经济学人131:惠普 董事会的游戏

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　　商业 惠普 董事会的游戏

　　More turmoil¹ at the top of the world's biggest tech firm

　　世界最大的科技公司，陷入比以往更大的混乱之中

　　A FEW months after Léo Apotheker, the former boss of SAP, a German software firm, took over as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard (HP), he joked that he had learned to say "awesome²" like a Californian following his move from Europe to Palo Alto. Unfortunately for Mr Apotheker, that is not an adjective that many of HP's investors³ and board members would apply to his leadership. Rightly or wrongly, they have become disillusioned⁴ with him. As The Economist⁵ went to press, speculation⁶ was swirling⁷ that he would soon be ousted⁸ as chief executive, less than a year after his arrival.

　　前德国软件公司SAP老板，李艾科.阿波台克在接任惠普首席执行官几个月后开玩笑说,他从德国来到帕洛阿尔托后,已经学会像加利福尼佬那样说"牛X"了。可不幸的是，对于阿波台克来说, 许多惠普的投资人和董事会成员没能适应他的领导,也不会用这词儿形容他上台以来所取得的成绩。错也好，对也好，他们已经对阿波台克先生失望了。在本期《经济学家》出版之际，阿波台克即将被赶下首席运营官宝座的猜测已甚嚣尘上。而这据他上任的时间还不到一年。

　　Whatever happens, the saga⁹ is another blow for a company that has lurched from one boardroom crisis to another. Mr Apotheker took the wheel at HP in November 2010 following the departure of Mark Hurd, who left abruptly¹⁰ amid stories of sexual indiscretions and problematic expense-reporting. Mr Hurd had taken over from Carly Fiorina, who was binned¹¹ in 2005 after the firm's profits plunged¹². A year later Patricia Dunn, HP's then chairman, also departed after a scandal involving an investigation¹³ into suspected press leaks from HP directors.

　　不管发生什么，走马灯式地换第三个CEO对一家把一个董事会危机转嫁到另一个危机的公司来说，是又一打击。阿波台克先生在2010年11月掌舵惠普，接任突然离职的马克?赫德，后者离职的原因是私人性生活不检点外加花费报销有问题。而赫德先生的前任是卡莉.菲奥莉女士，她在惠普利润大幅下滑后，于2005年被赶走。转过年来，时任惠普主席的帕特丽夏?邓恩因卷入怀疑公司董事会成员向媒体泄密的调查，同样下了课。

　　Repeated ructions at the top are harmful for any firm. But they have been devastating¹⁴ at HP, which faces brilliant competitors such as Apple in the hardware business and IBM in enterprise software and services. Mr Apotheker is partly to blame for the fact that the firm has been reluctant to follow his leadership. But so, too, is the board, which seems uncertain about what kind of leader HP needs.

　　高层之间反复不断的争吵指责对任何公司来说都是有害的。而对于惠普而言，则更为致命。它所面对的竞争对手各个业绩彪炳，比如在硬件产业的竞争者苹果，和软件及服务业的竞争者IBM。阿波台克先生被指责的部分原因是他无法驾驭惠普，这确属事实。但惠普董事会也应被批判。他们似乎并不能确定惠普需要那种类型的领导。

　　A couple of things appear to have brought matters to a head. Since his arrival, Mr Apotheker has had to lower HP's revenue forecasts three times (see chart). In part, this reflects slower-than-expected growth in the personal-computer (PC) market, of which HP has a larger share than any other firm. HP's critics, however, claim that its boss has not done enough to arrest the sales slide, which has dented¹⁵ its share price.

　　几件事情叠加在一起，使局面到了不可收拾的地步。自从阿波台克上任以来，三次降低惠普收入预测(详情看图表)。从一方面说,这一举措反映了惠普享有最大份额的个人电脑市场增长比预期缓慢。然而，惠普的批评者却称阿波台克在遏制销售业绩下滑上做出的努力不够，从而使惠普的股价一路下跌。

　　Some board members also believe Mr Apotheker has failed to win broad support within HP. One person familiar with the board's deliberations employs a medical analogy, likening Mr Apotheker to "a perfectly¹⁶ good organ" that simply has not worked when transplanted to a very different body. Asked for a response, HP refused to comment on speculation.

　　一些董事会成员同样认为阿波台克先生没能在惠普内部赢得广泛的支持。一位收悉惠普董事会研究思路的人士用器官移植来做比方。他把阿波台克先生比喻成"一个运行完美的器官"，但这个器官被移植到一个非常复杂的肌体后却无法做出简单的活动。当被问及就此做出回复时，惠普拒绝对此推论给予评论。

　　It seems to be these issues, rather than any broad disagreement on strategy, that have caused friction¹⁷ between HP's chief executive and its board. Directors are said to support Mr Apotheker's public musing¹⁸ about whether or not to sell the company's PC business. They also approve, it is said, of his whopping $10.3 billion bid for Autonomy, a British firm whose software helps companies sift¹⁹ through mountains of e-mails and other data. Investors are less sure: HP's shares dropped 20% on the day the deal and a possible spin-off of its PC business were announced.

　　似乎正是这些问题，而不是其它在战略构想上更广泛的分歧造成了惠普首席执行官与董事会的摩擦。外界认为，惠普董事会员支持阿波台克公开考虑是否出售公司的个人电脑业务。据说，他们同样赞同其提出的花费大约103亿美元收购英国软件公司Autonomy。其拥有的软件技术能帮助诸多公司筛选数量巨大的电子邮件和其它数据。投资者可不像惠普董事会那样赞成这样的计划：在惠普宣布收购Autonomy并告知有可能剥离旗下个人电脑业务后，其股价当天就大跌20%

　　HP is unlikely to back out of buying Autonomy now, whatever happens to Mr Apotheker, not least because it is determined²⁰ to grow in high-margin software businesses. More than two-fifths of Autonomy's shareholders²¹ have already accepted HP's bid and British rules would make it hard to pull out of the deal.

　　不管阿波台克先生是否离任,惠普现在想撤销并购Autonomy是不可能了。更何况惠普已经决定要在高盈利的软件产业加大投资。超过五分之二的Autonomy股东已经接受惠普的报价，想要不再收购，英国的法规也不会轻易答应。

　　Either a weakened Mr Apotheker will have to do a better job of selling these moves to the market, or that job will fall to his successor. If the board does push for his departure, one possible candidate for his job could be Meg Whitman, the former boss of eBay and an HP director. Ms Whitman is also an adviser²² to Kleiner Perkins, a venture firm where Ray Lane, HP's chairman, is a partner.

　　在未来，要么地位不稳的阿波台克先生尽更大的努力把这些计划在市场中付诸实践，要么就是他的继任者来做这些事情。如果惠普董事会确实要赶他走，继承他职位的可能人选之一是前eBay老板，在惠普担任过董事的梅格?惠特曼。她同时还是一家风险企业Kleiner Perkins的顾问之一。而这家公司的合伙人之一就是雷?兰恩，惠普公司董事长。

　　Investors seem to think that an Apotheker-less HP would be better off: the company's share price rose almost 7% on September 21st after news of a potential defenestration leaked out. But it is not clear that someone such as Ms Whitman, who comes from a consumer-internet background, would be an ideal successor at a company that does a lot of its business with other corporations.

　　投资者似乎认为带有较少阿波台克德印记的惠普会更好。当他要卷铺盖走人的消息不径而飞后，惠普的股价在9月21日上涨了几乎7个百分点。向惠特曼女士这样，虽有为消费者提供网络服务的背景，但是否就是惠普的理想继承者，对此前景并不明朗。毕竟惠普的商业运作对象主要是企业用户。

　　Whatever happens, Mr Lane and the rest of HP's board will find themselves under the spotlight²³. "Is Léo the problem, or is he just a symptom of an underlying²⁴ problem?" muses²⁵ Chris Whitmore, an analyst²⁶ at Deutsche Bank. HP's shareholders should perhaps be asking themselves the same question.

　　不管发生什么， 雷先生及董事会的其它成员将发现自己会暴露在聚光灯下。"是李艾科有问题，还是李艾科只是个深层问题的表象？"德意志银行的分析师克瑞斯.魏特摩尔对此旋入了沉思。惠普公司的股东应该或许也会问自己同样的问题。

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