
Jan Joubert has fought in some of Africa’s nastiest wars, trained presidential bodyguards to scupper assassination attempts and run a diamond mine in the face of rebel threat. But what was really hell, says the former private military contractor, was taking on an MBA at Henley Business School in the UK at the age of 40.
簡(jiǎn)•朱伯特(Jan Joubert,見(jiàn)右圖)參加過(guò)非洲一些最危險(xiǎn)的戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng),訓(xùn)練過(guò)總統(tǒng)的貼身保鏢(以防范刺殺活動(dòng)),也頂著叛軍威脅的壓力經(jīng)營(yíng)過(guò)鉆石礦。不過(guò),這名前私人軍事合同承包人說(shuō),以40歲的年紀(jì)在英國(guó)亨利商學(xué)院(Henley Business School)攻讀MBA學(xué)位,才是真正地獄般的經(jīng)歷。
The South African, who joined the military at 17 and became a commander in 44 Parachute Brigade’s Pathfinder unit in Namibia and South Africa, has been used to giving orders all his life.
朱伯特是南非人,17歲參軍,在納米比亞和南非當(dāng)過(guò)南非第44傘兵旅(44 Parachute Brigade)探路者部隊(duì)(Pathfinder unit)指揮官。他這輩子一直習(xí)慣于發(fā)號(hào)施令。
But signing up for an MBA meant hours of collaborative discussion instead and refraining from “negative criticism” in what lecturers said was “a safe space”. “In the military, the guy with the highest rank is the final authority. He decides we go left; everybody goes left. There are no questions, there’s no debate about it; that’s it . . . It’s not a two-way communication,” says Mr Joubert.
但參加MBA學(xué)習(xí)意味著,一連數(shù)小時(shí)的合作討論,以及在授課教師所說(shuō)的“安全環(huán)境”下克制“負(fù)面批評(píng)”的沖動(dòng)。朱伯特說(shuō):“在部隊(duì)里,軍銜最高的人擁有最高權(quán)威。他決定向左,所有人都得向左,不得有任何質(zhì)疑和爭(zhēng)議,事情就這樣定了……不存在雙向交流。
“What was hell was having been a commander/chief executive all your life where everybody had to dance to your tune – and now sitting in a classroom . . . You have to consider everybody’s views and everybody’s emotional state and you have to be nice to everybody. That was difficult for me.”
“對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)最難以忍受的是,當(dāng)了一輩子指揮官和首席執(zhí)行官,所有人都得遵照你的命令行事,如今坐在課堂上……你卻必須顧及所有人的觀點(diǎn)和情緒,必須友善對(duì)待每個(gè)人。對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō),這很難做到。”
At the start of the MBA Mr Joubert “just kept quiet”. “Some people’s views are just so far out of whack with your own that you can’t see how you can interact,” he says. “I just got extremely frustrated and I thought it was an absolute waste of time and why should I convince people that my view is correct and theirs are not?”
MBA課程剛剛開(kāi)始時(shí),朱伯特“只是保持沉默”。他說(shuō):“有些人的觀點(diǎn)與你自己的觀點(diǎn)相去如此之遠(yuǎn),以至于你不知道該如何與他們交流。我當(dāng)時(shí)只覺(jué)得非常郁悶,認(rèn)為這絕對(duì)是浪費(fèi)時(shí)間,搞不懂為什么要說(shuō)服別人相信我的看法是正確的、而他們的是錯(cuò)誤的。”
Mr Joubert is used to issuing instructions without debate. In the 1990s he worked for Executive Outcomes, a group of former soldiers hired by governments. In 1995 he arrived in Sierra Leone to help defend the government against a brutal rebel onslaught and trained the bodyguards for two of Sierra Leone’s heads of state.
朱伯特過(guò)去習(xí)慣于不受質(zhì)疑地發(fā)出指令。上世紀(jì)90年代,他曾效力于Executive Outcomes,那是一家由退伍士兵組成的私人雇傭軍公司。他曾在1995年來(lái)到塞拉利昂,幫助政府抵御叛軍的猛烈進(jìn)攻。他還為塞拉利昂的兩位國(guó)家領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人訓(xùn)練過(guò)貼身保鏢。
Eighteen years later, the 44-year-old still works in the west African country, where he has led a turnround at Koidu diamond mine, once ransacked and burnt during the 11-year civil war that ended in 2002.
18年過(guò)去了,現(xiàn)年44歲的朱伯特如今仍在這個(gè)西非國(guó)家工作。在他的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下,在長(zhǎng)達(dá)11年的塞拉利昂內(nèi)戰(zhàn)(于2002年結(jié)束)中一度被洗劫和燒毀的塞拉利昂Koidu鉆石礦起死回生。
For Mr Joubert, the MBA was a way to counter his military past, overcome a perception for being a rigid authoritarian and be taken seriously in the business world. He also wanted to expand the mine that he had spent years of his life developing.
對(duì)朱伯特來(lái)說(shuō),MBA課程是一種手段,可以抵消過(guò)去軍人經(jīng)歷造成的影響,改變他在別人眼中嚴(yán)肅、專(zhuān)制的形象,并獲得商界的真正認(rèn)可。另外,他還想擴(kuò)建這個(gè)他耗費(fèi)了多年心血的鉆石礦。
“[If you’re ex-military] people always judge you and view you as a soldier and I wanted to get out of that stigma,” he says. “I want to be viewed as a serious entrepreneur who can stand my ground in any corporate environment.”
朱伯特說(shuō):“(如果你曾是一名軍人),人們總是會(huì)對(duì)你有偏見(jiàn),會(huì)把你看做一名軍人,而我想擺脫軍人的記號(hào)。我希望人們將我視為一名真正的企業(yè)家,能夠在任何商業(yè)環(huán)境下堅(jiān)守陣地。”
He has already stood his ground for 16 years. He helped safeguard the Koidu mine during the civil war and rebuilt it when the war ended in 2002. By then the mine had been closed for five years and had suffered badly at the hands of the rebels. Today the mine supplies Tiffany, the luxury jeweller, which buys 60 per cent of the Koidu mine’s diamonds by value.
朱伯特已經(jīng)在他的陣地上堅(jiān)守了16年。他曾在內(nèi)戰(zhàn)期間幫助保衛(wèi)Koidu鉆石礦,在2002年戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)結(jié)束時(shí)又幫助重建它。戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)結(jié)束時(shí),Koidu鉆石礦已關(guān)閉了5年,而且已被叛軍糟蹋得不成樣子。如今,Koidu礦是奢侈品珠寶商蒂芙尼(Tiffany)的供貨商,該礦所出產(chǎn)鉆石銷(xiāo)售額的60%來(lái)自蒂芙尼。
While mine ownership has changed hands several times, Mr Joubert has been a constant figure. For years he was chief executive of Koidu Holdings; today he is chairman of Octea, which is the holding company for Koidu, and a diamond mining subsidiary owned by Beny Steinmetz Group the natural resources company founded by the eponymous Israeli businessman.
盡管鉆石礦幾經(jīng)易手,但朱伯特的地位始終巋然不動(dòng)。他曾多年擔(dān)任Koidu控股(Koidu Holdings)的首席執(zhí)行官。如今,他是Koidu的控股公司Octea的董事長(zhǎng)。Octea是貝尼斯坦梅茨集團(tuán)(Beny Steinmetz Group)的鉆石開(kāi)采子公司,這家集團(tuán)是由以色列商人貝尼•斯坦梅茨(Beny Steinmetz)創(chuàng)辦的自然資源公司。