Click Here to Go Directly to the Story
Register/Subscribe
Home



Current BW Magazine Table of Contents

May 14, 2001 BW Magazine Table of Contents

May 14, 2001 e.Biz Supplement Table of Contents

E.BIZ ONLINE
e.biz Home Page
Recent e.biz Features
Perspective
Company Closeup
Movers & Shakers
Street Wise
Clicks & Misses
Web Site Makeovers
From Le Monde Interactif
e.biz Q&As

SCIENCE
Recent Science Features


TECHNOLOGY
Recent Tech Features
Covers/Special Reports
Microsoft Watch


ONLINE FEATURES Book Reviews BW Video Columnists Interactive Gallery Newsletters Past Covers Philanthropy Podcasts Special Reports BLOGS Auto Beat Bangalore Tigers Blogspotting Brand New Day Byte of the Apple Economics Unbound Eye on Asia Fine On Media Green Biz Hot Property Investing Insights Management IQ NEXT: Innovation NussbaumOnDesign Tech Beat Working Parents TECHNOLOGY J.D. Power Ratings Product Reviews Tech Stats Wildstrom: Tech Maven AUTOS Home Page Auto Reviews Classic Cars Car Care & Safety Hybrids INNOVATION
& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads


MAY 14, 2001

The e.biz 25

Jeffrey Skilling

 
  STORY TOOLS
Printer-Friendly Version
E-Mail This Story

BW Magazine

Cover Photograph by David Strick; Digital Imaging by Richard Michiel/BW; Illustration by Chris Buzetti

Related Items BUSINESSWEEK E.BIZ -- COVER STORY

 25 Leaders for a Dangerous Time

Monica Luechtefeld

Stuart Wolff

Meg Whitman

Thomas Middelhoff

Steve Case

Rick Belluzzo

Bill Coleman

Tony Ball

Scott McNealy

Pekka Ala-Pietila

Michael Powell

Lawrence Lessig

Hal Varian

Courtney Love

Ray Ozzie

Paul Bourke

Takeshi Natsuno

Michael Dell

Pradeep Sindhu

Gary Reiner

Jeffrey Skilling

Steve Sanger

Jeff Bezos

Marty Wygod

Masayoshi Son

Online Extra: The Up and Comers

Online Extra: Alloy Online: Finding Strength in Teen Trends

Online Extra: Mobile Commerce Is Coming--Modestly, Eventually

Online Extra: Why Online Grocers Won't All Go Hungry

Online Extra: Speedier, Smarter, More Selective Searches

Online Extra: Commentary: The Top Ten Myths About E-Commerce

Online Extra: The New Buzz in B2B: Power to the Sellers

Enron Corp.

POSITION: President and CEO

CONTRIBUTION: Thanks to the Net, he transformed Enron into North America's largest energy marketer. He's trading everything from paper to metals online to the tune of $162 billion in the first quarter.

CHALLENGE: Get new broadband Internet trading unit on solid footing by proving bandwidth can be traded like a commodity.
Enron Corp. (ENE ) Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey K. Skilling likes to say that the nation's leading energy merchant was ready for the Internet long before there was anything.com. Enron's business of buying and selling commodities such as electricity and natural gas--by phone or fax--was a natural fit for the Web. Over the past year, Enron has taken online trading to a new level, harnessing the Web to bring Enron's risk-management prowess to everything from metals to high-speed communications. "Our volumes are way up," says Skilling.

Try through the roof. EnronOnline handles 5,000 transactions per day. The company posts prices on more than 1,500 products that it stands ready to buy or sell to utilities, municipalities, and other big wholesale customers. Since November, 1999, EnronOnline has traded more than $525 billion worth of commodities, making it the Web's biggest and most successful business-to-business site.

Skilling's most challenging move: high-speed communications bandwidth. In the past year, Enron has spent $436 million to create its own 15,000-mile fiber-optic network to provide real-time bandwidth to customers. Because of a supply glut and falling prices, bandwidth trading is struggling. In March, Enron suffered a major blow with the abrupt cancellation of its video-on-demand pact with Blockbuster Inc. (BBI ) Skilling says the deal was called off because Blockbuster wasn't getting movies from Hollywood studios fast enough.

Such setbacks don't faze Skilling, a former McKinsey & Co. consultant who graduated in the top 5% of his Harvard Business School class. He sees almost no limit to what Enron can trade--even ad space is a possibility. "The Net allows you to touch lots of customers inexpensively," he says. Not bad for mere commodities.



Back to Top
 
 
TODAY'S MOST POPULAR STORIES

  1. Oracle's Sun Deal: Oracle May Need to Loosen Its Grip
  2. The Cars You Won't See in the U.S.
  3. Stocks: Five Market Mistakes to Avoid
  4. Picks of the Week: Berkshire, Starbucks, Cisco, MasterCard
  5. Why This Real Estate Bust Is Different

Get Free RSS Feed >>
  MARKET INFO

Portfolio Service Update

Stock Lookup

Enter name or ticker



Copyright 2001 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy

Media Kit | Special Sections | MarketPlace | Knowledge Centers
McGraw-Hill Cos.