所有商界領袖現在需要什么？大無畏的想象力

幾年前我就開始聽到這句話：“我們其實是一家擁有XX的科技公司?！备餍袠I公司的首席執行官都這么說。2011年，美國聯合航空首席執行官石志輝對我說：“我們其實是一家擁有翅膀的科技公司?！逼渌藙t在經營“一家擁有輪子的科技公司”，“擁有鐵軌的”、“擁有精煉廠的”、“擁有商店的”科技公司。他們說得都對。

如今，我們周圍的新事實已經證明，各行業的領導者實際上都身處科技行業。杰夫·伊梅爾特領導的通用電氣公司日前宣布推出一項新業務，旨在分析來自全球各地，包括通用在內的任何公司的工業機械所產生的海量數據，從而預測并改善這些機械的性能。通用電氣正在積極地重新定位，讓自己成為一家擁有預測性分析軟件業務的工業公司。如今的競爭對手包括IBM和谷歌。

特拉維斯·卡拉尼克執掌的優步公司宣布，這家打車服務商正在賠錢，但投資者并不在意，他們對該公司的估值高達500億美元，甚至更多。在美國，每家出租車和房車公司如今都是科技公司，這一趨勢很快就會蔓延到全世界。美國國防部長阿什·卡特在硅谷建立了國防創新機構來研究機器人、增量制造、大數據分析、網絡安全等技術，他很清楚自己如今身處什么行業。運動品牌阿迪達斯也在首席執行官赫爾伯特·海納的領導下重新振作，該公司在8月初收購了Runtastic。阿迪達斯不再是一家單純的運動裝備生產商，而是一家為運動員提供應用和設備的公司。

甚至連咖啡公司也可以是科技公司：Keurig Green Mountain公司的業務就建立在創新性釀造技術之上，但業績疲軟導致該公司前景不明，股價在8月6日猛跌29%。該公司的前景現在很大程度上依靠新推出的一種冷飲機器?！度A盛頓郵報》報道稱，這種機器“是對Keurig公司科技能力的一次大考，也是首席執行官布萊恩·凱利為公司長期發展進行的一次定位?！?/p>

成為科技公司的領袖并不需要精通科技。石志輝是個律師，伊梅爾特原來是個營銷人員，海納的專業是經濟學。（不過卡特是個例外，他是理論物理學家。）領導者需要具備用科技語言進行表達，以及識別人才的能力。而最重要的，通常也是對領袖最具挑戰性的一個能力，則是設想哪些是可以實現的?？萍嫉哪芰φ诔鋈祟愂褂盟哪芰?。

說來奇怪，大膽的想象正成為科技型企業的領袖核心能力。對所有公司來說，這一點都十分重要。（財富中文網）

譯者：嚴匡正

審校：任文科

I started hearing it years ago: “We’re actually a technology company with [fill in the blank],” CEOs of every kind of business were saying. “We’re actually a technology company with wings,” United Continental CEO Jeff Smisek told me in 2011. Others were running “a tech company with wheels,” “with rails,” “with refineries,” “with stores.” And they were all correct.

Today, we’re surrounded by new evidence that leaders in every discipline are actually in the tech business. Jeff Immelt’s GE yesterday announced a new business that will analyze massive amounts of data generated by industrial machines—GE’s or anyone else’s—anywhere in the world, predicting and improving their performance. GE is aggressively repositioning itself as an industrial company, but now that encompasses predictive analytics software. Its competitors include IBM and Google.

Travis Kalanick’s Uber announced on Wednesday that his company is losing money, but investors don’t care; they value the company at $50 billion or more. Leaders of every taxi and limo company in the U.S., and soon the world, are running tech companies now. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has formed a Defense Innovation Unit in Silicon Valley to learn more about robotics, additive manufacturing, big data analytics, cybersecurity, and more; he knows what business he’s in now. Adidas, the athletic apparel firm being reinvigorated by CEOHerbert Hainer, announced yesterday it’s buying Runtastic. It doesn’t make athletic apparel; it makes apps and hardware for athletes.

Even a coffee company is a technology business: Shares of Keurig Green Mountain, which has built its business on innovative brewing tech, plunged 29% yesterday on weak earnings and outlook. Now much depends on its introduction of a new cold-beverage machine—which, the WSJ reported on Wednesday, “marks a major test of Keurig’s technology skills and Chief Executive Brian Kelley’s effort to position the company for long-term growth.”

Being the leader of a technology enterprise doesn’t demand deep tech skills. Smisek is a lawyer; Immelt came up as a marketer; Hainer majored in economics. (Carter, though, is a theoretical physicist.) It does demand an ability to speak the language of technology and an ability to evaluate people. Most important—and generally most challenging for leaders—is that it demands an ability to imagine what might be possible. Technology’s capability is outrunning our ability to use it.

Strange to say, but fearless imagination is becoming a key competency for leaders of tech-enabled enterprises—which means pretty much all of them.