后CEO时代呼唤集体领导

    受益于团队领导的不只是企业高层。以通用电气（General Electric）为例。2007年，通用电气发电事业部（GE Power Generation，该公司最古老的部门之一）的19位高管齐聚纽约州克罗顿维尔的通用电气管理培训中心。这是通用电气一个事业部的所有高管首次聚在一起进行领导力培训。结果呢？他们起草了一份愿景宣言，并制定了多项发展计划，其中包括关注新兴市场的监管和其他事宜，现在这些地区已经成为通用电气整体战略的关键领域。短短四天里，这个团队就有效地制定和达成了统一的策略，并开始着手实施。

    在青蛙设计公司（Frog），我们已经从创新一言堂模式向依托团队领导的模式转变。公司创始人哈特姆特•艾斯林格（上世纪80年代曾与乔布斯和苹果公司有过紧密合作）在2006年退休之前，就已经在这么做了。他是联合CEO，而不是公司里唯一的高层声音。他认识到，市场越来越复杂，全球联系越来越紧密，要求企业集思广益（“群体思维”有个负面含义），实行集体决策。我们现在聘请了工程师和商业战略家，以完善我们的工业设计师团队。管理人员每周都会举行电话会议，每月都会参加领导力会议。我们在会上会讨论各种短期和长期问题。面向全公司的邮件会首先经过多位高管的检查，以确保其中的信息和基调符合我们的目标。

    当然，并不是每个人都信奉团队领导。据报道，陷入困境的黑莓手机制造商RIM（Research In Motion）正在审查其联合CEO模式的有效性。有些股东公开且明确地表示，他们希望董事会用单一决策者模式取代现行的双CEO架构。分析人士认为这种情况不会发生。“改变管理策略或改组管理层是不可能的，”桑福德-伯恩斯坦公司（Sanford C. Bernstein）的皮埃尔•费拉古最近在提供给投资者的报告中写道。

    同时，如今一些最具创新力、最成功的公司确实都有赖于团队领导。Facebook CEO马克•扎克伯格——他开始时有点一言堂作风——在2008年聘请谢丽尔•桑德伯格担任首席营运官，协助管理这家发展迅猛、影响力快速提升的公司。有人会说，这不过是“成人监护”【也就是引入有经验的管理者来辅佐年轻的创业者，比如，谷歌（Google）的拉里•佩奇和谢尔盖•布林在创业早期曾经聘请过埃里克•施密特担任CEO】。但它实质上也是一种令许多公司受益匪浅的团队领导策略。

    总而言之，团队合作是任何创新型公司保持成功的关键，无论有多少员工钦佩公司的领袖人物。创意只是创意，只有人组成的团队才能把创意变成现实，创造利润，并使之不断提升。

    作者多琳•罗伦佐是国际化创新公司青蛙设计（Frog）的总裁，该公司的母公司爱瑞森特集团（Aricent Group）的执行副总裁和总经理。多琳负责推动青蛙设计公司的企业战略并监督其全球运作。在为这家公司效力的14年里，她在公司重组中起到了重要作用，使其从一家传统的小型设计公司变成了世界上最著名的国际化创新公司之一，与众多的财富500强客户进行了广泛合作。她还是2011-2012世界经济论坛（World Economic Forum）新兴技术全球议程委员会（Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies）的成员。

    译者：千牛絮

    It's not just C-suites that can benefit from team leadership. Consider this example from General Electric (GE): in 2007, 19 senior managers of GE Power Generation, one of the company's oldest businesses, convened at GE's management-development center in Crotonville, N.Y. It was the first time that all of the senior executives of a GE business went through leadership training together. The result? They drafted a vision statement and developed plans for growth, including focusing on regulatory and other staff in emerging markets, which is now a key area in GE's overall strategy. In just four days, the team efficiently devised, agreed upon, and began implementing a unified strategy.

    At frog, we have moved from an innovation-guru model to one based on team leadership. By the time our founder, Hartmut Esslinger -- who worked closely with Steve Jobs and Apple in the 1980s -- retired in 2006, he did so as a co-CEO, and not the sole executive voice in the company. He recognized that increasing market complexities and global connectedness required group input ("group-think" has a negative connotation) and decision-making. We now hire engineers and business strategists to round out our teams of industrial designers. Managers participate in weekly calls and monthly leadership meetings, in which we address short- and long-term issues. Company-wide emails are reviewed by several executives to ensure that the message and tone align with our mission.

    Of course, not everyone believes in team leadership. Beleaguered BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM) is reportedly examining the effectiveness of its co-CEO model. Some shareholders have made it very clear, publicly, that they'd like to see the board of directors replace the top two executives with one decision-maker. Analysts don't believe this will happen: "Change in strategy or management is unlikely," Pierre Ferragu of Sanford C. Bernstein recently wrote in a note to investors.

    Indeed, some of today's most innovative and successful companies rely on team leadership. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg-- who began as a guru of sorts -- in 2008 hired Sheryl Sandberg as chief operating officer to help govern the rapidly expanding and influential business. Some might say this is an example of "adult supervision" (i.e., an experienced manager being brought in to support a young startup founder, in the way that Google's (GOOG) Larry Page and Sergey Brin hired Eric Schmidt as CEO in the early days). But it is also a team-leadership strategy that has obviously paid off for many companies.

    Ultimately, collaboration is the key to sustained success at any innovative company -- no matter how much employees may admire a single figurehead. Ideas are only ideas until a team of people makes them real, profitable, and scalable over the long-term.

    Doreen Lorenzo (@doreenl) is the president of global innovation firm frog and an executive vice president and general manager of the Aricent Group, frog's parent company. Doreen drives frog's company strategy and oversees its worldwide operations. During her 14 years with the company, she has been instrumental in re-structuring the company, taking it from a traditional design boutique to becoming one of the world's foremost global innovation firms, securing broad-based arrangements with an array of Fortune 500 clients. She serves as a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies, 2011-2012.