桑德伯格谈公司建设三原则

    看来Facebook知道如何“成长”。此前每个人都喜欢用怀疑的眼光来审视Facebook，但周二该公司在盘后发布的第三季度财报显示，当季盈利超过市场预期，营收几近达到13亿美元，同比增长了32%。受此利好消息影响，公司股价大涨。

    其中，Facebook首席运营官（COO）谢丽尔•桑德伯格可谓是功不可没。身为该公司CEO马克•扎克伯格手下的第二号人物，她学到了不少有关如何扩大企业规模的法则。2001年，桑德伯格加盟此前任职的谷歌公司时，谷歌拥有约275名员工。桑德伯格回忆说，当她在2008年离开谷歌，转而加盟Facebook时，谷歌已拥有约2万名员工。过去的四年期间，她亲眼见证了Facebook的员工人数从550人扩大到4,000人以上的历程。仅在过去的一年里，Facebook的活跃用户人数就增长了26%，达到10亿人以上。

    当桑德伯格因故而遗憾地无法出席《财富》杂志今年举办的“最具影响力女性峰会”时，我问她是否能做些别的事情来弥补这个缺憾，比如：分享她在扩大组织规模方面积累起来的经验。她同意了，并就任何公司在这方面所面临的挑战进行了如下总结：“一个人如果看不清自己未来的发展目标，那就永远无法达到那个目标。”

    桑德伯格称，在和谷歌CEO拉里•佩奇及Facebook CEO扎克伯格相继共事期间，她从他们那里获得了许多宝贵的建议，同时也学到了很多有益的经验。她在扩大组织规模方面归纳出如下三个指导原则：

1.目标设定要目光远大

    桑德伯格表示，虽然管理是“管理企业的科学，但领导是一门实现目标的艺术——而且实现的目标不只是管理学认为可能达成的那些目标。”在设想目标时目光要放得相当远大（比如让世界变得更加开放，而且联系更加紧密——这是扎克伯格抱有的愿景），让企业员工为之振奋。员工们之所以跟随企业领导人，不仅是因为他们这样做可以获取薪酬，而且是因为他们相信企业领导设定的宏大愿景。桑德伯格建议：“要向员工们反复阐明企业设定的使命。只有通过向员工阐述企业最重要的任务，并且把与员工沟通的话题锁定在这个愿景的框架之中，才能促使所有员工把精力都凝聚在宏大的目标上。”

2、人才招聘要目光远大

    桑德伯格在谷歌工作期间负责的业务部门的员工人数在五年内从4人增加到4,000人。这就意味着，最初的四名员工必须在很短的时间内，完成相当于10至15年的增员工作。桑德伯格从中吸取到一个经验：她说：“招聘那些你认为未来要用到的人，招聘那些资质更高、更有经验、或者刚刚毕业但能够超预期完成工作的人。”确保现在招聘来负责管理100名员工的管理者，在手下员工人数扩大到1,000人时也能胜任相应的管理工作。

3. 制订计划要目光远大

    桑德伯格在谷歌工作的初期，她和同事们会在每个人的生日当天举行庆祝活动。桑德伯格回忆说：“问题是，六个月之后我们的员工人数增加了那么多，我们根本不可能在每个员工的生日当天为他们举行庆祝活动。”于是，谷歌就改成了每周、每月、然后每季度为当周、当月、当季度生日的员工集中举行一次庆祝活动。桑德伯格回忆道：“那时我们每次都准备了特大的单层四方蛋糕，上面裱有所有过生日的员工的名字。如果当初我在制定庆祝员工生日活动时考虑得更加长远些的话，我早该意识到，为每位员工在生日当天举行庆祝活动的制度在员工人数不断增加的情况下就行不通了。”桑德伯格建议说，在计划重大活动以及庆祝活动时，必须考虑到是否能够适应企业规模的不断扩大。比如，扎克伯格倡议并且主持的编程马拉松（hackathons）大赛——在此期间Facebook的工程师们以及技术天才会聚在一起，分享他们在各自主要工作之外开发的产品和功能。“无论是三个人、三千人甚至三万人（如果我们公司规模达到如此水平的话），这项活动都可以进行，”桑德博格一边说，一边梦想着Facebook的未来。

    译者：iDo98

    So, Facebook (FB) knows how to grow. On Tuesday, the company that everyone loved to discount reported better-than-expected profits and a 32% increase in third-quarter revenue to nearly $1.3 billion. The stock is popping.

    Substantial credit goes to Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's No. 2, who has learned a thing or two about scaling businesses. When Sandberg joined her previous employer Google (GOOG) in 2001, that company had about 275 employees. By the time she left for Facebook in 2008, she recalls, Google had about 20,000 employees. During the past four years, she has seen Facebook grow from 550 to more than 4,000 employees. In the past year alone, active Facebook users increased 26% to more than 1 billion.

    When Sandberg regretfully bowed out of this year's Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, I asked her if she would do something else: share her expertise on scaling an organization. She agreed and sums up the challenge for any company this way: "If you can't envision where you're going to go, you're not to get there."

    Having both advised and learned from the two guys who top Fortune's 40 Under 40 list--Zuckerberg (No. 2) and Google CEO Larry Page (No. 1)--she came up with three guidelines:

1.Think Big.

    While management is "the science of administering a business," Sandberg says, "leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible." Thinking really big--such as making the world more open and connected, which is Zuckerberg's vision--gets people excited. They follow the leader not only because they are paid to follow. They believe. "Repeat the mission," Sandberg advises. "Only by stating what's most important and by framing the conversation can you keep everyone focused."

2.Hire big.

    Sandberg's organization at Google grew from four to 4,000 people in five years. Which meant that the original four employees had to do 10 or 15 years worth of growing in a very short period of time. Sandberg learned a lesson from this: "Hire for what you think you're going to need," she says. "Hire people who are more qualified, have more experience, or are right out of school but can overachieve." Make sure that the person you're hiring to manage a 100-person office can manage the office if it reaches 1,000 people.

3.Plan big.

    Early on, Sandberg and her fellow Googlers celebrated everyone's birthday on their actual birthdays. "The problem was, six months later, we had so many people that we couldn't possibly celebrate everyone's birthday on that day," she recalls. So, Google shifted to weekly, then monthly, then quarterly celebrations. "We had these ginormous sheet-cakes with everybody's name on them," Sandberg recalls. "If I had been better at thinking ahead, I would have realized that celebrating everyone's birthday on the real day would not scale." Plan events and celebrations that will scale, she advises. For instance: Zuckerberg's hackathons--when Facebook engineers and tech talent gather to share products and features they developed outside their main jobs. "You can do these with three, 3000, or 30,000 people if we ever get there," Sandberg says, dreaming of Facebook's future growth.