Mad Talent

Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind's study of Enron invites speculation on how competition manifests itself in the workplace. "Guys with spikes" almost seems to be a double entendre:

[Skilling] used to say that he liked to hire "guys with spikes." By this, he meaant that if an executive had a singular narrow talent--a spike--Skilling was willing to bring him into Enron and lavish him with money, no matter what his other shortcomings. Egomaniacs, social misfits, backstabbers, devotees of strip clubs: Skilling didn't really care about their foibles so long as they had a skill he needed. Nor did it much matter to him whether they were team players. "Jeff could care less whether people got along with each other," says one of his early hires. "In many cases, he felt it was better if they didn't get along, since it created a level of tension that he believed was good for helping people come up with new ideas." A former trading executive adds: "Jeff always believed pitting three people against each other would be the quickest way to assure the best ideas bubbled to the top. He wanted them to fight."

---Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron, 2003.