Healthsouth: The Wagon to Disaster - Hardcover

Aaron Beam; Chris Warner

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0979628482 ISBN 13: 9780979628481

Publisher: Wagon Publishing Fairhope Alabama, 2009

Synopsis

It was the quintessential American success story: Identify a niche; form a company to exploit it; raise millions in venture capital; take the concept public; meet stockholder expectations for 40 straight quarters, in the process becoming a darling of Wall Street; and of course make money plenty of it while the stock price steadily climbs and revenue projections increase. In a few short years you ve gone from rags to riches...you re on a monster roll... Until your boss, saddled with the realization that the Street expectations cannot realistically be met, asks you to creatively fix the numbers. It s the toughest decision you ve ever made, and one where the easiest way out could be the most difficult, given the circumstances. Caught squarely between greed and fear, Aaron Beam did the unthinkable. Corporate greed is the Black Plague of the modern financial world threatening America s ability to maintain free market capitalism in an increasingly distrusting, changing, and socialistic world economy. The Wagon to Disaster, told by former co-founder and CFO Aaron Beam, is the untold story of HealthSouth, one of America s most successful health care companies and consequently, the perpetrator of one of its biggest frauds in history. How big was the fraud? In 2003, just before news of the crime broke in the mainstream media, HealthSouth paid more money in taxes to the Federal Government than it legitimately earned the previous year. Beam takes the reader from HealthSouth s humble beginnings, through its meteoric rise and to its disastrous revelation, subsequent trial and his three-month incarceration in a federal prison. Moreover, he reveals the nature of the fraud and the true personality of the driving force behind HealthSouth Richard Marin Scrushy, one of the most enigmatic, nefarious characters the State of Alabama has ever produced a hard-charging, unscrupulous visionary whose caustic, Machiavellian approach ensured HealthSouth s success, and oddly, his predictable fall as the company s benevolent dictator. Read more at wagontodisaster.com, the official book website.

About this title

About the Author

Aaron Beam is the former founder and first CFO of HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama. The company was founded in 1984 by he and Richard Marin Scrushy and it became a Fortune 500 Company. Today Beam speaks to corporations about the perils of fraud and how they can manage this inherent risk trough education and training about its nature. Beam lives in Loxley, Alabama with his wife of 39 years, Phyllis.

Review

Aaron Beam has produced an accessible and fascinating story about his experience as co-founder and the first CFO of HealthSouth. Those interested in corporate fraud or business ethics can learn from the lessons he conveys. This book truly has the potential to save others from similar mistakes for which Mr. Beam has paid dearly. --Dr. Linda Trevino, Penn State University

Of all the CEO's accused of misdeeds in recent years--at Enron, Worldcom and elsewhere--by far the most interesting is former HealthSouth CEO Richard Marin Scrushy. A charismatic leader, Scrushy could get employees to follow him either through charm or encouragement, or outright intimidation. In this book Chief Financial Officer Aaron Beam paints a vivid portrait of Scushy in the years before HealthSouth started cooking its books to meet Wall Street expectations. For those who have followed Scrushy's amazing career--from humble beginnings in Selma, Alabama to the creation of a Fortune 500 company, to accusations of fraud and his eventual acquittal of charges that he orchestrated the fraud at HealthSouth, Beam's first-hand account of life with Richard Scrushy is indispensable. - --Greg Farrell, Wall Street Correspondent, The Financial Times

This is the perfect book for the business student. People assume that they could never be entangled in these kinds of financial debacles, but this book personalizes the story and shows how each business person needs to have an impeccable personal moral compass. Careers and livelihoods ride principally on your reputation for integrity. - --Dr. Peter Ricchiuti, Professor, Tulane University

Edition details

• Publisher: Wagon Publishing Fairhope Alabama
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0979628482
• ISBN 13: 9780979628481
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208
• Editor: Marcia Ball, Bob Carlton