????真正優(yōu)秀的首席執(zhí)行官少之又少,，因為很少有人能夠充分調動左右腦不同的智慧,。大多數(shù)人都沒有做到這一點。我們要么是大量運用左腦,，遵循理智行事,，富有邏輯性和分析性；要么高度依賴右腦,，富于想象力,、憑借情感和直覺，不愿和數(shù)字打交道,。后者在當今社會更加少見,。很明顯，運營一家規(guī)模龐大的公司需要左右腦同時開動,。最出色的商業(yè)領袖在這兩方面都極為擅長,，其中就包括IBM公司高管彭明盛。他擔任了近十年的首席執(zhí)行官，即將在今年年底引退,。彭明順堪稱比商界的米奇?曼托（美國職業(yè)棒球球員明星,，特點是左右手都能擊球——譯注）。沃倫?巴菲特最近宣布他買入了價值107億美元的IBM股票,，無異于商界對彭明順的業(yè)績終極認可,。他說，彭明盛“貢獻巨大”,。
????涉及到管理,，大腦的兩個半球分別代表著財務和人員兩方面的智慧。大多數(shù)經(jīng)理人能在其中一方面表現(xiàn)出色就已經(jīng)相當難得了,。
????然而,，彭明盛在兩方面的表現(xiàn)都極為出色。在財務這方面,，他深刻理解到底是什么因素能讓一家公司真正具有價值,。關于這一點，我很遺憾地說,，相當多首席執(zhí)行官都不懂,。愚蠢的人會做一些無知的事情，比如為了增加每股收益而在收購方面耗費過多,。彭明盛卻知道這一切都與資本有關,。他將資本從低收益業(yè)務中撤出，轉投到高收益業(yè)務中,。舉例而言,，他將IBM公司的硬盤驅動器業(yè)務剝離給日立公司（Hitachi），并簽訂了購買日立驅動器的五年協(xié)議,。意識到驅動器逐漸成為有用的商品后,，他決定買入這種商品而非賣出。他還收購了約100家公司,，大多數(shù)都是擁有很高的資本回報率的小型軟件及服務公司,。此外，他還壓縮了營運資本,，這種策略看似平常,，卻能得到豐厚的回報。
????IBM公司的資本收益率從彭明盛剛剛任職時的4.7%上升到了如今的15.1%,，這對于IBM這種大規(guī)模企業(yè)（2011年預期收益1,070億美元）來說是一個驚人的成果,。利率下降的同時，公司實力不斷壯大,，資金成本也有所下降,，因此資本收益和成本之間的差距也進一步擴大（數(shù)據(jù)來源于EVA Dimensions咨詢顧問公司）,。IBM公司股價比2002年彭明盛剛剛就任時上漲了82%，甚至高于它在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)泡沫最高峰時期的股價,。
????首席執(zhí)行官職責在用人方面的職責就是培養(yǎng)未來的領袖,，保證公司不斷取得成功。彭明盛意識到,，最有價值的學習經(jīng)驗不是老師給予的,，而是由這個世界給予的。彭明盛十年任職期間一直擔任IBM公司人力資源高級副總裁的蘭多爾?麥克唐納說：“所以,，我們決定走出課堂，確保員工的大部分經(jīng)驗來自操作一線,?！?/p>
????因此，公司增加了對發(fā)展性任務和新開發(fā)任務的投入,。比如,，公司創(chuàng)立了企業(yè)服務團隊（Corporate Service Corps），將來自不同背景,、有進取心的年輕人分派到全球,，與當?shù)胤止镜念I導們合作解決當?shù)氐木唧w問題。員工得到了充分鍛煉和發(fā)展,，IBM 公司也借此考察了員工的能力,。
????很多公司都會外派經(jīng)理人從發(fā)達國家到新興市場。IBM公司卻反其道而行之,。這樣,，來自新興市場的經(jīng)理人能夠學到成熟市場的經(jīng)驗，為未來的發(fā)展做好準備,。IBM公司之所以能在最適合培養(yǎng)企業(yè)領袖的全球公司排名中位列榜首,，這是一個很大的原因。
????這些局促空難重重,，耗資不菲,。它們是否值得？沒人能做出肯定回答,，因為領導力開發(fā)的好處要經(jīng)過很長一段時間才能顯現(xiàn),。另外，首席執(zhí)行官退休時,，人們也難以對其作出全面的評價,。因為他們決策的效果好也罷，壞也罷,，要等到他們離職多年后才會真正顯現(xiàn)出來,。彭明盛在超級計算以及“更智慧的星球”計劃方面制定了大規(guī)模的長遠計劃,，旨在充分利用IBM公司的能力來解決全世界最大的社會問題，同時也是商業(yè)難題,。此外,，他的接班人維吉尼亞?羅曼提的表現(xiàn)也將是評價彭明盛業(yè)績的一個重要因素。
????因此,，本文只能算是一份初步報告,。我們還要繼續(xù)觀察彭明盛的管理對IBM公司未來的影響如何。不過這一切無損他全明星般的耀眼光芒,。
????譯者：李玫曉/汪皓 |
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????Really good CEOs are rare partly because they use all of their brains. Most people don't. We carry around either massive left brains -- logical, analytical, not very touchy-feely -- or, more rarely in today's world, we rely on big right brains -- imaginative, feeling, intuitive, uncomfortable with algebra. Running a giant company obviously demands both, and the best business leaders can bat from either side of the plate. That group includes IBM chief Sam Palmisano who's stepping down at year-end after nearly a decade as CEO, looking like a business Mickey Mantle. The business world's ultimate endorser, Warren Buffett, announced recently he'd bought $10.7 billion of IBM stock, saying Palmisano has "delivered bigtime."
????In management the brain's two halves are the financial side and the human side. Most managers, if they're lucky, are really good with one or the other.
????Palmisano was excellent with both. On the financial side, he understood what actually makes a company valuable, which I regret to report many CEOs do not. The clueless ones do dumb things like pay too much for acquisitions in an effort to plump earnings per share. Palmisano understood that it's all about capital. He took capital out of businesses with poor returns and put it into businesses with high returns. For example, he offloaded IBM's disk drive business to Hitachi (HIT) and then made a five-year deal to buy Hitachi drives; realizing that drives were becoming a commodity, he decided he'd rather be buying them than selling them. He also bought about 100 companies, mostly small ones in the high-return-on-capital businesses of software and services. He squeezed working capital, an unglamorous tactic that pays handsomely.
????As a result, IBM's return on capital has increased from 4.7% when Palmisano got the job to 15.1% today, a tremendous achievement for a company of IBM's size (estimated 2011 revenue: $107 billion). And as the company grew stronger while interest rates declined, IBM's cost of capital fell, so the all-important spread between capital's return and cost widened (data from EVA Dimensions). That's a big reason IBM's (IBM) stock is 82% higher than it was when Palmisano took over in 2002 -- higher even than its bubble-market peak.
????The human side of the CEO's job is making sure those knockout results keep coming by developing tomorrow's leaders. Palmisano realized that the most valuable learning is delivered not by a teacher but by the world. "We made a decision to walk out of the classroom and make sure most of the experiences were being lived at the operational level," says Randall MacDonald, IBM's HR chief through all of Palmisano's tenure.
????So the company increased its commitment to developmental assignments and invented new ones. For example, it created a Corporate Service Corps, which combines diverse young up-and-comers into teams that work with local leaders on local problems around the world. The employees get stretched and developed; IBM gets insight into their abilities.
????Lots of companies send managers from developed economies to emerging ones. IBM also does the opposite, so those emerging- market managers get experience in a mature economy, preparing them for the future. Such efforts are a big reason IBM ranks No. 1 on the new global list of Top Companies for Leaders.
????Are those practices worth the trouble and expense? No one can say for sure; much of the payoff from leadership development is far down the road. The larger point is that CEOs can't be fully assessed when they retire because their decisions play out, for better or worse, over many years after they're gone. Palmisano made major long-term bets on analytics, supercomputing, and the Smarter Planet initiative, which aims to harness all of IBM's abilities to solve the world's biggest social as well as business problems. The performance of his successor, Virginia Rometty, will also be a major element of his record.
????So this is still a preliminary report. We have yet to see how well Palmisano managed IBM for tomorrow. But he's going out like an all-star. |
