創造力和馬戲在管理上的挑戰

When it comes to management challenges, fish fingers and circuses are at opposite extremes: one product is the acme of industrialised food processing, the other the ultimate expression of human creativity and energy. Somehow, private equity has found room for both: last week, Permira agreed to sell Iglo, which makes Birds Eye fish fingers in Europe, after nine years running the frozen foods company, while another buyout group, TPG Capital, led a deal to gain control of Montreal’s Cirque du Soleil.

談到管理上的挑戰，炸魚條和馬戲表演是兩個相反極端：一個是工業化食品加工的極致，另一個是人類創造力和能量的終極表達。從某種程度來講，私人股本找到了同時實現這兩點的空間：前一陣子，私人股本集團帕米拉(Permira)同意出售在歐洲生產Birds Eye炸魚條的Iglo公司，帕米拉經營這家冷凍食品公司已有9年時間；另一家收購集團德太集團(TPG Capital)則領銜達成一筆交易，獲得蒙特利爾太陽馬戲團(Cirque du Soleil)控股權。

The coincidence made me wonder at the sheer breadth of private equity-owned businesses, which seems to defy the caricature of buyout kings as asset-stripping short-termists, interested only in targets with an annuity-like stream of revenue. But something else links these two apparently disparate businesses. All great enterprises start like a troupe of inventive and inspired circus performers. But over time most end up churning out the equivalent of pre-cut breaded strips of reconstituted seafood. The big question is: how can entrepreneurial and inventive companies slow their slippery slide to a fish-fingery fate?

這一巧合讓我想知道私人股本所有的企業到底有多少類型，它們似乎要挑戰人們的這種不良印象：收購界的巨擘是低價掠奪資產的短期主義者，只對能帶來源源不斷收入的目標感興趣。但其他一些因素將這兩類看似迥然不同的業務聯繫在一起。所有的大企業在一開始，都像由富有創造力和靈感的馬戲演員組成的馬戲團。但隨着時間的流逝，多數企業最終生產的東西，都像預先切好、裹着麪包屑的脫水海鮮條。重要的問題是：富有創造力的初創企業，如何能放慢淪爲炸魚條生產者的速度？