Conseco Collapse Deals New Blow to CEO Cult

Even now, nobody is connecting the dots when it comes to Gary Wendt's role in the demise of Conseco.

Most reports about Tuesday's bankruptcy filing by the Carmel, Ind., insurance and lending behemoth have suggested that the former CEO's turnaround plan was more or less doomed from the start. The assumption appears to be that, given the large debt load taken on by previous management, Conseco was too sick to be cured even by Wendt -- who joined the company in June 2000 with one of the most impressive reputations in corporate America.

But if the popular myth is that Wendt was overwhelmed by an insoluble mess, a look at some before-and-after numbers suggests otherwise. Indeed, rather than overseeing a sharply focused belt-tightening, the Wendt regime appears to have added to the cash-crunched company's many problems. ...