商业领导力与道德

2003 · 演讲 · 原文约 844 词

译文与英文原文逐段对齐可在本页展开英文，也可打开发布者原址核对上下文。

商业领导力与道德——约翰·C·博格尔，先锋集团创始人兼前首席执行官荣获“领袖传奇”奖时的致辞耶鲁领导力峰会纽约 2003 年 1 月 14 日任何美国商人能获得今晚颁发的这个奖项，都是一种特殊的荣誉。但说实话，当一个普林斯顿校友被我们传统上的对手耶鲁如此表彰时，这份荣誉确实堪称令人敬畏。

Business Leadership and Morality Remarks by John C. Bogle, Founder and Former CEO, The Vanguard Group On receipt of the “Legend of Leadership” Award    The Yale School of Leadership Summit New York, NY January 14, 2003 It would be a special honor for any American businessman to receive the award you present this evening. But, truth told, when it is a Princeton alumnus who is honored by our traditional rivals at Yale, the honor surely approaches the awesome.

诸位或许知道，是普林斯顿大学一次机缘巧合，把我带入了共同基金行业，而我整个职业生涯都献给了这个行业。1949 年 12 月，我偶然读到《财富》杂志上的一篇文章——《波士顿的巨额财富》——文中描述了这个“充满争议且迅速崛起的行业”。受此启发，我将其选为本科毕业论文的题目，并撰写了一篇论文——尽管其中满是稚嫩的理想主义和文风缺陷——但它足以让我在费城的威灵顿基金得到第一份全职工作。

As some of you may know, it was a fortuitous event at Princeton University that brought me into the mutual fund industry, where I have spent my entire career. In December 1949, I happened upon an article in Fortune magazine—“Big Money in Boston”—that described this “contentious and rapidly growing industry.” Inspired, I chose it as the topic for my senior thesis, and produced a paper that—for all of its callow idealism and stylistic flaws—was good enough to earn me my first full-time job, at Philadelphia’s Wellington Fund.

我在惠灵顿基金（Wellington）工作了 23 年，最后 7 年担任其首席执行官。1974 年初，我被解雇了。因此，我创立了先锋集团（Vanguard），并以同样的职务又工作了 23 年。过去 5 年间，我以“大使”身份服务于我创立的这家公司——这个称谓是耶鲁大学首席执行官领导力研究所（Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute）的杰弗里·A. 桑南菲尔德（Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld）在《英雄的告别》（The Hero’s Farewell）一书中提出的。我一直尽力达到他笔下那种优雅的崇高标准。我的精力集中在先锋集团的员工和客户身上，致力于推动共同基金行业达到更高标准，并且——起初几乎是荒野中孤单的声音，但如今有了一些非常出色的盟友——为会计标准和公司治理的改革发声，为金融与商业的道德操守发声。

I spent 23 years at Wellington, the last seven as its CEO. In early 1974, I was fired. So I started Vanguard, and spent another 23 years in the same capacity. During the past five years, I’ve been serving the firm I created as “ambassador,” a term coined by the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute’s Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld in “The Hero’s Farewell.” I’ve been doing my best to live up to the high standard of grace he set out. My efforts are focused on Vanguard crewmembers and clients, on urging the mutual fund industry to meet higher standards, and on being a voice—at first almost alone in the wilderness, but now with some mighty fine allies—for reform in accounting standards and corporate governance, and for the ethical conduct of finance and commerce.

无论是多年前撰写基金行业文章，还是创建两家企业组织，抑或挑战民主资本主义体系的完善之路，始终贯穿我所有努力的核心主题只有一个：确保商业活动建立在信任、公平交易和人性正直的基础之上。正如我在《品格至上》一书中所写，这个理念就是要打造一家有所坚守的企业——坚守那些美好、真实且值得尊敬的东西。原因何在？因为信任的价值——无论是信任他人还是值得信赖——对于自由社会中任何企业的长期成功而言，都是不可或缺的基石。

Whether writing about the fund industry all those years ago, or building two business organizations, or challenging our system of democratic capitalism to improve, one over-riding theme has permeated my efforts: To assure that business is based on trust, fair dealing, and human decency. The idea, as I expressed it in my book Character Counts, is to build an enterprise that stands for something, something good and true and honorable. Why? Because the benefits of trust—of trusting and of being trustworthy—are essential to the long-run success of any business in a free society.

在我职业生涯中最令人称奇的巧合之一是，1949 年 12 月那期《财富》杂志上，不仅刊登了激发我撰写论文的共同基金文章，还发表了一篇专题文章，标题为《美国商业的道德史》。这篇文章试图回答这个问题：“（商人）所 wield 的社会权力，其道德凭证是什么？” 文章对驱动商业领袖的一些非金钱动机提供了精彩视角：“对权力的热爱、利他主义、好斗性、爱国情怀，以及希望通过某种产品或机构被后人铭记的愿望。” 我坦然承认这种混合的动机，即使我怀疑，它们可能与你今晚授予我的这个独特奖项有些关联。

In one of the most remarkable coincidences of my career, that very same December 1949 issue of Fortune with the mutual fund article that inspired my thesis carried a feature essay entitled, “The Moral History of U.S. Business.” The essay attempted to answer this question: “What are the moral credentials for the social power (the businessman) wields?” It was a wonderful perspective on some of the non-pecuniary motives that drive business leaders: “the love of power, altruism, pugnacity, patriotism, the hope of being remembered through a product or institution.” I freely acknowledge this mixture of motives, even as I suspect that they may have something to do with the singular award with which you honor me this evening.

文章以本杰明·富兰克林最喜欢的那句话开头，倒也恰如其分：“勤勉与节俭”。（这话我很容易产生共鸣！）但当我最近重读这篇文章时，真正震撼我的是那段 19 世纪中期对“好商人”的描述：“一个有进取心的人，不急于发财，愿意承担一定风险，但不愿拿他人托付的财产去从事危险的事业；小心谨慎，不放纵奢靡，生活量入为出……举止简朴，生活习惯不事张扬……不只是一个商人，更是一个大写的人，要塑造品格、提升心智、涵养心灵。”

The essay begins, fairly enough, with Benjamin Franklin’s favorite words, “industry and frugality.” (They were easy enough for me to relate to!) But when I recently reread that essay, what overwhelmed me was this mid-19th century description of the good merchant: “An enterprising man not in haste to get rich, willing to run some risks, yet not willing to risk in hazardous enterprises the property of others entrusted to his keeping, careful to indulge in no extravagance and to live within his means . . . Simple in his manner and unostentatious in the habits of life . . . not merely a merchant but a man, with a character to form, a mind to improve, and a heart to cultivate.”

哇！这些话像一吨砖头一样砸中了我。说到品格，我已经尽己所能，把自己全部的灵性与精神注入我所运营的两家公司，以及后来担任的“大使”角色。至于心智，我每天都仍在努力——我确实如此！——去提升一个说实话颇为平凡的心智，这个心智，奇妙又矛盾的是，竟被人形容为只拥有“识别显而易见事物的超凡能力”。

Wow! Those words struck home with me like a ton of bricks. As for character, I’ve done my best to invest my own soul and spirit in the character of the two firms I’ve run, and in my subsequent ambassadorship. As for the mind, I still strive every day—I really do!—to improve what is, truth told, a fairly pedestrian mind, indeed one which, in wonderful paradox, has been described as possessing only “the uncanny ability to recognize the obvious.”

说到心脏，我还能说什么呢？再过几周，我就要开始生命中第二次机会的第八个额外年头了——1996 年 2 月那次心脏移植手术奇迹般地赐予了我新生，一颗才 32 岁的新心脏！然而，不知为何，这颗新心的跳动脉搏似乎与原来那颗如出一辙——那鼓点始终传递着同样的信息：没有美德，领导力就毫无意义。商界领袖要想为自己和公司实现最大潜能，就必须着眼于社会的利益，将自身的工作、意志和世界投入到为他人服务之中。

As for the heart, what can I really say? In just a few weeks, I’ll begin the eighth extra year of my second chance at life, miraculously granted to me through a heart transplant in February 1996—a new heart, now just 32 years old! For some mysterious reason, however, that new heart seems to beat in exactly the same way the old one did—a drum-beat whose message remains ever the same: Without virtue, leadership is nothing. Business leaders will achieve their greatest potential for their firms and themselves alike by looking to the interests of our society, putting their work, their will, and their world in the service of others.