企業管理看 Lady Gaga個案/企業文化好處多

企業管理看 Lady Gaga個案
HBS Cases: Lady Gaga

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The Profit Power of Corporate Culture
In the new book The Culture Cycle, Professor Emeritus James L. Heskett demonstrates that developing the right corporate culture helps companies be more profitable and provides sustainable competitive advantage.

The Board Is H-P's Chief Problem: 袖裡來，袖裡去

今天民視報導日本河豚初競
標的方式就是各競標者分別伸入類似袖中去了解價碼

43.　袖裡來，袖裡去
注音一式　ㄒ｜ㄡˋ　ㄌ｜ˇ　ㄌㄞˊ　ㄒ｜ㄡˋ　ㄌ｜ˇ　ㄑㄩˋ
漢語拼音　ｘｉ 　ｌ 　ｌ ｉ　ｘｉ 　ｌ 　ｑ	注音二式　ｓｈｉ ｕ　ｌ 　ｌ ｉ　ｓｈｉ ｕ　ｌ 　ｃｈｉ
舊時商人買賣物品，常不明言價格，而與顧客袖中握手指做記號，以保持祕密。指以祕密的方式進行某事。石點頭˙卷六˙乞丐婦重配鸞儔：「這聘禮也不過鄧元龍三人袖裡來袖裡去，所以外人並不知得。」

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2011年 09月 22日 12:49

惠普的主要問題在董事會

或

許惠普(Hewlett-Packard)董事會應該炒自己的魷魚。

在 11個月的災難性任職後﹐有消息說惠普首席執行長李艾科(Leo Apotheker)可能被解職。消息一經傳出﹐惠普股價漲了6.7%。股市給李艾科投了這樣一張不信任票是可以理解的。李艾科沒能掌控住惠普的業務﹐他 的戰略調整大出投資者意料﹐對股東投入的資金也管理不善。

他的第一項失誤是在去年11月上任後上調惠普的預期﹐之後卻每個季度連連下調。今年5月﹐他大肆宣傳惠普的個人電腦業務和新款TouchPad平板電腦﹐三個月後卻停止TouchPad的研發﹐並宣佈放棄個人電腦業務。

而 致命一擊則可能是他斥資100億美元收購Automony的提議。誠然﹐Automony擁有吸引人的軟件﹐但以其今年預期銷售額約10倍的價格買下它﹐ 這對一家自身業務增長不大的公司來說卻太高了。今年8月李艾科對《華爾街日報》說﹐他將從投資者聽到有關這樁交易的好評時﹐他看來還沒搞清狀況。

不 過﹐這些並不是李艾科一個人的錯。董事會批准了收購Autonomy的交易。該交易的公佈令惠普股價跌了20%。董事會也批准了探索分拆個人電腦業務的計 劃﹐最後高管們放棄了﹐說沒有做出最後決定。也是董事會一開始聘用的李艾科。此外﹐董事會對李艾科前任赫德(Mark Hurd)的解職也處理錯了。

紐 約證券公司Ticonderoga Securities分析師懷特(Brian White)說﹐李艾科看似成了“替罪羊”。實際上﹐經過赫德多年的投資不足之後﹐惠普在與國際商業機器公司(IBM)和甲骨文(Oracle)等競爭對 手的爭奪中處於劣勢。李艾科表現糟糕﹐但他退出硬件業務轉而更多地投資於高利潤率的軟件和服務的基本計劃看起來是正確的。IBM就成功地實現了這樣的轉 型。如今不清楚的是董事會是否準備再次進行戰略調整。

研究公司Sanford C. Bernstein分析師薩克納吉(Toni Sacconaghi)說﹐順便提一句﹐由於合約及其他問題﹐投資者不要認為收購Autonomy的交易能夠輕易撤銷。

儘管惠普面臨種種挑戰﹐如果李艾科離開了﹐應該會有人對CEO的職位感興趣。以目前5倍的市盈率來看﹐惠普股價只會漲不會跌。

與此同時﹐在下次的年度會議上﹐惠普的13位董事都面臨改選的問題﹐屆時投資者可以表達他們的不滿。以510億美元的市值﹐惠普並不是主動型投資者顯而易見的目標。然而﹐如果有人願意帶頭﹐其他人應該會願意加入大戰。

Rolfe Winkler

2011年 09月 22日 12:49

The Board Is H-P's Chief Problem

Maybe Hewlett-Packard's board should fire itself.

After his disastrous 11-month tenure, news that Leo Apotheker may be ousted as chief executive drove H-P shares up 6.7%. That vote of no confidence is understandable. Mr. Apotheker has failed to get control of H-P's businesses, has surprised investors with strategy changes and proved a poor steward of shareholder capital.

His first misstep was raising H-P's outlook after taking over in November, only to cut it each quarter since. In May, he touted H-P's PC business and its new TouchPad tablet, only to kill the TouchPad and announce plans to dump the PC business three months later.

The coup de grace was likely his $10 billion proposed purchase of Autonomy. Sure, it has interesting software, but paying about 10 times this year's expected sales seems huge for a company with mediocre organic growth. When Mr. Apotheker told The Wall Street Journal in August he was 'hearing a lot of appreciation' from investors about the deal, he seemed out of touch.

But Mr. Apotheker didn't act alone. The board approved the Autonomy deal, the announcement of which contributed to a 20% collapse in H-P's share price. It approved a plan to explore unloading the PC business, only to have executives backtrack and say there was no final decision. It hired Mr. Apotheker in the first place. And it mishandled the firing of his predecessor, Mark Hurd.

Mr. Apotheker looks like the 'fall guy,' argues analyst Brian White of Ticonderoga Securities. Indeed, after years of underinvestment by Mr. Hurd, H-P was poorly positioned to compete with rivals like International Business Machines and Oracle. Mr. Apotheker has done poorly, but the basic plan to get out of commodity hardware and invest more in high-margin software and services seems correct. IBM pulled that off. What is unclear now is whether the board is preparing yet another strategy shift.

Incidentally, investors shouldn't think the Autonomy deal can be rolled back easily, says Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi, due to contractual and other issues.

Despite H-P's challenges, if Mr. Apotheker departs, the job should be attractive for somebody. The shares, at five times forward earnings, should have nowhere to go but up.

Meanwhile, with all H-P's 13 directors up for re-election at the next annual meeting, investors can voice their displeasure. With a $51 billion market capitalization, H-P isn't an obvious target for activist investors. Yet, if one wants to lead the charge, others should be willing to join the fight.

貫徹素志 自立自主 萬事研修 開拓先驅 感謝與協力

Justing 發個信來 我跟他說書今天起會努力完全 預計明年初出版....

吳國精董事長來電談他的波若威公司情形 他剛去日本黑部立山之美
我跟他說昔日在M公司的美國主管每次來台灣出差 錄音機不離手
回美國之後 請秘書聽打出'出差報告" 可以廣為流傳

我想將許多趟日本行這樣紀錄 可能不錯

吳兄又轉寄"五不" (年過50的修養)
剛好我在重新思考松下的 "五誓": 貫徹素志 自立自主 萬事研修 開拓先驅 感謝與協力
(PHP 繁榮幸福和平 應該很近似JUSE 的DEMING MEDAL上的字眼....但一時找不到......有人要買戴明領導手冊 不過我已無書 換句話說 事業成持續10年以上就很不容易了....

我也給吳先生 新竹園區的 "媽媽魚"事業的一些入門......

感謝 HANS 更新一下 WWW.DEMING.COM.TW....

Hewlett-Packard 鬧劇第幾回合/google 嘴仗

惠

普公司(Hewlett-Packard Co., HPQ)董事會宣佈解除首席執行長李艾科(Leo Apotheker)的職務﹐並任命前eBay Inc.首席執行長Meg Whitman接替李艾科的職務。此舉意味著李艾科是六年來第三位被解僱的惠普首席執行長。

根據彭博社報導，惠普（Hewlett-Packard）證實，已任命前電子海灣(eBay)執行長惠特曼（Meg Whitman）為執行長兼總裁，即日起生效。

惠普並任命雷恩（Ray Lane）為執行董事長。惠普執行長兼總裁艾波德克（Leo Apotheker）宣布辭職，也卸下董事職位。

***

週

三﹐針對谷歌公司(Google Inc.)有沒有濫用互聯網壟斷地位的問題﹐該公司執行董事長施密特(Eric Schmidt)與美國參議員打起嘴仗﹐但基本上毫發未傷。這是谷歌成立13年以來與華盛頓爆發的最具戲劇性的沖突。

國會聽證會開始時﹐施密特面帶微笑﹐略顯緊張。在跟參議員發生一系列小小的爭吵、並且全身而退的時候﹐他顯得自信起來。

參議院反壟斷委員會代表共和黨的副主席、來自猶他州的議員李(Mike Lee)說﹐谷歌曾“篡改”數據﹐以便自己的產品和服務在搜索結果中比其它競爭對手更靠前。

施密特直截了當地回答：參議員﹐我可不可以就這麼說﹐我可以向你保證﹐我們沒有篡改過任何東西。

European Pressphoto Agency

施密特否認公司濫用其互聯網搜索市場壟斷地位。

施密特從2001年開始擔任谷歌CEO﹐一直到今年早些時候。他極力使自己的公司與微軟(Microsoft Corp.)之間劃清界線。上一家受反壟斷執法者如此密集盤問的科技巨頭就是微軟。

聽證會開始的時候﹐施密特說﹐我們硅谷的很多人都從那個時代汲取了教訓。他暗指微軟﹐但沒有點名。施密特說﹐請你們注意﹐並非所有公司都是從一塊布料上裁下來的﹐一家公司的過去不必成為另一家公司的將來。

20世紀90年代﹐微軟以激進好鬥的方式來回應華盛頓方面對其商業慣例的質疑﹐結果不得不忍受多年的法律訴訟﹐才得以避免被政府分拆。

施密特還反復說﹐谷歌公司的目標是引導用戶找到最相關的信息。他說用戶完全可以選用其他搜索引擎﹐並暗示美國和歐洲針對谷歌的反壟斷調查﹐是在那些對排名感到失望的網站推動下展開的。

但施密特確實也出現了一些失誤。他似乎一度承認谷歌在互聯網搜索市場的佔有率處於壟斷的“區域”。後來谷歌外部法律顧問克賴頓(Susan Creighton)予以糾正﹐說谷歌並不處於壟斷地位。

爭吵的起因是人們對谷歌的互聯網地位存在截然不同的看法。批評者說﹐經過過去的10年﹐谷歌的核心宗旨已經改變﹐從一家以引導用戶找到網上最佳、最相關內容為明確目標在搜索引擎﹐變成了一家希望親自為用戶提供這些服務的公司。

競爭對手說﹐谷歌控制著絕大多數的搜索活動﹐所以它能夠把用戶引向它自己的服務﹐而這是以競爭對手的犧牲為代價的﹐可能使後者失去至關重要的網絡流量。

點評網站Yelp Inc.首席執行長斯托普爾曼(Jeremy Stoppelman)對參議院反壟斷委員會說﹐谷歌已經不再做引導人們找到網上最佳信息源的業務了﹔它現在希望親自充當“目的地市場”。

谷歌的施密特說﹐公司正在為了滿足用戶需求而進化。他說﹐當用戶輸入一個地址的時候﹐他們可能是想找一張地圖﹐谷歌就利用自己的地圖服務給他們一張地圖。

一樁死刑誤審判的社論(紐約時報)

紐約時報關於一樁死刑誤審判的社論

Editorial

A Grievous Wrong

Published: September 20, 2011

Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday for the 1989 killing of a police officer in Savannah, Ga. The Georgia pardon and parole board’s refusal to grant him clemency is appalling in light of developments after his conviction: reports about police misconduct, the recantation of testimony by a string of eyewitnesses and reports from other witnesses that another person had confessed to the crime.

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• Georgia Pardons Board Denies Clemency for Death Row Inmate (September 21, 2011)

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This case has attracted worldwide attention, but it is, in essence, no different from other capital cases. Across the country, the legal process for the death penalty has shown itself to be discriminatory, unjust and incapable of being fixed. Just last week, the Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for Duane Buck, an African-American, hours before he was to die in Texas because a psychologist testified during his sentencing that Mr. Buck’s race increased the chances of future dangerousness. Case after case adds to the many reasons why the death penalty must be abolished.

The grievous errors in the Davis case were numerous, and many arose out of eyewitness identification. The Savannah police contaminated the memories of four witnesses by re-enacting the crime with them present so that their individual perceptions were turned into a group one. The police showed some of the witnesses Mr. Davis’s photograph even before the lineup. His lineup picture was set apart by a different background. The lineup was also administered by a police officer involved in the investigation, increasing the potential for influencing the witnesses.

In the decades since the Davis trial, science-based research has shown how unreliable and easily manipulated witness identification can be. Studies of the hundreds of felony cases overturned because of DNA evidence have found that misidentifications accounted for between 75 percent and 85 percent of the wrongful convictions. The Davis case offers egregious examples of this kind of error.

Under proper practices, no one should know who the suspect is, including the officer administering a lineup. Each witness should view the lineup separately, and the witnesses should not confer about the crime. A new study has found that even presenting photos sequentially (one by one) to witnesses reduced misidentifications — from 18 percent to 12 percent of the time — compared with lineups where photos were presented all at once, as in this case.

Seven of nine witnesses against Mr. Davis recanted after trial. Six said the police threatened them if they did not identify Mr. Davis. The man who first told the police that Mr. Davis was the shooter later confessed to the crime. There are other reasons to doubt Mr. Davis’s guilt: There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime introduced at trial, and new ballistics evidence broke the link between him and a previous shooting that provided the motive for his conviction.

More than 630,000 letters pleading for a stay of execution were delivered to the Georgia board last week. Those asking for clemency included President Jimmy Carter, 51 members of Congress and death penalty supporters, such as William Sessions, a former F.B.I. director. The board’s failure to commute Mr. Davis’s death sentence to life without parole was a tragic miscarriage of justice.

此公司收購過AMP 公司 (詳圖) 所以一記

• SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

End of an Empire: Tyco Plans Split

By JOANN S. LUBLIN And BOB TITA

Tyco International Ltd. is breaking up for the second time in four years, sending another signal that the era of the conglomerate is drawing to a close.

The move, which follows plans for similar corporate divorces at ITT Corp., ConocoPhillips and Kraft Foods Inc., transforms a serial acquirer that bought literally hundreds of companies over the past five decades into a single $10 billion entity selling security and fire-suppression systems to business customers.

More

• Heard on the Street: Fission for Value in Tyco's Stock

Tyco's other two big segments, which sell ADT residential alarms and industrial valves and pipes, will be spun off to shareholders. The decision sets up all three units to be more easily acquired by the next generation of empire builders—or to pursue takeovers of their own.

Chief Executive Ed Breen didn't rule out the possibility that Tyco, which has a market value of about $20 billion, would consider selling all or part of the conglomerate before completing the breakup. "We don't ignore any opportunity that comes along," he said.

The idea for the separation came in 2007, the last time Tyco split into three companies. Tyco directors began seriously to explore another breakup at strategic-planning retreats in September 2009 and September 2010, Mr. Breen said in an interview. "We analyzed every alternative," including Tyco's possible sale, Mr. Breen said.

Tyco's directors decided that a breakup "is going to be the best path to create long-term shareholder value," he said. The board made its decision at a meeting last week in Geneva.

Enlarge Image

Splitting up the businesses will give each greater flexibility to grow as it sees fit, Mr. Breen said. The units operate in fragmented industries that are being consolidated, offering the opportunity to be buyers or sellers.

Such thinking would have been anathema several years ago, when companies like Tyco were snapping up operations to bulk up offerings, turn into one-stop shops and diversify risks.

Academics long have argued that many acquisitions end up hurting the buyers' shareholders. And analysts have said that conglomerates often trade at a discount to the sum of their parts. Now, the economy's sluggish recovery has executives looking for ways to get their stock prices moving again.

J.P. Morgan analyst Stephen Tusa says the divided Tyco would be valued at a combined $54 a share in the worst case. At best, he said, the combined value could reach $65.

He said "the rationale for a split versus an outright sale" is that the company as a whole doesn't make sense for a single bidder, Mr. Tusa said in a note to investors. "But there are several that could see strategic rationale in the different pieces."

In a sign that investors aren't quite sold on the idea, Tyco's shares rose $1.05, or 2.4%, to $44.75 a share in 4 p.m. composite trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Enlarge Image

Bloomberg News

Tyco has been the subject of regular speculation about takeover attempts. Above, Tyco's offices stand in Boca Raton, Fla.

Such plans carry risks. It can take months to work out legal and financial details, during which time business conditions can deteriorate. Tyco estimates it will need to spend $700 million to execute the spinoff but said lower interest costs would offset some of that tab.

Companies including General Electric Co., which has completed a number of oil-and-gas acquisitions in the past year, and United Technologies Corp., which is said to be in talks to acquire Goodrich Corp., are keeping to the conglomerate path. ITT, whose shares jumped after it unveiled plans to break up, has seen the stock fall 16% from its level before the announcement.

Tyco made an art of acquisitions and divestitures. The company started in 1960 as a semiconductor and materials-science company and completed its first deal in the mid-1960s. More deals followed in the next two decades.

Calling It Splits

Several companies have announced plans to split themselves apart in recent months.

View Interactive

Acquisitions accelerated under Chief Executive L. Dennis Kozlowski, who was convicted with former Chief Financial Officer Mark H. Swartz in 2005 of systematically looting the company. Mr. Kozlowski's deals included the 1997 acquisition of ADT, which now will be spun off, and the 2001 acquisition of financial-services firm CIT Group Inc., which was sold a year later in an initial public offering.

Mr. Kozlowski in 2002 announced plans to break up the company but the idea was shelved because of shareholder concerns over Tyco's accounting. Mr. Kozlowski called the plan a "mistake."

"I am gratified to see the continuing strength of the company I left in 2002, including some of the business units that were acquired under my stewardship," the former CEO said from prison Monday in a statement issued by one of his lawyers.

Insight from CFO Journal

• Tyco Joins Spin-Off Carousel

Read CFO Journal. »

The planned breakup will end Mr. Breen's decade-long tenure at Tyco's helm. On his first day on the job in 2002, investors holding more than 15% of Tyco's shares showed up unexpectedly and demanded that he replace the entire board. "Oh, this is going to be real good," Mr. Breen recalled telling himself.

In 2007, he broke up what was then a $41 billion conglomerate with nearly 240,000 employees by spinning off medical-products company Covidien PLC and electronics-component maker Tyco Electronics Ltd.

Rather than spin of more operations then, Mr. Breen said directors opted to strengthen the remaining operations before sending them out on their own. Last year, Tyco bulked up its home alarm business by purchasing rival Broadview Security for $2 billion in cash and stock.

Tyco has been the subject of regular speculation about takeover attempts. Schneider Electric SA in April distanced itself from reports it was considering acquiring Tyco after news of the French company's interest drew a poor reception from investors.

Mr. Breen, 56 years old, said he might consider becoming a CEO elsewhere. The spinoff plan calls for him to become nonexecutive chairman of the commercial fire-and-security company, a director of the pipe-and-valve company, and a consultant to the ADT North America residential-security company.

日記作為管理志

0919 2011 一

Systemic failure in investment banks

FT社評：“流氓活動”更可怕
Leader_Systemic failure in investment banks
英國《金融時報》 Lex專欄




The timing of UBS's $2bn loss at the hands of a single trader could not have been better for supporters of profound banking reforms such as those proposed by the UK's Vickers review. It could also not have come at a worse time for European banks, again in the grip of uncertainty. We must hope that the former outweighs the latter.


瑞銀(UBS)一名交易員一手造成了20億美元虧損。對於支持徹底改革銀行業（比如英國的維克斯(Vickers)報告提出的那些改革措施）的人士而言，這件事出現的時機再合適不過了。但對於再次陷入動盪局面的歐洲銀行業而言，這件事出現的時機卻再糟糕不過了。我們當然希望，這件事的積極影響超過消極影響。

Whatever else Kweku Adob​​oli, the UBS trader arrested in connection with the loss, has done, he has tilted the politics of banking regulation to the reformers' advantage. The revelations come on the third anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Everywhere, those who feel that bankers got away with reckless endangerment must be thinking: “there they go again”.


不管因涉嫌造成上述虧損而被捕的瑞銀交易員科維庫•阿多波利(Kweku Adob​​oli)還做了些什麼，他已經讓圍繞銀行業監管的政治鬥爭倒向了對改革者有利的一邊。這件事被曝光，正值雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)破產三週年。在全球各個角落，那些認為銀行家並沒有因其不計後果的危險行為而受到處罰的人肯定在想：“他們又犯老毛病了”。

That is in part true, but only in part. $2bn is an enormous sum of money and losing it is a big scandal for UBS. But the number needs to be seen in context. It barely amounts to four per cent of UBS's $54bn of shareholder's equity. By itself this is not large enough to break the bank – but the knock-on effects on UBS's businesses might be – let alone the financial system. The global economy was wrecked not by supposed individual “rogue traders” but by a systemic and systematic failure to understand the exposures banks were consciously taking on – exemplified by UBS's $50bn losses on mortgage-backed securities just a few years ago.


這種觀點在一定程度上是正確的，但只是一定程度上。 20億美元是一大筆錢，這筆虧損對瑞銀而言是一樁重大醜聞。但我們必須從整體角度看待這個數字。它僅相當於瑞銀540億美元股東權益的4%。就這個數字自身而言，它還沒有大到足以毀滅該行的程度（雖然此事對瑞銀業務造成的連鎖影響可能會拖垮這家銀行），更別提毀滅整個金融體係了。全球經濟之所以遭受重創，罪魁禍首並不是人們口中的一個個“流氓交易員”，而是要歸咎於一點，即人們仍然無法系統地、有條理地理解銀行主動承擔的風險敞口。幾年前，瑞銀在抵押貸款支持證券(MBS)上的500億美元虧損就是一個典型的例子。

Moreover, the “rogue trader” label should be taken with a pinch of salt. It is not yet known what sorts of internal risk management rules at UBS were broken, if any. But that “Delta One” desks such as the one Mr Adob​​oli worked on can cause losses is evident. Placed in a grey area between proprietary and for-client trading, these desks deploy client assets to match certain benchmarks for their customers – tracking the price of gold, for example. Any excess profits generated by providing that exposure can be kept by the bank: a perfect incentive to take on extra risk with the bank's own balance sheet. Whether or not Mr Adob​​oli broke internal rules or external laws, taking such risks insofar as legally possible is what investment banks are set up do . If “rogue traders” are problem, “rogue activity” is a bigger one.


另外，我們應該帶著懷疑的態度看待“流氓交易員”這類指控。目前尚不清楚，這件事違反了瑞銀哪類內部風險管理規定——假如真的違反了的話。但是，阿多波利所在的“Delta One”部門有可能造成虧損，這一點是顯而易見的。該部門的交易介於自營交易和代客交易之間的灰色區域，對客戶資產進行配置以匹配某些基準，比方說追踪金價。通過提供這一風險敞口而獲得的所有額外盈利都可被該行保留：這是對利用銀行自身資產負債表承擔更多風險的絕好激勵。不管阿多波利違反的是內部規定還是外部法律，“只要法律上可行就要去承擔這類風險”正是投行業一直奉行的。如果“流氓交易員”是一個問題的話，那麼“流氓活動”則是一個更大的問題。

So the UBS scandal mainly confirms what we already know. The narrow lesson is that derivati​​ves can conceal risk as well as manage it. The broad lesson is that inherently risky investment banking, must not be allowed to contaminate utility banking or the wider economy. It is a call to speed up efforts to increase investment banks' capital buffers and the ease with which they can be resolved if the buffers are worn through. If this is done, the risks investment banks take on and the gains and losses that ensue are largely a matter between banks and their shareholders – provided that shareholders are not defrauded or misled.


因此，瑞銀這樁醜聞證實了我們已經知道的一些事情。狹義的教訓是，衍生品的確可用來管理風險，但它本身也隱藏著風險。廣義的教訓則是，決不能允許天生高風險的投行業危及公用事業銀行業或更廣泛的經濟。因此，我們有必要加快努力，增加投行的資本金緩衝層，並在這些緩衝耗盡的情況下減小投行的解體難度。如果做到了這些，投行承擔的風險以及隨之帶來的收益和損失，基本上就成為銀行及其股東之間的事情——前提是股東沒有遭到欺騙或誤導。

This, however, is not the situation we are in.,The UBS scandal will have repercussions. Most obviously on UBS itself – with its reputation badly damaged by its subprime losses, this additional blow will make things harder for its private wealth management business. And by bringing home how little we know about the bodies buried in banks' balance sheets, it will fuel scepticism of other banks – especially in the eurozone, where market pressures are intense (even if they lifted a bit after Thursday's joint central bank intervention) .


然而，這並非我們現在所處的形勢。瑞銀這樁醜聞肯定會造成影響。最為明顯的是對瑞銀本身的影響——其聲望曾因次貸損失遭受重創，這次的打擊將令其私人財富管理業務的日子更為艱難。我們認識到，我們對於銀行資產負債表內隱藏的情況知之甚少，這將讓我們對其它銀行產生懷疑，特別是在市場承受強大壓力的歐元區的銀行（儘管在周四全球五大央行聯手干預後，這種壓力減輕了一些）。

The biggest questions raised by the affair are for Switzerland. The country that prides itself on conservatism in dealing with money has been losing patience with the risk-taking culture of investment banks. It may find that even the “Swiss finish” to Basel III capital rules is not enough to protect its public finances against losses.


此事引發的最大問題是針對瑞士的。這個曾以在資金處理方面走保守路線為傲的國家，正在對投行的冒險文化失去耐心。這個國家可能會發現，即便瑞士實行比《巴塞爾協議III》(Basel III)更為嚴格的資本金規定（瑞士終結方案，Swiss finish），也不足以保護其公共金融不受損失。

Cultures are difficult to regulate by edict, but they do evolve when the environment changes. To get investment banking culture under control, a good start would be for everyone to stop subsidising it.


文化很難通過法令來監管，但它們可以隨著環境的變化而變化。要想管控投行文化，大家就要停止對它的補貼——這將是一個良好的開始。



譯者/梁艷裳

Japan’s tsunami supply chain comeback

日本供應鏈的活力
Japan’s tsunami supply chain comeback
作者：東京大學教授喬治•奧爾科特, 愛丁堡大學商學院負責人尼克•奧利弗為英國《金融時報》撰稿



After the paralysis of the global supply chain caused by the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan in M​​arch, there have been the inevitable calls for a rethink of global, just-in-time supply systems. Some predicted that the disruption would last until the end of the year, if not longer. But just four months on, Japan's recovery is taking place with remarkable speed, in large part because of the unusual brand of co-operative capitalism that underpins the tight-knit and remarkably resilient Japanese business system.


在3月份日本那場毀滅性地震和海嘯導致全球供應鏈陷入癱瘓後，人們不由得發出呼籲：重新思考全球準時制(JIT)供應鏈系統。一些人曾預測，供應鏈中斷的局面將持續到今年年底，甚至更晚。然而，災難發生後僅4個月，日本就以令人矚目的速度開始了復甦。這很大程度上是因為日本獨特的合作資本主義為該國環環相扣、復原能力超強的商業體系提供了支撐。

July's figures revealed that Japan's industrial production had risen for the third month in a row, with auto manufacturers reviving especially strongly. Mitsubishi Electric also announced better than expected first-quarter profits, and has revised upwards its earnings estimates for this year. Other companies have responded strongly too: Hitachi, much of whose domestic production capacity is located in the area most affected, was almost fully operational by the end of March, while Hitachi Port, crippled by the disasters, reopened on April 3.


7月份數據顯示，日本工業產值連續第三個月實現增長，其中汽車製造業的複蘇尤為強勁。三菱電機(Mitsubishi Electric)公佈的第一季度營利數據好於預期，該企業還調高了今年的收益預估。其他企業的表現同樣強勁：日立(Hitachi)在本土的生產線大部分都位於受災最嚴重的地區，但到3月底，就已幾乎全面恢復運營，一度因受災而陷入癱瘓的日立港口也於4月3日重新開放。

Held in awe by many in the west in the 1980s, Japan's system has until recently fallen out of favour for being slow to adjust to changing macroeconomic conditions, resulting in the country's two lost decades. Yet the tsunami has actually revealed the system's capacity for rapid recovery – just as it did following the 1995 Kobe earthquake, and the 2007 Chuetsu earthquake.


上世紀80年代，日本的商業體系令西方國家許多人嘆為觀止，直到近些年，這一體系才漸漸失去了人們的青睞，因為它對不斷變化的宏觀經濟環境反應遲緩，導致日本出現了兩個“失去的十年”。然而，海嘯發生後，這一體系顯示出支持經濟迅速復甦的強大能力，正如1995年神戶地震和2007年新潟(Chuetsu)地震之後的情況一樣。

Many of the current supply problems are due to damage at a plant belonging to electronics group Renesas, in Hitachinaka. The plant, jointly owned by NEC, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric, produces a significant share of the world's automotive microcontroller chips. The parent firms have sent hundreds of staff to help with the recovery, but, more interestingly, Renesas's customers are helping out too, with Toyota, Honda and others dispatching staff to help with recovery efforts. At one point, there were nearly 3,000 non-Renesas employees at the plant, mostly engineers. As a result production restarted on June 1, much earlier than first anticipated. By late September production should be back to pre-quake levels.


目前供應方面依然存在的問題中，許多都是因為電子集團瑞薩(Renesas)旗下一家位於常陸那珂(Hitachinaka)的工廠嚴重受損。該工廠的股東還有日本電氣(NEC)、日立和三菱電機，全球相當一部分自動微控芯片都產自這裡。這些母公司派出了數百名員工協助恢復工作的進行，但更有趣的是，瑞薩的客戶們也伸出了援手——豐田(Toyota)、本田(Honda)和其他企業也派出人手來協助。該工廠一度有近3000名非瑞薩員工在幫忙，其中大部分是工程師。因此，工廠6月1日就恢復了生產，比最初的預計提前了許多。到9月底，其生產應該可以恢復地震前水平。

This pattern, in which usually fierce competitors have come quickly to each others' aid, has been repeated elsewhere. Take Hitachi Chemical, which has two factories at Namie, a short distance from the Fukushima nuclear station. One plant produces carbon brushes for heavy- duty electric motors, which are used in vital public infrastructure. Kazuyuki Tanaka, Hitachi Chemical's chief executive, has noted that restarting production was more important than revealing “some important parts of our knowhow to our competitors”. Here, as at Renesas, help has been offered, and accepted, without contracts and without discussion of financial arrangements.


平日里競爭激烈的對手迅速相互施以援手，這種情形在日本其它地方也很普遍。就拿日立化成工業(Hitachi Chemical)來說，它在距離福島第一核電站(Fukushima)不遠處的浪江町(Namie)有兩家工廠，其中一家生產用於重型電動機（用於必不可少的公共基礎設施建設）的碳刷。日立化成工業首席執行官田中一之(Kazuyuki Tanaka)就曾表示，恢復生產比“保護我們的重要技術不被洩露給競爭對手”更重要。這里和瑞薩工廠的情形一樣，在接到其他企業的援助並決定接受的整個過程中，沒有簽訂任何合同，也沒有人討論費用該如何分配。

There has of course been major disruption, despite the speedy recovery. Even a few weeks of lost production is too much for the global clients of major Japanese companies to bear. A range of strategies are therefore being developed to improve resilience, including greater diversification of production and new arrangements to transfer design and production information across manufacturing sites. These will apply to facilities within companies, but also now may include formal agreements with competitors to provide substitute facilities in the event of a future disaster.


儘管恢復速度很快，但生產必然受到了嚴重的阻斷。對於日本各大企業的全球客戶來說，這些企業哪怕停產幾週，造成的損失也讓它們難以承受。因此，人們正構想一系列戰略，以增強復原能力，其中包括提高生產分散程度，並為各個廠址間設計和生產信息的轉移做出一些新的安排。這些新策略將應用於企業內部的各個工廠，但如今也有可能推及至與競爭對手的正式協議——以便在未來發生災難時提供後備工廠。

In spite of this, and especially given the speed at which supply chains have bounced back, there is little sign that Japanese companies are planning to turn their backs on their traditional “just in time” manufacturing strategies, let alone leave Japan entirely. Professor ​​Takahiro Fujimoto of the University of Tokyo, an expert on supply chains and the automotive industry, admits that improving supply chain resilience must be a priority, but believes this can be done without “sacrificing competitiveness”.


儘管如此，尤其是考慮到供應鏈恢復的速度，沒有多少跡象表明日本企業打算拋棄它們傳統的準時制生產戰略，更不用說徹底搬離日本了。供應鍊及汽車製造業專家、東京大學(University of Tokyo)教授藤本隆宏(Takahiro Fujimoto)坦承，改善供應鏈的複原能力應放在重中之重，但他認為，這不需要“犧牲競爭力”就能實現。

The tsunami has graphically demonstrated how co-operative capitalism allows rapid mobilisation of resources and offers a hidden source of resilience to efficient but vulnerable supply chains. It now seems clear that the latest crisis has strengthened, not weakened, Japan's distinctive form of capitalism.


日本海嘯生動地說明了合作資本主義是如何快速調動資源、並為高效但脆弱的供應鏈提供復原力的秘密之源的。現在，有一點看起來很清楚：這場危機是增強而非削弱了日本獨特的資本主義模式。

George Olcott is a professor ​​at the research centre for advanced science and technology at the University of Tokyo. Nick Oliver is head of the University of Edinburgh Business School


喬治•奧爾科特(George Olcott)是東京大學尖端科學技術研究中心教授。尼克•奧利弗(Nick Oliver)是愛丁堡大學商學院(University of Edinburgh Business School)負責人。



譯者/吳蔚

UBS Reports $2 Billion Loss to Rogue Trader

UBS Reports $2 Billion Loss to Rogue Trader UBS said on Thursday that a rogue trader in its investment bank had lost $2 billion, a fresh blow to the struggling Swiss bank.

Police in London have arrested European equities trader, Kweku Adoboli, in connection with the case, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation, who was not authorized to speak publicly of the matter.

The incident raises questions about the bank's management and risk policies at time when it is trying to rebuild its operations and bolster its flagging client base. In an internal memo, UBS said the unauthorized trading could drag down earnings in the third quarter, adding that "no client positions" were involved in the "unauthorized trades."

• DEALBOOK »

你提意見我落實 Howard Schultz (Starbucks CEO )

Starbucks CEO has ambitions beyond coffee

BY TAKESHI HATAKAWA STAFF WRITER

2011/09/15

Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz in an outlet in Seoul, South Korea, during a 13-country promotion tour for his book "Onward: How Starbucks fought for its life without losing its soul." (Toshiyuki Matsumoto)

Howard Schultz is the Steve Jobs of coffee. Like the former chief executive of Apple Corp., he transformed a small company into an institution that changed the rules and assumptions of its industry. Like Jobs, he left the company, only to return to save it from stagnation and then build it once again into a dominant market force.

He is credited with masterminding the meteoric rise of Starbucks Corp., a company credited with changing U.S and global coffee culture. It operates 17,000 stores in 55 countries, and serves 60 million people every week.

Walk a few city blocks in the morning in the United States, and you will almost certainly see someone carrying a Starbucks cup with the firm's famous green siren logo.

But Schultz is not satisfied. This spring, Starbucks changed made a subtle change to that logo, bringing the iconic green siren out of her circle and dropping the words "Starbucks Coffee."

Schultz wants his company leave its image as a simple coffee vendor behind it and fuel growth by expanding into other markets, and anyone familiar with the company's history would not bet against him.

As Starbucks' CEO in the 1990s, Schultz transformed Starbucks from a small coffee seller on the West Coast the United States into a global brand. He left the top job in 2000 for a seat on the board responsible for overseas operations, but returned as CEO in 2008 after the company ran into a rough patch. He has engineered a dramatic turnaround. After posting a one-quarter loss, Starbucks notched up a banner year in fiscal 2010.

Central to his style of business is a focus on the critical role ordinary employees' play in delivering an attractive experience to customers. He calls his staff "partners" and the company's headquarters is called the Starbucks Support Center. Rather than being the heart of the business, it is seen as an information and support provider for those working in the stores.

Starbucks was the first privately owned U.S. company to extend full health benefits and offer a stock option program to all of its employees, including part-timers.

Some of that emphasis on normal workers may come from Schultz's own personal history. The eldest son of an ex-U.S. Army trooper in Brooklyn, New York, he grew up with a brother and sister in a state-run housing project for low-income earners. Schultz's father had to move from one job to job, working without health care or work-related accident compensation, but Schultz excelled at football and other sports at high school and became the first person in his family to go to college after earning a university athletic scholarship.

"Watching my family and others struggle just to get by imprinted upon me a desire to build the kind of company that my father never had a chance to work for. One that provided for its people in a way that my father deserved," Schultz said.

In 1982, he joined Starbucks and took a trip to Italy the following year, where he was struck by the place Italy's espresso bars occupied at the heart of their communities. It gave him a new vision for the coffee industry.

At the time, Starbucks' main business was selling coffee beans. Schultz tried to persuade the company's founders to bring cafe' culture to America but was rebuffed, and he left to open his own chain of espresso bars. In 1987, he returned with enough money to buy the Starbucks chain and, as it CEO, turned it into the huge chain we know today.

During the 1990's, Starbucks expanded at breakneck speed, opening hundreds of stores each year. In 1996, it opened its first overseas shop in Tokyo and then pursued an ambitious global growth strategy.

Since buying Starbucks, Schultz has been devoted to ensuring that its stores become an integral part of customers' lives -- a "third place" in their daily routines. The idea is to create a comfortable and relaxing refuge from work lives similar to the espresso bars of Italy.

Despite his emphasis on the role of employees, he has sometimes been ruthless when the welfare of his company has been at stake. In 2008 and 2009, he closed 900 unprofitable stores, laying off 18,000 workers.

At the same time, he pushed through a series of reforms to revive the foundering coffee empire. He opened a website inviting customer complaints and ideas to improve stores and products. The company received more than 110,000 proposals and put over 600 of them into practice, including free wireless Internet access and a Facebook-based service allowing customers to give gifts to their friends.

Another of the reforms was a return to its roots, focusing once more on merchandise sold at each shop, including instant coffee which has proven to be a hit. But, if the subtle changes to the firm's logo this spring are anything to go by, more expansion rather than a retreat to old ground is on the horizon for a company Schultz says is in better shape than ever.

"The company has never been healthier than it is today, right now," Schultz said.

"適得其反"

這標題可當"管理學的教訓"用
大部分教導成功或幸福或金錢或修養的課程/說教
效果最可能"適得其反":

Christine Walsh for The New York Times.

Magazine Preview

What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?

By PAUL TOUGH

Kids’ success — and happiness — may depend less on perfect performance than on learning how to recover from setbacks and improve regardless of the obstacles.

且看台大器捐鬧事第二三回合

　國際知名愛滋專家何大一十一日針對台大醫院發生愛滋病患器捐移植感染事件表示，這是悲劇性的人為疏失，不可原諒。他建議以此為借鏡，建立更完善的通報制度與警報機制，才能避免錯誤重演。

　發明愛滋病雞尾酒療法聞名全球的中研院士何大一昨天應邀到花蓮參加國際慈濟全球人醫年會發表專題演講，分享愛滋病研究歷程及治療方法。會後就台大醫院愛滋病患器捐移植感染事件提出看法。

　他直言，這是一個悲劇性的錯誤，雖然人為疏失可以理解，卻無法原諒。現在事情已經發生，只能盡力去彌補。

　他指出，這次案例有兩個教訓可作為借鏡。一、醫療體系內應做什麼改變，尤其在通報作業流程方面，要盡快找出缺失並改正過來，以避免醫療感染的人為錯誤再發生。二、如何治療遭感染的病患。

　何大一說，疾管局、衛生署、台大等單位已對五名接受器捐的患者做完整的治療與正確處置。器官移植被感染病患在三十六小時內已獲治療，這是 可以接受的作法。接著是，治療應持續多久？一般愛滋病患治療時間約需四星期，但對這種愛滋器捐移植病患，可能必須接受長達三個月甚至更久的治療。

　尤其此次感染案例中，病患明顯暴露在病毒感染危險下，治療時間可能還要更久，但要由醫師決定。他們是否會感染愛滋，目前誰都無法預測，現階段一定要密切、持續觀察病患的狀況。

　對此次事件，何大一認為相關單位都已盡了最大努力，愛滋感染事件是一個警訊，說明醫療感染不只會發生在器官移植，也可能發生於其他情形下。他建議醫界思考建立警報機制，一旦有環節出錯時，會自動發出警告，以免醫療災難發生。

　他並表示，他在美國已成功阻斷愛滋媽媽將病毒感染給寶寶，幾乎讓紐約每位愛滋帶原媽媽都能順利產下健康的寶寶。目前正在大陸河南及雲南等地進行計畫，五年內成功將母嬰垂直感染從八％降到○．五。

　慈濟醫療志業執行長林俊龍說，目前全球因愛滋病死亡已有兩千五百萬人，愛滋病沒有治癒方法，但可以控制。何大一博士發明的雞尾酒療法是ＴＭＢTMB─３５５融合技術，能有效抑制愛滋病毒，效果非常好。慈濟希望將此治療法帶到全世界，幫助更多人脫離愛滋陰影。

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醫界反撲「衛署也該負責」

嗆器捐中心登錄出錯「督導不嚴」

2011年 09月02日

【邱俊吉、甯瑋瑜、呂志明╱台北報 導】愛滋器官誤移植事件持續延燒，台大、成大移植團隊對衛生署可能要懲處醫師大表不滿，台大昨指衛署的器官移植前置作業流程，未規定主刀醫師需看到書面檢 驗結果，且醫師也是依據衛署的器官捐贈登錄中心資料，只是登錄的資料錯誤。醫療改革團體也指器捐中心理該提供正確資料，衛署督導不嚴要負責。

台大醫院上周三摘取腦死邱男器官，檢驗是愛滋陽性，但台大協調師得到陰性訊息，將此錯誤資訊登錄在器捐中心，並傳達給台大、成大移植團隊。衛生署為防堵漏洞，周二發文給全台移植醫院，要求其需把捐贈者書面檢驗報告於移植術前以掃描、傳真方式傳予登錄中心與移植醫院。

搶時間不調病歷

台大收到衛署公文後隨即回文解釋，台大 醫院人員指出，在誤植事件前，衛署所訂器官移植前置標準作業流程，沒有規定移植團隊需先看到捐贈者書面檢驗結果，該院移植團隊是依器捐中心登錄資料移植。 一名台大醫院移植團隊醫師指為搶時間救人，移植前醫師均以官方登載資料為準，不會再調病歷。成大移植團隊成員李伯璋也指該院移植團隊也是看器捐中心登載資 料才動刀，若要懲處醫師不公平。

「醫界不應卸責」

衛生署醫事處處長石崇良指依現行法令，不得用愛滋病毒呈陽性器官移植，如何確認則無明文，但醫界不應以此無明文規定來卸責。
民間監督健保聯盟發言人滕西華表示，器官勸募與移植醫院可能為不同醫院，跨院不易取得病歷，「整合捐贈者資料是政府責任，是器捐中心該做的事」，管理器捐中心的衛署也要為此重大移植疏失案負責。

網友諷柯改姓余

前天辭去台大器官捐贈小組與衛署器官勸 募網絡計劃主持人兩職務的台大醫院創傷醫學部主任柯文哲，昨指台大已針對疏失改正，這像彗星撞地球，其他醫院別幸災樂禍。對外界指他為保住院長陳明豐請 辭，柯說：「我已經很大了，人是我招考的、我管理的、作業守則我寫的…，當然我負責。」台大批踢踢則有網友嘲諷柯應改姓、叫余文哲（暗諷在總統馬英九特支 案中，馬的部屬余文為此坐牢）。
衛生署前署長楊志良認為，外界若要衛生署署長下台，先要釐清衛署有無盡督導之責，否則「再多署長也不夠用」。
衛生署昨開專家會議，決議五名被植愛滋器官病患至少服藥三個月，日後停藥六個月受檢，最快明年五月底確認是否感染；據了解，衛署對上述人等投藥內容，還諮詢研發雞尾酒療法的何大一。另北檢昨已取得台大內部器官標準作業流程，成大部分尚未拿到。

拆拆拆 McGraw-Hill to Break Into Two

McGraw-Hill to Break Into Two McGraw-Hill, the media conglomerate long-known for its publishing business, announced on Monday plans to split in two parts: a markets business and an education company.

The move comes several months after the company announced it was conducting a portfolio review in an effort to increase its stagnant share price. It also comes after pressure from activist shareholders, who had called for company to break into four parts. McGraw-Hill expects to spin off the education group by the end of 2012. As part of the broad makeover, the company also said it would cut costs and repurchase $1 billion of shares this year.

"After thorough analysis, the board determined that the creation of these two independent companies is the best and most reliable way to generate superior shareholder value," chief executive Harold McGraw III, Chairman, said in a statement.

執資本主義的金牛耳!!!

蘋論：票價太貴了

2011年 09月08日

享譽國際，被推崇為全球古典音樂界榜首的柏林愛樂交響樂團，將於11月來台演奏。這無疑是台灣古典樂界的大事，也是樂迷的福音，但是票價太貴，已引起反感，罵聲不絕。
本次柏林愛樂音樂會由牛耳藝術引進，票價最便宜（含學生票）高達2400元，最貴10000元。同樣的演出，美國最低票價34美元，約台幣988元，遠低於台灣。牛耳藝術說，柏林是全球最頂尖的樂團，成本很高，又沒政府補助，只能提高票價。

一個有趣的對比是，大提琴家張正傑將開演奏會，為普及古典樂，他將票價定為100元。結果一開放購票即演出秒殺，15 分鐘就全部賣完，創下古典樂售票的紀錄。這說明一件事實：台灣的古典樂迷人數非常多，但大多是窮學生和中產階級；平均票價若在1000元左右還可接受，兩 人同行約2000元，但若超過此價，樂迷們只能望梅止渴了。張正傑說，他可以把票價定這麼低是因為已找到贊助的企業，所以不致賠本。100元是紀念中華民 國建國100年；而且也為了讓窮學生有機會親身體驗現場演奏會的氣氛與質感。

最貴萬元坐次等區

牛耳不是也找到台新銀行和寶馬汽車（BMW）的贊助嗎？去年11月，柏林愛樂在柏林同樣演奏馬勒第9號交響曲，最高票價只需90歐元，合台幣3700元。這樣比當然不合理，因為牛耳還要付樂團高昂的機票（頭等艙及商務艙）、旅館以及每人的報酬費用，外加保險（人及樂器）、三餐等雜支。但是若有企業贊助，理應降低票價，讓學生及中產階級樂迷可以大飽耳福。
國家音樂廳是國家管理的場地，場租便宜，比起日本低很多。批評者因此認為牛耳票價太高，有違政府低租金分享民眾的好意，等於政府以國家資源補助純商業行為；場租越便宜，牛耳賺越多。

最令人憤慨的是，即使花最高票價10000元買一張票，竟然不是坐在最好的區，而是次等座位區。最好的區位都給了贊助企業的高層，以及企業拿去做 高官巨賈的關係。結果我們看到名媛貴婦全身名牌施施然駕到，與其他貴婦社交競豔，附庸風雅；而真正熱愛古典樂的樂迷和學生只能望而興嘆的份了。

危機考驗美國德國總統......

Politics | 05.09.2011

Crises put leadership qualities of Obama and Merkel to the test

Obama and Merkel face questions about their leadership

Angela Merkel and Barack Obama have come under criticism for their perceived failure to provide strong political leadership in times of crisis. While some of it is justified, it's premature to call them weak leaders.

The leadership lashing has come from all sides. Germany's former chancellors, the conservative Helmut Kohl as well as the social democrat Helmut Schmidt have criticized what they consider a lack of European leadership in the face of the financial crisis from Chancellor Angela Merkel. Germany's first-ever foreign minister from the Green Party, Joschka Fischer, also scolded what he perceives as Merkel's failure to guide Europe through what is arguably the most severe crisis since the founding of the European Union.

Across the Atlantic, Barack Obama is not faring much better. While the steady Republican drumbeat about the president's lack of leadership can be shelved as partisan campaign rhetoric, it does reflect a growing public sentiment. According to a new Pew survey, Obama's leadership ratings have nose-dived. For the first time since he took office significantly more Americans disapprove of the way he is handling his job (49-43 percent). Since May the percentage of people describing Obama as a strong leader also has fallen from 58 to 49 percent.

Last week, the president of the AFL-CIO, the country's most important labor organization said that if Obama didn't finally take stronger action to improve the US economy, he isn't a leader, but "a follower." A headline in Salon Magazine probably best sums up the growing disenchantment of Democrats and Progressives in the US with the leadership style of their president: "Obama's dopey rope-a-dope strategy."

Lack of leadership

In Merkel's case, the prime examples for her alleged failure to lead is what critics call her inept, unprincipled and late response to the debt crisis in Europe and Germany's stance against military action in Libya, which critics charge isolated Berlin from its Western allies.

As for Obama, he is accused of essentially having been duped by Republicans in accepting a deeply flawed debt deal, having played a passive role instead of taking a strong stand against the dictators who are trying to crush their own people in Syria and Libya and most importantly of being totally absent on the most important issue for Americans, i.e. jobs.

While much of the resentment with the leadership style of Merkel and Obama is understandable, say experts, to be fair it should be measured against what other political options were available.

Unusual role

"If we look at Merkel I would say that the demands on Germany to lead are very recent," Matthias Wächter, director of the Institut Européen des Hautes Etudes Internationales (EHEI) in Nice, France, told Deutsche Welle. He adds, that until recently, Berlin was not supposed to act as a strong international leader, but rather to exercise leadership only in the context of the so called Franco-German partnership, so Germany in a way is simply not used to acting as the sole, strong European leader as many now expect.

Germany's former chancellor Helmut Kohl issued a tough rebuke of Merkel's policy toward Europe

What's more, argues Hubert Zimmermann, a professor of international relations at Philipps University in Marburg, the grand vision and leadership for Europe that many critics now say Merkel should have provided would have to go very far and reach very deep.

Essentially it would lead to a much more centralized Europe than most of the people now calling for a grand plan would be prepared to go, says Zimmermann:

"So to call for very far-reaching European visions was relatively easy for people like Helmut Kohl when it was clear that it wouldn't be pushed through during his leadership."

Herding cats

Michael Genovese, the director of the Institute for Leadership Studies and a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, puts the calls for Merkel to emerge as the de facto European leader in a more practical context.

"For Merkel it is difficult to lead the European Union which is an organization which is still in the making and is far less organized by formal law than the United States. It's hard to lead or as we say in the US it's like herding cats," he told Deutsche Welle.

Arguably, though, her stance on Libya has weakened her position as an international leader even more than what critics call her dithering on Europe's debt crisis.

"Germany's European partners, particularly France where I live, are asking themselves what Germany is driving at, what the principles and the main lines of foreign policy are," says Wächter. "There should be a lot more clarity what Germany's objectives in foreign policy are."

Wrong lessons

Barack Obama, argue the analysts, is a similar type of political leader as Angela Merkel, as he is also a cool pragmatist who likes to weigh all the options, not an ideologue with a clear set of ideals and a more emotional approach to political issues.

Obama, says Genovese, has tried to learn the lesson from Bill Clinton's health care debacle. Clinton was personally heavily invested in every aspect of the legislation, essentially trying to dictate the policy to Congress. That backfired, health care reform failed and left Clinton deeply damaged. Obama took note of that and basically has left all legislation up to Congress instead of getting personally involved.

"I think he mislearned the lessons of recent history," says Genovese. "It's a strategic failure on his part. The lesson from Clinton no longer applies." The political system in the US is so polarized that leaving legislation to a Republican-dominated Congress ensures that nothing Obama wants to get done actually gets passed by Congress.

Sure, adds Zimmermann, Obama could have tried to act more forcefully in the debt ceiling debate and offer a riskier proposal, but that probably is also not his personal style.

Hedging bets

"Usually American presidents are careful to hedge their bets and not make risky proposals or visionary speeches," says Zimmermann and cites Ronald Reagan's famous 'Tear down this wall' statement in Berlin during the Cold War. "Of course he could say that because the people who would be upset with that were on the other side of the wall."

Barack Obama was accused of leadership failure during the debt crisisHence, invoking earlier leaders like Helmut Kohl and Ronald Reagan to criticize the leadership of Angela Merkel and Barack Obama is understandable, but not entirely fair. First, the constant pressures and constraints Merkel and Obama face today dwarf those experienced during the Cold War by Kohl and Reagan.

"It's almost like you are Gulliver chained down by thousands of little Lilliputians," says Genovese.

Secondly, history's verdict on what makes great leaders takes time to evolve, notes Zimmermann.

"If you look at back at Reagan and Kohl, for a long time both of them were regarded as practically bumbling idiots and anything but strong leaders. The reason was of course that they also operated in a divided system. After the Cold War ended they both looked like visionary leaders."

Author: Michael Knigge
Editor: Rob Mudge

找官員訓話

我看到這篇社論 想到的是過去品管學會的年會找的主題演講人的"每況愈下"
前幾年 我認為已到荒謬的地步 找一位教育部三級主管 哈哈

蘋論：官本位遺毒太深

2011年 09月06日

台灣雖已民主化，但傳統漢文化裡的官本位思想仍牢不可破，潑水節活動和集團結婚就可以清楚看出來。

不玩潑水來掃興

前天行政院長吳敦義受邀出席台中市太平 區舉辦的潑水節，事先到場的維安人員接到指令，必須把場地上的十多個大水桶裡的水全部倒光，「連水槍裡的水都要漏光」，並要求民眾不能對吳揆噴水，原因是 吳下一場活動要去為集團結婚證婚，衣服不能打濕。民眾氣得大罵：「潑水節不潑水，那就不要來了。」
吳被罵是一定要的啦，誰叫他那麼掃人興？其實也不能全怪吳，太平區潑水節幹嘛請大官來訓話？自找麻煩啊！大官時常遲到，有的訓話訓個沒完，一點營 養都沒有，大家站在太陽下聽訓，還要學hold住姊hold住，有什麼必要？不過是地方官拍馬屁加上能請到吳揆的虛榮心作祟罷了。還好吳演講簡短。
吳接著趕場到高雄澄清湖畔棒球場，為中鋼集團的集團婚禮證婚。237對新人全副禮服站在烈日下癡癡的等，等什麼好康的？原來是等吳院長訓話。
吳遲到20幾分鐘，至少三名新娘不支被扶出場，包括一名懷胎8個月的準媽媽新娘。有新郎抱怨說：「下午2時40分就進場，直到快5時才結束，還好天氣不算熱，不然倒下的可能更多。」

喜慶聽訓話免了

這事也不能全怪吳，誰叫中鋼主辦單位一定要請吳院長來證婚？有這必要嗎？民主化這麼多年，還是滿腦子官本位遺毒，非要請到大官才有面子。

下級單位請到大官來參加婚喪喜慶，有幾項用意：1.拍大官馬屁，表示支持這位大官，尤其在民主社會這就是選舉時支持的表態。2.給地方人物看看我請得到行政院長，是種示威──狐假虎威。3.給足婚喪喜慶的家人及親友大大的面子，日後更加對我忠誠。4.滿足地方上對我另眼相待的虛榮心。這套作風傳之久遠，已成傳統，與現代民主政治文化格格不入。

大家來呼籲，以後婚喪喜慶不要再請大官來訓話了；大官也不要答應這類邀請，可以節省很多的資源、時間和精力。讓我們把官本位扭轉成民本位吧！