yes, this is the reason i was looking for him.  i will try to see him in london.  i also talked to sally and will follow up with another meeting.  jay webb seems to be okay.  
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Piper, Greg 
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 9:38 AM
To: Whalley, Greg
Subject: FW: Management Committee e-mail from Pickering


I just saw this e-mail and I assume this is why you were looking for Mark on our floor a few minutes ago.  He is in London this week.
 
Mark wanted to talk to Mr. Lay and I encouraged him to talk to you instead.  I assured Mark not to read too much in to the omission and that you told me you valued technology and operations, but I still think he is somewhat concerned.
 
Sally is still somewhat concerned as well but she and I had lunch and she is fine.
 
I assure you I have taken you at your word and I am moving on.
 
GP
-----Original Message-----
From: Pickering, Mark 
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 8:22 AM
To: Whalley, Greg; Frevert, Mark
Cc: Piper, Greg
Subject: Management Committee



Greg/Mark,

Firstly, many congratulations on your promotions, you are the best guys for the job.

I spoke to Greg Piper yesterday about his conversation with you over the management committee and would like to add my comments. I would appreciate your feedback on this and would also ask that you pass it by Ken.

I saw the recent message about the formation of the new Enron management committee. With Jeff's recent departure I understand the need to quickly reassure the shareholders, analysts and employees that we have great strength in management depth.

Given this I was surprised that there was no representation of Enron Net Works on the committee. I'm sure you will have wanted to keep the group to a manageable size, but I think that you should have at least included our CEO, Greg Piper. Here's why:

1)      EnronOnline is probably the best eCommerce application in the World. Enron have publicly milked the praise for this flagship IT system, and it is now core to Enron's trading business globally. Undoubtedly this system will be driven by the business in a multitude of directions as we seek to use it to our advantage in the future. We therefore need to be where the decisions are made.

2)    EnronOnline is only one of many world class IT systems we have developed at Enron. It gets the headlines because it is externally facing, however, all of the other internally facing systems are driven by the business too. There are things we can do and things we can't. We need to be represented at the management committee to ensure that the many management decisions that rely on IT are made with clear understanding of the IT implications.

3)    Many progressive and innovative companies now view IT as the backbone of their organisation (I think we have said this a number of times in public) and ensure there is board level IT representation in the company. Analysts will look at Enron and ask why we are not the same, especially given EnronOnline.

4)    Enron Net Works will be spending about $750,000,000 of Enron's money in 2002.

5)    Two and a half thousand Enron Net Works employees will already have read the management memo and will be asking why Enron Net Works is the only Enron unit not represented at the top. They will be asking what this tells them about their management (Greg and I) and also be wondering if they are again to be second-class Enron citizens. In this post-Skilling period, we need to be motivating our employees, not putting more doubts into their minds.

6)    Whilst keeping the management committee to mainly the larger revenue generating units, I see that there is representation from Accounts, Legal, Controls. IT should be up there too.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope that it may make you reconsider having Greg Piper in the commitee.

 

Best regards

MRP