世界500强CEO访谈 第13期:通用里克瓦格纳 如何逆转衰退(1)

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　　记者：通用汽车失去了其世界顶级汽车品牌的地位，对此您感受如何呢？

　　Wagoner: It’s not something we’d relish¹. We’ve been number one in the world for 75 years, and we want to keep that going. That’ll be determined² out on the playing field. If they pass us, we’ll get up the next day and go after them. I wouldn’t like it. But if it happens, I’m not going to quit the next morning. But would it bother me? Sure. I’m a competitive guy. I don’t like losing at anything.

　　瓦格纳：那是我们不希望发生的事情。我们已经连续75年位居世界第一，我们想要一直保持下去。就像是要在运动场上决出胜负，如果他们超过了我们，那么我们在第二天就会继续起来去追赶他们。但其实我不喜欢那样。如果那样的事情真的发生了，那我一定不会在第二天早上就退出。那会使我烦恼吗？那是一定的。我是一个好竞争的人，我不希望在任何方面失败。

　　Reporter: With all the challenges facing you, what tops your priority list?

　　记者：你们现在面临着很多挑战，那么你们最优先考虑的事情是什么呢？

　　Wagoner: We need to drive revenue growth. Frankly³, that’s hard to do in a weak market, but that’s what is really going to emphasize the extent of the changes we made and translate our improvements in products, quality and manufacturing into better financial results.

　　瓦格纳：我们要使收益有所增长，坦白的说，这在一个疲软的市场环境之中很难做到，但是那才能更加肯定我们所作出的调整，我们在产品质量、制造方面的提高，最终表现为经济收益的增长。

　　Reporter: How do you do that?

　　记者：您是怎样做的呢？

　　Wagoner: We’ve cut $9 billion in fixed⁴ costs through plant consolidation⁵ and job cuts, and think we can cut another $5 billion or so over the next three years with lower health care, pension and labor⁶ costs with the new United Auto⁷ Workers agreement.

　　瓦格纳：我们通过工厂合并和裁员使固定成本减少了90亿美元，并且我们认为，根据新的汽车工人联合会协议，卫生医疗、退休金和人工成本将会更低，那么在接下来的3年时间里，我们还能够继续减少大约50亿美元的成本。

　　Reporter: A lot of people are talking about a US recession. Can the great American automaker still turn things around?

　　记者：很多人现在都在谈论美国经济萧条，伟大的美国汽车制造商有办法使这种形势有所好转吗？

　　Wagoner: Sure. There are a number of things that will play out over the next couple of years that should improve our earnings⁸. When we complete the 2007 labor agreement，we will get $4 billion to $5 billion in savings⁹, a half billion when our supplier Delphi gets out of bankruptcy¹⁰, and if the US industry gets back to average sales, that will be $1 billion to $1.5 billion, conservatively. We don’t have the profitability we want, but we are improving our cash flow. So even in a very difficult US environment, help is on its way. But we’re not waiting for help to get here. We are coming up with other ways to improve our cost structure, including a buyout offer for US.

　　瓦格纳：当然会有的。在接下来的几年时间里，我们可以做很多事情来提高我们的收入。当我们完成2007劳资协议的时候，我们可以得到40—50亿的储蓄；当我们的供应商特尔斐脱离破产的困境时，我们可以得到50亿美元；当美国产业恢复到平均销售额时，保守来说，我们将得到10—15亿美元。我们现在并没有达到希望的利益率，但是我们正在努力提高现金流转速度。所以即使美国现在处于一个很困难的时期，我们也会得到一些帮助。但我们没有等着靠帮助实现目标，我们也将采取其他的方法来改善我们的费用结构，包括让国家来购买我们的股份。

　　Reporter: A lot of people have pointed¹¹ to last year's loss as a sign that execution hasn’t come through.

　　记者：很多人都将公司去年的损失看做是管理不善的结果。

　　Wagoner: Nothing could be further from the truth. If anyone is interpreting that, they are not looking at the data. It’s clear the loss was driven by an accounting¹² requirement, and a significant loss in GMAC business. Behind those the automotive business continued to show significant improvements, and North America produced 300,000 fewer units and still showed improvement in earnings. That’s worth a huge amount of money and highlights that we’re doing what we said we would. We’ve executed well, and on top of that, product momentum¹³ is moving nicely.

　　瓦格纳：不是那样的。如果有人那样说的话，那他们一定没有去看数据。很明显，损失纯粹是由于金融需求而造成的，那导致通用汽车金融公司面临了很严重的损失。紧接着，汽车产业就不断呈现改善的趋势，北美仅制造了30万辆汽车，但是他们的盈利仍然是增加了。那样的投资很值得，并且向大家展示了我们正在做以前说过要做的事情。我们执行的很好，并且除此之外，产品冲力也发展的很好。

　　Reporter: GM will have—

　　记者：通用汽车将会有……

　　Wagoner: GM will have eight different hybrid¹⁴ models. And I think in things like flex¹⁵ fuel, you know, we’ve committed to have 50 percent of our production flex— fuel capable by 2012. So, if you add all those up, I think over the next several years, we’re going to feel this thing shifting. Is it all going to be done in five or 10 years? That’s probably an overstatement, but we’re going to be moving on a different path than it feels like we’ve been on for the last five years as an industry.

　　瓦格纳：通用汽车将会有关于混合燃料的8辆氢燃料动力汽车模型，你知道在2012年我们将达到50%的产品都使用混合燃料。所以如果把这也算入内的话，在接下来几年的时间内，我们就会感受到事情有所改变。那在5年或者10年的时间内会全部实现吗？那可能是大话，但是作为一个产业，与近5年相比，我们会走上一条不同的道路。

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