時事新聞:福特的雄心壯志(中英對照)

Listen to enough auto executives detail their growth plans, compare them to forecasts of the global auto market and you quickly realise that their collective market shares would have to be well over 100 per cent. But who will walk the walk as well as they talk the talk in this zero-sum game?
聽多了汽車公司高管們對他們制定的增長計劃的雄韜偉略, 再將它們與全球汽車市場預測相對比, 你很快就會發現, 他們所提及的各自的市場份額總和一定超過100%. 然而在這場零和遊戲中, 誰又能說到做到呢?

Ford, which unveiled plans on Tuesday to raise unit sales by 50 per cent by the middle of this decade, has More credibility than most to back up such bold goals. If industry forecasts of emerging market auto demand are correct, then this new target “only” means a global market share gain of a single percentage point to around 8.2 per cent, comparable to its progress in the US market recently.
福特汽車公司於週二宣佈要在2015年之前將汽車銷售量提高50%. 這個宣佈比其他許多汽車公司公佈的計劃更具有可信度. 如果對新興市場的汽車需求的行業預測是正確的, 那麼福特的這個目標僅僅意味着其全球市場份額只增長一個百分點, 達到8.2%左右, 與其最近在美國市場的增長進程相當.

But repeating this globally is far more ambitious. It will require a continuation of Ford’s shift to smaller cars and playing catch-up in China and India. In the past decade it has quadrupled its proportion of sales to Asia and Africa and hopes to double it again to nearly a third by 2020 through entering more segments. Doing so at a competitive price will rely on its still-incomplete “One Ford” programme, begun in 2006 to launch five global platforms. Ford hopes that this, along with an improving brand image, will allow it to increase global margins to 8-9 per cent from 6.1 per cent today.
但是, 要將這個增長趨勢擴展至全球則需要更多的雄心壯志. 它將要求福特繼續地將其生產轉移到排量更小的車型, 並且在中國和印度市場上奮起直追. 在過去十年裏, 福特在亞洲和非洲的銷量增長了三倍, 希望在2020年通過進軍更多的領域, 將銷量增長再翻一番, 達到該地區市場份額的三分之一. 要以有競爭力的價格來實現這個目標需要依靠福特本身的尚未完成的 “一個福特” 計劃. 這個計劃始於2006年, 意在創建五個全球平臺. 福特希望通過將這個計劃與提高自身品牌形象結合起來, 將其全球利潤率從現在的6.1%上升到8%--9%.

Among US manufacturers, Ford was seen as most likely to gain global share in a survey of auto executives surveyed by KPMG and released just before the earthquake hobbled Japan’s manufacturers. That country’s manufacturers ranked low, cramped by a strong yen, but others – Volkswagen as well as Chinese, Indian and Korean manufacturers – ranked higher. Even as Ford’s momentum of the past two years suggests it can keep outpacing larger rivals such as Toyota and General Motors to help meet its ambitious goals, it must keep an eye on the overtaking lane.
畢馬威曾對汽車行業高管進行調查並於日本地震重創日本汽車製造商之前發佈調查結果. 調查顯示, 在美國衆多汽車製造商中, 福特被認爲最有可能提高其全球市場份額. 由於受到日元匯率強勁趨勢的影響, 美國的汽車製造商排名較後, 而其他國家的汽車製造商, 如德國的大衆以及中國, 印度以及韓國的汽車製造商, 則排名靠前. 儘管福特過去兩年的強勁勢頭說明其增長步伐可以超越豐田和通用汽車公司, 實現其雄心壯志, 但是它也要時刻留意競爭對手, 防止它們 “超速行駛”, 趕在它的前面.

（原文: 選自英國<<金融時報>> 譯者: 愛爾蘭都柏林大學 賴小琪）