Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling famously cited ==Richard Dawkins' _[[The Selfish Gene]]_ as his favorite book, using its premise to justify a ruthless, Darwinian corporate culture==. He misinterpreted the evolutionary biology text to promote "rank and yank" performance reviews, believing that internal greed and cutthroat competition were essential for weeding out "losers".  **Key Details Regarding the Connection:** - **Misinterpreted Philosophy:** While Dawkins argued that genes act selfishly to survive, Skilling improperly applied this to mean that human, individual, and corporate selfishness is inherently beneficial. - **Corporate Culture:** This belief system directly influenced Enron’s "rank and yank" system, where the bottom 15% of employees were fired annually to simulate natural selection. - **Reactions:** Though sometimes associated with Ayn Rand's philosophy, the specific influence of _The Selfish Gene_ was a key intellectual pillar for Skilling's management style. Critics and commentators noted this as a "grisly" example of, and a misunderstanding of, evolutionary theory applied to business.