Enron is truly an authentic emblem of corporate corruption and will serve as an example for quite some time.

Enron also focused debates concerning corporate governance and corporate social performance to the forefront of the minds of shareholders, managers, and public policy makers.

A lesson that finance professionals had to relearn after Enron is making sure you understand how the company makes money and making sure you understand why you own stock or bond of a particular company.

Take, for example, some of the people at Enron, ... It should be that you are developing your leadership skills throughout your education.

After the fact, we will look back on the Enron episode as a period when we put corporate governance back on track, ... That is favorable to the long-term outlook. If it were going to have significant impact on the economy in the short run, we'd already be seeing it, and we are not.

But even when liability has been imposed, it has ultimately been paid by a combination of corporate directors and officers liability insurance. Settlements in the Enron case may indicate a change to history because individual directors at Enron had to make significant payments from their personal assets.