While Mr. Ballmer, who has been at the helm of Microsoft since 2000, is known for his eccentric personality and episodes of excitable public behavior, he gives sound and structured advice to business leaders about how he approaches his work at Microsoft.
巴爾默先生從2000年開始執(zhí)掌微軟,他的古怪性格和易激動的公眾行為是出了名的。以自己如何在微軟開展工作為例,巴爾默給商業(yè)領(lǐng)袖們提出了合理和條理分明的建議。
He says that there's a stereotype that innovation happens at a rapid fire pace, but he doesn't agree-he thinks that companies should invest in innovation over a long period of time. "Hardly anything in the tech industry went from rags to riches overnight," he explains. And while talking about and emphasizing a culture of innovation is crucial for a company's success, he says, "there must be a limit when a company reaches a larger size. Cultures of innovation don't mean that everybody gets to reinvent the wheel six times. The need for a certain level of persistence and tenacity is I think a surprisingly important part of innovation."
巴爾默說,人們總是認為市場上的創(chuàng)新均以閃電般的速度出現(xiàn),但他并不認同這種陳詞濫調(diào)。他認為,公司應(yīng)當(dāng)對創(chuàng)新進行長期投資。他解釋道,科技行業(yè)沒有什么會在一夜之間發(fā)家致富的。盡管談到并強調(diào)了創(chuàng)新文化對一家公司的成功至關(guān)重要,但巴爾默也說,“當(dāng)公司達到更大的規(guī)模時就必須有所限制。他說,創(chuàng)新文化并不意味著每個人都要去頻頻炒冷飯。我認為,我們需要一定程度的堅持和堅韌,這對創(chuàng)新具有意想不到的重要性。”
And when it comes to making decisions, he'd rather not have to do it very often, but instead thinks a leader should delegate as much as possible, rather than running a company that has to come to him for every single one. While he does make the big choices, such as whether or not Microsoft will invest with a certain company, and will sign off on decisions that other people have made, "the number of decisions that I actually have to make myself is relatively low," he says.
談到做出決策時,巴爾默情愿自己不需要非常頻繁地做決定,他認為一個領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者應(yīng)當(dāng)盡可能地放手,而不是事必躬親地去運營一家公司。不過,一些重要決定確實需要他來拍板,比如微軟是否投資某家公司之類的決定,而且他也得簽字確認其 他人的決定。巴爾默說,“我實際上必須自己做決定的數(shù)量非常低。”
In the same vein, Mr. Ballmer is not a big believer in micromanagement. While he admits that he does have what he refers to as an "Anglo-Saxon personality" in which he likes to see evidence and detail in order to feel comfortable with certain principles, he would rather ask questions that require discussions of detail, as opposed to blatant micromanagement.
同樣的,巴爾默也不太相信微觀管理。盡管巴爾默承認,他的確有所謂的“盎格魯·撒克遜性格”——要看到證據(jù)和細節(jié)才能對某些原則放心,但他還是情愿問些需要詳細討論的問題,也不喜歡大張旗鼓的微觀管理。