:
This book was really enjoyable to read. It was straight forward and informative but without taking sides or making excuses for the company which is what I expected, considering the author is from Mississippi, the home of WorldCom. The only negative I've seen about the book is that it isn't full of accounting analysis about the company and the fraudulent activy. I think that's the point. The fraud is as simple minded and immature as it gets. You have a very high profile company so crucial to the world's telecommunications system yet Scott Sullivan pulls the most transparent of frauds by posting as expenses line costs, which of course weren't. There's nothing really complicated or sophisticated about the move. It's not like Enron, a company that created layer upon layer of fraud and deception. Indeed we now see that Sullivan is planning to use the "but everybody else is doing it" defense. The key in the tale lies in the mindset of the management team operating in the insular world of the Mississippi business climate. Also the look at how Bernie Ebbers went from a man selling stock in the company literally door to door facing his neighbors, to being a "front man" on Wall Street and fooling the business community there with the help of Jack Grubman was incredible. That's where the story is. I agree the book is probably not for someone looking for an accounting mystery. That just wasn't the case at WorldCom. The people and their attitudes are the story. It takes an arrogance to believe one can get away with what was done and it's all there in the book.

How Worldcom got where they are:
After reading the current news about Worldcom's executives on trial, I was intrigued to find a book to find out how these people got into the mess they did. Disconnected by Lynne Jeter was a great and fascinating read. I couldn't put the book down. I enjoyed getting to know the personalities behind the WorldCom fiasco. I've always wondered how people in corporate world get ahead and build successful companies. Most do it day in and day out, a long uphill climb. But when the companies (like WorldCom and Enron) are on top, those executives can do no wrong. When the dust settles, however, we see that they were really crooks and cons. They spent most of their time silencing people inside their organizations and propagandizing how great they are to people outside. This book not only gets me up to speed on the players in the Worldcom fiasco, it shows that people inside organizations have a responsibility to do the right thing, for their other co-workers, for shareholders, and for america. Since the story doesn't end with the book, I am now more interested in how the Worldcom story ends.

Fluff:
I found this book to be very basic and lacking details of the actual events that brought this company down. One minute you are reading about the genral morale of the office then all of a sudden there is a reference to "cooking the books" or something to the effect that this company is going to fall like a deck of cards. No where do you get the details of the actions that actually took place.If I wanted fluff I could have just watched some TV news stories on the company.

Disappointing gossip:
I was expecting to learn about the actual frauds committed, to gain some indepth analysis I couldn't get from reading the papers. Jeter quite clearly does not have an accounting background, not that it would have been necessary to write this book. But she didn't take the time to understand the accounting issues and present them, and its really the accounting fraud that's at the heart of the WorldCom scandal. The financial information that was included was listed without any analysis. In one of the early chapters, Jeter ends a paragraph with a sentence declaring that WorldCom's assets were worth the same amount as their liabilities and shareholder's equity. As if a balance sheet balancing is some sort of revelation. I found the only information provided in this book was more along the lines of kitchen gossip. I learned about the eating habits of Bernie Ebbers, various attenuated relations between key figures and legends of Mississippi college football, and the decor of Sullivan's mansion. The quotes from former WorldCom employees were irrelevant and unhelpful. For example, she describes a high level executive by quoting a former employee who didn't know the man but frequently rode the elevator with him. The employee's helpful analysis of the personality and motivations of the executive in question? He seemed to button his shirts awful tight. This book is useless dribble. Not worth the cost of shipping. Do a search on WSJ.com and you'll learn more.