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2022年经济学人 小蓝鸟与大老板(1)

时间:2022-11-24 01:12:10

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(单词翻译)

Business

商业版块

Bartleby: The bird and the boss

巴托比:小蓝鸟与大老板

A billionaire’s challenge to management thinking

亿万富翁的管理思维挑战

Elon musk1’s takeover of Twitter raises questions of policy: is it right for the world’s richest man to own such an important forum2 for public debate?

埃隆·马斯克接管推特后,人们从多个角度提出了质疑,首先是政策角度:这么重要的公共论坛成为全球首富的所属物,这合适吗?

It raises issues of law: is his decision to get rid of so many workers within days of completing the acquisition above board?

其次是法律角度:他刚完成收购就在短短几天内决定解雇这么多员工,这合法吗?

And it raises questions of strategy: can Twitter make money by moving from a business model based on advertising3 to one based on subscription4?

最后是战略角度:推特从依靠广告盈利改为通过订阅创收,这样还能赚到钱吗?

But it is also an extremely public test of a particular style of management.

但这也是对特定管理风格的一次极其公开的考验。

In the way he thinks about work, decision-making and the role of the CEO, Mr Musk is swimming against the tide.

在工作、决策和首席执行官的职责这些方面,马斯克的思维方式与当下的趋势背道而驰。

His attitude to employees is an obvious example of his counter-cultural approach.

他对待员工的态度就明显体现出了他的反主流文化行事风格。

For a futurist, Mr Musk is a very old-fashioned boss.

马斯克是一名未来主义者,但他当起老板来却非常老派。

He doesn’t like remote work.

他不喜欢远程办公。

Earlier this year he sent an email to employees at Tesla demanding that they come to the office for at least 40 hours a week.

今年早些时候,他给特斯拉的员工发了一封电子邮件,要求他们每周至少坐班40个小时。

Anyone who thought this was antiquated5 could “pretend to work somewhere else”, he tweeted.

他在推特上写道,任何认为坐班已经过时的人都可以“假装在其他地方工作”。

Whatever the legality of his decision to fire so many Twitter workers, his methods are brutal6: people locked out of corporate7 IT accounts, careers ended with an impersonal8 email, half the workforce9 gone at a stroke.

无论他解雇这么多推特员工的决定是否合法,他的方法都很残酷,比如封禁企业IT账户,用一封没有人情味的电子邮件掐断职业生涯,一口气裁掉半数员工等等。

It is as if Thanos had decided10 to try his hand at business.

这就好像灭霸决定用他的手在商业领域打响指一样。

For those who remain, hard graft11 is the expectation; insiders say that one of Mr Musk’s first acts at the firm was to cancel monthly firm-wide “days of rest”.

至于那些留下来的人,就只剩“努力工作”这一条路可走了;内部人士透露,马斯克接管后一上来就取消了公司每月的“休息日”。

The template for the modern manager tends to be a low-ego, compassionate12 boss who gives people autonomy.

如今,无私、富有同情心以及给员工自主权是老板的标配。

Someone didn’t get the memo13.

某人看来是不知道这事儿。

His critics have to accept that the my-way-or-the-highway approach has worked before.

但批评他的人不得不承认,“顺我者昌,逆我者亡”这种做法以前奏效过。

At his other firms, like Tesla and SpaceX, Mr Musk may not have offered empathy but he has provided a planet-sized sense of purpose, from popularising electric vehicles to colonising Mars.

在他的其他公司,如特斯拉和SpaceX,尽管马斯克可能没有表现出同理心,但他提供了如星球般宏大的使命感,既普及了电动汽车,又开拓了火星。

Whether this can work for him at Twitter is less clear.

至于这招在推特能否奏效就不好说了。

His vision for the product as a “digital town square” where free speech flourishes is a typically grand one.

他希望将推特打造成一个言论高度自由的“数字城市广场”,这想法本身就是个典型的宏大愿景。

This time, however, he is not taking on lumbering14 incumbents15, but fixing an existing business where judgment16 and politics matter as much as engineering.

然而,这一次,他不是在与笨拙的现任老板较量,而是在修复一家现有的企业,而且在这家企业中,判断与权术的重要程度丝毫不亚于管理。

The way that Mr Musk takes decisions also cuts across consensus17.

马斯克做决策的方式也有悖常理。

Comparatively little research has been done on how CEOs make their choices, but a Harvard Business School working paper published in 2020 had a bash by asking 262 of the school’s own alumni how they went about making strategy.

关于首席执行官如何做决策的研究一直相对较少,但哈佛商学院的研究人员进行了一番尝试,他们在2020年发表的一篇工作论文中,对262名校友制定战略的方式进行了调查。


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1 musk v6pzO     
n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物,香猫
参考例句:
  • Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。
  • She scented her clothes with musk.她用麝香使衣服充满了香味。
2 forum cilx0     
n.论坛,讨论会
参考例句:
  • They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
  • The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。
3 advertising 1zjzi3     
n.广告业;广告活动 a.广告的;广告业务的
参考例句:
  • Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
  • The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。
4 subscription qH8zt     
n.预订,预订费,亲笔签名,调配法,下标(处方)
参考例句:
  • We paid a subscription of 5 pounds yearly.我们按年度缴纳5英镑的订阅费。
  • Subscription selling bloomed splendidly.订阅销售量激增。
5 antiquated bzLzTH     
adj.陈旧的,过时的
参考例句:
  • Many factories are so antiquated they are not worth saving.很多工厂过于陈旧落后,已不值得挽救。
  • A train of antiquated coaches was waiting for us at the siding.一列陈旧的火车在侧线上等着我们。
6 brutal bSFyb     
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的
参考例句:
  • She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
  • They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼,骨子里却是野蛮残忍。
7 corporate 7olzl     
adj.共同的,全体的;公司的,企业的
参考例句:
  • This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
  • His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。
8 impersonal Ck6yp     
adj.无个人感情的,与个人无关的,非人称的
参考例句:
  • Even his children found him strangely distant and impersonal.他的孩子们也认为他跟其他人很疏远,没有人情味。
  • His manner seemed rather stiff and impersonal.他的态度似乎很生硬冷淡。
9 workforce workforce     
n.劳动大军,劳动力
参考例句:
  • A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
  • A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。
10 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
11 graft XQBzg     
n.移植,嫁接,艰苦工作,贪污;v.移植,嫁接
参考例句:
  • I am having a skin graft on my arm soon.我马上就要接受手臂的皮肤移植手术。
  • The minister became rich through graft.这位部长透过贪污受贿致富。
12 compassionate PXPyc     
adj.有同情心的,表示同情的
参考例句:
  • She is a compassionate person.她是一个有同情心的人。
  • The compassionate judge gave the young offender a light sentence.慈悲的法官从轻判处了那个年轻罪犯。
13 memo 4oXzGj     
n.照会,备忘录;便笺;通知书;规章
参考例句:
  • Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗?
  • Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗?
14 lumbering FA7xm     
n.采伐林木
参考例句:
  • Lumbering and, later, paper-making were carried out in smaller cities. 木材业和后来的造纸都由较小的城市经营。
  • Lumbering is very important in some underdeveloped countries. 在一些不发达的国家,伐木业十分重要。
15 incumbents 5672a9e1733f38c0bc40038b0d0b437b     
教区牧师( incumbent的名词复数 ); 教会中的任职者
参考例句:
  • In general, incumbents have a 94 percent chance of being reelected. 通常现任官员有94%的几率会再次当选。
  • This arangement yields a wonderful gain to incumbents. 这种安排为在职人员提供了意外的得益。
16 judgment e3xxC     
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见
参考例句:
  • The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
  • He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。
17 consensus epMzA     
n.(意见等的)一致,一致同意,共识
参考例句:
  • Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗?
  • What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么?

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