福特CEO马克•菲尔茨大胆尝试转型

从很大意义来说，全世界或许有成千上万，甚至几百万企业家都在经历福特汽车公司CEO马克•菲尔茨正在经历的一切。但从菲尔茨身上，我们能够更加清晰，更加锐利地提炼出他们都在面临的所有这些问题的实质。就这一点来说，就连一位好莱坞编剧恐怕也不能做得更好。

先说一些基本要素：他正在经营一家历史悠久的大型成功企业，它所处的是一个堪称20世纪最成功的行业。几十年来，福特很清楚自己的竞争对手是谁。但现在，汽车行业突然冒出一些令人难以想象的公司，而竞争的战场也正在从这家公司此前胸有成竹的问题，转移到一些原本对于汽车行业并不重要，甚或闻所未闻的问题。

菲尔茨必须带领公司从旧时代过渡到新时代，同时他还要继续给股东带来利益——当然，其中最著名的一位，就是那位代表福特家族的常务董事长。

正如好莱坞常说的一句话，这真是一个“强场景”，不是吗？

我很喜欢菲尔茨正在做的事。为了节约你的时间，请查阅我们近期发表的多篇报道。一个重点是，相较于其他主要汽车制造商的掌门人，他正在以更大的热情，推动福特公司进入未知的未来。他似乎已经接受了汽车行业正在进行根本性转型这一事实。比如，他刚刚推出一款名叫FordPass的免费移动应用。这款应用可以帮助你在外出时租借车辆，找地方付费泊车，以及预约服务等等——不管你是不是福特的车主。

他这样做的原因在于，如果这款应用真的火起来了（当然这还是一个大大的未知数），福特就能够掌握大量关于消费者用车行为和偏好的数据。你想与6个朋友一起租车吗？福特公司刚刚推出一个类似计划，目前正利用联网自行车进行试验。所有这些举措乍一看非常诡异，除非这是一家正在深入反思业务转型的公司。

菲尔茨正在做的事情还有很多，但这些例子至少能够显示他的改革方向。这些举措说起来容易，做起来难。他正在寻求的转型，首先需要一场文化变革，而对于一家大型工业公司来说，这显然是个巨大的挑战。另外，它还需要福特更加明智地分配资本。所有这些东西都不是免费的，都需要付出一定代价。此外，在筹谋未来的同时，菲尔茨还需要在当下就拿出绩效。而他也正是这样做的：上周二，福特宣布公司斩获创纪录的利润水平，并计划在正常分红之外，另拿出10亿美元，作为回馈给股东的特别分红。

菲尔茨的故事之所以格外引人关注，还因为我们尚不知道他的转型大计能否成功。目前看来，他做的每件事似乎都是正确的，但正确不代表成功。真实的世界毕竟没有那么简单。菲尔茨的故事很适合拍成电影，但我们还不知道，这部电影是否会有个好莱坞式的完美结局。（财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

审校：任文科

Thousands, or perhaps even millions, of business leaders around the world are, in a large sense, going through what Ford F -5.06% CEO Mark Fields is going through. But we could not have a clearer, sharper distillation of the issues they’re all facing than what we get in the person of Fields. A Hollywood script writer couldn’t do better.

Here are the essential elements: He’s running a big, old, successful company in an industry that was arguably the most important one of the 20thcentury. For decades, his company knew who its competitors were, but now it’s under threat by companies that no one ever dared to imagine were in the car business, and the competitive battlefield is shifting from issues that his company had utterly mastered to issues that were mostly insignificant or unheard-of in the industry.

Fields has to lead this company from the old era into the new while continuing to deliver for his shareholders, the most prominent of which is represented by an executive chairman whose last name is Ford.

As they used to say in Hollywood, a strong scenario, no?

I like what Fields is doing. For an efficient rundown, check our recent coverage here, here, and here. The big picture is that he’s pushing Ford into an unknowable future more enthusiastically than any other big automaker’s chief. He seems to embrace the reality that his business is being fundamentally transformed. For example, he just introduced a free mobile app called FordPass, which helps you borrow and share vehicles while traveling, find and pay for a place to park, schedule service, and more—regardless of whether you’re a Ford customer.

Why would he do that? Because if the app catches on—a big if—think of all that Ford will learn about driver behavior and preferences. Want to lease a car with six friends? Ford just introduced a plan for that. It’s experimenting with Internet-connected bicycles. All this is decidedly weird unless a company is deeply rethinking its business.

Fields is doing a great deal more, but these examples at least convey his direction. His actions are easy to talk about and hard to do. The transformation he’s attempting requires above all a culture change that’s hugely challenging in a big industrial company. It also requires wise capital allocation; none of this stuff is free, and Fields has to deliver performance today while preparing for the day after tomorrow. He’s doing it: On Tuesday, Ford announced record profits and said it will send shareholders a special dividend of $1 billion on top of its normal dividend.

What makes Fields’ story especially gripping is that we have no idea how it will turn out. He seems to be doing everything right; if only that meant it will work. Real life isn’t like that. The Fields story is made for the movies, but we just don’t know if it will have a Hollywood ending.