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Spencer Rascoff is the rare chief executive who relishes not having all the answers.
斯賓塞o拉斯科夫是一位另類CEO，他不僅承認自己并非無所不知，似乎還很享受這個事實。
Briefly a journalist and then an investment banker, the CEO of the real estate information site Zillow has fashioned himself into the epitome of the self-improvement boss. He has cultivated a network to help his management team learn about everything from TV advertising to analyzing data to public relations. He’s even had the presence of mind to turn to true experts on social media—summer interns—to find out what he needs to know in that realm.
在成為房地產信息網站Zillow的CEO之前，拉斯科夫曾做過一段時間記者，后來還從事過投資銀行業務。現在，拉斯科夫已經將自己塑造成自我完善型老板的典范。他培育了一個網絡，幫助管理團隊學習電視廣告、數據分析、公共關系等技能。為了了解社交媒體，他甚至曾經鎮定自若地向真正的社交媒體專家（暑假實習生）請教過。
Rascoff has plenty to show for his learning-on-the-job experimentation. Zillow’s got a hot stock, up seven-fold from its 2011 IPO. It is also in the process of gobbling up rival Truliafor more than $3 billion.
拉斯科夫“邊做邊學”的實驗法可圈可點。Zillow的股票頗受追捧，自2011年上市以來已經上漲了7倍。目前，該公司正計劃以30億美元吞并競爭對手Trulia。
What’s fascinating about 38-year-old Rascoff’s approach is how much he recognizes he and his company still have to learn. Starting with a network of personal relationships with other CEOs, many of whom have appeared at a Zillow-hosted speaker series in Seattle, Rascoff has built out a formal and informal system of sharing ideas and best practices among his peers. The companies include LinkedIn (Rascoff confesses to having a “man crush” on CEO Jeff Weiner), Expedia (which Zillow chairman Rich Barton founded), Yelp, Twitter, TrueCar, Shutterstock, and two companies where Rascoff is on the board, Zulily and TripAdvisor. Rascoff says he and his people are constantly in touch with their counterparts at these companies.
拉斯科夫今年38歲，其最出彩的管理方式在于，他承認他和公司仍需要學習很多東西。首先，他與其他公司的CEO們建立了一張個人關系網，形成了一個同行之間分享想法和最佳實踐的半正式系統。其中許多CEO都出席了Zillow在西雅圖舉辦的演講活動。這些公司包括社交網絡LinkedIn（拉斯科夫承認他對LinkedIn公司 CEO杰夫o韋納爾有一種“男人之間的欣賞”）、在線旅游公司Expedia（由Zillow公司董事長里奇o巴頓創建）、點評網站Yelp、Twitter、汽車網站TrueCar、圖片網站Shutterstock、團購網站Zulily和旅游點評網站TripAdvisor。拉斯科夫同時在最后兩家公司擔任董事。拉斯科夫表示，他和公司員工一直與其他公司的同行保持聯系。
The foundation of the network speaks to a common concern of technology companies outside Silicon Valley. “I did this because we’re in Seattle,” Rascoff told me over lunch in San Francisco last week. “I’ve had to sort of manually create this thing that happens more naturally for companies in the Valley.” For example, Zillow trades ideas on business intelligence and customer personalization with Zulily, which sells children’s clothing to moms. The two companies aren’t competitive, and Rascoff find that the lessons of personalizing messages about children’s apparel translates well for homes. (Zillow provides pricing information about homes across the U.S. and makes most of its revenue, more than $300 million this year, selling ads to real estate agents hawking their services.) It has compared notes with LinkedIn and TripAdvisoron matters relating to investor relations. Zillow is planning an entire day of executive-to-executive meetings with TrueCar, a site that provides pricing information to consumers gleaned from collecting auto leasing data. “They know a lot about direct response from TV advertising,” Rascoff says. “We’re just starting to learn about this.”
從這家網絡的建立可以看出，硅谷之外的科技公司普遍存在一種焦慮感。上周，在舊金山共進午餐期間，拉斯科夫告訴我：“我之所以這么做，是因為我們在西雅圖。硅谷的公司可能會自然而然地建立起這樣的網絡，但我必須主動去創建這樣的網絡。”例如，Zillow與嬰兒用品網站Zulily交換商業智能和客戶個性化方方面的創意。這兩家公司不存在競爭關系，但拉斯科夫發現，從兒童服裝信息個性化得出的經驗，非常適合房屋出售。（Zillow提供美國住房的價格信息，大多數收入來自出售給房地產中介商的廣告，今年的收入超過3億美元。）該公司還曾就投資者關系等問題與LinkedIn和TripAdvisor進行討論。Zillow計劃與TrueCar召開為期一整天的高層會議。TrueCar網站通過收集汽車租賃數據，為消費者提供汽車價格信息。拉斯科夫表示：“他們非常了解電視廣告的直接反應。我們才剛剛開始學習這方面的知識。”
The knowledge transfer goes both ways. Rascoff knows Niraj Shah, CEO of the online retailer Wayfair, which recently filed documents with regulators for an IPO. He called him up to offer assistance in the arduous going-public process.
這種知識傳遞是雙向的。拉斯科夫認識在線零售商Wayfair公司CEO尼拉杰o沙赫，后者最近剛剛提交了上市申請。拉斯科夫主動向沙赫提出，他樂意幫助該公司完成繁瑣的上市流程。
Amid all this learning and giving and sharing and ruminating, Rascoff also is running a business. Zillow has been battling Trulia for nine years. I asked him how it came to be that Zillow, whose shareholders will end up with two thirds of the combined company, became the gobbler rather than the gobbled. “We are broader, they are narrower,” he said, explaining that Trulia focuses on homes that are for sale while Zillow provides data on all homes, for sale and otherwise. So why buy Trulia at all? “The reason I want to own Trulia is that as a media company I want to own multiple brands,” he said. “We sell advertising, not homes,” he added, meaning that the more “shelf space” the better for Zillow to attract the attention of home buyers and, importantly, potential home buyers.
不斷給予、分享、學習、反思的拉斯科夫，還是一家公司的經營者。Zillow與Trulia的競爭已經持續了9年。兩家公司合并后，Zillow的股東將占新公司的三分之二。我曾問他為什么最后Zillow變成了“捕食者”，而不是“獵物”。他表示：“因為我們的業務范圍更廣，而對方的范圍較為狹窄。”他解釋稱，Trulia的重點是待售房屋，而Zillow則提供所有房屋的數據，包括待售房屋和其他房屋。那么為什么要收購Trulia？他說道：“我之所以希望收購Trulia，是因為作為一家媒體公司，我希望擁有更多品牌。我們出售的是廣告，而不是住房。”他的意思是說，“貨架空間”越多，Zillow便能吸引更多購房者的關注，尤其是潛在購房者。
At the end of our conversation I asked Rascoff about his rabid embrace of Twitter. He is a frequent and open sharer on the social-media network, as well as a generous re-tweeter. His response speaks volumes about the CEO’s capacity for learning. It started, he said, when Benchmark investor Bill Gurley called Zillow Chairman Rich Barton to ask his opinion of Twitter. (Gurley later invested in Twitter; Barton has a longtime association with Benchmark.) Barton in turn asked Rascoff who in turn asked a particular summer intern who knew a lot about Twitter to teach him what she knew. “I spent two hours with her. Today she has a team of five people working for her.” And Twitter is critical to Zillow’s social-media strategy for both internal and external communications. “Nothing happens at the company without a social media strategy,” says Rascoff, citing companywide social events and quarterly earnings calls as two examples.
訪談即將結束時，我問他為什么會成為Twitter的瘋狂粉絲。他經常在社交媒體上開放地分享自己的動態，也經常大方地轉發其他人的信息。他的回答充分證明了作為一名CEO的學習能力。他說，風險投資公司Benchmark的投資人比爾o科爾利曾經致電Zillow公司董事長里奇o巴頓，詢問他對Twitter的看法。（科爾利后來投資了Twitter；巴頓與Benchmark一直保持聯系）。而巴頓則去詢問拉斯科夫的意見。拉斯科夫向一位了解Twitter的實習生請教。這位實習生將自己對Twitter的看法告訴了拉斯科夫。“我與她交流了兩個小時。現在她管理著一支5人團隊。”Twitter對于Zillow內部與外部溝通的社交媒體策略至關重要。拉斯科夫說道：“如果沒有一個社交媒體策略，公司什么也做不了。”他列舉了公司社交活動和季度收入電話會議這兩個例子。
So what’s next for Rascoff to learn? “I recently asked her to explain Instagram,” he says.
接下來，拉斯科夫想學習什么？他說道：“我最近向她打聽過有關圖片分享應用Instagram的情況。”
