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????史蒂夫?喬布斯去世前一天，我曾向一位知名管理顧問請教，借鑒蘋果（Apple）的成功經驗到底難在哪里。畢竟，這家公司似乎完全顛覆了所有公認的管理智慧。 ????傾聽消費者的心聲？蘋果可沒有這么做。它推出的產品和服務，連消費者自己都不知道是否是他們想要的。 ????成為消費者的頭號擁護者？蘋果公司的每一款產品都采用了“過時的”內置設計，如果我的電源線丟了，另換一根就得向他們支付80美元。在我看來，這可算不上客戶至上。這家公司離經叛道，但卻取得了令人咋舌的成功。 ????秘密何在？ ????這位顧問很聰明地用一個更寬泛的答案來回答了我的問題。他說：“史蒂夫?喬布斯和杰克?韋爾奇給普通公司和商業人士帶來的傷害遠遠超過其他任何人。”這兩位都取得了彪炳史冊的成功，使許多人掉入了一個陷阱，認為既然他們能夠取得如此巨大的成就，別人也能做到。 ????于是，有人在制定的商業計劃要求自己像具備喬布斯一樣的執行能力——比如提前多年預測消到費者的喜好；在各方面推行超群的審美觀，同時又能廣受外界歡迎；不留情面地進行談判；毫不憐憫地懲罰行事不力的員工，同時又能激勵下屬創造出偉大的產品；而且要具有業內無可比擬的廣闊視野。一旦他們無法做到這些——其實根本也無人能夠做到——他們的公司就會陷入困境，甚至面臨倒閉。 ????如果說眼下喬布斯熱還沒達到頂點，很快就會有鋪天蓋地的文章，大肆宣揚他的職業生涯所帶來的管理與領導力經驗。當然，這些經驗確實存在，而且，我也相信它們著實重要。但這些經驗都屬于組織的基本要素、公司結構、競爭力和激勵措施等，而不是那些難以言說的個人品質。 ????現在，我們要搞清楚一點，喬布斯現象的某些方面是我們無法復制的。我們不可能成為下一個喬布斯。世上只能有一位史蒂夫?喬布斯。他是強制力、個性和經歷獨一無二的結合體。我問，喬布斯是否也像亞歷山大大帝一樣，只是絕無僅有的特殊現象，根本無法復制，顧問表示贊同。 ????全球商業人士都將面臨一個挑戰：既要從史蒂夫?喬布斯身上獲得靈感，又要避免自欺欺人地認為自己能夠復制喬布斯的成功。要做到這一點，首先要切記，史蒂夫?喬布斯從來不屑于模仿任何人。 ????譯者：阿龍/汪皓 |
????The day before Steve Jobs died, I asked a well-known management consultant about the difficulty of drawing lessons from Apple's success. After all, the company seems to ignore accepted management wisdom. ????Listen to your customers? Apple doesn't. It gives customers products and services they didn't even know they wanted. ????Be the customer's biggest advocate? Every Apple (AAPL) product has obsolescence built in, and if I lose my laptop's power cord, they charge me $80 for a new one. Not what I'd call customer-friendly. This company seems to break basic rules, yet it's staggeringly successful. ????What gives? ????The consultant wisely answered a larger question than I had asked. "Steve Jobs and Jack Welch have done more damage to ordinary businesses and business people than anyone else," he said. Their historic success led many people into the trap of believing that, because these guys achieved what they did, others can do the same. ????So people came up with business plans that required them to do what Jobs did -- to sense what customers would love years in advance, to infuse everything about the business with an aesthetic that was sublime yet broadly appealing, to negotiate with brutal intensity, to punish bad work mercilessly while also inspiring great work, to see a bigger picture than anyone else in the industry. When it turned out they couldn't do this -- and of course none of them could -- their businesses would suffer or even fail. ????If we aren't already, we will soon be awash in articles on the management and leadership lessons of Jobs' career. Such lessons do exist, and I believe they're extremely important. But they're about the nuts and bolts of organization, structure, competencies, and incentives, not about the ineffable qualities of the man himself. ????For now, let's be clear on what not to learn from Jobs. We can't be him. He was a unique combination of compulsions, traits, and experiences. I asked the consultant if Jobs should be regarded as an Alexander the Great figure, a one-time phenomenon that is not to be replicated. Yes, he agreed. ????A challenge for business people will be finding inspiration in Jobs without deluding themselves into thinking they can figure out how to do what he did. Here's a way to start: by remembering that imitating someone else was the very last thing Steve Jobs ever wanted to do. |
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