The Stakeholders' Golden Rule

Imagery, intrigue, humor, and entertaining personal musings of the author make it hard to put down this story about an ex-New Yorker's attempt to make a difference in Texas, the land of cattle, cotton, corn, and crude. Fascinated with his new surroundings and a never-ending stream of events where truth was stranger than fiction, the newcomer stumbles his way through the inbred politics of the Texas quasi-government electricity grid operator, ERCOT.

With threats from the Texas legislature to shut down ERCOT's failing efforts, he is hired to pull it out of the ditch. His obsession with business ethics puts him in on-going conflicts with dishonest peers and powerful unethical stakeholders who control ERCOT's governance. Those conflicts intensify when he is called to testify by the Texas DOJ in front of a grand jury. They get worse as he battles the circus-like stakeholder governance process while all his peers are fired and replaced with a team he describes as no better than the 3 Stooges.

His steadfast obsession with business ethics leads to a stream of darkly comedic encounters but does educate us with a flawless tutorial to solve an incredibly complex high-profile business problem. Unfortunately, as is often the case, gaslighting politics wins out over outstanding performance. Find out why the end of his ERCOT odyssey is bittersweet.