经得起岁月的考验 值得重读的商业经典1

Onlya few business books stand the test of time: the companies they examine fadeaway, the economic circumstances they analyse change, and the people theyidolise turn out to have fatal flaws.

只有少数商业书籍经得起岁月的考验：它们研究的公司会消逝，它们分析的经济环境会变化，它们推崇的人物会被证明有致命缺陷。

Whethera book’s insights will endure is one criterion for the FT and McKinseyBusiness Book of the Year. To launch the 2016 award, open for submissions fromApril 11, FT columnists pick one business book they believe is worth rereading.

一本书的洞见能不能历久弥新，是英国《金融时报》/麦肯锡年度最佳商业图书奖(FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year)的评选标准之一。2016年的评奖从4月11日起开始提交候选图书。为了拉开序幕，英国《金融时报》的专栏作家们各自挑选了一本他们认为值得重读的商业图书。

MartinWolf, chief economic commentator: Parkinson’s Law: The Pursuitof Progress, by Cyril Northcote Parkinson (1958)

马丁•沃尔夫(MartinWolf)，首席经济评论员：《帕金森定律》(Parkinson’s Law: The Pursuit of Progress)，西里尔•诺思科特•帕金森(CyrilNorthcote Parkinson)著，1958年

Whydo companies fail? Part of the answer is that they are bureaucracies. Indeed,they are supposed to be bureaucracies. As the late Nobel-laureate economistRonald Coase pointed out, we have companies because command-and-control isfrequently more efficient than markets. Broadly, that is the case where thetransaction costs created by the latter are higher than the costs of controlinherent in the former.

企业为何会倒闭？部分答案是，它们是官僚机构。的确，它们理应是官僚机构。就如已故的诺贝尔经济学奖得主罗纳德•科斯(Ronald Coase)所指出的，企业之所以存在，是因为命令和控制体系常常比市场更有效率。大体上，在市场带来的交易成本高于命令和控制体系固有的控制成本的情况下，确实是这样。

Parkinson’slaw — based on the idea that “work expands so as to fill the time available forits completion” — explains why the solution Coase correctly identifies createsits own difficulties. Bureaucracies have malignant tendencies: not least, notedParkinson, because “an official wants to multiply subordinates, not rivals”and “officialsmake work for each other”.

帕金森定律基于“工作会不断扩充直至占满完成这项工作可用的时间”的理念，解释了为何科斯正确指出的解决方案会产生其自身的困难。官僚体制有恶变的倾向：尤其是正如帕金森所言，“一个官员想要增加下属而不是对手”以及“官员们会给彼此制造工作”。

Tothese should be added the natural tendency towards conservatism of allsuccessful organisations.

此外还应该加上一点：所有成功的组织都有趋向保守的自然倾向。

Theseare among the iron laws of bureaucracy. Managers should read —and beware.

这些都是官僚体制的“硬道理”。管理者应该阅读——并且铭记心中。

JohnThornhill, innovation editor: Andrew Carnegie, by David Nasaw (2006)

约翰•桑希尔(JohnThornhill)，创新编辑：《安德鲁•卡内基传》(Andrew Carnegie)，戴维•纳索(David Nasaw)著，2006年

Thereare two reasons to read David Nasaw’s monumental,800-plus page biography of Andrew Carnegie.

有两个理由阅读戴维•纳索逾800页的传世之作《安德鲁•卡内基传》。

First,it provides fabulous insights into the practices of one of the greatestbusiness geniuses of all time. For good and bad, every executive can learnsomething from the ruthless way Carnegie invested early in promisingtechnologies, created and exploited new markets and crushed the competition.

首先，本书精彩地表现了有史以来最伟大的商业天才之一的商业实践。不论是好是坏，每个高管都能从卡内基在早期投资有希望的技术、开创和发掘新市场以及粉碎竞争的那种冷酷无情的方式中学到一些东西。

Second,Nasaw deftly tells the riveting human tale of how an immigrant Scottish boybecame the richest man in the world and then gave away his vast wealth, more orless inventing modern philanthropy. Business history on this scale is hard tobeat.

第二，纳索驾轻就熟地讲述了一个引人入胜的人物故事：一个苏格兰移民小子如何成为世界首富，然后捐出自己的巨额财富，在很大程度上开创了现代慈善事业。这样鸿篇巨制的商业史难觅敌手。