谷歌女高管步步領先的秘訣
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????瑪麗莎?梅耶爾是民間“極客時尚”風潮的先鋒。她是谷歌公司（Google）首位女性工程師，現任谷歌公司本地業務副總裁。梅耶爾曾登上了《VOGUE》雜志封面，成為財富雜志（Fortune）40位 40歲以下商界精英特刊的封面人物；同時還獲得了《名利場》（Vanity Fair）2011年度全球最佳著裝名單（2011 International Best Dressed List）的提名。此外，她還是女性創辦的公司樺盈公司（Minted）和家居裝飾網站One Kings Lane的天使投資人。梅耶爾還是《財富》雜志及美國國務院國際聯合導師項目的導師，指導冉冉升起的女性新星——她甚至讓學員住進自己家中。 ????梅耶爾在本職工作之外的表現有時候反而容易使人們忽略一個事實?，F年36歲的梅耶爾事實上是《財富》雜志最具影響力女性榜單上有史以來最最年輕的上榜人物。對于如何才能做到步步領先，她非常精通。誠然，她運氣頗佳；但是，她絕對天資聰慧，同時富有戰略眼光。11月29日，梅耶爾在《財富》雜志最具影響力商界女性晚宴上接受了我們的采訪，風趣卻又坦誠地介紹了自己的成功之道。 有時候需要開門見山 ????當初，著名的餐館網站創始人蒂姆?扎格特和妮娜?扎格特突然出現在梅耶爾發表演講的兩個會議上——并且就坐在她面前的第一排時，梅耶爾發現，自己處在了生命中一個奇怪卻又非常重要的時刻。那是他們第一次見面，蒂姆徑直走向梅耶爾，遞給她一張名片，有些不自然地說：“歡迎你的到來?！?/p> ????之后不久，扎格特夫婦再次成為梅耶爾紐約演講會的聽眾，并坐在會場前排的中間位置。這一次，蒂姆邀請梅耶爾加入他的葡萄酒俱樂部。 ????梅耶爾說：“我覺得扎格特夫婦一路都在追隨我的腳步，參加我的演講會?！钡€是掌握了主動，邀請妮娜?扎格特共進午餐。谷歌公司負責并購業務的高管尼拉吉?亞羅拉曾警告梅耶爾：“千萬不要談收購?！?但是，就在他們于Jean Georges（妮娜推薦了這家昂貴的餐廳）用餐的那天，他們繼續了之前在哥倫布廣場扎格特辦公室中的對話，梅耶爾禁不住談到了收購。她脫口而出：“我們今天在這里會面，可能得談談收購的問題?！?/p> ????事實上，她的率直真的奏效了。谷歌一直希望避免陷入競購戰——在雙方相互了解后，扎格特夫婦同意在接下來的幾個月與谷歌公司進行單獨會談。談判進入最后階段時，梅耶爾才認識到這個簡單的真理：“有時候需要開門見山?！?周五，谷歌向扎格特遞交了草案，隨后的周一就敲定了交易。會談本來可以通過電話進行，但是梅耶爾認為面談效果最好。所以，在四天的時間中，她和她的團隊乘坐了兩個長途夜行航班。梅耶爾回憶道：“妮娜說，‘這是一個小小的試驗。效果可謂立竿見影’，他們好比是在問：‘這（谷歌）是一個值得合作的好團隊嗎？他們希望與我們達成怎樣的人際關系？如果他們回來找我們，我們愿意 [與他們]合作?！?/p> ????9月，谷歌收購了扎格特——鑒于谷歌公司對本地業務、移動和社交產品的重視，梅耶爾認為這是一次理想的收購。 |
????Marissa Mayer has been a pioneer in the unofficial "Geek is Chic" movement. Google's (GOOG) first female engineer, who is now the company's VP in charge of all things local, has appeared in Vogue, rocked the cover of Fortune's 40-Under-40 issue, and been nominated for Vanity Fair's 2011 International Best Dressed List. She is an angel investor in female-founded companies like Minted and One King's Lane. Mayer also mentors rising-star women through the Fortune/U.S. State Department international mentoring program -- and even has her mentees stay under her roof. ????Sometimes her extracurriculars drown out the recognition that Mayer, who is 36 and the youngest star ever on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list, knows precisely how to get ahead. Sure, she's been lucky. But she is also clever and strategic. On Tuesday, in a funny and candid interview at Fortune's Most Powerful Women dinner in Silicon Valley, Mayer explained how she does it. Sometimes you just need to show up. ????Mayer found herself in an odd and maybe fateful situation when Tim and Nina Zagat, the famous restaurant raters, popped up at two conferences where she was speaking -- and sat before her in the front row. The first time they met, Tim walked up to Mayer, handed her his business card, and gruffly said, 'Welcome to local." ????Shortly after, in New York, the Zagats were in the audience again, front and center. And this time, Tim asked her to join his wine club. ????"I think that the Zagats are conference-stalking me," thought Mayer, who took control of the flirtation by asking Nina Zagat to lunch. Mayer was warned by Google M&A exec Neeraj Arora: "Don't say the acquisition word." But on the day they dined at New York's Jean-Georges (Nina's pricey suggestion) and continued their conversation at Zagat's Columbus Circle offices, Mayer couldn't help herself. She blurted: "Well, we're here to talk to you, maybe, possibly, about an… acquisition," ????Actually, her directness worked. Google wanted to avoid a bidding war -- and the Zagats agreed to talk exclusively to Google over the months that they got to know each other. "There are times when you just have to show up," says Mayer, who learned this simple truth as the negotiations hit the final stage. Google left Zagat with a proposed deal on a Friday, to be finalized Monday. The talks could have taken place over the phone, but Mayer believed in-person was best. So she and her team did two red-eyes in four days. "Nina said, 'That was our litmus test,'" recalls Mayer. "They were like, 'Is this a good team to work with? How much of a personal connection do they want with us? If they come back, we want to be with [them].'" ????In September, Google acquired Zagat -- an ideal fit, Mayer believes, given Google's focus on local, mobile and social offerings. |
