Healthsouth: The Wagon To Disaster Analysis

HealthSouth: The Wagon to Disaster

Aaron Beam tells all in his novel entitled, “HealthSouth: The Wagon to Disaster” surrounding the fraud case amounting to $2.8 billion. Beam is the co-founder and Chief Financial Officer of HealthSouth whereas his partner-in-crime Richard Scrushy, also the co-founder, is the CEO. Beam was reluctant to work for Scrushy since he was not sure if the man was plain brilliant or just plain trouble. Nonetheless, he decided to work with him since he needed the job.

Beam first met Scrushy in the year 1980 while he was interviewing for a job offer at Lifemart, a hospital organization corporation which dealt on the New York Stock Exchange. At the start of the book, it can already be concluded that Scrushy had a tendency to tell white lies to huge lies which resulted in the fraud case. Beam retold the story in which Richard Scrushy asked him, Beam, to go with him to their boss’s to present a proposal (Beam 6). Beam, being the eager and new employee and

Scrushy is the “boss” type, not the “leader” type. To further explain, a boss is someone who is egotistical and puts himself or herself above all others. A leader, on the other hand, puts everybody else’s opinions first before him or her. A boss uses people for his or her personal gain, while a leader develops people or employees into the best they can be. Overall, a boss like Scrushy, can be the cause of downfall for the company, be it his act of leadership or his own self-absorption.

For Richard Scrushy though, it was not entirely his leadership skills at fault. However, his continuous need to succeed and to be the best. He was ambitious and money-hungry. As Aaron Beam retold his story on how he met Scrushy, it was the beginning of a fraudulent case waiting to happen. It was not Beam’s fault per se for not acknowledging it sooner,