一位管理者能夠客觀冷靜地看待公司，是獲得成功必備的最重要能力之一。

但對所有管理者來說，常常對鏡反省業務策略和業績表現，卻不能看透本質。這種客觀性的缺乏，或許就是從2012年以來，激進投資者項目發起數量年度增加18%的原因之一。

解決這一問題，或許可以保護你的公司免受潛在的激進投資項目傷害。但更重要的是，長遠來看它可以幫助你的公司創造更多價值。

采用激進投資者的心態

當許多人開始關注你的公司時，一個保護自身免受股東激進主義傷害的關鍵策略，就是采用激進主義的心態。那句古老的諺語此處適用：“如果你不能打敗他們，那就加入他們?！?

被激進投資者關注對于管理者和董事們來說，是件頭疼的事，但要記住股東激進主義者只是尋求其投資組合的價值增加。

作為一個整體，激進投資者提升了股東價值，通過客觀地、毫無感情色彩地查看資產負債表和各項數據，他們做到了這一點。對他們來說，這不是私人的事，至少不常是。他們查看可以公開獲取的關于你的公司的信息，卻并不了解你的業務日常運作。

這些日常運作的具體信息，讓你更加了解公司各項運作的前因后果，但同時也會制造公司策略和執行上的一些盲點和無意識的偏見。你或許不想看到或者不肯承認，公司運作本可以更好，或者成本可以更低，因為你知道你的員工是多么地努力，或者你認為你有著未來改變商業格局的創新項目。

如同激進投資者那樣，有關錯過的機會這樣的痛苦問題，你要樂于讓你的團隊去面對。你不能害怕令人不快的有關公司業務的談話，也要勇于問你的團隊：我們的業務組合是不是太寬泛？我們的利潤能否更高？我們的業務模式執行和變化地是否夠快夠效率？

比較同行，專注于你的戰略、業績和執行

像激進投資者那樣思考，也意味著觸及CEO責任的核心——設立和執行公司戰略。

專注于戰略，意味著客觀地看待你的公司業務，并將之與競爭者比較。但簡單來說

說，當你用這面透鏡專注于你的核心戰略，你開始更苛刻地審查業務支出、競爭優勢和業務組合，以及改變業務形態的步伐快慢。

這樣做后，你開始觀察到一些你本來不會看到的事情。比如，你或許會看到盡管你的公司仍是市場老大，但你的市場份額和收入減少了。類似的，你或許會看到，如果把你的成本結構考慮進去，你的毛利不如你的競爭對手?；蛘吣氵€會意識到，盡管某一業務單元在過去的表現很好，但長遠來看它仍然不適合留在你的業務組合里。

跨越所謂短期和長期的辯論

過去幾年里，投資者和商業領袖一直與所謂抑制公司發展的“短期行為”作斗爭，以便投資長遠。這一辯論很重要，近期又被炒熱，因為商業圓桌會議在幾個月前宣布支持移除季度業績指標。

激進投資者們因只考慮短期和自己賺大錢而臭名昭著。但是，作為一名客觀冷靜的商業領袖，或許我們應該問自己：“為什么激進投資者或含蓄或直白地懷疑我們的能力，不愿將錢重新投入業務中——比如技術升級或者兼并收購？是不是因為他們不認為投資有保障，或者他們質疑我們的能力能否對這一投資產生回報？”

現實是，對于許多公司來說，短期的業績和著眼長遠而改變公司業務都是必要的。許多激進投資者是可以接受長期投資的，但“長期”不能意味著不靠譜。公司應該專注于長遠戰略，但也不能以犧牲短期和中期的業績目標為代價。

同樣道理，如果公司的變革和更新不夠迅速，激進投資者不會投資。因此，溝通是關鍵：你必須將你正在創造的長遠價值清晰地告訴你最大的幾位投資者，同時也要傾聽他們的看法。缺了與投資者和股東的有效外部溝通，他們就不會明白你的長期業務安排。這就會給你制造麻煩，不能很好地平衡短期利潤的現實需要和長期戰略目標及執行。

采用這些策略應能幫助你將公司業績做到最大化，同時在過程中希望能免受股東激進主義的干擾。最終，這些策略都是指向為公司創造更多的價值。如果你能夠創造價值，并有效地與股東溝通，他們中的大多數會專注于投資長遠，而不是搞一些激進項目。（財富中文網）

蒂姆·瑞恩是普華永道的美國業務主席和高級合伙人。

譯者：宣峰

As executives, being able to look at our organizations objectively and dispassionately is one of the most important skills we must possess to succeed.

Yet all too often when we look in the mirror and examine our business strategy and performance, we don’t quite see what is really there. This lack of objectivity is perhaps one of the reasons why the number of activist investor campaigns launched has increased by 18% annually since 2012.

Addressing this problem may help protect your company from a potential activist campaign. But more importantly, it will go a long way toward helping your business create more value.

Adopt an activist investor mindset

At a time when there are more people looking over your shoulder, one key strategy to protecting yourself from shareholder activism is to adopt an activist mindset. The age-old adage applies in this case: “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

While attention from activist investors may cause headaches for executives and directors, it’s important to keep in mind that shareholder activists are simply seeking increases in value to their portfolios.

As a collective force, they have improved shareholder value and have done so by looking at balance sheets and numbers objectively and without emotion. For them, it’s not personal—or at least not always. They are looking at your publicly available information and do so without the details of your business’s day in and day out.

While having these details gives you more context about how your company may be performing, it also may create blind spots and unconscious bias about your firm’s strategy and execution. You may not want to see or admit that performance could be better or that costs could be lower because you know how hard your employees are working or because you have what you think is the next game-changing innovation.

Like an activist investor, you have to be willing to confront your teams with tough questions about missed opportunities. You can’t be afraid of having uncomfortable conversations about your business or asking your teams: Are our portfolios too broad? Could our margins be better? Are we executing or changing our business model fast and effectively enough?

Focus on your strategy, performance, and execution vis-a-vis your peers

Thinking like an activist investor also means getting to the core of what CEOs are responsible for—setting and executing the business strategy.

Focusing on strategy means looking at your business objectively and seeing how it is performing in comparison to your competitors. Put simply, when you’re focused on your core business strategy through this lens, you begin to more critically examine your business costs, competitive margins, and portfolios, as well as the pace with which you are changing your business.

As a result, you begin to observe things that you might not have seen otherwise. For example, you might see that while you’re still number one in the marketplace, you’re losing market share or margins. Similarly, you might see that your margins are not comparable to your competitors’, calling into question your cost structure. Or you might realize that even though the past performance of a specific business unit has been good, it still might not justify keeping the business in your portfolio in the long run.

Getting past the short-term and long-term debate

For the past few years, investors and business leaders have been fighting about curbing corporate “short-termism” in order to invest for the long term. This debate is important and recently gained traction again when the Business Roundtable announced a couple of months ago that it supported moving away from providing quarterly guidance.

Activists have a reputation for only caring all about the short-term and capturing money to enrich themselves. However, as objective and dispassionate leaders, perhaps we should be asking ourselves: “Why do activists implicitly or explicitly doubt our ability to invest the money back into the business—in the form of upgrades like technology transformation—or M&A? Is it because they don’t think that investment is warranted or do they doubt our ability to generate a return on that investment?”

The reality is that delivering short-term results and changing one’s business for the long term is necessary for most companies. Many activist investors are fine with investing for the long term, but “long term” cannot mean a lack of accountability. Businesses should be focused on their long-term strategy, but it can’t be done at the expense of intermediary milestones.

Similarly, activist investors zero in on businesses where they don’t see changes or transformations happening fast enough. Therefore, communication is key: You have to clearly communicate to your largest investors about the long-term value you are creating and stay connected with them while listening to their perspectives. Without effective external communications with investors and shareholders, they won’t understand your long-term business plans. This then can create challenges for you in finding the right balance between the reality of short-term profits and the goal of longer-term strategy and execution.

Taking on these strategies should help maximize your company’s business performance, and in the process, hopefully protect against shareholder activism. Ultimately, these strategies are all about creating more value for your organization. And if you are able to create more value and communicate it effectively to your shareholders, more of them will be focused on investing for the long term instead of going along with an activist campaign.

Tim Ryan is the U.S. chairman and senior partner at PwC.