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前一陣子，英國《金融時報》刊登了世界排名前50位的女首席執(zhí)行官名單。我向來對此類名單興趣濃厚，于是便在用早餐時仔細研究了一番。首先，我欣賞了雅芳首席執(zhí)行官(CEO)佩戴的雙排珍珠項鏈，莎莉公司(Sara Lee) CEO的珍珠白牙齒，以及日本臨時雇員公司(Tempstaff)創(chuàng)始人筱原良子(Yoshiko Shinohara)完美得有些詭異的肌膚——她看上去比我年輕，但其實已經(jīng)74歲了。
接著我閱讀了她們的成功秘訣。排名第一的女性——百事公司(PepsiCo)的英德拉?努伊(Indra Nooyi)表示，你必須努力工作并享受樂趣。卡夫(Kraft)的艾琳?羅森菲爾德(Irene Rosenfeld)表示，你必須跟著自己的熱情走。其他人則談到了擁有一位導(dǎo)師、做自己、工作與生活平衡、團隊協(xié)作和謙遜的重要性。
讀著這一切，我感覺自己正一點點陷入一張低矮的懶人沙發(fā)，而且再也無法站起身來。這倒不是因為其中有什么特別讓人反對的觀點，而是因為這些女性都取得了非凡成就，卻在不過大腦地重復(fù)時下每一位現(xiàn)代CEO——無論男女——都必須持有的關(guān)愛他人、與人分享的觀點。
不和諧的音符只有一處，來自一家中國空調(diào)制造商的掌門人董明珠，她在世界女商人中影響力排名第九。“我從來沒有失過手，”她表示。“我從不認(rèn)錯，我永遠都是對的。”
On Saturday, the FT published a list of the top 50 women chief executives in the world and, loving such lists, I settled down over breakfast to study it. First, I admired the double string of pearls worn by the CEO of Avon; the pearly white teeth of the Sara Lee chief and the spookily perfect skin of Yoshiko Shinohara, founder of Tempstaff in Japan – who looks younger than I do but turns out to be 74.
Next I read the secrets of their success. The number one woman, PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi, says you must work hard and have fun. Irene Rosenfeld of Kraft says you must follow your passion. The others talk about the importance of having a mentor, of being yourself, of work-life balance, of teamwork and of being humble.
Reading this, I felt I was sinking into a low-slung foam chair from which I couldn't get out. It wasn't that there was anything in particular to disagree with. It was that these women, all of whom have achieved exceptional things, mindlessly repeat the caring, sharing views that every modern CEO – male and female – is now required to have.
There was only one discordant note. This was sounded by Dong Mingzhu, who runs a Chinese manufacturer of air conditioners and is rated the ninth most important businesswoman in the world. “I never miss,” she says. “I never admit mistakes and I am always correct.”
I read this and laughed. It was so bracing, so shocking, so out of line that I thought it a joke. This is the management equivalent of saying one is into incest or has a lot of respect for paedophiles.
Yet Sister Dong, as she is sometimes known, has achieved results. Gree Electric Appliances has achieved total shareholder returns in the past three years of 529.5 per cent. Compare this with Avon, say, where Andrea Jung boasts that her biggest inspiration is the 6m strong sales force. Alas, it seems that listening to 6m ideas may have distracted her from the bottom line. Her return over the same period is a poor -10.5 per cent.
