经济学人下载:IBM vs 卡耐基基金会

IBM v Carnegie Corporation

IBM vs 卡耐基基金会

The centenarians square up

迎来百岁生日的IBM和卡耐基基金会一决高下

Both IBM and the Carnegie Corporation will turn 100 this month. Has the multinational business or universal philanthropy done more for society?

本月，IBM和卡耐基基金会都将迎来100岁生日。谁对社会贡献更大呢，是IBM这个跨国集团还是遍布世界的慈善机构卡耐基基金会？

Jun 9th 2011 | NEW YORK | from The Economist the print edition

“ONE simple way to assess the impact of any organisation is to answer the question: how is the world different because it existed?” That is the test set out by Sam Palmisano in the foreword to a new book celebrating the 100th birthday of IBM, the firm he has run since 2002. But another organisation is also turning 100 this month—the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a flagship of American philanthropy. Mr Palmisano’s insight is too good to limit to only one of the centenarians. A better question is: which has done more for the world, one of its leading companies or one of its most influential charities?

“评定任何组织影响力的一种简单的方法就是回答一个问题：由于它的存在，世界有什么不同？”这个测验是IBM的首席执行官彭明盛（Sam Palmisano）在一本庆祝IBM100周岁的新书的前言中提出的，他自2002年起掌管IBM。但是本月还有一个组织也将迎来100岁生日——美国慈善的旗舰、纽约的卡耐基基金会。彭明盛先生的想法非常好，对这两家百年公司和机构都适用。一个更恰当的问题是：作为世界领先公司之一的IBM和世界上最具影响力的慈善机构的卡耐基基金会，哪个对世界的贡献更大？

At first glance, IBM and the Carnegie Corporation seem to be engaged in such different endeavours that comparing them might seem about as sensible as comparing apple orchards and orange groves. Making money has always been the main aim of the company formed in 1911 by the merger of three small producers of mechanical accounting machines, scales and time recorders, and renamed International Business Machines 13 years later. By contrast, the Carnegie Corporation explicitly set out to create a better world by giving away what remained of the great fortune of its industrialist founder, Andrew Carnegie. Yet both can assert that they have made the world a better place during the past century, and it is far from obvious which claim is stronger.

乍一看，IBM和卡耐基基金会从事的是两种如此截然不同的事业，以至于比较它们就好像比较苹果园和橘子林一样不靠谱。1911年，三家生产会计机、磅秤和计时器的小型公司于合并成立了一间新公司，13年后改名为国际商业机器公司（IBM），赚钱一直是这家公司的主要目标。与之形成对比的是，卡耐基基金会在创立伊始就明确要通过捐赠其创始人工业家安德鲁??卡耐基（Andrew Carnegie）巨大财富的剩余来创造一个更好的世界。但是两者都可以自称它们在过去的一个世纪中让世界变得更美好，不过还远远不清楚究竟哪一方的声明会更有力。