急流勇退: 全球大企業掌門"有序禪位"

Planned turnover of chief executives at the world’s biggest companies has reached its highest level this century, as they respond to pressure from shareholders to behave professionally when it comes to filling the top jobs.

全球各大企業按計劃更換首席執行官的比例達到本世紀最高水平，這些企業對股東要求專業化任命最高層人員的壓力作出迴應。

Among the world’s 2,500 largest groups by market value, 270 replaced their chief executive in 2012 as a result of succession planning, according to research by Booz and Company.

博斯公司(Booz and Company)的研究表明，2012年世界上市值最高的2500家集團中，有270家按照繼任計劃更換了首席執行官。

This organised turnover contributed to an overall total of 375 changes of chief executive in the year, the second highest since the study began in 2000, behind only the result in 2005.

這些有序的交接班導致全年總共出現375次CEO換人。這是自2000年這一研究開始以來的第二高水平，僅次於2005年。

The move towards more succession planning also appears to have favoured the chances of external over internal candidates. Three in 10 new chief executives appointed in 2012 were outsiders, against two in 10 over the previous three years, the consultancy said.

轉向繼任規劃的趨勢，似乎也提高了外部候選人相對於內部候選人的中選概率。博斯公司表示，2012年每10位新任CEO中，就有3位來自外部，而之前三年每10人中只有2位來自外部。

In July Marissa Mayer, a long-serving Google executive, became Yahoo’s boss, as the struggling web portal managed a smooth transition at the top after a series of boardroom mishaps.

去年7月，在谷歌(Google)服務多年的主管梅里莎•梅爾(Marissa Mayer)成了雅虎(Yahoo)的老闆，當時這家掙扎中的門戶網站在董事會發生一系列失誤後，順利完成了權力交接。

In August Pascal Soriot, vet-turned-Roche executive, was named the new boss at AstraZeneca, even though the pharmaceutical group had an obvious internal candidate in Simon Louth, chief financial officer and interim chief executive.

去年8月份，獸醫出身的羅氏(Roche)高管帕斯卡爾•索略特(Pascal Soriot)被任命爲阿斯利康(AstraZeneca)的新任首席執行官，儘管這家制藥集團擁有一位明顯的內部候選人——首席財務官及代理CEO西蒙•勞斯(Simon Louth)。

And in December, Jean-Bernard Lévy was appointed chief executive of Thales, Europe’s biggest defence electronics manufacturer by sales, only six months after leaving the same role at French media group Vivendi.

而去年12月份，讓-貝爾納•萊維(Jean-Bernard Lévy)從法國媒體集團威望迪(Vivendi)卸任CEO 6個月後，被歐洲銷售額最高的軍用電子系統制造商泰雷茲集團(Thales)任命爲CEO。

Per-Ola Karlsson, Booz senior partner and co-author of the study, suggested that outside contenders often benefited as companies adopted a more structured approach to appointments. “Diligence from boards means that they will always look at outside candidates even if there is a strong internal pool of contenders, driving greater opportunities for outsiders.”

博斯公司高級合夥人、該研究報告的共同作者佩爾-奧拉•卡爾鬆(Per-Ola Karlsson)提出，若企業的任命過程更加結構化，外部競爭者往往會受益。“董事會的盡職調查意味着，就算公司內部有一大把實力雄厚的競爭者，董事會也始終會關注公司外部的候選人，這令外部人士中選的機遇加大。”

The last time there was a changing of the guard at the world’s 2,500 largest companies on a scale similar to last year’s, it was well before the financial crisis and the total was boosted by a contribution from M and A well above the 36 transaction-related changes of 2012 – the lowest number for almost a decade.

世界上最大的2500家公司上一次發生與去年規模類似的換帥潮是在金融危機之前很久，其總數因爲併購而大幅提高。相比之下，2012年併購交易導致的主帥更迭只有36例，是近10年來最少的。

But last year it was the rise in succession planning that led to the second-highest level of turnover since the start of the century, when Booz and Company began tracking chief executive moves in this way.

導致去年出現本世紀初（博斯公司從那時開始以這種方式追蹤首席執行官更迭）以來第二高換帥潮的原因是，越來越多的公司進行繼任規劃。

Gary Neilson, a Booz senior partner and one of the report’s authors, identified two key factors behind the shift towards planning.
博斯公司高級合夥人、該報告作者之一加里•尼爾森(Gary Neilson)發現，企業轉向繼任規劃的背後有兩個關鍵因素。
The first was that shareholders expected the companies to be more organised in succession planning and that they also faced demands from the community at large to be accountable.
首先是股東們希望企業在繼任規劃方面更有章法，企業還面臨社會對於問責的要求。
“The demand for more accountability is encouraging boards to take on this responsibility for the chief executive, rather than just backing a chief executive until he hits a wall,” Mr Neilson said.
尼爾森表示：“加強問責的要求，正鼓勵董事會承擔起自己對CEO的責任，而不是一味力挺CEO，直到情況不可收拾。”
The second was that as companies came through the worst of the economic downturn, they felt secure enough to move decisively to put the next generation of leaders in place, instead of postponing action.
其次，隨着企業渡過經濟低迷的最黑暗階段，他們感到足夠安全，敢於採取果斷行動，任命新一代領導，而不是遲疑不決。
The study also revealed a significant preference for financial services executives. Booz said that the greater success of outsiders pointed to companies’ feeling confident enough to take “a bit of a risk on an unknown leader”.
這項研究還顯示出在人選方面，金融服務業的高管受到顯著青睞。博斯公司表示，公司任命外部候選人的機率加大表明，企業如今感到足夠自信，願意承擔“一點聘用未知領導的風險”。
That risk is often mitigated by a decision to appoint from within the same sector. This was most marked in financial services, where more than four in five were from within the sector, but was also marked in IT, where more than three in five came from the same sector. By contrast, seven in 10 new appointments at utilities were from outside the sector.
任命一位來自同一行業的領導者往往可以降低這種風險。這一點在金融服務行業中表現得最爲突出，該行業中逾五分之四的新CEO來自本行業，在IT行業也很突出，該行業中來自同行業公司的新CEO佔了逾五分之三。相比之下，公用事業行業有十分之七的新任CEO來自本行業以外。
Financial services was the only sector to supply new chief executives to all other industries, providing one-third of incoming CEOs for industrial companies.
金融服務業是唯一向其他所有行業輸出新任CEO的行業，工業企業的新任CEO有三分之一來自金融服務業。
Booz said that one factor behind the rise in popularity of financial services executives was simply their presence in such a large and important sector.
博斯公司表示，金融服務業高管越來越受歡迎背後的一個原因是，他們來自如此龐大而重要的行業。
Financial services accounted for one-fifth of the 2,500 largest companies, making it the most heavily-represented sector, ahead of industrials at 357.
金融服務業公司佔總共2500家最大企業的五分之一，超過工業企業（357家），這使得金融服務業成爲最具代表性的行業。
What makes the level of chief executive turnover of all kinds last year so striking is that the only year which in which it was higher – 2005 – came after some years of low turnover rates during the downturn of the early 2000s, suggesting a pent-up need for change at the top that does not seem to have been such a feature this time.
有關去年CEO換人數量的令人矚目之處在於，2005年（唯一數量更高的一年）是在本世紀初經濟下行期間的低換人率之後，似乎表明當時存在被壓抑的高層換人需求，而這一次似乎不存在這種情況。
And the rate of change could rise even higher in the next couple of years, Booz said, if the improved corporate governance practices and answerability to shareholders that has fuelled the increase in 2012 is accompanied by an uptick in M and A activity.
博斯公司表示，今後兩年，如果刺激2012年高層換人的因素（各公司治理水平提升，對股東訴求的響應）繼續存在，再加上併購活動的增加，高層換人的數量可能進一步上升。