创业成功人士访谈录 第12期:比尔盖茨(6)

 　　The thing that really changes the company isn’t the sales growth, though,

　　真正改变公司的不是销售额，

　　it is the number of people.

　　而是员工人数。

　　This shows you the total here.

　　你可以在这表上看到。

　　We are now well over 15,000 employees.

　　我们现在有超过1.5万名员工。

　　And yet, until we moved to Seattle we were about sixteen employees.

　　但是，在搬到西雅图之前，我们差不多只有16个员工。

　　Then we got up to a little over 30 when Steve came.

　　我们的员工数目增加到30多人。

　　Then right after Steve Ballmer comes

　　在史蒂夫来了之后，

　　then you see these periods of 40 to 129，220— 476 increasing at a very rapid rate.

　　从40到129、220到476，增长非常迅速。

　　It is swell¹ because you can have all these other product groups.

　　迅速膨胀是因为你可以拥有其他所有这些产品组。

　　You can sell around the world and you can do better product support.

　　你可以在全世界销售产品并可以提供更好的支持。

　　You can lavish² on the developers a great library.

　　可以斥巨资为开发人员建一座图书馆。

　　You can start a research group that is looking way out into the future.

　　可以组建一个前景规化研究团队。

　　And your recruiting department can be the best at going out to all of those universities.

　　你的人力资源团队可以找到大学里最好的毕业生。

　　So many excellent things that the energetic，smart people we hired empowered us to do.

　　所以，我们雇用的很多精力充沛且聪明的员工，可以帮助我们做许多优秀的事情。

　　But it does mean that I got to the point where I couldn’t look at all of the code,

　　但这也就意味着，我不再可以了解到一切，

　　which I had done in the early years.

　　像早先一样。

　　At 100 people, I knew everybody.

　　100个人的时候，我认识所有的人。

　　I even knew their license³ plates when they came and went.

　　上下班时，我甚至可以认出他们的车牌。

　　I knew really what everyone was up to.

　　我知道每个人到底是做什么的。

　　By the time it got to 1,000 that was no longer the case.

　　员工数量达到1000 人的时候，事情就不是这样了。

　　I was hiring the managers and knew all of the managers,

　　我雇用了管理人员，并且了解所有的管理层，

　　but there was a level of indirection.

　　这样就有了间接的层级。

　　And, certainly, as you go up over 10,000 then there are several levels indirect.

　　当然，当人数增加到1万的时候，间接的层级就更多了。

　　There are some products that you certainly know how they fit in if you are setting the overall strategy.

　　如果你做市场的整体战略的话，你当然会知道一些产品应该是怎样的。

　　Now electronic mail has been a huge phenomena⁴ for us.

　　现在，使用电子邮件已是普遍现象了。

　　And it keeps a little bit of a closer feel even if somebody’s office is in another building，

　　即使是跟在另外一栋办公楼的人，

　　you’re always sending them messages.

　　你们也可以经常传信息，让人感觉很近。

　　Or, even if they’re off in another country it makes that easy.

　　或者，即使他们是在国外，你们沟通起来也很方便。

　　So, we are not as big as our size suggests,

　　所以，我们看起来并不像公司规模那样大，

　　But, it certainly has a bit of a different feel than the small company.

　　但是感觉当然会有和小公司不一样。

　　At the same time, has your culture changed?

　　同时，你的企业文化改变了吗？

　　Or has it been pretty stable?

　　还是一直保持原有的？

　　Well, the culture, of course, varies by group.

　　嗯，企业文化，当然，不同的团队有不同的文化。

　　The sales force has great sales people and have the same enthusiasm for software,

　　销售团队有很好的销售人员，软件团队也很有工作热情，

　　but their day-to-day activity and measurement is quite different.

　　但是他们每天的工作和衡量尺码却是不一样的。

　　In the product groups it is pretty similar today.

　　现在，产品部门的文化都很相似。

　　The developers like writing great code.

　　开发人员喜欢编写好的程序。

　　They like collaborating⁵ with the team,

　　他们喜欢与团队合作，

　　they like getting things out every eighteen months.

　　喜欢每18个月都拿出成果。

　　They like watching the competition.

　　他们乐于看到竞争。

　　If somebody is very smart and contributing a lot, then it is fun.

　　如果有人很聪明并乐于奉献，那么这里就会很有趣。

　　If they don’t match that kind of level of energy,

　　如果他们达不到那样的精力水平，

　　then it is really not the right place for them.

　　那么这里并不适合他们。

　　It is an exciting thing.

　　这是一件令人兴奋的事情。

　　It is still a little bit different.

　　但是也有不同于其他公司的地方。

　　People can’t come and talk to me everyday.

　　大家不能每天都来找我谈话。

　　And so they have to look to their Business Unit Manager,

　　所以，他们要去找他们的部门经理，

　　which is how we have it setup.

　　这是我们建立的管理模式。

　　Certainly, we are trying to preserve all of that culture,

　　当然，我们希望保持所有这些企业文化，

　　and get the advantages of being a large company with a broad product line,

　　保持大企业的优势，有一条很广泛的生产线，

　　with stability, worldwide presence, great support,

　　有稳定性，在全球有广阔的市场，强大的支持，

　　and yet have the advantages that a small software company has.

　　同时也拥有小软件公司的优势。

　　Is there anything else you want to add?

　　还有什么其他的想补充的吗？

　　I’d say that my job, throughout all this, has been, I think,

　　我想说，我的工作，通过这一切来看，

　　the most fun job I can imagine having.

　　我想是我可以想象到的最有趣的工作了。

　　And partly the people I’ve gotten to work with outside the company.

　　部分原因是与公司外部一些优秀人才的合作。

　　Certainly there are great people inside the company.

　　当然，公司里也有很多出色的人才。

　　And certainly, for at least a decade or that will just continue to be the case.

　　当然，在未来至少10年的时间里，都会是这样。

1 swell   

vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强

参考例句：

• The waves had taken on a deep swell.海浪汹涌。
• His injured wrist began to swell.他那受伤的手腕开始肿了。

2 lavish   

adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍

参考例句：

• He despised people who were lavish with their praises.他看不起那些阿谀奉承的人。
• The sets and costumes are lavish.布景和服装极尽奢华。

3 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

4 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。

5 collaborating   

合作( collaborate的现在分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Joe is collaborating on the work with a friend. 乔正与一位朋友合作做那件工作。
• He was not only learning from but also collaborating with Joseph Thomson. 他不仅是在跟约瑟福？汤姆逊学习，而且也是在和他合作。