重塑福特

Mark Fields was fond of saying that Ford Motor company needed to keep “one foot in the present and one foot in the future”. Mr Fields lost his footing entirely this week and was fired as Ford’s chief executive.

馬克?菲爾茨(Mark Fields)喜歡說，福特汽車公司(Ford Motor Company)必須“一隻腳踩在現在，另一隻腳邁向未來”。如今他完全失去了立足點，因爲他被解除了福特首席執行官一職。

The man chosen to take his place is Jim Hackett, former chief executive of Steelcase, the Midwestern office furniture company one 50th of the size of Ford by revenues. Mr Hackett made his name by remodelling Steelcase, then temporarily heading the University of Michigan’s ailing athletics programme and deftly recruiting a star coach for the Wolverines football team.

被選中接替他職位的是吉姆?哈克特(Jim Hackett)。哈克特曾擔任美國中西部辦公傢俱公司Steelcase的首席執行官，後者收入僅爲福特的50分之一。哈克特因重組Steelcase出名，接着他曾短暫擔任密歇根大學(University of Michigan)陷入困境的體育項目的負責人，並巧妙地爲密歇根大學狼獾足球隊(Wolverines)聘請到了一位明星教練。

So, Mr Hackett is big in Michigan. Whether his talents are sufficient to match Henry Ford’s self-confident declaration in 1925 that his eponymous company was “large in scope as well as great in purpose”, having “dared to try out the untried with conspicuous success”, is another matter.

因此，哈克特在密歇根很有名氣。但他的才能是否配得上1925年亨利?福特(Henry Ford)發出的充滿自信的宣言，就是另外一回事了。福特當時聲稱，他的同名公司“規模龐大而且目標遠大”，“敢於嘗試沒有嘗試過的事情，並大獲成功”。

The first hurdle is working under Bill Ford, scion of the family and chairman of Ford, which has been through four leaders in 16 years. It dismissed Jacques Nasser in 2001 and then Mr Ford stepped down as chief executive in 2006 to make way for Alan Mulally, who produced “One Ford” from its rivalrous operating divisions.

第一個障礙是在福特家族成員、福特公司董事長比爾?福特(Bill Ford)手下工作。福特公司在16年裏輪換了4位掌舵人。2001年雅克?納賽爾(Jacques Nasser)被免職，2006年比爾?福特卸任首席執行官，讓位給艾倫?穆拉利(Alan Mulally)，後者針對各部門競爭激烈的狀況提出了“一個福特”(One Ford)戰略。

Mr Fields, a 28-year veteran of Ford’s hierarchical and often inward-looking culture, took over in 2014 and has lasted three years — about the cycle time to design, build and sell a new model of car. He tried to be efficient in running Ford’s business and visionary about new technology, but ended up confusing and alienating shareholders.

菲爾茨已在福特工作28年，深諳福特等級森嚴且經常關注內部的文化。他是在2014年開始擔任福特首席執行官的，任期持續了3年，與設計、製造和銷售一款新車的週期差不多一樣長。他嘗試做到高效經營和對新技術抱有遠見，最終卻令股東們感到困惑，並導致他們疏遠了與他的關係。

Mr Hackett may do better but I have a sinking feeling that the essential problem is not Fields but Ford. This is partly because Mr Ford, facing a global, multi-dimensional challenge to the business models of US carmakers, turned to a guy from Grand Rapids. But it is also because the task is extremely tough, and may be impossible.

哈克特或許會做的更好，但我有一種不祥的預感：根本問題不在於菲爾茨，而在於福特公司。我有這種想法部分是因爲，美國汽車製造商的商業模式面臨着全球性、多方位的挑戰，在這樣的挑戰下，比爾?福特求助於一個來自密歇根大急流城(Grand Rapids)的人。但還有一個原因是，這項任務極其艱鉅，或許是不可能完成的。

It is a severe version of the difficulty facing the heads of many big companies. Growth in the industry they know is under pressure from smaller rivals and new competitors. Meanwhile, they face disruption from new technology that could transform how products and services are designed and delivered, and marginalise them.

這比很多大公司負責人面臨的難題還要困難。他們知道，在該行業的增長正面臨來自較小競爭對手以及新競爭者的壓力。與此同時，他們還面臨新技術所帶來的破壞，這些新技術可能會改變產品和服務的設計和提供方式，從而讓他們邊緣化。

The Detroit big three of General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler have been steadily squeezed in their home market by Asian rivals — Ford’s US market share has halved since 1970 to 15 per cent. It is only half that again globally, and GM reacted in March by pulling out of Europe, selling its Opel and Vauxhall operations to PSA Group.

底特律三大汽車製造商——通用汽車(General Motors)、福特和菲亞特克萊斯勒(Fiat Chrysler)在本國市場不斷受到亞洲競爭對手的擠壓。與1970年相比，福特在美國的市場佔有率已下滑一半，至15%。在全球的市場佔有率僅爲這個數字的一半。今年3月，通用汽車做出反應，撤出歐洲，把歐寶(Opel)和沃克斯豪爾(Vauxhall)業務出售給標緻雪鐵龍集團(PSA Group)。

This would be enough to address in itself, but the carmakers simultaneously face waves of disruption from new technology, including electric cars made by rivals including Tesla, driverless cars developed by Silicon Valley giants such as Alphabet, and on-demand mobility services from Uber and others.

這麼做本來足以解決問題，但這些汽車製造商同時還面臨着新技術所帶來的破壞浪潮，包括特斯拉(Tesla)等競爭對手生產的電動汽車、Alphabet等硅谷巨擘研發的自動駕駛汽車以及優步(Uber)等公司提供的按需乘車服務。

Manufacturers used to dominate the industry’s profit pool, with parts suppliers and dealers under their purview. That is under threat: suppliers of electronics and software may take most of the value, reducing the big three to outsourced assemblers.

在汽車行業的利潤池中，過去一貫是製造商佔了大頭，零部件供應商和經銷商要仰他們的鼻息。這種分配格局如今受到了威脅：電子設備和軟件的供應商也許會奪走大部分的價值，讓三大製造商淪爲外包的裝配商。

Bain & Company, the management consultancy, has a model for what it calls the firm of the future — a company facing upheaval. It argues that the leaders of those companies must keep “engine one”, the traditional core business, operating smoothly. At the same time, they must free capital to invest in “engine two”, the growth area.

管理諮詢公司貝恩諮詢(Bain & Company)設想了其所稱的未來的公司——面對劇變的公司。貝恩諮詢聲稱，這些企業的領導人必須確保傳統核心業務這個“一號引擎”平穩運轉。同時，他們必須能拿出資金，投資於增長領域的“二號引擎”。

Mr Fields, with his talk of planting Ford’s feet in the present and future, gave the impression of having read the book without knowing how to make it work in practice. He looked as if he was being pulled in all directions, from bolstering Ford’s profitable F-150 pick-up truck to launching a rival to GM’s Chevrolet Bolt electric car.

菲爾茨讓福特立足於當下和未來的講話，給人一種他讀過那本書、卻不知如何在實踐中加以運用的印象。從支持福特盈利豐厚的F150皮卡，到推出一款與通用汽車生產的電動汽車雪佛蘭Bolt(Chevrolet Bolt)相競爭的車型，他看起來好像沒有一個明確的方向。

Mr Ford duly introduced Mr Hackett on Monday by saying, “he is not just a futurist, he is a very good operational executive” and the new chief executive pledged to simplify. “If you have a clear view of the future, you can execute rapidly against that view.”

週一，比爾?福特恰如其分地介紹哈克特，“他不但是一位未來主義者，還是非常出色的運營高管”，而這位新任首席執行官則承諾要簡單化。“如果你對未來有明確看法，你就可以按照這種看法迅速執行。”

Ford patently needs to make some hard choices, as GM has done by pulling out of Europe and India. It is no longer feasible for one company to fight on every front at once. “To be a global player everywhere while trying to invest in the future does not make sense,” says Paul Ingrassia of the Revs Institute in Florida, an author of books about the Detroit carmakers.

福特顯然需要做出艱難的選擇——正如通用汽車選擇退出歐洲和印度那樣。一家企業在所有陣線同時發起衝鋒不再可行。佛羅里達Revs Institute的保羅?英格拉西亞(Paul Ingrassia)表示：“在試圖投資未來的同時成爲所有領域的全球性玩家是不現實的。”英格拉西亞曾著有多本有關底特律汽車製造商的書。

But there are deeper questions about its structure and leadership. Faced with a similar quandary in 2015, Larry Page made Sundar Pichai chief executive of Google while he took over the “engine two” as chief executive of Alphabet, its parent. He judged that being an operating executive and an investor in the future was too much.

不過，福特公司的組織架構和領導方式還面臨更深層的質疑。2015年，面臨類似困境的拉里?佩奇(Larry Page)讓桑德爾?皮查伊(Sundar Pichai)擔任了谷歌的首席執行官，他則接管了“二號引擎”，擔任谷歌母公司Alphabet的首席執行官。他認定，身兼運營高管和着眼於未來發展的投資者負擔太重了。

The Ford reshuffle gives Mr Hackett and Mr Ford overlapping responsibilities, heading a team of 20 experienced executives whose combined age in 2016 was 1,096. In football terms, it is an extremely seasoned bench that knows how to play one game.

福特公司的人事改組令哈克特和比爾?福特的職責出現了重疊，他們要領導一個由20位經驗豐富的高管組成的團隊，這些人在2016年的年齡總和是1096歲。用足球術語來說，這個團隊好比一個知道如何打比賽的極其老練的候補隊員。

Mr Hackett has yet to confront all of Ford’s challenges, but some jobs are too big for anyone to fill.

哈克特還未面對福特公司的所有挑戰，然而有的工作太繁重，是任何人都無法承擔的。