2022年经济学人 小蓝鸟与大老板（2）

The authors of the paper did discover a wide range of approaches, with some managers going on gut¹ instinct and others using very formalised processes.

调查发现，他们的决策方式确实各不相同，一些管理者凭直觉行事，另一些则循规蹈矩。

But the researchers found that bosses who use more structured processes tend to lead bigger and faster-growing firms (which way causality runs is not clear).

但研究人员发现，老板采用的流程越有条理，其带领的公司往往规模更大、发展更快(其中的逻辑关系尚不清楚)。

They also tend to make decisions more slowly.

他们做决定的速度也往往更慢。

Mr Musk² and his acolytes³ are in a different camp: fast, informal and aggressive.

马斯克和其追随者的方式则与众不同：快速、不拘小节又十分激进。

Reports are already surfacing of fired Twitter workers being asked to come back.

已经有报道称推特正在召回部分被炒员工了。

He is unorthodox in another way, too.

马斯克在另一方面也没有遵循正统。

Peter Drucker, a doyen among management thinkers, described the CEO as being the person in the organisation⁴ who bridges the outside world and the inner workings of the company.

管理思维界的元老彼得·德鲁克称，首席执行官的职责是将外部世界与公司内部的运作连接在一起。

No one else in the firm is in a position to combine these perspectives, Mr Drucker wrote.

德鲁克写道，公司里的其他人都无法把这些点结合起来。

Mr Musk is not so much bridging this gap as making the distinction between the inside and outside of the company irrelevant⁵.

至于马斯克，与其说他是在弥合鸿沟，不如说他是在让公司内外之间的区别变得无关紧要。

His personal brand and wealth is inextricably linked with the other firms he runs.

他的个人品牌和财富与他经营的其他公司有着千丝万缕的联系。

At Twitter he is going even further, tossing out product ideas on his own Twitter feed, polling the audience for their views and offering real-time commentary on how things are going.

而推特更甚，他会在自己的推特推送上抛出产品想法，调查受众的看法，并对事情进展进行实时评论。

And Twitter itself is a platform on which everyone else—users, ex-employees, the people who founded the firm, policymakers and pundits—weighs in publicly to say how things are going.

推特这个平台本身就允许所有人公开发表意见，谈论事情的进展，包括用户、前员工、公司创始人、政策制定者和权威人士。

There is not much of an inside to talk of.

没有太多内部消息可谈。

You might object that Mr Musk is a one-off, and so is this deal.

你可能会反对说，马斯克是前无古人，后无来者，这笔交易也是如此。

When he first made his offer to buy Twitter, he explicitly⁶ said that it was not because of an economic rationale.

他第一次提出收购推特时曾明确表示，这么做不是为了赚钱。

He later tried to wriggle⁷ out of the transaction entirely⁸.

后来，他试图完全退出这笔交易。

The story of a billionaire owner of a social-media platform has little in common with the challenges that preoccupy⁹ the salaried executives of most public firms.

亿万富翁拥有社交媒体平台的故事，与大多数上市公司的领薪高管所面临的挑战几乎没有共同之处。

Maybe so, but if Mr Musk makes another success of his latest venture by being brutal¹⁰ to his workforce¹¹, skipping the PowerPoint sessions and managing through memes, the MBA will still need a bit of an update.

也许是这样的吧，但如果马斯克通过残酷对待员工、跳过PPT会议并用表情包管理员工，让他的最新事业再次取得成功，那工商管理硕士课程就仍需要进行更新。

1 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。

2 musk   

n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫

参考例句：

• Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。
• She scented her clothes with musk.她用麝香使衣服充满了香味。

3 acolytes   

n.助手( acolyte的名词复数 )；随从；新手；（天主教）侍祭

参考例句：

• To his acolytes, he is known simply as 'the Boss'. 他被手下人简称为“老板”。 来自辞典例句
• Many of the acolytes have been in hiding amongst the populace. 许多寺僧都隐藏在平民当中。 来自互联网

4 organisation   

n.组织，安排，团体，有机休

参考例句：

• The method of his organisation work is worth commending.他的组织工作的方法值得称道。
• His application for membership of the organisation was rejected.他想要加入该组织的申请遭到了拒绝。

5 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

6 explicitly   

ad.明确地，显然地

参考例句：

• The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
• SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条，清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

7 wriggle   

v./n.蠕动，扭动；蜿蜒

参考例句：

• I've got an appointment I can't wriggle out of.我有个推脱不掉的约会。
• Children wriggle themselves when they are bored.小孩子感到厌烦时就会扭动他们的身体。

8 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。

9 preoccupy   

vt.使全神贯注，使入神

参考例句：

• But at the moment he had other things to preoccupy him.不过当时有另外的事情分了他的心。
• An intelligent man considers the prospect of failure,but he doesn't preoccupy himself with pointless worry.一个聪明的男人可以预见到失败，但他绝不会去无谓地担心。

10 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

11 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。