最不可思议的父女档

    克莱尔：我要他们在一两周之内拿出一个行动清单：广告、印数、特别促销、目标店铺，甚至像好市多（Costco）那样的三线书店。而对于塔吉特（Target，美国仅次于沃尔玛的连锁零售店——译注），我想知道我们是否在货架图上。他们目瞪口呆地看着我，好像看外星人一样。“你怎么会知道这些名词啊！”……但他们最后按我的要求去做了。

    理查德，我不敢说我懂商业战略，因为那纯粹是班门弄斧。但如果您管理一家公司，应该也会要有某种整体战略吧？

    鲁梅尔特：你想得很对。

    但是？

    鲁梅尔特：美国的国家安全战略包括12点。那是奥巴马总统的杰作。其中一点是：“我们在教育上落后了。”因此，我们的国家安全战略就包括：（1）改革公立学校；（2）达到全球最高的大学毕业率。

    您是在说反话。

    鲁梅尔特：真荒谬。首先，这些问题难道属于国家安全的范畴吗？答案是否定的。其次，没有找出我们在教育上落后的原因。如果不了解问题的本质，就无法解决问题。培养更多的大学毕业生，或者有更多人学习艺术史就能解决我们的国家安全问题吗？这就是在政府的最高层被当作是战略的玩意，很多公司也一样。只不过公司的口号更空洞：“我们要成为某某领域的领头羊！”

    有没有想过写一部小说，讲一讲公司秘闻和战略无能？

    克莱尔：可以，但一定得有人在董事会会议上被人谋杀。

    鲁梅尔特：还得有色情和暴力。

    朱迪，你已经卖出多少本书了？

    克莱尔：超过1,000万。

    看来J.K.罗琳这一两年还不用太担心？

    克莱尔：说起销量，没人拼得过J.K.罗琳。出版界有个规矩：千万别和《哈利•波特》（Harry Potter）比，因为那是可遇而不可求的奇迹。

    鲁梅尔特：就像你没法和史蒂夫•乔布斯比一样。沃尔特•艾萨克森为他写的自传棒极了。但你还会忽视[乔布斯的]战略，这个战略有几个非常简单的元素。他首先想做的就是摆脱微软（Microsoft）和英特尔（Intel）的束缚。唯一的途径就是采用移动平台，不用英特尔的芯片，也不用微软的操作系统。为了进入移动领域，他首先从音乐入手，然后进军电话，最后就是（平板电脑）。

    你们俩会讨论朱迪出书的战略吗？

    克莱尔：我确实和父亲谈过一些创业的想法。我们刚刚讨论过数字出版的问题。我很想让出版商在线上免费发表系列的第一本书，因为我相信赔本赚吆喝。这个系列一共七本书。如果你免费发布第一本，人们就可能被吸引，想看后续的故事的人就会购买。就是打广告而已。父亲还说：“这种手法不是有个模式吗？”

    鲁梅尔特：（视频游戏）《毁灭战士》（Doom）的模式正正好。

    那你真的打算那样做吗？

    克莱尔：出版界对免费送书非常抵制。我会努力争取的……西蒙舒斯特有一点好，就是这么些年来，他们都愿意倾听、尝试我的想法。有些已经取得了巨大成功，而很多思路是通过和父亲的交谈来理清的。

    CLARE: I asked them to come back in a week or two with a list of things they were going to do—advertising, print run, special promotions, third-tier stores like Costco (COST) they were targeting. For Target (TGT), I asked if we were on the planogram. They've looked on me as if I were an alien. "You're not supposed to know these words!"…But they did what I asked.

    Richard, I don't profess to understand the field of business strategy because it sounds redundant. If you're running something, don't you have to have some overall strategy?

    RUMELT: You would think so.

    But?

    RUMELT: The United States has a national security strategy. It has 12 points. President Obama created it. One point is "We've fallen behind in education." Therefore, part of the national security strategy is to (a) reform public schools and (b) have the highest percentage of college graduates in the world.

    You have some snark in your tone.

    RUMELT: This is absurd. First of all, why is this a national security issue? It's not. Second, there's no diagnosis of why have we fallen behind in education. Unless you understand the nature of the problem, you can't solve it. Is having more college graduates, more people studying art history going to solve our national security problem? That's what passes for strategy in the highest levels of government and in many, many corporations. Corporations would be even more vacuous. "We want to be the company that is the go-to company for whatever!"

    Is there a novel to be written about intrigue at companies and their inability to strategize?

    CLARE: Only if someone was murdered during one of the board meetings.

    RUMELT: There would have to be some sex and violence.

    Judy, how many books have you sold?

    CLARE: Over 10 million.

    So J.K. Rowling is secure for another year or two?

    CLARE: Nobody sells books like J.K. Rowling. We have a rule in publishing: Never compare anything to Harry Potter because it's like lightning in a bottle.

    RUMELT: It's like comparing things to Steve Jobs. Walter Isaacson's book is just brilliant. But you can miss what [Jobs'] strategy was, which had a couple of very simple elements. The first thing he wanted to do is get out from under Microsoft and Intel. And the only way he could do that is go to mobile platforms, where it wasn't the Intel chip and the Microsoft operating system. And to get into that space, he went with this music thing and then with the phone thing and then with the [tablet] thing.

    Do you the two of you discuss strategy for Judy's books?

    CLARE: I do talk to my father about things I can do as an entrepreneur. We just had an interesting conversation about digital publishing. And I have a strong desire to have the publisher give away my first book in the series online because I believe it can be a loss leader. There are seven books in the series. If you give away the first for free, hopefully people will want the rest and buy those. It's advertising. My dad asked, "Isn't there a model for this kind of thing?"

    RUMELT: The [videogame] Doom model worked fantastically.

    So are you going to do that?

    CLARE: There's a big resistance in publishing to the idea of giving away books. I'm going to fight for it…I do think one great thing with Simon & Schuster is that over the years they've been open to ideas I've generated. Some have been enormously successful, and a lot have been ideas that I've sorted out by talking to my dad.