​《经济学人》致哈佛商学院的公开信 | 双语精选

哈佛商学院拥有极为成功的商业模型，但其在学界的思想领导地位却不断遭受挑战。《经济学人》的熊彼特专栏撰写了一份公开信，希望帮助HBS高层看到他们面临的三大战略性问题——哈佛商学院必须直面它作为商业和研究机构双重身份之间的利益冲突，增强透明度，削减开支。

《经济学人·商论》2017年五月刊

《从卓越到优秀》（From great to good）

Schumpeter

熊彼特

From great to good从卓越到优秀

A confidential memorandum to the senior faculty of Harvard Business School

致哈佛商学院资深教授们的一份机密备忘录

YOU will all be aware that a book has just been published about our institution, Harvard Business School (HBS). Entitled “The Golden Passport”, by Duff McDonald, it makes a number of unflattering claims about the school’s ethics and its purpose. While often unbalanced, it is likely to galvanise hostility to HBS both inside Harvard University, of which we are a part, and among the public. This memorandum, circulated only to the most senior faculty members, assesses HBS’s strategic position.你们应该都知道，最近有一本关于我们哈佛商学院（HBS）的书刚刚出版，书名为《黄金护照》（The Golden Passport），作者是达夫·麦克唐纳（Duff McDonald）。书中毫不客气地列举了一长串学院在道德伦理及办学宗旨方面的问题。虽然多处内容都有失偏颇，但这本书仍有可能令HBS在我们所属的哈佛大学内部以及社会上受到敌视。这份备忘录将评估HBS的战略地位，仅供学院最资深的教授传阅。Our school has been among the country’s most influential institutions since its foundation in 1908. Our forebears helped build America’s economy in the early 20th century and helped win the second world war. HBS educates less than 1% of American MBA students but case studies written by our faculty are used at business schools around the world. Our alumni fill the corridors of elite firms such as McKinsey. Many bosses of big American companies studied here. Even in Silicon Valley, where we are relatively weak, about a tenth of “unicorns”—private startups worth over $1bn—have one of our tribe as a founder.自1908年创立以来，HBS一直位列美国最具影响力的院校。我们的前辈校友在20世纪初期为打造美国经济出谋划策，还帮助国家在二战中取得胜利。HBS培养的MBA学生还不到美国MBA学生总人数的1%，但由学院教授编写的案例研究却为全世界的商学院广泛使用。麦肯锡等精英公司的走廊上挂满了学院校友的肖像。许多大型美国公司的老板都曾在这里学习。即使是在我们势力相对较弱的硅谷，大约十分之一的“独角兽”公司（即估值超过十亿美元的私营创业公司）都有一位创始人毕业于我们学院。We have a business model that monetises the Harvard brand through four revenue streams. About $127m, or 17%, of sales come from MBA tuition fees. Our case-study method, in which students learn from real business situations, is popular. But it is only one reason why they are willing to pay headline fees of $71,635 a year. Like parents of pupils at Britain’s elite private schools, they are buying social standing as well as access to an alumni network that will dramatically raise their odds of getting high-paying jobs.我们的商业模式从四个方面将哈佛品牌转化成真金白银。大约1.27亿美元或者说17%的销售额来自MBA课程的学费。我们的案例研究让学生从真实的商业情境中获得知识，这种教学法广受欢迎。但学生们之所以愿意支付每年高达71,635美元的学费，这只是原因之一。就和英国精英私立学校的学生家长一样，他们购买的不仅是社会地位，还有打入校友关系网的机会。这样的关系网将大大提升他们找到高薪工作的机会。A further 23% of sales comes from our executive-education operation, which sells short courses to mid-career executives. They get a modest amount of mental stimulation and the right to call themselves Harvard alumni. We get $176m a year in return. Our publishing arm sells case studies to other universities and publishes books and a magazine; that brings in 29% of our revenues. The remaining 31% comes chiefly from wealthy businessmen in the form of donations. Some of them may well be under the impression that they gain influence over what we teach.还有23%的销售额来自我们的高管教育项目，即针对处于职业中期的高管推出的短期课程。他们在才智上得到的点拨很有限，却也有资格自诩哈佛校友。我们因此获得了每年1.76亿美元的回报。我们的出版机构向其他大学出售案例研究，并出版图书以及一本杂志，这些为我们带来了29%的收入。剩下的31%主要来自富商们的捐赠。他们当中的一些人很有可能以为自己可以因此影响我们的授课内容。We have had a fantastic run of it, with sales growing at a compound annual rate of 8% in the past decade, above the university’s rate of 5% and outperforming the median firm in the S&P 500 index. Our balance-sheet is strong, with $3.2bn of endowment funds (run by the university’s management company) and $1.6bn of other assets, including our campus. You have all benefited handsomely; we pay out a higher share of our income in compensation than Goldman Sachs does. It may look like poor cost control, with expenses rising at a 7% annual rate, but it also means we live up to our legal status as a non-profit organisation. After deducting capital expenditure, the school makes a modest loss.我们的商业模式运作得极其有效，过去十年来，销售额以8%的复合年增长率增长，高于哈佛大学的5%，也超过标普500公司的中位水平。我们的资产负债表很强健，拥有32亿美元的捐赠基金（由哈佛大学的管理公司负责打理），以及包括校园在内的价值16亿美元的其他资产。你们各位也都获益颇丰：我们支付的薪酬占收益的比重比高盛还要高。我们的开支以每年7%的速率上涨，看上去成本控制不太理想，不过这倒也表明我们符合作为非营利组织的法律身份。扣除资本支出后，商学院稍有损失。However, we face three strategic problems. First, conflicts of interest—let’s be honest here—that have become glaring. We grant companies a veto over case studies written about them. We permit our faculty to be paid, for example, through consulting gigs, by firms they teach about. We do case studies on some of our big donors. It is likely that this compromises our objectivity.然而，我们面临着三个战略性问题。首先，坦白地说，利益冲突已变得非常明显。对于编写案例研究时所涉及的公司，我们赋予其对案例发表与否的否决权。我们允许教授从自己教学案例中提到的公司那里收取报酬，例如，你们可以在这些公司里做兼职顾问。我们会对学院最大的捐助者开展案例研究。这很可能会令我们的客观性打折扣。Second, we face ever more competition to our claim to intellectual leadership. Important business thinkers such as Michael Porter and Clayton Christensen are still on staff, but a new generation of superstars has not yet caught fire. The authors of the most influential recent business book, “The Second Machine Age”, work across the Charles river at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As the tech industry expands, its chief alma mater, Stanford University, is growing ever more powerful.第二，我们在知识领域的领先地位受到越来越多的挑战。迈克尔·波特（Michael Porter）和克莱顿·克里斯坦森（Clayton Christensen）等重要的商业思想家仍在学院任教，但新一代的学术明星尚未得到广泛瞩目。近期最有影响力的商业类图书《第二次机器革命》（The Second Machine Age）的作者就职于查尔斯河对岸的麻省理工学院。随着科技行业的扩张，该行业绝大多数从业者的母校斯坦福大学也正展现出越来越大的影响力。Last, we may perpetuate inequality, a relevant subject at the moment. We have worked to make our intake of students more diverse. But even after the financial aid that we give to some, we have ramped up our effective MBA fees by 31% over the past five years. Relative to the median salary our graduates earn in their first year at work, our fees are twice as costly as they were in 1986. It doesn’t take much to see our network as a form of cronyism.最后，说到不平等这个时下的重要话题，我们恐怕会令不平等的状况持续下去。学院努力令学生的组成更加多样化，但即便向某些学生提供了经济上的援助，过去五年来我们实际的MBA学费仍上涨了31%。相对于毕业生在工作头一年的薪酬中位数这个参照值而言，如今我们的学费已是1986年的两倍。我们的校友关系网也很容易就被视为某种裙带主义。Left unaddressed these weaknesses could compromise our business model. If HBS is more about cash and contacts than ideas, bright people may eventually go elsewhere. Other schools may stop buying our case studies if they doubt their objectivity. We are part of Harvard University, but our already uneasy relationship with it could deteriorate. We benefit from an implicit subsidy because we can use the Harvard brand while operating at arm’s length. In return they benefit from our alumni, who often donate to the university as well as to HBS. But the university has, at least notionally, the power to overhaul our management.如果对这些不足之处置之不理，我们的商业模式或许就会受损。如果HBS给人的印象更多是金钱和人脉，而不是思想，那么那些聪明的人到最后也许就会另寻去处。如果其他学校质疑我们案例研究的客观性，也许就不会继续购买它们。商学院是哈佛大学的组成部分，不过两者间本就不甚融洽的关系也许还会恶化。我们享受到了隐形的好处，因为学院在使用哈佛这个招牌的同时还能与其保持一定的距离。反过来，校方也从我们的校友那里获益，因为这些校友通常既会向HBS也会向哈佛大学捐赠。不过至少在理论上，哈佛大学有权全面改组我们的管理层。The Boston Business School Inc波士顿商学院股份有限公司Our school, led by Nitin Nohria, dean since 2010, has made important reforms. We have tightened disclosure rules on conflicts of interest. Students must spend time in emerging markets. We have tried to signal that our interests go beyond shareholder value by publishing essays criticising it. Yet deeper changes are needed if we are to maintain our competitive position. One course is to reduce the influence of big money and fully eliminate conflicts. Our dependence on big donors’ generosity would have to fall and, by implication, we would have to be less extravagant.自2010年尼汀·诺里亚（Nitin Nohria）担任院长以来，我们学院已做出了重大改革。针对利益冲突这一问题，我们加强了信息披露原则。学生必须去往新兴市场待上一段时间。我们还发表文章批评股东价值，以此试着向外界表明我们关注的不止股东价值。然而，如果要保持学院的竞争地位，我们还需要更深刻的改变。其中一个做法是削弱巨额金钱对学院的影响力，并全面消除利益冲突。我们必须要摆脱对慷慨的重要捐赠者的依赖，这也就是说我们不应再那么铺张了。If you have a good thing going, though, why stop? An alternative is to follow the advice of Alfred Chandler, a theorist at HBS between 1970-89, who taught that structure must reflect strategy. HBS would cut loose from Harvard and acknowledge its tacit commercial status. If we trimmed costs to their level five years ago and were valued on the S&P 500’s price-earnings multiple, HBS would be worth $5bn. The university would get a huge special dividend with which to pay for more scholarships for underprivileged applicants. We would be subject to the forces of accountability and transparency that we have always argued maximise performance. We look forward to your feedback.如果一件事进展得不错，为什么还要另辟蹊径？不过仍值得考虑理论家艾尔弗雷德·钱德勒（ Alfred Chandler）的建议。他曾于1970年至1989年间在HBS执教，他的教诲是组织架构必须反映策略。HBS应该脱离哈佛大学，并公开它是一个商业机构这一大家都心照不宣的事实。如果我们将支出削减至和五年前一样的水平，并以标普500指数市盈率估算上市，HBS估值可以达到50亿美元。哈佛大学将会从交易中得到一大笔特别股息，可用来为属于弱势群体的申请人提供奖学金。我们一贯主张问责和透明会激发最优表现，我们如果上市也会受益于这两股力量的推动。期待你们的反馈。■

您已免费试读《经济学人·商论》2017年五月刊文章《从卓越到优秀》（From great to good），欢迎前往App聆听原声音频。

↑扫码下载《经济学人》中英双语App↑

订阅阅读完整文章

订阅《经济学人·商论》即可同步解锁发刊至今的2000余篇往期文章，一键切换双语阅读，更有1000多篇文章的英文原声音频，高效学英文！

想听官方译者精析原文？

欢迎加入商论学习社区

“商论英语学习社区”是《经济学人·商论》年度订户专属福利之一。官方译者主持，解读最新《经济学人》原刊文章，从字词句段到背景知识循序渐进，助你在听、读、写、译各方面取得显著进步。

每日一词+每周课堂+学人习语全部出自《经济学人》，官方译者将最优质的全球信息源以高效全面的图文、音频、直播等方式为你呈现。通过短片看看学习社区长什么样吧 ↓

订阅一年《经济学人·商论》，即可免费解锁商论英语学习社区（福利二选一），并加入专属商论英语学习微信群，获取本栏目的完整服务。即刻订阅更超值！

如何加入商论英语学习社区？

*Moleskine新年手账 与 学习社区 为二选一福利

下载：扫描文末海报中的二维码、点击“阅读原文”、或访问商论官网（www.tegbr.com），均可跳转至Apple App Store下载iOS版本，或直接在官网下载最新安卓版本《经济学人·商论》

订阅：打开《经济学人·商论》App，点击屏幕右上角的“···”菜单图标，点击“订阅”，选择全年订阅。

联络：在App内成功订阅全年《经济学人·商论》后，添加“商论小助理”微信（ecogbr），发送订阅订单的截图至小助理即可收到领取解锁码的链接。如需加入英语学习微信群，请备注“加学习群”。

【制胜考研英语】订阅年度即可

选择免费加入商论学习社区

下载商论，年度订户解锁后即可免费听讲：