经济学人166:魔法部长隐退

 　　BUSINESS

　　商业报道

　　Steve Jobs resigns

　　斯蒂芬乔布斯辞职

　　The minister of magic steps down

　　魔法部长隐退

　　Can Silicon¹ Valley's most disruptive firm prosper² without its maker³?

　　没有了创始人，硅谷曾经最混乱的公司会繁荣起来吗?

　　IN A commencement speech to students at Stanford University in 2005, Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, advised his audience to avoid being trapped by dogma and to have the courage to follow their hearts and their intuition.

　　2005年，苹果首席执行官斯蒂芬乔布斯在斯坦福大学毕业典礼上对学生们提出建议，不要被教条束缚，要勇于跟随自己的内心和直觉。

　　“Stay hungry. Stay foolish,” he said as he signed off.

　　结束时，他说，永远不要裹足不前。

　　By following his own advice, Mr Jobs, who resigned as Apple's boss on August 24th, has turned the company from a basket case on the brink⁴ of bankruptcy⁵ when he returned to its helm in 1997 into a world-beater that is reshaping a big chunk⁶ of the technology industry.

　　乔布斯于8月24日辞去苹果总裁一职。就像他所说的那样，自从1997年他登上苹果的领导地位，他将这个毫无希望的濒临破产边缘的公司带入世界领先地位，并重建为科技产业的巨头。

　　Earlier this month, Apple even briefly⁷ surpassed Exxon Mobil, an oil giant, to become the world's most valuable company.

　　就在这个月初，苹果甚至超越了石油大腕埃克森美孚，成为世界上最有价值的公司。

　　No other boss in recent history has embodied⁸ and defined a firm as completely as Mr Jobs.

　　在近代史上，没有一个人能像乔布斯那样将一个公司做的如此风生水起。

　　So his decision to resign as chief executive has inevitably⁹ raised the question of whether Apple will remain as hungry and as wildly successful without its entrepreneurial maestro at the helm.

　　因此他辞去首席执行官的决定不可避免地引发了争论—在其开拓者离开后，苹果还能否保持前进的动力以及巨大的成功。

　　Other giants in the tech industry have seen their fortunes fade after iconic leaders have departed.

　　科技产业的其他大型公司，在招牌领导人离去后，财富就缩水了。

　　Microsoft has struggled to regain¹⁰ its mojo since Bill Gates stood down as its chief executive in January 2000.

　　2000年比尔盖茨辞去微软的首席执行官后，微软经历了一段困难时期才重拾辉煌。

　　Could Apple suffer a similar fate?

　　苹果也会经历同样的命运吗？

　　That seems unlikely for several reasons.

　　由于一些原因，苹果可能不会经历相同的命运。

　　One is that the company has had plenty of time to plan for this moment.

　　原因之一，公司有足够的时间对现在进行规划。

　　Mr Jobs has stepped aside from day-to-day management at Apple on a couple of occasions before, after having surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004.

　　乔布斯以前也有过不参与苹果日常管理的时候，例如04年因胰腺癌接受手术的时期。

　　Each time, Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, temporarily assumed his boss's responsibilities.

　　每次，都是由苹果的首席运营官蒂姆库克暂代总裁职位。

　　That allowed Mr Cook, who is taking over from Mr Jobs as CEO, to get a taste for the top spot—and it gave Apple's board a chance to see him in action.

　　这让库克尝到了做第一把交椅的滋味，并且让苹果的董事会看到了他所起的作用。

　　On each occasion, Mr Cook kept Apple's money-making machine ticking over smoothly¹².

　　每一次，库克都使苹果有稳定的收入。

　　An expert in manufacturing and logistics, he closed down almost all of Apple's manufacturing operations after he arrived at the firm in the late 1990s and outsourced much of these to Asia.

　　他是一位制造学和后勤学的专家，在20世纪90年代末来到苹果后，他几乎撤销了所有的制造工序，并将其转包给亚洲国家。

　　Announcing his promotion¹³, Apple's board said that he had shown “remarkable talent and sound judgment¹⁴ in everything he does.”

　　谈到他的升职，苹果董事会表示他所做的一切显示了卓越的才能和非凡的决策力。

　　Talent is something that Apple also has an abundance of elsewhere in its ranks.

　　才能，是苹果的高管最不缺乏的。

　　Executives such as Phil Schiller, who oversees¹⁵ the company's marketing¹⁶, and Jonathan Ive, a Briton whose domain¹⁷ is design, are part of a team that has worked closely together for many years.

　　像是执行官菲尔席勒，他负责公司的营销。还有乔纳森伊夫，英国人，他负责设计。这两个人都是苹果队伍的一员，队员们已经协调合作了很多年。

　　If Mr Cook can keep this group intact, then Apple's future should be bright.

　　如果库克能使这样的队伍继续保持下去，苹果的未来就是光明的。

　　The firm also benefits from an intensely loyal and motivated workforce¹⁸. Glassdoor, an online jobs and careers community, carries reviews of the company from almost 1,000 Apple employees.

　　公司的成功还得益于忠实而有激情的职工们。玻璃门—一个在线职业联盟——通过调查了大约1000名苹果职工对该公司进行了检验。

　　Most are glowing about the firm and in particular about Mr Jobs's impact on it. One post even calls Apple's former boss “the Thomas Edison of this century”.

　　大部分职工对公司充满热情，并十分肯定乔布斯对公司的影响。一个帖子甚至称苹果前任总裁为“当代爱迪生”。

　　Paul Saffo of Discern Analytics, a financial-analytics company, reckons that this depth of loyalty¹⁹ will mean that even though Mr Jobs is stepping down, the firm's employees will continue to ask themselves “what would Steve do?” when making decisions.

　　保罗萨佛的识别分析—一个金融分析公司——猜想，这种程度的忠诚度意味着，即使乔布斯隐退，公司的员工们在做决定的时候依然会问自己“斯蒂夫将会如何做”。当然，提出问题比猜想正确答案要容易得多。

　　Another reason for optimism is that Mr Jobs is not disappearing from the scene entirely²⁰. Instead he is taking on a new role as the chairman of Apple's board, which should allow him to keep weighing in on important decisions for some time to come, assuming that his health allows.

　　人们可以抱有乐观态度的另一原因是，乔布斯并没有完全从舞台上消失，他只不过是扮演了新的角色—苹果董事会主席。如果他的健康状况允许，他可以继续权衡未来的重要决策。

　　Apple has a pretty clear product pipeline²¹ for the next couple of years, which is reassuring²².

　　在接下来的几年中，苹果有一条非常清晰的生产线，人们大可放心。

　　The firm is due to unveil the latest version of its hugely successful iPhone in the coming weeks and is expected to launch a new iPad early next year.

　　在未来几周内，苹果将会揭开新版iphone的面纱，并在明年初将新一代ipad投放市场。

　　But Apple is far more than the sum of the devices that it sells, impressive though they are.

　　但是，苹果不仅仅是它销售的产品的总和，虽然这些产品都让人们爱不释手。

　　Its secret sauce lies in the integration²³ of these with software and services such as its iTunes online content store and its recently announced iCloud online-storage offering.

　　它的秘诀在于通过软件和服务将这些设备集中为一体。例如它的itunes在线资料库和最近提供的icloud在线储备库。

　　These form what tech types like to call an “ecosystem” that has proved so popular that it is forcing other companies to develop similar capabilities²⁴.

　　这种类型的科技被称为“生态系统”，它是如此受欢迎，以至于迫使其他公司纷纷效仿。

　　Google, which has long excelled at developing software, recently splashed out $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility²⁵ so that it could get its hands on the firm's smartphones, tablets and other devices.

　　谷歌一直擅长于开发软件，最近向摩托诺拉移动公司注资125亿美元以将该公司的智能手机、平板电脑和其他设备弄到手。

　　And Amazon, which has a huge cloud business, is planning to launch its own tablet computer to compete with Apple's iPad.

　　有着巨大云业务的亚马逊公司也在计划推出自己的平板电脑与苹果的ipad竞争。

　　The good news for Apple's investors²⁶ is that the firm has been given a great head start in the battle for dominance of this emerging tech landscape thanks to Mr Jobs, whose vision of the future has been honed over a long and tumultuous career.

　　对于苹果的投资者们来说，好消息是，多亏了乔布斯，苹果公司在抢夺科技领域领导地位的竞争中占据非常有利的地位。

　　After co-founding Apple with Steve Wozniak in the 1970s, he went on to pioneer the era of the personal computer in the following decade. He was then ousted²⁷ from Apple after a boardroom coup¹¹ in 1985.

　　乔布斯对未来的远见在长期而丰富的职业生涯中经过了历练。20世纪70年代，在与史蒂夫沃兹尼亚克共同创办了苹果公司后的十年里，乔布斯开创了个人电脑的时代。然后在1985年的一次苹果董事会政变中被驱逐出苹果公司。

　　After that, Mr Jobs followed his heart and his intuition by building up Pixar, a film studio that specialises in computer-animated films. It has produced a string of hits, from “Toy Story” to “Finding Nemo”.

　　在那之后，乔布斯跟随了自己的内心和直觉创办了皮克斯电影工作室，它专门从事电脑动画电影，并制作了一连串的好作品，如“玩具总动员”和“海底总动员”

　　He returned to Apple as an adviser²⁸ in 1996, when the firm was in dire²⁹ straits.

　　1996年，在苹果陷入重大困境之际，他作为顾问重返公司。

　　A year later he was made interim³⁰ chief executive.

　　一年后，他成为临时执行总裁。

　　Asked at the time what he thought Mr Jobs should do with Apple, Michael Dell, a rival computer-maker, helpfully suggested that he should shut it down.

　　当竞争对手—电脑制造商迈克尔戴尔被问到，他认为乔布斯应如何对待苹果的时候，戴尔好心建议他应该将苹果公司关闭。

　　Find out how much of an Apple iPhone is actually a Samsung with our "teardown" infographic.Mr Jobs ignored that advice.Instead he led the company on to its greatest triumphs. Among them were the creation of the iMac, which revived the firm's ailing³¹ computer business, and the development of the iPod, which ended up transforming the music industry. But just as important as what Apple did was what it did not do.

　　乔布斯没有接受这个建议。相反，他将公司带入了全盛时期。在此期间，苹果生产了imac，使破败的电脑业务焕发了生机。同时，也研发了ipod，结束了音乐工业的转换。苹果做了什么，这很重要，但是，苹果没有做什么，一样重要。

　　Charles Golvin of Forrester, a research firm, says that one of Mr Jobs's greatest skills has been to decide which projects the firm should not undertake.

　　弗雷斯特研究公司的查尔斯戈尔文说乔布斯的计策之一便是决定哪些项目公司不应该去做。

　　It has been widely rumoured³², for example, that engineers at Apple were urging its boss to create a tablet computer in the early part of the decade.

　　例如，有件事情广为流传，苹果的工程师们曾在十年间的早期建议他们的老板生产一台平板电脑。

　　But Mr Jobs turned a deaf ear to their entreaties³³ and instead insisted that the company focus on producing a smartphone.

　　但是乔布斯没有接受他们的恳求，而是坚持使公司致力于生产一款智能手机。

　　The result was the iPhone, which transformed yet another market and is still minting money.

　　结果便是iphone的问世，它改变了另一个市场并依然在赚钱。

　　In a creative cauldron like Apple, ideas are rarely in short supply.

　　在像苹果这样一家具有创造力的大公司里，从不缺乏建议。

　　But the skill of choosing the right ones to focus on at the right time is rare.

　　但是采纳正确的建议并在正确的时间实施，这种能力确是不多见的。

　　Mr Jobs has it. Apple's shareholders³⁴ will have to hope that Mr Cook does too.

　　而乔布斯就有这种能力。苹果的股东们应该期待库克也有这种能力。

　　1.prosper v.繁盛；成功

　　We are bound to prosper beyond other countries.

　　我们肯定要比其他国家更兴旺繁荣。

　　2.audience n.听众；观众

　　The audience was no less than five thousand.

　　听众有五千人之多。

　　3.surpass v.超越；胜过

　　To be in love is to surpass oneself.

　　人在爱中超越自我。

　　4.define v.规定；限定

　　We should clearly define the scope of our research.

　　我们应该明确规定我们的研究范围。

　　5.fade v.逐渐消失；褪色；凋谢

　　Hopes of a peaceful settlement are now fading.

　　和平解决的希望正在消失。

1 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

2 prosper   

v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣

参考例句：

• With her at the wheel,the company began to prosper.有了她当主管，公司开始兴旺起来。
• It is my earnest wish that this company will continue to prosper.我真诚希望这家公司会继续兴旺发达。

3 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

4 brink   

n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿

参考例句：

• The tree grew on the brink of the cliff.那棵树生长在峭壁的边缘。
• The two countries were poised on the brink of war.这两个国家处于交战的边缘。

5 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

6 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

7 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

8 embodied   

v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含

参考例句：

• a politician who embodied the hopes of black youth 代表黑人青年希望的政治家
• The heroic deeds of him embodied the glorious tradition of the troops. 他的英雄事迹体现了军队的光荣传统。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

10 regain   

vt.重新获得，收复，恢复

参考例句：

• He is making a bid to regain his World No.1 ranking.他正为重登世界排名第一位而努力。
• The government is desperate to regain credibility with the public.政府急于重新获取公众的信任。

11 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

12 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

13 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

14 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

15 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

16 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

17 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

18 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

19 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

20 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

21 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。

22 reassuring   

a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的

参考例句：

• He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. 他轻拍了一下她的肩膀让她放心。
• With a reassuring pat on her arm, he left. 他鼓励地拍了拍她的手臂就离开了。

23 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

24 capabilities   

n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力

参考例句：

• He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities. 他有点自大，自视甚高。 来自辞典例句
• Some programmers use tabs to break complex product capabilities into smaller chunks. 一些程序员认为，标签可以将复杂的功能分为每个窗格一组简单的功能。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

25 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。

26 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

27 ousted   

驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• He was ousted as chairman. 他的主席职务被革除了。
• He may be ousted by a military takeover. 他可能在一场军事接管中被赶下台。

28 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

29 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

30 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。

31 ailing   

v.生病

参考例句：

• They discussed the problems ailing the steel industry. 他们讨论了困扰钢铁工业的问题。
• She looked after her ailing father. 她照顾有病的父亲。

32 rumoured   

adj.谣传的；传说的；风

参考例句：

• It has been so rumoured here. 此间已有传闻。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• It began to be rumoured that the jury would be out a long while. 有人传说陪审团要退场很久。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

33 entreaties   

n.恳求，乞求( entreaty的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He began with entreaties and ended with a threat. 他先是恳求，最后是威胁。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The tyrant was deaf to the entreaties of the slaves. 暴君听不到奴隶们的哀鸣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

34 shareholders   

n.股东( shareholder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The meeting was attended by 90% of shareholders. 90%的股东出席了会议。
• the company's fiduciary duty to its shareholders 公司对股东负有的受托责任