While television actors and producers make a big event out of the annual Emmy Awards, major corporations will not be going out of their way to collect the Enny Awards.
The "awards" - which were named for Enron Corp. - were presented as part of "Titans of the Enron Economy: The 10 Habits of Highly Defective Corporations," a recent report by United for a Fair Economy, Boston, a better-business advocacy group.
The Ennys go to the companies UFE sees as the biggest practitioners of business habits that are harmful to company shareholders, employees and the corporations themselves.
"(The practices) are legal and all very much a part of the business fabric," said Scott Klinger, UFE co-director of responsible wealth and author of the report. Mr. Klinger was an investment officer at United States Trust Co., New York from 1990 to 1999.
One of the 10 categories for which Ennys were awarded was the company with the most volatile concentration of company stock in a retirement plan. That distinction went to Coca-Cola Co., Atlanta, whose $1.4 billion 401(k) plan had a 76% exposure to company stock as of the end of January and was hit by the stock's poor performance in 2000 and 2001.
The report mentions that Coca-Cola laid off 6,000 employees in 2000 and gave a $55 million bonus to its CEO Douglas Daft the following year, despite the company's failure to reach earnings growth benchmarks. The stock had increased in value by 36.2% between Jan. 1 and April 15.
Another category is excessively paid CEOs - nicknamed the Kenny Enny for Kenneth Lay, former Enron chief executive officer - which went to Citigroup Inc., New York. According to the report, Sanford Weill made $525 million between 1998 and 2001 in total compensation.
The report also criticized Citigroup, along with the rest of the financial services industry, for using political campaign contributions to get access to politicians.
