临别赠言：人性化管理 Before the curtain falls, three final words
Arthur Miller's shattering play All My Sons is currently playing to packed audiences in London's West End. The story concerns a businessman, Joe Keller, who built a successful manufacturing company during the second world war, selling engine parts to the US Air Force, but who has kept a terrible secret hidden ever since. | 阿 瑟•米勒(Arthur Miller)震撼人心的剧作《全是我的儿子》(All My Sons)目前正在伦敦西区上演，观者甚众。该剧讲述的是一位名叫乔•凯勒(Joe Keller)的商人的故事。这位商人在二战期间向美国空军出售发动机零部件，由此打造出一家成功的制造公司，但从那时起，他的心中就隐藏着一个可怕的秘 密。 |
As the drama unfolds family tensions explode, and ... well, if you have never seen the play, get hold of a copy of the text or, better still, buy a ticket for the current superb production. | 随着该剧情节逐步展开，家庭矛盾爆发了，然后……如果你从没看过这部戏，那就找来剧本看看，要么，最好是买张戏票去欣赏一下这部一流的现代剧作。 |
Keller is a deeply flawed man. He tries not to think about the wider responsibilities he faces in the world beyond his factory gates. But in seeking to justify his actions during war time, he does, perhaps unwittingly, hit upon a reasonable and rather important argument. You have to understand the kind of pressure he was under, he says. You have to “see it human”. | 凯勒是一个犯下严重过错的人。他努力不去考虑在他工厂门外的世界中他所面对的更广泛的责任。但在为自己在战时的行为寻找理由的过程中，他确实（或许是不经意地）找到了一个合情合理且颇为重要的理由。他说道，你必须理解他所承受的那种压力。你必须“用人性的眼光看待它”。 |
Management is about getting work done. This means that, sooner or later, people are going to be involved. It is remarkable how many senior executives have told me over the years, with a hint of wonder in their voices, that their business is “really a people business”. As if there were any other kind! | 管理就是确保工作被完成。这意味着，它早晚会涉及到关于人的问题。不可思议的是，多年来，不知有多少高管曾经略带惊叹地告诉我，他们的生意“实际上是关于人的生意”——好像世界上还有什么其它类型的生意一样！ |
Managers climb the career ladder thanks to their financial performance, or through their successful completion of tasks and projects. But in time they find, often to their horror, that most senior jobs are largely concerned with managing other people. | 管理者通常是因自身财务业绩或成功完成任务与项目而获得升迁。但最终他们常常恐惧地发现，大多数高级岗位多半都与人员管理相关。 |
The big question facing managers over the next few years is this: will it be possible for businesses to remain competitive, keeping up and preferably improving the quality of what they do, without making impossible demands on employees? | 管理者在未来几年面临的一大问题是：企业有可能在不向员工提出不合理要求的前提下保持竞争力、即保持甚至提高他们产品或服务的质量吗？ |
Consider Apple's beautiful new iPad, that small object of desire. They are really cool, aren't they? Some of you may even be reading this column on one. Customers naturally want them to be affordable. | 考虑一下苹果(Apple)漂亮的新产品——人人都想拥有的小物件iPad。它们确实很酷，不是吗？你们当中有些人甚至正在用它读这篇专栏。消费者当然希望它们价格便宜一些。 |
But now consider also the wave of suicides and suicide attempts at Foxconn's manufacturing plant in Shenzhen, southern China, which is where many Apple products, including iPads, are assembled. Must a competitively priced new gadget come at the cost of young lives? We need to see it human. And pass over the comments of Louis Woo, a Foxconn executive, who attributed part of the suicide problem to the high number of employees aged between 18 and 24, “the prime age for suicides in China”. | 现在再来考虑一下富士 康(Foxconn)位于深圳制造园区发生的一系列自杀与企图自杀事件，包括iPad在内的许多苹果产品都是在那里组装的。我们必须要牺牲年轻的生命来换 取具有价格竞争力的新设备吗？我们需要用人性的眼光看待这件事，而不去理会富士康高管Louis Woo的言论——他认为自杀问题在一定程度上归咎于富士康18至24岁的员工人数庞大，称“这是中国最容易发生自杀行为的年龄段。” |
What does the future have in store for us? Short of some fantastic scientific innovation that uncovers vast new sources of clean and sustainable energy, it seems likely that the world faces many severe and related problems. | 未来为我们准备了什么？除了一些发掘出大量清洁与可持续能源的、令人称奇的科学创新外，这个世界似乎很可能会面临许多严重且相互关联的问题。 |
As Rich Lyons, the dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, points out, the straight line extrapolations on a number of important graphs lead you to a pretty scary place. | 正 如加州大学伯克利分校哈斯商学院(Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley)院长里什•里昂(Rich Lyons)所指出的，若对许多情况进行线性外推，你会得到非常可怕的结果。 |
Over the next few decades the earth's population looks set to climb to about 9bn. Temperatures and sea levels are rising. But we may not have enough habitable land, water, energy or food to cope with these changed circumstances. Future healthcare costs in a world of greatly increased longevity are daunting. See it human. The outlook is bad. | 未来几十年里，地球人口似乎必将攀升至90亿左右。气温与海平面将会不断上升。但我们可能没有足够的适于居住的土地、水、能源或食品，来应对环境的改变。随着人类寿命大幅延长，未来的医疗成本将高得吓人。从人类的角度来看，前景可谓糟糕。 |
That is why Haas is completely revamping its MBA syllabus. Business as usual is not even close to being good enough any more. Haas wants its graduates to be people who will do something about those scary straight line extrapolations, slowing if not necessarily reversing the trends. Dean Lyons calls this sort of activity “path-bending leadership”, because it will bend that 45-degree line back nearer to the horizontal. | 这正是哈斯商学院彻底改写其MBA教学大纲的原因。维持原有做法已不再符合时代要求。哈斯商学院希望，它的毕业生们能够成为影响上述线性外推、减慢甚至逆转趋势的人。院长里昂将此称为“扭转路径的领导力”，因为它将把那条45度的直线扳回到接近水平方向。 |
These are the great management challenges for the 21st century. But from next week someone else will be analysing them here. Because, sadly, this is my last column in this slot. | 这些问题都是21世纪所面临的重大管理挑战。但从本周起，会有其他人在这里分析这些问题。因为，很遗憾，这将是我在此处撰写的最后一篇专栏。 |
It has been an enormous privilege, and great fun, writing these pieces. I am grateful to the many readers who have responded so generously, if not always uncritically, to my work. And if anyone is worried about not being able to read my words in the future, in due course if you search the blogosphere hard enough you will find me there. | 写这些专栏文章，是一件无比荣幸与有趣的工作。我感激许多读者慷慨地（即使不总是不加批评地）对我的工作做出回应。此外，大家无需担心以后读不到我的文章，过不了多久，如果你在FT.com的博客区域足够用心地搜索，你就会在那里找到我。 |
Management is an urgent, profound and moral task. Even the flawed and forlorn figure of Joe Keller seems to realise that. We need, as much as ever, to act on his simple instruction to us: see it human. If you remember nothing else that has appeared in this space over the past four and a bit years, please try to hold on to that thought. | 管理是一项急迫、深奥、关乎道德的工作。连犯下严重过错的可怜人物乔•凯勒似乎都意识到了这一点。我们需要（像以往一样）按照他给我们的简单指示行事：用人性的眼光来看待管理。如果你记不住过去四年多一点的时间里出现在此处的其它文字，那么请努力记住这个观点。 |
注：本文是斯特凡•斯特恩离任FT专栏作家前发表的最后一篇文章。 | |
译者/何黎 |
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