扎克伯格该如何应对后IPO时代

    大家伙儿，打出彩旗，带上高帽，Facebook今天上市了！热闹之外，很多人在想这到底意味着什么。

    比方说，Facebook要如何快速成长，才能对得起这么高昂的估值呢？公司能否在移动市场赚到钱？怎样才能出售所收集的海量用户数据，同时又避免引发关于隐私权的战争？或者我点选“喜欢”我表弟页面上那副马苏里拉奶酪条的墨色照片的时候，会有什么新变化吗？

    我们大家，包括马克•扎克伯格本人，都很容易陶醉在上市的成功喜悦中。 没有人比Zipcar (ZIP) 首席执行官斯科特•格里菲斯更了解这一感受了，他的公司在2011年4月11日以高于分析师预期的每股18美元的价格上市。格里菲斯说，上市“大概是我们最成功的品牌宣传活动了。”

    品牌知名度并不是Facebook (FB) 要担心的。这家高科技公司今天以每股38美元的初始价格上市，总市值约1040亿美元，募集资金超过184亿美元。

    然而，除了资金流入和媒体轰炸，上市也意味着管理层面的调整。在Zipcar从私人企业转变为上市公司大约一年以后，格里菲斯一直在思考他从中学到了什么，现在他可以向同样位置上的扎克伯格面授机宜。

欢迎来到丛林

    格里菲斯认为，一旦上市，你就得比以前更加清楚公司的身份定位，而且要学会传达你对这个关键问题的认知。“我觉得你必须掌握说话的艺术。”他说，你也许明白公司的定位，“但重要的是把公司的蓝图简化成几个关键信息，然后不断重复，直到深入人心。”

    他提醒道，突然之间，首席执行官就需要把从前专属于业务管理的时间分出一部分，用于和股东、媒体交流商业计划和目标。在大小会议，在业绩通报，在各种新闻事件中，首席执行官就是公司的声音。格里菲斯说：“显然你初次上市时，首席执行官就得出头露面。”首席执行官必须得调整日常行程，以应对和外界联系的需要。

    这个改变不但需要时间管理的技巧，也需要在语言习惯上做些看似毫无意义但确实重要的改变。“你知道的，首席执行官喜欢用肯定的语气—‘我们将，我们会’—做头的人就是这样。现在我发现自己很多时候说‘我们相信’。律师们会训练你这么做，从法律的角度这也是可以理解的。”

    Bust out the streamers and party hats, everybody, it's Facebook IPO Day! The excitement aside, many of us are wondering what it all means.

    How, for example, will Facebook actually grow enough to merit its massive valuation? Will the company be able to make money off of mobile? Will it figure out how to sell the massive amounts of user market data it has collected without starting a privacy war? And will this change what happens when I "like" my cousin's sepia-toned picture of mozzarella sticks?

    It's easy for us, and probably Mark Zuckerberg, to get caught up in the IPO whirlwind. No one knows that better than Scott Griffith, the CEO of Zipcar (ZIP) who took his company public on April 11, 2011 for $18.00 per-share, a higher price than analysts expected. The IPO, Griffith says, "was probably the best branding event we've ever had."

    Brand recognition isn't part of Facebook's (FB) problem. The tech company went public today at a starting share price of $38 per-share, which means the company is being valued at about $104 billion and could raise more than $18.4 billion in proceeds.

    Still, in addition to the cash influx and media hype, going public calls for management tweaks. About a year after Zipcar's IPO, Griffith has been thinking about what he learned after Zipcar's transition from a private to public company, and he has some words of wisdom for others in the same position.

Welcome to the jungle

    Right when you hit the market, you have to have a stronger sense of who you are than ever, Griffith says, and you have to learn how to express it to other people. "I do think you have to learn the art of the sound byte." You may know who you are, but, he says, "It's important to simplify the company's story down to a very few key messages that you say over and over and over again."

    All of a sudden, he says, CEOs need to redirect time previously devoted to running the business towards communicating the business' purpose and plan to shareholders and the media. At meetings, earnings calls, and press events, the CEO is now the voice of the company. "Certainly when you're first public, they want the CEO in the room," Griffith says. CEOs in that position have to shift the hours in their day to become available to the outside world.

    That change doesn't just call for time management skills, it also requires language tweaks that may seem meaningless but do make a difference. "You know, CEOs are famous for making these declarative statements -- 'We are going to, we will' -- that's what we do for a living. Now I find myself having to say 'We believe' a lot. Lawyers want to coach you a little bit on that, and that's understandable."