[英语时文阅读中英文对照]CEO的"创新噩梦"

译言网 | CEO的“创新噩梦”September 30th, 2010

The CEO's Innovation Nightmare

CEO的“创新噩梦”

When chief executives yell "innovation" in the forest, but their

management teams cover their ears, did they really yell anything at all?

当CEO在公司里大呼“创新”的时候，公司的管理团队却捂起了耳朵，他们的“呼喊”还有什么用呢？

By G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Louis Vitón, September 13, 2010

作者：G. Michael Maddock 、Raphael Louis Vitón，2010年9月13日

The news cameras roll as the chief executive of one of the nation's

largest companies boldly outlines his well-thought-out, incredibly

detailed vision for changing his dinosaur industry. "Innovation will be

the cornerstone on which we build our future," he says. "For too long,

we have relied on our great brand, loyal customers, and fine workforce

to carry the day. But the world is changing, and our customers and

shareholders are counting on us to deliver new products and services.

Our competitors haven't recognized this fact. But we have. So from this

day forward, I commit to create a culture of innovation. We will be

known as the company that reinvented the X industry."

当（新闻）摄像机转向全美最大公司之一的CEO时，他相当坦然地向我们讲述了一些经过深思熟虑的、细致入微的、可以改变这个庞大产业的想法，“创新将是我们开拓未来的重要基

础”，他说，“长久以来，我们一直依赖于我们强大的品牌力量、忠诚的客户和优秀的员工来度过每一天，但是世界在变，我们的客户和股东们期望我们能推出新的产品和服务。而我们的竞争对手还没有认识到这一点，但我们知道！所以从今天起，我承诺要创立一种‘创新文化’，我们的公司将会在未知的产业里再次取得辉煌的成就！”

The next day, a huge plaque is hung in the corporate lobby that boldly

proclaims, "Core Value No. 1: Innovation." And you can tell that the CEO

believes this with all his heart. Like Paul on the road to Damascus, he

has seen the light. In the aftermath of the announcement, we at Maddock

Douglas applaud. (Innovation is our business, after all.) Wall Street

applauds—and the stock price rises. And there is a renewed optimism

among the rank and file in the halls of the sleepy company.

第二天，一个巨大的牌匾挂在了公司大厅之中，向大家亮出企业的口号：“第一核心价值：创新！”这时候你会发现这的确是CEO的心声，就如同Pail走在前往Damascus的路上，他已经看到了胜利的曙光！在公布了这些消息之后，作为Maddock Douglas①的员工，我们为之欢欣鼓舞（毕竟“创新”成了我们的事业）；华尔街为之鼓掌——股票价格应声上涨！而这对于沉闷公司里的普通员工来说无疑是针苏醒的强心剂！

（① Maddock Douglas：著名的商业咨询公司，位于美国芝加哥——译者注）

And then something unfortunate happens.

之后，不幸的事情就发生了！

Nothing. Nothing happens. Nothing at all.

沉默，毫无动静，毫无起色！

After a blizzard of memos outlining what the "new" company is going to

look like, everything stays the same. Why? Blame it on the inevitable

outcome when a bull meets a grizzly bear—and a bunch of its friends—in

the woods.

在成千上万条备忘录上提及“新的公司‘新’在何处？”之后，一切竟然都还保持不变，这是为什么呢？我们只能将此归咎于“牛”遇到了一头“灰熊”（和它的一堆狐朋狗友）！

SURROUNDED BY BEARS被“熊”所围

In the world of investments, there are bears, and there are bulls. The

bears say things are going to get worse, and the bulls optimistically

and aggressively place bets that not only won't that be the case but

also everything is going to get better. ("We can reinvent our

industry.")

在投资领域里，有熊，也有牛。“熊”意味着事情正在变得越来越糟，而“牛”不仅说明事情正在越来越好，而且前景是比较乐观，大可放心地趋进行投资（“我们要重塑我们的产业”）。

In the world of corporate innovation, the CEO is often a bull who makes

the unfortunate mistake of surrounding himself or herself with bears.

在企业创新的世界里，CEO在大部分时间里扮演的角色是“牛”，但却经常围在他（她）周围的“熊”所左右，并因此而不幸地做出错误的决策！

We love bullish CEOs, but we're pretty sick of working with bears. They

tend to nod a lot in meetings and then passive aggressively do

everything in their power to keep any significant change from happening.

To the CEO's face, they say the truly needed innovation effort is, in

fact, truly needed. When the CEO is out of sight, they whisper to

everyone in the senior ranks that things are just fine as they are. (We

all here on the executive level have jobs, don't we?)

我们喜欢“牛气哄哄”的CEO，同时我们讨厌与那些比较“熊”的同事在一起工作，他们在公司会议上只会一味地点头，然后想方设法地运用他们手中的权力，来阻止一些重大改变的发生。当着CEO的面，他们会说努力进行创新是非常需要的；而当CEO不在的时候，这些高管们就会在私下达成一致——目前的情况已经足够好了！（我们大家都需要看紧这份管理层的工作，不是么？）

It is incredible how many companies are run by bulls who surround

themselves with bears, and "surround" is the right word. The pure-of-

heart CEO is hopelessly outnumbered. And so nothing happens.

令人不可思议的是，有许多家公司的情况是：由一头“牛”来领导，而他（她）却

被“熊”所包围，“包围”这个词很是贴切！所以单单CEO怀揣一颗创新的心是远远不够的，是不会引起多大变化的。

For fans of innovation, this is like a football owner who promises the

Super Bowl but spends no money on free agency. Eventually the fans—the

stockholders, the partners, the employees—give up. They stop believing.

They find another team.却在自由球员市场上毫无作为，最终这支球队一定会遭到“球迷们（股东、合伙人、员

工）”的唾弃，他们已经不再相信，转而关注其他的球队。

（② Super Bowl，超级杯，是美国国家美式足球联盟NFL的年度冠军赛，一般是在每年1月份的最后一个或是2月份的第一个星期天举行——译者注）

What is to be done?

那么，应该怎么办呢？

SOME HELPFUL TIPS一些有用的点子

We know this column could come across as a bit cynical. But we are truly

hopeless optimists, so let's get to some solutions. If you are a bullish

CEO or a bullish innovator within the ranks, here are few tips that will

absolutely make your corporate life better—and more fulfilling.

我们知道这篇专栏文章可能会招来一些质疑，不过我们还是要乐观一点，所以让我们来寻找一些解决的办法吧！如果你是位“牛气”的CEO或者是同一层次的创新者，这儿有一些有用的点子，可以让你的企业运作得更好，更充实！

Let's start with counsel for the CEOs:

让我们先从为CEO出谋划策开始吧：

Recruit believers. Henry Ford said, "If you believe you can or believe

you can't, you're right."

招募追随者。Henry Ford说过：“如果你相信你能，或者相信你不能，那么你就对了！”

If you have people on your staff who don't really believe change is

possible or that the old way is good enough, for God's sake, release

them to find a more fulfilling destiny. If you don't have the guts to do

it, then please stop saying you are going to change the world. Because

your people simply won't let it happen, and you are going to look like a

fool.

如果你的员工不喜欢改变或者认为以往的做法已经足够好了，看在上帝的面子上，炒了他们吧，让我们来追求更加充实的生活吧！如果你没有胆量这样做，那么请不要再说你要改变世界，因为你的员工根本就不想让这种事情发生，而你看起来只像是个傻瓜而已！

Hire objective senior managers. This is a nice way of saying you should

bring in leaders from outside your industry.

聘请没有偏见的高级管理人员。这是对外宣称你要把外部的一些杰出经理人招致麾下的好办法。

Albert Einstein said, "One should not expect to solve a problem with the

same level of intelligence that caused it." Einstein was really smart

(about management, as it turns out). If you have people leading your

research, marketing, and strategy group with a combined 40 years of

industry experience, they are about to help you break your promise to

your shareholders. Said differently, they are rolling their eyes at you.

"You don't get it," they are saying behind your back. They know the

rules. They know what's possible. They know what can and can't be done.

They can and will bend the data to prove their points. Meanwhile, a

competitive team with a combined zero years of industry experience is

about to reinvent your industry. These people are going to deliver on

the promise you made to Wall Street. You must go find those really

smart, really capable, really courageous risk-takers and offer them

jobs. They will get it done. They will help you keep your promise. They

believe. Most of your current team does not.

爱因斯坦说：“你不应该寄希望于让那些和制造问题同一层次的人来帮你解决问题。”爱因斯坦在管理方面也非常明智（事实证明）。如果你拥有一支累加起来有40多年行业经验的团队来帮你去进行研究、营销和战略管理，那么他们就会让你对股东们食言了！换句话说，他们的眼睛会冲你转来转去以示赞同，然后在你背后说：“其实你不懂的！”他们很清楚游戏规则，很清楚什么是可能实现的，也很清楚什么能做什么不能做，他们甚至可以歪曲数据来保护他们的观点！与此相反，一支没有什么行业经验但却充满竞争力的团队倒是可以重塑你的产业，这些人会帮你兑现你对华尔街的承诺。你必须去寻找那些真正聪明、有真才实学的、敢于冒险的人们，给他们工作机会，他们完全可以帮你信守诺言！他们相信他们可以做到，而你目前的大多数团队却无法做到这一点。

Promote failure. Entrepreneurs understand that each small failure brings

them closer to the solution. So find ways to demand lots of baby-step

failures that promote learning and create a culture of action. This will

get you to the finish line and keep fear of failure from locking up your

innovation engine.

发扬“失败精神”。企业家们明白，每一个小小的失败都能让他们更加靠近目标。所以在起步阶段遇到的一些失败不仅可以促进团队的学习力，而且能形成一种“马上行动”的企业文化，这些保持创新能力的方法，可以让你的团队在到达终点之前丝毫不惧怕失败！

Now onto the innovation leaders who report directly to the CEO. Listen

to the youngsters. They can see things you cannot. Remember when you

used to be the youngest person in the room and all the terrific ideas

you had (but had problems getting implemented)? Take this advice:

现在轮到给那些直接向CEO汇报的创新主管们提建议了。多听一听年轻人的意见，他们能看到许多你看不到的东西，还记得你年轻时候在会议室里诞生的那些很棒的想法么（但却由于种种原因而没有实现）？可采取以下建议：

Fail forward. Get into the habit of creating many experiments and

celebrating the learning. For example: "In this experiment we learned

that people did not understand our offer." "In this experiment we

learned we were charging too much." And "in this experiment we learned

that the button had to be in a different place." Each "failure" is

actually a success, because the team has learned something important and

has moved one more step closer toward getting it right.

在失败中前进。形成“不断试验”和“学习至上”的习惯。例如：“通过本次试验，我们知道人们并不能理解我们所提供的产品（服务）”；“通过本次试验，我们知道产品（服务）的定价太高了”；“通过本次试验，我们知道那个按钮最好设计到不同的地方”。每一个失败其实都是成功，因为团队通过对失败的学习，一步步走上了“成功之路”！

Control the framing. Every company has its own language when it comes to

the innovation process. Many times this language has been linked to past

projects. For example, the last team that created a "working prototype"

may have overinvested in the experience and created unrealistic

expectations for your team. That's why we encourage you to invent your

own innovation language. For example, calling something a "feedback

concept" may be better than calling it a working prototype. If you

control the language, you control the expectations.

控制整体局面。每个公司都自己的语言，它会渗透到创新过程的每个环节之中，而许多时候这些语言会和以前的项目有所关联，比如，上一支团队所创造的“工作原型”可能会使你目前的团队经费超支或者树立一个不切实际的目标。这就是为什么我们会鼓励你去发明一种属于你自己的“创新语言”！例如，将某事称之为“反馈概念”要比将其称为“工作原型”要好一些。如果你能控制这种语言，那么你就能控制团队的目标。

Finally:

最后：

Quit. If you find yourself so afraid, so burned-out, so cynical that you

can't believe a big idea is about to happen, it is time to move on to

the next challenge. You have the smarts, the experience, the skills to

become an amazing change agent in another industry. Go find it. Your new

peers will be amazed at how you can see things that they can't and have

the solutions that have eluded them.

退出。如果你发现自己已经是畏手畏脚、焦头烂额，甚至自惭形秽地认为那个“伟大的想法”是不可能实现的时候，就该放弃它转而尝试新的挑战了。你拥有聪明才智、行业经验、操作技能等等，这些都可以让你在其它行业掀起引人瞩目的变革，去找到这个行业，你的新同行一定会惊讶于你能发现那些他们无法发现的东西，解决那些他们无法解决的问题。

When it comes to innovation, we are bearish on bears and bullish on

bulls. We think you should be, too.

当遇到“创新机会”的时候，“以熊之道还熊之身，以牛之道还牛之身”，我们认为你可以启程了！

One last thing. If you have a favorite example of a company run by a

bull and staffed with bears, tell us about it by sending an e-mail to. We may do a column on it, we may alert

its CEO, or we may just dump its stock.

最后一件事，如果你有一个关于“牛老板”配“熊下属”的公司案例的话，可以通过电子邮件告诉我们，我们会在专栏里记下它，并提醒这家公司的CEO，或者我们可以尽早抛掉它的股票！

G. Michael Maddock is CEO, and Raphael Louis Vitón is president, of

Maddock Douglas, an innovation consultancy that helps clients invent,

brand, and launch new products, services, and business models.

作者简介：G. Michael Maddock，Maddock Douglas 公司CEO；Raphael Louis

Vitón，Maddock Douglas 公司总裁；该公司是一家创新咨询公司，为客户提供行产品开发、品牌建设、新品发布、商业模式咨询等服务。

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译者Henrish携“”项目深表谢意！