Dear Colleagues,

A couple of alert readers wrote to ask me about
the relationship between Andersen and NewsScan
Daily, especially in relation to the role that Andersen
played in the Enron scandal.

Andersen has sponsored NewsScan for several years.
They no longer do so. They were still sponsoring NewsScan
on March 26, and I used the header from that issue in
reposting the note on the Thumb Tribe with my
recommendation for the NewsScan Daily newsletter.

There are three relevant facts here. 1) Andersen sponsored
NewsScan. NewsScan did not sponsor Andersen. 2) Andersen
is a global company with some 85,000 employees in 84
nations. In any organization that large, there are pockets
of excellence, pockets of evil, and pockets of mediocrity.

The third relevant fact is that 3) I am recommending
NewsScan Daily, not Enron and not Andersen.

Permit a few judicious thoughts on Andersen and
Enron.

While all Andersen benefited from any sponsorship
arrangement made by one small part of the firm, it is
irrelevant to ask about which part that was. Andersen has
an IT practice, and that would be the obvious relationship
to NewsScan. Given the fact that NewsScan is not in the
accounting field, there would have been no way (and no
reason) for NewsScan to pay any attention to Andersen's
accountancy work. This certainly would have made no
sense a few years ago. Let's be serious here: how much did
YOU know about Andersen before this scandal blew up?
How much do you know about the other accounting firms
or their practices today? (I actually knew a fair amount
about Andersen, good and bad, because they are a major
firm in several fields of management. I could
never have imagined the scandalous laxity and the
unethical behavior demonstrated by one branch of the
firm in the Enron case.)

A large firm like Andersen places ads (i.e., sponsorship
notices) in every major news source. This places NewsScan
in the same group as The Economist, Financial Times,
New York Times, Washington Post -- and several
thousand more.

If you are involved at a university with a large, serious
business school or a top quality IT program, Andersen
has probably been recruiting at your school and may well
have been sponsoring some of your students. If your
design school works in any of several areas of IT,
someone YOU personally worked with may well be
among those who have worked at Andersen.)

I'm not going to discuss the problems that firms
like Enron and the firms that enable their behavior pose
to a democratic society and the public good. I could do
it, but you'd still be reading this post two hours from now.
The confluence of economic power and political influence
are a danger. When ethical standards are low and when
the watchdog agencies are lax, the danger is clear and
present.

This is not news. You can read it in Aristotle and
Ecclesiastes and Adam Smith.

Since we have Jeff Gates (_Democracy at Risk_) and
Michael Moore (_Stupid White Men_) writing books on
these issues, and people such as Paul Krugman writing
on the specifics of the Andersen and Enron cases, there
is no need for me to offer my views to PhD-Design
beyond recommending Gates, Moore, and Krugman.

You can also re-read Aristotle and Smith on ethics,
and Theodore Roosevelt on protecting the public against
what Roosevelt labeled "the malefactors of great wealth."

I have been reading NewsScan Daily and Innovation
Week for several years. This is top quality digest
journalism. John Gehl, Suzanne Douglas, and their
staff scout the world for current information from
reliable sources. They write up their findings in concise,
thoughtful notes and they ALWAYS provide links to
original sources.

If you want my views on public ethics and accounting
practices, just call me at +46 46 53245. I can
probably tell you more than you ever wanted to hear
about these issues.

I agree with everything people have written to me
about Andersen and Enron. It simply has nothing to
do with NewsScan.

NewsScan does serious, responsible work. They are a
news medium. I recommend them highly as a news
medium. While there are many good occasional email
bulletins and lists, there are three great services that
publish design-related *news* on a *regular* schedule.
NewsScan is one of them. (The others are the Scout
Report bulletins and David Durling's Design Research
News.)

If you want to learn more about this fine service, visit
their Web site for yourself at URL:

http://www.NewsScan.com/

Best regards,

Ken Friedman



http://www.NewsScan.com/


Information * Intelligence * Insight

Founded in 1994 by John Gehl and Suzanne Douglas, NewsScan offers
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knowledge management, human resources, distance learning, corporate
training, business and management strategies, information technology,
and many other client-specified news topics.

These services are offered to corporations, consulting firms,
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The company also produces the following e-pubs:

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