世界500强CEO访谈 第15期:通用里克瓦格纳 如何逆转衰退(3)

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　　记者：那您将对那些对股票价格感到烦躁的股东们说些什么呢？

　　Wagoner: I’m a big shareholder¹ myself; I share the frustration³. I’m confident that as the market psychology⁴ turns and assumes some of these issues are behind us, we’ll be well positioned. I talk to major investors⁵ regularly, and of course they would love to see a higher stock price. But they say, “Keep going and do the right stuff for the future.” So that’s what we are trying to do.

　　瓦格纳：我本身就是一个大股东，我也感到很受挫。我相信当市场心理逆转，—些事情已经得到了解决时，我们就会被放到一个很好的位置上。我定期与主要投资者谈话，当然他们会很乐意看到一个高的股票价格，但是他们说：“继续为了未来做正确的事情。”所以那就是我们试图做的事情。

　　Reporter: What is your worst decision?

　　记者：您所作的一个最坏的决定是什么呢？

　　Wagoner: Axing the EV1 electric-car program and not putting the right resources into hybrids⁶. It didn’t affect profitability, but it did affect image.

　　瓦格纳：停止电子动力汽车计划，并且不使用混合燃料。那没有影响利益率，但是却影响了我们的形象。

　　Reporter: What is the best thing?

　　记者：那您认为最好的事情是什么呢？

　　Wagoner: Driving any car in the world you want. Plus you do things that are amazing, such as meeting world leaders like George Bush and Tony Blair. I've got pressures in this job—but it’s nothing compared with those guys.

　　瓦格纳：开到世界上任何你想开的车，还有，你可以做很多惊人的事情，比如说和世界领导人乔治布什、托尼布莱尔会谈。我在现在的职位工作很有压力，但是跟他们相比，这并不算是什么。

　　Reporter: What is your strategy for turning around the company?

　　记者：您使公司好转的策略是什么呢？

　　Wagoner: First, we're focused on product. I invite you to look at the next generation (sport) utility. The improvement is simply stunning⁷. We need to keep that sort of pace going. Second of all, we obviously have to step back and re-look at how we’re going to market from a sales and marketing⁸ strategy. The third area is basically a frontal assault on all areas of cost to make sure we are driving to be the absolute most efficient manufacturer in the world. That’s hard because it’s meant significant capacity reductions and it means continuing to trim down workforces⁹ in the high cost countries, like the US and Germany. Fourth is the very challenging issue of addressing health care. We have really a breakthrough agreement with the UAW. It’s historic in its nature, but I would say it’s a very important first step to getting health care costs and particularly the legacy¹⁰ aspect of those under control. It’s a massive disadvantage, which we simply as an enterprise cannot carry and at the same time achieve the objectives that our shareholders have for us and invest in the future of our products. We' ve got a spotlight¹¹ on that this year. We’ve also made some changes in our salary plan and we’re going to need to keep working on health care. If you carry a $5 or $6 billion bill that your best competitors don’t, that’s a heavy burden.

　　瓦格纳：首先，我们将注意力集中在产品上面。我请您看一下下一代的体育公用事业设备。那些进步是很令人震惊的，我们需要保持那种行进的速度。第二，很明显，我们需要后退一步，从销售和市场的角度来重新看一下我们应该怎样更好的进入市场。第三是，我们要使各个方面的成本都降低，以保证我们可以成为世界上性价比最高的汽车制造商。那是很困难的，因为那意味着我们要进行能力缩减，意味着我们要在高消费国家，比说如在美国和德国继续削减劳动力。第四就是有关很有挑战性的医疗问题。我们真的与联合汽车工会签订了一个很有突破性的协议。从其本质来说，那是很有历史意义的。但是我想说，那对于掌控医疗费用，尤其是遗赠的费用，将是非常重要的第一步。在充满竞争的今天，那是一个劣势；作为一个企业来说，我们不能有那样的劣势；同时，要达到的股东所期望我们做到的目标并为我们未来的产品投资，我们也不能有那样的劣势存在。今年，公众的注意力都集中到那上面。我们在工资计冲也做了些许调整，我们将会在卫生保健方面继续努力。如果你有一个50亿或是60亿的账单，但是你最强大的竞争没有，那会是一个很大的负担。

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