通用电气——不那么通用

Business

商业

General Electric -- Not so general

通用电气——不那么通用

An iconic conglomerate breaks up

一家标志性的企业集团解体

Perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of General Electric (GE) over its 129-year history has been how thoroughly it reflected the dominant characteristics of big American business.

通用电气（GE）在其129年的历史中最显著的特点或许是，它充分反映了美国大企业的主导特征。

Most of its history was a chronicle of boisterous expansion, then globalisation -- followed by painful restructuring away from the now-unloved conglomerate model.

它的大部分历史都是有关狂热扩张的大事纪，然后是全球化——之后就是艰难的重组，摆脱如今不受欢迎的企业集团模式。

On November 9th Lawrence Culp, its chief executive, announced that ge would split its remaining operations into three public companies.

11月9日，通用电气首席执行官劳伦斯·卡尔普宣布，通用电气将把剩余的业务拆分成三家上市公司。

Each of these entities will be large, essential and very modern.

这些企业中的每一个都将是庞大的、必不可少的、非常现代化的。

One will make jet engines, which GE reckons already power two-thirds of all commercial flights.

其中一家公司将生产喷气发动机，通用电气估计已经为三分之二的商业航班提供动力。

Its power business will provide the systems and turbines generating one-third of the world’s electricity.

其电力业务公司将提供系统和涡轮机，它们所产生的电力占全球的三分之一。

The health-care division will continue to be the backbone of modern hospitals.

医疗健康部分将继续作为现代医院的支柱。

Yet it speaks to GE’s remarkable role that this is a modest reach given its past sprawl.

然而，考虑到通用电气过去的扩张，这只是一次保守的延伸，这说明了通用电气的非凡作用。

From the late-19th to the late-20th century its products lit dark streets; provided the toasters, fans, refrigerators, and televisions (along with the stations beamed to them), which transformed homes; delivered the locomotives that hauled trains; and then built a huge business financing all that and more.

从19世纪末到20世纪末，它的产品照亮了黑暗的街道；提供了烤面包机、风扇、冰箱和电视（以及向它们发送信号的电视台），改变了居住环境；交付了牵引火车的火车头；然后建立了一个庞大的企业，为所有这些以及更多的产品提供资金。

The ambition to be everything was enabled by the perception that it could manage anything.

想要涉及一切领域的野心来自于它认为自己能够搞定任何事情的想法。

The 21st century punctured that perception.

21世纪打破了这种认知。

Jack Welch, an acquisitive chief executive reputed to be a managerial genius, retired in 2001 after receiving a mind-boggling $417m severance package.

杰克·韦尔奇是一位占有欲极强的首席执行官，被誉为管理天才。2001年，他在收到令人难以置信的4.17亿美元遣散费后退休。

Ever-better results during his tenure beguiled investors and sent the share price soaring.

在他任职期间，公司业绩持续向好，吸引了投资者，并推动股价飙升。

But problems soon arose.

但问题很快就出现了。

The structure Welch left behind was in effect bailed out during the financial crisis.

韦尔奇留下的结构实际上在面对金融危机时毫无作用。

Losses at GE Capital, the sprawling financial unit he fostered, were blamed, though the company’s industrial core turned out to have plenty of problems, too.

他一手培育的庞大的金融部门通用金融的亏损被归咎于此，尽管最后发现公司的工业核心也出现了很多问题。

Recent years have been spent spitting out one notable business after another.

近些年来，成功企业层出不穷。

The timing of the break-up announcement was determined by the sale of a large aircraft-financing unit.

一家大型飞机融资部门的出售决定了此次拆分宣布的时机。

The transaction reduced debt by enough to provide the three soon-to-be independent companies with an investment-grade credit rating.

这笔交易减少的债务足以使这三家即将独立的公司获得投资级信用评级。

Mr Culp, the firm’s boss since 2018, speaks of the “illusory benefits of synergy” to be traded for the certain benefits of focus.

卡尔普自2018年以来一直是该公司的老板，他谈到了用“协同效应的虚幻好处”来换取专注的某些好处。

“A sharper purpose attracts and motivates people,” he says.

“一个更明确的目标能够吸引和激励人们，”他说。

Having boasted of its management nous, it now seems that poor management is what did it for a unified GE.

通用电气曾吹嘘自己的管理智慧，但现在看来，正是糟糕的管理成就了统一的通用电气。

The contest to replace Welch was widely seen as pitting the best global executives against one another, with the losers hired to run other big firms.

人们普遍认为，韦尔奇的继任者之争是全球最优秀的高管之间的较量，而失败者则受雇去管理其他大公司。

But his successors struggled.

但他的继任者却步履维艰。

Jeffrey Immelt, Welch’s hand-picked replacement, retired under a cloud in 2017.

韦尔奇亲手挑选的继任者杰弗里·伊梅尔特在2017年黯然退休。

John Flannery, once seen as a wizard behind the rise of the health-care division, took over but was fired after little more than a year.

约翰·弗兰纳里曾被视为医疗保健部门崛起背后的奇才，但他接任后不到一年就被解雇了。

Mr Culp was brought in from outside, a step last taken in the 19th century.

卡尔普先生是从外部引进的，上次采取这一步还是在19世纪。

During much of Welch’s tenure and its immediate aftermath GE was the most valuable company in the world, reaching a peak market value nearly five times its current $121bn.

在韦尔奇任内的大部分时间以及卸任后不久，通用电气一直是全球最有价值的公司，市值达到峰值，几乎是其目前市值1210亿美元的5倍。

It is tempting to conclude that GE’s failure illustrates the demise of the conglomerate.

人们很容易得出这样的结论：通用电气的失败说明了企业集团结构的衰落。

That is refuted by the diversification of today’s most valuable companies: tech firms that have branched out into driverless cars, cloud computing and so on.

如今最有价值的公司的多元化趋势反驳了这一点：科技公司已经扩展到无人驾驶汽车、云计算等领域。

Rather, GE’s story reflects how even the most valuable American companies may be flawed -- and if flaws emerge, may be thoroughly transformed.

相反，通用电气的故事反映了，即使是最有价值的美国公司也可能存在缺陷——一旦缺陷出现，它就可能会彻底改变。