【英语生活】不要过分依赖伟人

“The history of the world is but the biography of great men,” said Thomas Carlyle, the 19th century writer. The business world feels much the same way about the supreme importance of the leader. Chief executives are scrutinised endlessly, the work done by their colleagues much less so. Big mistake.Steve Jobs is unwell. This fact has created great anxiety for Apple's customers and shareholders. Could the company survive his departure? The question is being asked in all seriousness.

Mr Jobs attempted to calm nerves by issuing a statement ahead of last week's Macworld conference in San Francisco, giving an explanation for his non-attendance this year. He was suffering, he explained in a brief open letter, from a hormonal imbalance that was causing him to lose weight rather dramatically. He had been successfully diagnosed and would be better soon. Unfortunately, this statement, while it may have cleared up the medical uncertainty, did nothing to puncture the cult of personality that surrounds the Apple boss. If anything, it gave it another boost.

“I've decided to share something very personal with the Apple community,” Mr Jobs wrote in his letter. Then came the medical bulletin. But the best was saved till the end.

“I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now,” Mr Jobs said, in an unconscious reference to the Financial Times' own “Mr 165 per cent” Martin Lukes. “I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.”

Finally, there was a Greta Garbo-style sign-off: “So now I've said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.” With a puff of smoke he was gone. (I'm a PC, by the way, not a Mac. Could you tell?)

I am delighted that Mr Jobs is not seriously ill and is receiving the correct treatment. It is the health of his company that concerns me more – indeed, the health of any company that hangs on the latest words, thoughts or actions of a single great man.

The newspapers are full of the names of formerly great men who have now fallen to earth. Bernard Madoff was an investment hero, a one-time chairman of the Nasdaq exchange, favoured by distinguished clients such as HSBC and Banco Santander, as well as by charitable foundations supported by the newspaper proprietor Mort Zuckerman, the film-maker Steven Spielberg and the humanitarian campaigner Elie Wiesel.

B. Ramalinga Raju, founder and former chairman of Satyam Computer Services, India's fourth-largest software company, was until last week one of the world's most highly regarded businessmen. He won Ernst & Young's India “entrepreneur of the year” award in 2007. He has now confessed to falsifying his company's accounts over an extended period.

The Royal Bank of Scotland had been seen during the past few years as an all-conquering giant, and its former chief executive, Sir Fred “the shred” Goodwin, as a minor genius. Nothing criminal has gone on here, of course. But the €71bn acquisition in 2007 of ABN Amro has now been exposed as Sir Fred's final folly.

Journalists, who have provided much of the running commentary on these and other stories, are not innocent bystanders. We have helped to build the reputations of those we now seek to destroy. But “news is people”, as the great newspaperman Sir Harold Evans has said. We are bound to describe complicated businesses through the personality of their leaders. We can overdo it a bit, though.

It should go without saying – but it doesn't, quite – that leaders cannot do everything on their own. Leadership has to be “distributed” around the organisation, through delegation and the development of future leaders. No one should ever be truly indispensable.

Teams matter as well as brilliant individuals, as the England and Wales cricket board has just been reminded. Its superstar former captain, Kevin Pietersen, lasted only five months in the job before an unhappy dressing room forced him out last week.

Of course we need great leaders. Perhaps we are about to get one. Expectations could not be any higher for US president-elect Barack Obama, who will be sworn in to office a week from today. But it might not be a bad idea if, at the inauguration, someone were to read out these lines from Bertolt Brecht, the German poet, in which he questions how great some of the great men of history really were:

The young Alexander conquered India.

On his own?

Caesar defeated the Gauls.

Did he not even have a cook with him?

Philip of Spain wept when his Armada

Went down. Did no-one else weep?

Frederick the Great won the Seven Years' War.

Who else won it?

On every page a victory.

Who cooked the celebratory feast?

Every ten years a great man.

Who paid for him?

So many stories.

So many questions.

19世纪作家托马斯·卡莱尔(Thomas Carlyle)说：“世界史无非是伟人的传记。”对于领导人至高无上的重要性，商界有着非常类似的感受。首席执行官不断受到审查，他们同事所做的工作却很少如此。这是一个大错误。史蒂夫•乔布斯(Steve Jobs)病了。这一事实让苹果(Apple)的客户和股东感到极为焦虑。乔布斯离开后，苹果能否存活下来？这个问题已经十分严肃地被提了出来。

乔布斯在上周的旧金山Macworld博览会召开前发表了一个声明，解释了自己今年不出席会议的原因，试图以此缓和人们的紧张情绪。他在一封简短的公开信中解释说，他患上了荷尔蒙失衡，体重下降非常明显。他已成功确诊，很快就会好起来。不幸的是，这份声明虽然可能消除了医学方面的不确定性，却无助于打破对乔布斯老板的个人崇拜。如果说有什么区别的话，就是它反而推动了这种个人崇拜。

乔布斯在信中写道：“我已经决定与苹果的全体同仁分享一些非常私人的信息。”接着是他的病情报告。但最好的东西留到了最后。

乔布斯说：“过去11年，我对苹果的奉献超过了我的全部。”这句话无意中参考了英国《金融时报》的“165%先生”马丁•卢克斯(Martin Lukes)。“我希望苹果的全体同仁在我的康复期间支持我，并且记住，我将永远把苹果最佳利益放在第一位。”

最后，他采用了葛丽泰•嘉宝(Greta Garbo)式的结尾：“关于这件事，目前我说的已经比我想说的还要多，我要说的就是这些了。”喷了一口烟后，他就走了。（顺便说一声，我是一台PC，而不是一台Mac。你知道吗？）

让我感到高兴的是，乔布斯病得不严重，并且正在接受正确的治疗。反倒是其公司的健康，让我更为担心——事实上，是任何一家依赖一个伟人的最新言论、想法或行动的公司的健康。

报纸上到处都是那些如今倒在地上的前伟人的名字。伯纳德•马多夫(Bernard Madoff)曾是一位投资英雄、是纳斯达克(Nasdaq)交易所的前任主席，得到了汇丰(HSBC)、西班牙桑坦德银行(Santander)等知名客户的青睐，同时还有报纸所有者莫特•祖克曼(Mort Zuckerman)、电影制作人史蒂文•斯皮尔伯格(Steven Spielberg)和人道主义运动人士埃利•威斯(Elie Wiese)支持的慈善基金的支持。

直到上周，印度第四大软件公司——Satyam Computer Services的创始人兼前董事长拉马林加•拉贾(B. Ramalinga Raju)还是全球最备受推崇的商人之一。他曾获得安永(Ernst &Young) 2007年印度“年度企业家奖”。他现在承认，他篡改公司账目已经有很长一段时间。

过去几年，苏格兰皇家银行(Royal Bank of Scotland)一直被视为所向无敌的巨擘，其前任首席执行官“粉碎机”弗雷德•古德温爵士（Sir Fred Goodwin，因大刀阔斧地削减成本和裁员而得此称号——译者注）则被视为一个少见的天才。当然，这里没有发生什么犯罪事件。但2007年以710亿欧元收购荷兰银行(ABN Amro)的交易，现在已被看作弗雷德干的最后一件蠢事。

对这些及其它事件进行连续报道的新闻记者并不是无辜的旁观者。我们今天试图摧毁的那些人的声誉，是在我们的帮助下建立起来的。但正如伟大的新闻记者哈罗德•埃文斯爵士(Sir Harold Evans)所说，“新闻就是人物”。我们注定要通过领导者的个性来描述复杂的企业。不过我们不能做得太过。

领导人不可能事必躬亲，这应该是不言而喻的（但现实情况却并非如此）。必须通过授权他人和培养未来领导人来使领导力“分布”到整个组织。任何人都不应真的永远不可或缺。

正如英格兰和威尔士板球理事会(England And Wales Cricket Board)最近意识到的那样，团队与杰出的个人都很重要。该会成员、超级巨星凯文•彼得森(Kevin Pietersen)只在板球队长宝座上待了5个月，就因一起不愉快的更衣室事件而被迫于上周下台。

当然，我们需要伟大的领导人。或许我们马上就将迎来一位。美国当选总统巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)下周就将宣誓就职，民众对他抱有极高的期望。但如果有人在就职典礼上朗读一下德国诗人贝尔托特•布莱希特(Bertolt Brecht)的下列诗句，未尝不是个好主意。在诗中，布莱希特对一些历史伟人到底有多伟大提出了质疑：

年轻的亚历山大(Alexander)征服了印度。

就凭他一人吗？

凯撒(Caesar)打败了高卢人，

他该不会连个煮饭的都没带吧？

无敌舰队沉没的时候，

西班牙的腓力(Philip II)哭了。

没有别的人哭吗？

腓特烈大帝(Frederick the Great)在七年战争中获胜。

除了他还有谁获胜？

页页有胜利。

谁来准备庆功宴？

代代出伟人。

谁来买单？

一大堆史实。

一大堆疑问。

译者/董琴、汪洋