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2010年6月7日 星期一

THE DEAN POISED TO SHAKE UP BUSINESS

哈佛商学院的新院长
THE DEAN POISED TO SHAKE UP BUSINESS




Blame it on Harvard” ran the incendiary and, in retrospect, rather unfair headline to an article I wrote for this newspaper in the autumn of 2008. Only a few weeks after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Harvard Business School had marked its centenary by holding a grand

“把它归咎于哈佛”是我在2008年秋季为英国《金融时报》撰写的一篇文章的标题—— 该标题具有煽动性,而且事后看来,也有点儿不公平。在雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)破产仅仅数周后,哈佛商学院(Harvard Business School)举办了为期3天的盛大活动,以纪念其百年华诞,我出席了这一活动。

three-day event, which I attended.

在那样一段紧张时期举办庆典,引发了诸多辩论:商学院在危机中扮演了何种角色?以及全 球金融体系的崩溃是否应被归咎于全球MBA毕业生的“奇袭”?

The anniversary, falling at that tense moment, was the cue for much debate about the role of business schools, and whether it was the shock troops of MBA graduates around the world who should be criticised for bringing down the global financial system.

前一阵子,哈佛商学院任命现年48岁的教授尼廷•诺里亚(Nitin Nohria)担任新院长。对于所有指摘和谩骂,上述消息是一个迟到、但却有力的回应。这是一个重大时刻,原因如下:

Last week's news of the appointment of Nitin Nohria, the 48-year-old HBS professor, as the school's new dean was a delayed but telling response to all that finger-pointing and name-calling. This is a big moment, for several reasons.

诺里亚是人们记忆中的第一个并非出身于经济学和金融领域的哈佛商学院院长。他的专业领 域是领导力和道德规范。有人指出,这个MBA精英工厂制造出了自私和不道德的经营者——他们主要寻求个人财富最大化,不惜损害所在机构的利益。哈佛商学院 的这一决定,远非规避这种批评,而是希望与其正面交锋。

Prof Nohria will be the first HBS dean in living memory not to emerge from the fields of economics and finance. His specialist subjects are leadership and ethics. Far from dismissing the criticism – which has suggested that this elite MBA factory has produced selfish and amoral operators who seek mainly to maximise their personal wealth at the expense of their organisations – HBS wants to engage with this debate head on.

第二,诺里亚代表着过去几年间哈佛商学院兴起的进步主义思想。诺里亚与同事拉凯什•库 拉纳(Rakesh Khurana)一起,主持了有关专业标准的讨论,提出引入一种管理上的希波克拉底誓言(Hippocratic oath)。他们在18个月前发表在英国《金融时报》上的一篇文章中辩称,对经理人提出更高期望,将会对他们产生一种纠偏性压力,“将经理人转变为社会利 益在日渐兴旺的经济企业中的代理人”。哈佛商学院鼓励许多学员追求自己版本的经理人誓言,而且在最近出版书籍中描述的MBA学员国际化运动,已如雨后春笋 般兴起。

Second, Prof Nohria is identified with the progressive thinking that has been bubbling up at HBS during the past few years. With his colleague Rakesh Khurana, he has led the discussion over professional standards, proposing the introduction of a kind of Hippocratic oath for management. In an article for the Financial Times 18 months ago, they argued that placing higher expectations on managers would exert a kind of corrective pressure on them, “turning managers into agents of society's interest in thriving economic enterprises”. Many of HBS's MBA students were encouraged to pursue their own version of an oath for managers, and an international movement of MBA students, described in a recently published book, sprang up.

第三,在哈佛商学院这家令人敬畏的机构,诺里亚是首位非美国出生的院长。他将为当代一 些最紧迫的企业问题,带来不同的看法和见解。亚洲的崛起对全球其它地区意味着什么?企业如何在一个极度不平等的世界中运营?我们能够继续可持续增长,同时 不会耗尽这个星球有限的资源,也不会让许多人的生活变得无法忍受吗?

Third, Prof Nohria is the first

前一阵子,我和诺里亚的另一位同事罗莎贝丝•摩斯•肯特(Rosabeth Moss Kanter)在电话里谈论这个问题时,肯特听起来对该任命非常激动。她告诉我:“我的确认为这是历史上的一个重大时刻。”这话有些过头?请想一下吧:哈 佛商学院不仅在商学院中具有巨大的象征意义,而且通常对企业来说也是如此。我们关注它的一言一行。这非常重要。

non-US born dean of the august institution. He brings a different perspective and insights into some of the most urgent business questions of the day. What does the rise of Asia mean for the rest of the world? How should business operate in a world of startling inequality? Can we continue to grow sustainably, without depleting the planet's finite resources and making life intolerable for many?

肯特解释称,新院长(的任命)体现了一种领导力方面的思路,将挑战整个商业领域。她告 诉我:“这与负责任的领导有关。我可以把它描述成向道德资本主义转变的开始,而不只是一种纠正。这是一种新事物。”

Another of Prof Nohria's colleagues, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, sounded thrilled by the appointment when we discussed it on the phone last week. “I really think this is a big moment in history,” she told me. Over the top? Consider: HBS has a symbolic significance, not only among business schools, but for business generally. We notice what it does and says. It matters.

塔克商学院(Tuck School of Business)教授维贾伊•戈文达拉扬(Vijay Govindarajan)同样兴奋。他在自己的博客中表示,此次任命是“美国的一个重大时刻”。

Prof Kanter explained that the new dean embodied a way of thinking about leadership that would challenge the entire business community. “This is about leaders who take responsibility,” she told me. “I could characterise it as the start of a shift to moral capitalism. And not just as a corrective. This is something new.”

如果这一切开始听起来像是压在某个人肩上的重担,我们不应过分担心。朋友和同事们谈到 了诺里亚协作的方式。他们相信,诺里亚同时拥有合适的气质和必要的专业技能,能够在这种关键时刻领导哈佛商学院。

Vijay Govindarajan, a professor at the Tuck School of Business, is similarly enthused. The appointment is “a signature moment for America”, he declared on his blog.

不管怎样,我们知道,一段时期以来,他一直在认真思考领导力的问题。2001年,他与 詹姆斯•尚皮(James Champy)一起发表了《管理你的企图心》(The Arc of Ambition: Defining the leadership journey)。从该书的章节目录,可以推断出他眼下可能会如何行动:“见识人之所未见”,“迈着坚定的步伐前进”,“不改变,毋宁死”,“决不违背价 值观”。

If this is all beginning to sound like a heavy burden to place on the shoulders of one individual, we should not be overly concerned. Friends and colleagues point to Prof Nohria's collaborative approach. They are confident that he has both the right sort of temperament and the necessary expertise to lead the school at this crucial time.

在更近时期出版的作品《Paths to Power: How insiders and outsiders shaped American business leadership》中,诺里亚及其合著者们探讨了人们的背景如何影响他们人生机遇的问题。作为一位在哈佛商学院从教20年的资深人士,看起来他几乎预 见到了自己的升职:“可能会出现一种崭新而不同的内部人士,”这本书告诉我们,“但人们相对于外部人士的优势仍然存在”。

In any case, we know that he has been thinking hard about leadership for some time. In 2001, with James Champy, he published The Arc of Ambition: Defining the leadership journey. Its chapter headings give a clue as to how he may now proceed: “See what others don't”, “Follow a steadfast path”, “Change or die”, “Never violate values”.

诺里亚的院长任期将从7月份开始。情况将变得十分有趣。把它归咎于哈佛吧。

In a more recent work, Paths to Power: How insiders and outsiders shaped American business leadership, Prof Nohria and his co-authors considered how people's backgrounds can affect their life chances. As a

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