白宫内幕：克林顿和奥巴马的管理风格

    看过电影《社交网络》（The Social Network）的人应该还记得这样一个场景：温克吾斯兄弟的网站创意被马克•扎克伯格偷走了，因此兄弟二人跑到时任哈佛校长的拉里•萨默斯那里告状。上周萨默斯本人出席了《财富》科技头脑风暴大会（Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference）。当被问到电影里的这个场景时，萨默斯坦率地评价了温克吾斯兄弟。他的发言引起了不小的轰动。另一方面，随着华盛顿的债务谈判走向破裂，萨默斯认为另一轮金融浩劫正在隐隐逼近，因此他也就这个问题发表了看法。

    在本次峰会上采访萨默斯的，是阿斯彭研究会（Aspen Institute）的沃特•艾萨克森。这次采访所涉及的话题甚广。萨默斯上个月刚刚加盟了风投机构安德里森霍洛维茨基金（Andreessen Horowitz），受聘为该公司的特别顾问。萨默斯在采访中透露，克林顿和奥巴马的管理风格迥然不同。

    以下是这次采访的摘录：

    萨默斯：为克林顿工作的时候是一个样子，为奥巴马做事又是另一个样子。如果说有一个会议原定于10点召开，那么有25%的可能性这个会议会在10点前开始，还有70%的可能性是在10点15分开始。

    如果你在开会前给奥巴马写了份备忘录，他基本上一定会看。不过如果你试图在会上解释你给他写的那份备忘录，他就会打断你，而且会生气。他作为这个会议的主导者，可能会问一两个补充性的问题，但是基本上他的重点还是在于，会议所讨论的议题究竟如何才能符合他在总统任期内的愿景和路线。

    如果你是他的金融顾问的话，他基本上会听取你的态度。比如说如果政府要进行紧急救助的话，优先股和次级债哪个才是合适的金融工具，要靠你给他指出来。如果你办不到，或者如果他不信任你，他就会找一个新的金融顾问。不过他不会在这个问题上花时间。

    所以说奥巴马的风格就是在执行上非常专注，注重宏观指导，做事方法很有原则。到了指定的时间，他的秘书就会进来，递给他一张卡片，上面写着“下一次会议的时间到了”。这样的话，五分钟之内你就得离开他的办公室。这是毫无疑问的。为奥巴马工作就是这样，是一段很愉快的经验。

    为比尔•克林顿工作同样是一种美妙的经验。不过感觉全然不同。

    如果会议定在10点，那么在10点之前开会的可能性为零。

    好在如果会议的开始时间推迟了，那么它结束的时间肯定也会推迟。如果你给克林顿写了一份备忘录，那么他有30%的可能性会看。不过，克林顿几乎肯定会就你汇报的话题提出一些非常具体、而且是深思熟虑的见解。

    他会说一些话，比如：“我在白宫图书馆读了一期《金融杂志》，里面有一些想法非常有意思，说的是股息在金融体系的角色。”或是“我11年前参加过布鲁金斯学会（Brookings Institution）的一次会议，你知道吗，他们在田纳西州做了一次很有趣的提供信贷的试验。”

    “你读了最新一期的《经济学家》（the Economist）亚洲版吗？它对泰国问题发表了观点，你可能会有兴趣思考一下文中的看法。”这些话让人很惊讶，可见他虽然没有看你的备忘录，但并不表示他没有做任何功课。

    所以说在克林顿手下做事的感觉很不一样，也很奇特。我觉得美国能有这样两位深思熟虑、目的明确、非常聪明、非常专注的总统领导国家，实在是国家的幸事。虽然他们的领导方式不同，但是能为他们二人工作，也是我个人的幸事。

    译者：朴成奎

    Larry Summers made waves at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference last week with his candid comments about the Winklevoss twins when asked about his scene in the movie The Social Network. The Harvard professor also talked about how he sees a sort of Financial Armageddon on the horizon as the debt talks break down in Washington.

    During his wide-ranging interview with the Aspen Institute's Walter Isaacson, Summers, who joined the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz as special adviser last month, revealed stark differences in management styles between Presidents Clinton and Obama.

    Here is an excerpt from the interview:

    Summers: Okay. So you're working for Bill Clinton. Well, let's do it differently. Let's do it the other way. You're working for Barack Obama. If you have a meeting scheduled at ten o'clock, there's a 25% chance that the meeting will begin before ten o'clock, and there's a -- you know what's coming, and there's a 70% chance that the meeting will have begun by 10:15.

    If you wrote Barack Obama a memo before the meeting, it is a virtual certainty that he will have read it. If you seek to explain the memo you wrote to him during the meeting, he will cut you off, and he will be irritated. He, as the leader of the meeting, will ask one or two questions to kick the tires, but will basically focus on how whatever subject you're talking about fits with the broad vision and approaches of his presidency.

    He will basically take the attitude if you're his financial adviser, that if you can't -- it's up to you to figure out whether preferred stock or subordinated debt is the appropriate financial instrument for your bailout, and that if he doesn't trust you to figure it out, he'll get a new financial adviser, but that is not the question on which he is going to spend time.

    So it's a very focused executive, big picture guidance, disciplined approach. At the appointed time, his secretary will come in and will bring a card that says it's time for his next meeting, and you will be out of that office within five minutes. It is a certainty. That's working for Barack Obama, and it is a wonderful experience.

    Working for Bill Clinton is also a wonderful experience. It is a different experience.

    The probability that your meeting will begin before ten o'clock is zero.

    The probability that there is compensation for the fact that your meeting will begin late, it is virtually certain to end late. Bill Clinton has a 30% chance of having read your memo before the meeting. Bill Clinton will, however, with near certainty, have some set of quite detailed and thoughtful perspectives to offer on your topic.

    He will say things like "I was in the White House library reading the Journal of Finance, and there's some really interesting thinking about the role of dividends in the system." "I went to a conference at the Brookings Institution 11 years ago, and do you know that there's a really interesting experiment with providing credit access in Tennessee?"

    "Did you read the latest issue of -- the Asian edition of The Economist? It had a perspective on Thailand that you might want to think about." There was a stunning, I mean you know, while he wasn't reading your memo, it wasn't that he wasn't doing anything about it.

    So it was a very different kind of experience that was also extraordinary in its way. I think the nation has been fortunate to have two such thoughtful, purposeful, highly intelligent and focused people, who have served as President, and it's certainly been my good fortune to work for both of them, with their rather different styles.