1、 外文翻译 原文 Corporate transformation without a crisis Material Source: The McKinsey Quarterly Author: Michael Jung Principles of transformation Most transformations in non-crisis conditions fail: both attitudes and behavior remain unchanged and ambitious targets slip downward. Rather oddly, it is the l
2、eaders of companies in crisis who may be best placed to achieve a true transformation. David Simon and John Browne could transform British Petroleum from one of Britains weakest industrials into one of its strongest because the company faced imminent ruin. Steve Jobs rescued Apple Computer from coll
3、apse. By contrast, most transformations undertaken in non-crisis conditions end up failing: employees attitudes and behavior remain unchanged, ambitious targets slip downward, and the program is finally abandoned, leaving the company worse off than it was before. Especially when things are going wel
4、l, executives are justifiably reluctant to undertake transformation programs. They know that failure to act may condemn the company to slow decline and eventual collapse, but they also justifiably fear the uncertain outcome of a transformation process. Can a company be transformed without first expe
5、riencing a crisis? We believe that the answer is yes if the leaders understand what makes individuals and groups transform their view of reality. The successful transformations we have encountered all met the four conditions described below; in every failure we have analyzed, at least one has been m
6、issing. Stories of transformations If these are the conditions of a successful transformation, what should leaders do to create them? To help individuals cross their threshold of conviction, the leaders must provide a “screenplay“ for the drama to comea story showing why the company must transform i
7、tself, where it is heading, and how it will get there. The story must be so convincing and vivid that its readers will want to help it come true. Effectively framed, such a story can help people strengthen their conviction and start experiencing “the new world“ even before it arrives. A transformati
8、on born of crisis writes its own story. Before a crisis hits, it is much harder to create an authentic story explaining why a company should transform itself. Nonetheless, even if a transformation isnt driven by a crisis, it is important to clarify and write down the story. Giving it this formal emb
9、odiment forces the top leadership of a company to think it through and ensures that its central elements will remain similar no matter who is actually telling it. A transformation story is neither a writers gimmick, such as a “retrospective from the future,“ nor an anthology of reflections from mana
10、gement sages. It is nothing like the mountains of documents and presentations that so often accompany change programs. The great transformation stories are often short, and some are surprisingly unpolished. We encourage top managers to write their transformation stories themselves rather than delega
11、te the work to a communications unit or an advertising agency. Authenticity and directness are far more important to a story than are fine prose or clever visuals. Although each storys specific form will vary, we envision a transformation story in three chapters, corresponding to the why, where, and
12、 how of the transformation. Chapter 1: Why does the company need this? Almost always, the story of a transformation acknowledges the events that triggered it: the company must take drastic action because its financial position is weak, say, or because the competition has gained in power, or because
13、technology has revolutionized the industry. But these are often only symptoms of deeper problems. If the transformation process is to address those problems, they too must be included in the story, which must explain why and how the financial situation became weak, the competition gained strength, o
14、r the new technology blindsided the company. Such brutal honesty is difficult and therefore rare, for it leads to awkward questions about the companys previous decisions and current leaders. But a shared understanding of the actual cause of the current state of affairs is essential to a transformati
15、on. Putting hard truths on the table makes some people uncomfortable, but avoiding those truths puts success at risk. Chapter 2: Where is the company heading? The second chapter, which calls for true creativity, outlines the companys future and makes it so convincing that it seems destined to happen
16、. Many companies derive their “destiny“ from the triumphs of other companies and from kno wn facts: surveys, benchmarks, best practices. Such companies assemble their future piece by piece. But in our experience, a future that merely imitates what others have achieved, no matter how great their resu
17、lts, rarely inspires employees. Instead, the company needs a genuinely new and superior idea for a product, a quality standard, a technology, or a managerial model. Such ideas vary from company to company, but in all cases they must be capable of giving it a decisive competitive superiority. Of cour
18、se, companies can learn from their competitors. Nonetheless, the ideas that drive a transformation always move beyond what others know. Chapter 3: How can the company reach its goal? Returning to the realm of the practical, how can the company use the diagnosis of the first chapter and the new idea
19、of the second to transform itself? There are many technical details to spell out concerning tasks, phases, timing, and responsibility. But while detail is important, it is not sufficient to answer the question of how the company will achieve its goals. Transformational learning comes, ultimately, fr
20、om personal experience. The leaders experience, which should be embedded in the story, must be internalized within every participant in the process. Each participant must undergo an “identity transition.“ Although orchestrating thousands of these individual identity transitions is an enormous challe
21、nge, doing so will make the process of change self-sustaining. Once individuals begin to experience the early realities created by the transformation story, they will often try to do what it takes to complete it on their own. Making it real Getting thousands of people to move across that threshold o
22、f initial experience is undoubtedly the hardest task facing a management team that leads a corporate transformation. We have observed many situations in which a top-management group has discovered the causes of the present problems of a company and developed a convincing vision of its future. These
23、leaders have captured that experience in a powerful transformation story and struggled to help many thousands of employees, business partners, and customers discover the logic of the transformation for themselves. After all, the companys leaders, as we have already noted, cannot know or experience a
24、nything on anyone elses behalf. The challenge Only a powerful management group at the center can guide a transformation through the risks and frustrations of the process. Here the leaders face a contradiction. On the one hand, identity transitions must be highly personal, arising from real-life expe
25、rience. On the other, the transformation wont succeed unless the transition is carefully choreographed from the center. Indeed, central leadership is essential to any transformation. Only a few people in most organizations have the stamina, ambition, and ideas to develop and communicate an effective
26、 transformation story. Only a powerful central group can guide the process through the risks and setbacks encountered during every transformation. Only central controls can prevent chaos. Ultimately, however, the transformation must proceed without central leadership. To acknowledge the need for a n
27、ot-yet existing reality is to make a conscious, free decision. Individuals must make this decision for themselves. The most common approach to a large-scale transformation process involves central definition and management. That approach sometimes works in a crisis. To prevent the threatened closure
28、 of a factory, its workers may well accept draconian staffing cuts. To save a company from a hostile takeover, managers may allow core businesses to be sold. But without a crisis, these prescriptive methods run into trouble, for the shared conviction that permits a company to endure setbacks and com
29、plications cant be centrally imposed. Hence the rise in recent years of attempts to use a “cascade“ processin which each round of discussions engages new people in a dialogue about the transformationto persuade every organizational level of the need for radical change. Although this approach usually
30、 persuades more employees of the storys necessity than do prescriptive methods, it has practical drawbacks, especially in large organizations. It isnt easy to arrange conversations with 50,000 employees. As the cascade works its way down through the organization, the dialogue it creates loses sponta
31、neity. Overstretched lower-level managers may have too little feeling for the transformation process to touch their audience. The leadership group may try to bypass them by using a video presentation, but the dialogue then turns into prescription. Are there other ways to resolve the problem? The lea
32、dership group cant transform individuals, but it can do much to foster their readiness to accept a transformation. The leaders can remind people of past events to spur them to re-create former glories or, for that matter, to avoid former mistakes. They can encourage employees to visit other organiza
33、tions to see and feel the new ways of working. And by painting a vivid picture of the future, they can give employees a feeling for a world that does not yet exist. New approaches Such actions create a disposition to embrace change. But do the leaders have to be personally involved in creating this
34、disposition? Are there other ways to encourage the focused and disciplined patterns of dialogue, thought, and action that transformation entails? Some striking cases of success suggest that there are. St. Lukes. Consider the case of an extraordinarily successful UK advertising agency, St. Lukes. Eac
35、h of its clients has a specific room in the agencys building. Jointly designed by the client and the St. Lukes team, the room is filled with the collective knowledge of the clients situation, advertising campaigns, products, and so forth. Each client room in St. Lukes is different. The essence of th
36、e agencys knowledge is presented, sometimes on wall displays, sometimes in electronic form, and sometimes in the furniture and colors. In each case, the room captures the work of the joint agency-client team in a way that others can see and personally experience. St. Lukes guarantees its clients 24-
37、hour-a-day, seven-day-a week access to its building if they agree to enter only their own client room, which thus becomes a place where executives and line managers at many levels can experience a new corporate identity. Each of these rooms, providing constantly changing yet concrete access to the j
38、oint view of reality envisioned by St. Lukes and the client, is far more tangible and immediate than the usual paper or slide campaign presentation. Ford Motor. In the course of a sweeping global transformation program, Ford has developed a novel approach that fosters identity transitions. Drawing o
39、n the story drafted by the companys leaders, all managers, following a centrally defined process, develop individual interpretations of the task of change at Ford. This individual perspective, which Ford calls a “teachable point of view,“ provides the content of a workshop at which the next group of
40、 employees is encouraged to create its own teachable point of view. In principle, this process follows the cascade model, but prescribed elements (including detailed instructions for developing teachable points of view) can be used to form dialogues that are genuinely individual. Despite years of su
41、ccess, the global heath care company Johnson & Johnson was concerned about avoiding IBMs experience during the 1980s, when it fell from a seemingly unassailable position to near collapse. IBM apparently had the right strategy “in the drawer“ all along, but nobody asked the questions that would have
42、prompted the adoption of the strategy. So J&Js leaders designed a process called Framework to ensure that the right questions were asked. The uppercase S in the name emphasizes the importance of bringing many diverse perspectives to the leaders discussionsthe views not just of managers but also of c
43、ustomers, artists, politicians, and so on, in a process that is simultaneously open and directed. In a typical Framework exercise, 10 to 12 people are invited to become temporary members of J&Js executive committee, which has 9 permanent members. The expanded group meets in a remote location for a f
44、ull week to address a specific problem. The temporary members of the executive committee, often from the middle ranks of the corporation, are chosen for their ability to bring diversity to its discussions. No one at these meetings pulls rank, and no single opinion carries more weight than any other.
45、 J&J then creates subcommittees and task forces, each directed to study and investigate a particular topic. Ultimately, hundreds of employees will join Ralph Larsen, the companys CEO, involving themselves in the transformation process and immeasurably widening the executive committees perspective on
46、 what must be done. 译文 非危机状况下的企业转型 资料来源 : 麦肯锡季刊 作者： 迈克尔容格 转型的关键 很多公司在非危机条件下转型失败，尽管态度和行为保持不变，雄心勃勃目标滑却 下滑。但是 相当奇怪的是 ,在危急时，只有把公司领导人放在最合适的位置上，才能完成转型 。大卫 西蒙和约翰 布朗有望 将一个英国最弱的石油工业变成最强的， 因为公司面临迫在眉睫的毁灭。史蒂夫 乔布斯 将 苹果电脑 公司从 崩溃 中救出 。相比之下 ,大多数在非危机条件下的转变却失败： 员工的态度和行为不变 ,雄心壮志 的目标 却在走下坡路 ,并且 最 终 导致 项目被 放弃 ,公司情况比以前更糟
47、 。特别是当一切都在顺利的进行 ,高管们理所当然地不愿意进行 项目 改造。他们知道没有采取行动可能 导致 公司 业绩 慢慢下降 ,并最终崩溃 ,但他们也 很自然 地恐惧 由转型带来的不确定结果。 一个公司到底能不能在非危机状态下进行转型呢？假如公司的领导人能正确理解如何更好地使员工和团队转变自己的观点，我们相信 ,答案是肯定的。我们曾经遇到过的成功的转型所具备的成功条件，在下面我们会讲到，在我们所分析的失败中，其实他已经错过至少一次了。 转型的故事 如果 对于 一个成功的转型的条件 ,领导应该如何造就它们 呢 ?协助个人树立自己的 的信念 ,领导必须提供一个 “剧本 ”给演员来实现 ，故事 中
48、 显示出了为什么公司必须自己转变 ,转变的目标是什么以及 它如何 达到那种目标 。 这个故事 一定是非常令人信服和生动 的 ,它的读者会想帮助美梦成真。 成功的故事模板 可以帮助人们加强他们的信念和开始经历 这个还未到来的 “新世界 ”。 对于 生来就处于转型危机下的公司 来说，他们 有 着 自己的故事。危机前 ,它更加难以创造一个真实的故事 ，来 解释为什么一家公司应该自己转变。 尽管如此 ,即使在转型中没有遇到危机 ,区分 和写下这个故事 也是必要的 。 不论是谁来真正告诉他，这种正面 的 体现力量 都 能够 赋予 一个公司的高级领导人 去考虑和确认他的核心要素的位置。 故事讲的是 转型既
49、不是作家的手法 ,例如 “回顾 ”的称号 ,也 非 来自未来的凡尘 中 从管理反射出来的圣贤。这是一点都不 连续 的文件和报告 ,所以经常伴随改变计划。大转型的情节通常短 ,有些是出奇的光洁。我们鼓励高层管理者来写他们的故事 ,而不是代表转变工作有了通讯单位或其广告代理公司。真实性和率直比散文或灵动的视觉 更重要 。 尽管每一个转型的 例子是非常艰难复杂的，但是我们分析转型仍然有三大部分，例如，为什么转型，向哪里转型和怎么转型。 第一章 :为什么公司 需要转型 ? 总所周知的事 是关于一个转型引发的事件 : 由于公司的金融地位很弱，其必须采取果断行动 ,因为 公司的 竞争 对手 得到了 电力 方面的支持 或 运用了颠覆传统产业的 技术 。 但这些经常可能 仅仅 是更严重问题的表面 。如果转化过程是来 解决 那些 问题的 ,他们就必须要 总结这个故事 ，来 解释 金融形式 为什么 及 如何变得 这么 虚弱 ,以帮助公司的 竞争更加有力 ,或 者获得更好的 新技术 。 这些残酷的 却是真实 的 问题 是 困难的 ,也很 罕见的 ,因为它会使该公司过去的决定和现任领导人处于令人尴尬的局面 。但是 在 共同理解的基础上的真正原因 是
