经济学人下载:IBM vs 卡耐基基金会

Present at the creation

创新之举

However much their paths diverged, IBM and the Carnegie Corporation were both born at a critical point in the evolution of America’s capitalist democracy. Carnegie had built his fortune during an uNPRecedented period of large-scale industrialisation, the social costs of which were clear by 1911. The legitimacy of the wave of new big businesses and of the wealthy men who created them was increasingly questioned, as trustbusters challenged “robber barons” such as Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller (who created his charitable foundation in 1913).

不论IBM和卡耐基基金会所走的道路有多不同，它们都诞生在美国资本主义民主进化进程中的关键时刻。卡耐基在一场前所未有的大规模工业化时期建造了自己的财富王国，这一工业化的社会消耗在1911年前清清楚楚。随着反托拉斯检察官挑战卡耐基和约翰??D??洛克菲勒（John D. Rockefeller）（他于1913年创立了自己的慈善组织）这类“橡胶大亨”， 一波波涌起的新的大型商业和创造它们的富人的合法性越来越受到质疑。

At the same time, there was growing excitement about the capacity of expert knowledge to transform not just business but society, too. Carnegie and Rockefeller reflected this in calling their thoughtful, long-term approach to giving “scientific philanthropy” (today’s donors call it “strategic philanthropy”), which they contrasted with the short-term wastefulness of much of the charity of the time.

同时，人们还越来越兴奋于不仅能重塑商业还能改变社会的专业知识的神通。卡耐基和洛克菲勒在“科学性慈善”（今天的慈善家称其为“战略性慈善”）方式中反映了这一点，那是经过它们深思熟虑并长期执行的，他们把它与当时很多慈善的短期浪费相对比。

In a way, therefore, IBM and the Carnegie Corporation had similar missions. The Carnegie Corporation’s explicit goal was to “promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding”. Thomas Watson senior, who ran IBM for over 40 years, made “Think” its motto and built the business around “the idea that information was going to be the big thing in the 20th century”, according to Richard Tedlow, author of “The Watson Dynasty”. He established a research arm in 1917, which went on to generate world-class, blue-sky research as well as more patents than any other corporate laboratory.

因此从某种角度看IBM和卡耐基基金会有类似的使命。后者明确的目标是“推动知识和理解的进步和交流”。根据《沃森王朝》的作者理查德??泰德罗（Richard S.Tedlow）所讲，执掌IBM达40多年之久的老托马斯??沃森确立“思考”为该公司的座右铭，围绕“信息是20世纪的大事这一想法”建立商业运作。他于1917年设立研究部门，这个部门既制造出的专利比其他任何一家公司实验室的都多，也进行了一些国际一流水平、不符合实际的研究。