companies
getting 'two big elephants to dance'
1. when he gets a break from a killer travel schedule, alex trotman spends his time on the sweeping remake of ford motor co. he launched last april. looking to the future, the chairman wants to transform ford from an old-style multinational to a streamlined global company a task made more difficult by the company' s manufacturing complexity. the first step will be merging the once very separate north american and european car operations into one big organization that can capture world economies of scale. the trick, trotman says, is getting "these two big elephants to dance". latin america and asia will be brought in later.
2. "ford 2000" is a bold and risky plan. but the british-born trotman, 61, who ran ford operations in europe, asia and the pacific, and north america before becoming chairman last fall, says region-bound companies won't be competitive.
3. trotman's most controversial move is integrating ford's car-development groups across boundaries. until now, regional fiefdoms designed vehicles for their own markets. that pleased local tastes, but often resulted in costly duplication. trotman's favorite example: two similar four-cylinder engines, developed for european and north american units, that don't share a single component. never again, he vows: "we are in an all-out race to make the absolute best use of our worldwide resources."
4. ford took a big step in this direction with the mondeo—its latest try at a "world car". an elaborate system using teleconferencing and shared computer-aided design allowed staffers in germany, britain, and the u.s. to work on the project together. the mondeo is selling briskly in europe, while the u.s. versions, the ford contour and mercury mystique, are now being launched to critical acclaim. trotman plans to build on that mondeo infrastructure to create a whole new global lineup.
a fleet-footed team in asian finance
5. citicorp has done as much as any major american multinational to diversify its management. nowhere is this more true than in asia. shaukat aziz, 45, a native of pakistan, has been in charge of citicorp's $800 million finance business for all of asia but japan since 1992. his colleague rana g.s. talwar, an indian national, heads the consumer business. they are two of the eight non-americans in the elite group of 15 executive vice-presidents, dubbed the "g-15," who rank directly behind citicorp chairman john s. reed and the bank's five vice-chairmen.
6. lately, aziz's clout has increased. the country managers he supervises have wide latitude to cut financing and investment deals with local corporations and governments. "we can get very quick reactions," he says. citi must be able to move fast to maintain its solid share of the fast-growing asian capital markets, where megadeals are clinched in days. these executives have made citi a major player in virtually every asian market and often the leader among foreign banks.
7. before taking his current job, aziz held top regional posts in riyadh, athens, new york, and london. in singapore, he sees to it that his country managers-who have worldwide responsibility for all clients based in their territories-work with product managers located around the world to offer currency trading, investment banking, and other services. the goal, aziz says, is for citi to be a "customer-driven organization supported by productive people."
an ever-quicker trip from r&d to customer
8. last ramqvist's first move as ceo of l.m.ericsson in 1990 was to shut himself in his office for six straight weeks. the new head of sweden's $10 billion telecommunications equipment maker tried to figure out how to get ericsson's often fractious business units to work as a team. "we behaved like seven different companies, each calling on the same accounts," explains the 55-year-old physicist. "our customers were confused."
9. ramquist decided on a radical overhaul that would centralize sales of all products in each country unit. that way, ericsson would present a single face to its customers. ramqvist's restructuring has helped turn ericsson from a company that was struggling badly a few years ago into one of the world's hottest telecom players. some analysts see earnings growing at a 25% compound rate over the next five years.
10. to bind together a sprawling, research-intensive empire, ramqvist introduced a matrix system with unit managers reporting to both product divisions and corporate headquarters. while executives have to put more time into consensus-building, the matrix has been very effective for sharing information among 40 r&d labs around the globe and getting products to markets fast.
11. for example, when it was moving into digital mobile phones in the early 1990s, ericsson designed the units and set up the manufacturing and service networks simultaneously. that put it way ahead of competitors. ericsson is still the only company with digital mobile phones that meet european, american, and japanese standards.
12. ramqvist says such rapid-fire development campaigns will be essential to erissson's future success in crucial areas such as asynchronous switching and lighter mobile phones. "time is important. it's that simple," he says.
putting foreigners in the executive suite
13. must a japanese company cease being japanese to succeed in the business world of the future? sony is probably the company that is most closely following such a strategy. with 80% of its sales coming from overseas, sony has long been japan's international trailblazer. and although few japanese companies have admitted foreigners into senior management, an american and a european, michael p. schulhof and jacob k. schmukli, run sony's u.s. and european operations and sit on the board of the parent company. "recruit the best possible local management. from our experience, that's the best direction." says tamotsu iba, sony's executive deputy president and chief planner.
14. in fact, some observers think sony could soon become the first japanese company to be run by a non-japanese. iba has his doubts about that, and he stresses that headquarters will still have a big role in decision-making. but he agrees that sony will continue giving non-japanese executives more responsibility. "sony has become a very attractive place for foreigners to work." he says. 15. one reason that is true is that sony's japanese executives tend to speak better english than their counterparts at other japanese companies. iba, 58, says this is no accident. "we hire and promote people mainly for their ability to do business," he says. "but if you can't speak english here, you can't fully do your job."
参考译文：企业介绍
令两只大象共舞
1．当亚历克斯·特洛特曼从令人窒息的旅行安排中稍得喘息，他立即把 他所有的时间投入到去年四月开始启动的重新整合福特汽车公司的事情上。 展望未来，这位董事长希望把福特从一个传统跨国公司转变成为一体化的全 球公司，福特公司复杂的制造工厂系统使得完成这项任务非常困难。第一步， 是把福特过去完全分离的北美与欧洲的汽车运行集团完全整合为一个大的组 织，其规模甚至足以触动世界经济。特洛特曼说，这是要“令这两只大象共 舞。” 拉丁美洲运行集团和亚洲运行集团将于其后进行整合。
2． “福特2000”是一个大胆而且冒险的计划。但是，今年61岁、生于 英国的美国公司董事长特洛特曼先生，在去年秋天成为福特董事长之前，曾 经陆续负责过福特公司的欧洲运行集团、亚太运行集团、北美运行集团，特 洛特曼先生认为，地域性使福特公司不具有竞争力。
3．特洛特曼采取的最有争议的第一步行动，是他将把福特遍布全球的各 个区域汽车研发部彻底合并。直到现在，福特公司仍然是特定地区专门为本 地市场设计“地方车”。这样也许可以满足本地口味，但是，通常造成昂贵的 重复劳动。特洛特曼先生最爱举的事例是：两个分别为欧洲和北美设计的类 似四缸发动机，二者之间竟然没有一个零件相同。他发誓决不允许出现这样 的局面：“我们正在进行一场倾尽全力的比赛，去最大限度地利用好我们的全 球化资源。”
4．向着这个目标，福特在其新产品“蒙蒂欧”上迈出一大步。蒙蒂欧是 福特公司的最新“世界车”尝试。一个精心构造的系统：使用了电信会议、 计算机辅助设计技术等，从而使在德国、英国、美国的设计人员共同为该项 目工作。蒙蒂欧在欧洲卖得很顺利，而美国款的福特“contour”和 “mercurymystique”，目前正在关键性的评论声中推入市场。特洛特曼 计划在“蒙蒂欧行动”的结构基础上创造一个全新的全球化生产网。
亚洲财经市场中一支快速运作的团队
5．花旗银行与任何主要的美国跨国公司一样，尽可能使它的管理多样化。 这种情况在亚洲尤其如此。45岁的shaukataziz是巴基斯坦人，从1992年以 来，他一直负责花旗银行除日本外在全亚洲的8亿美元金融业务。他的印度 同事ranag．s．talwar负责客户业务。他们是被称为“g—15”的15个花旗银 行执行副总裁精英群中，不是美国人的八个人中的两个，这些执行副总裁的 地位仅次于花旗银行董事长约翰·s·雷德及银行的其他五位副董事长。
6．最近，aziz的忧虑增加了。他所管辖的国家经理具有了更大的自由， 可以直接决定与当地企业和政府之间的融资和投资。“这样我们可以得到快 速的反应”，他说。花旗银行必须有迅速动作的能力，来维持它在快速增长的 亚洲资本市场上的稳定市场占有率，在这个市场里每天有数百万笔交易成交， 是这些国家经理使花旗银行事实上成为个个亚洲市场上的主角，而且通常是 所有外国银行的领导者。
7．在接手现在的工作之前，aziz在花旗银行利雅得、雅典、纽约、以及 伦敦等区域担任最高职务。在新加坡，他现在负责确保他的“对其所在地所 有客户负有全球责任”的国家经理与“身处世界各地”的产品经理一起协调 工作：提供通货交易、投资银行业务，以及其他种种服务。aziz说，“我们的 目标是使花旗银行成为‘由高产出的员工组成的一切为客户着想的组织’。”
从研发到客户的快速冲刺
— 8．1990年，拉斯·兰科维斯特先生成为l．m．爱立信公司ceo后的第一 件事是，连着整整六周把自己关在自己的办公室里。这位主宰价值100亿美 元的瑞典通信设备制造商的新领袖兰科维斯特先生，思考着怎样使爱立信通 常分散的几个业务集团成为一个工作整体。“从我们的行为看，好像我们是七 个互不相干的公司，但是，每个基于同一账户，”这位55岁的物理学家解释 道，“我们的客户完全糊涂了。”
9．兰科维斯特决定进行一次彻底调整，他将中央化销售(爱立信公司) 在任何一个国家集团中制造的所有产品。那样，爱立信在其客户面前将只有 一‘张面孑l。兰科维斯特对爱立信的重组，使几年前艰难挣扎的公司成为世界 上最炙手可热的电信制造商之一。某些分析家预计，在今后五年中，(爱立信 的)每股收入值将以每年25％的混合比率增长。
10．为了把一个懒散的、以研究为主导的企业帝国整合到一起，兰科维斯 特先生引入了一种交叉组织结构形式，每个交点部的经理要同时向产品部门 和公司总部汇报。这样做，管理者必须投入更多时间去协调统一意见，交叉 组织结构可以非常有效地在全球40个研发实验室中交流和共享信息，尽快使 产品走入市场。
11．举个例子，在20世纪90年代初，当爱立信进入数字移动电话领域时， 公司在着手研究开发产品的同时，成立了制造及服务网络系统。从而，使爱 立信遥遥领先于其竞争对手。直到今天，爱立信仍然是唯一能同时提供达到 欧洲、美洲和日本标准的数字移动电话的公司。
12．兰科维斯特解释，这样的“快火发展活动”对爱立信的未来成功是必 要的，特别是在诸如“异步开关”和“轻便移动手机”这样的关键领域。他 说：“时间决定成败。就这么简单!”
置外国人于领导岗位
13．为了在未来的商业领域获得成功， 日本企业必须停止由日本人主导 吗?索尼公司可能是最贴近这个策略的企业了。索尼公司80％的销售来自海 外，索尼公司早已是日本企业的国际事物指路灯。尽管很少日本公司接受外 国人进入高级管理层，但是也有例外，美国人michael p.schulhof和欧洲人 jacob k．schmukli分别负责索尼在美国和欧洲的运作，并且在母公司的董事 会里各有一席。“从我们的经验看，尽可能雇佣最好的当地管理人才，是最好 的途径。”索尼常务副总裁、首席计划师tamotsu lba先生这样概括。
14．事实上，某些观察家认为索尼很快可能成为第—家由非日本人运行的 日本企业。iba先生对此持怀疑态度，并且他强调索尼总部在“制定决策”上 始终举足轻重。同时，他也赞成索尼公司将继续给非日本籍高层负责人更多 责任。“对于外国人来说，索尼公司已经成了非常吸引人的地方，”他说。
15．其中一个真实的原因，是索尼公司的日本高层负责人比其他日本公司 里与他们位置相当的人说英语的能力要好。58岁的iba先生认为这不是巧合。 “我们雇用和提拔人主要根据他做业务的能力，”他说，“但是，如果你在这 里不能讲英语，你就不能充分完成你的工作。”