孫正義欽定接班人 軟銀新總裁有何來頭

Former Google executive Nikesh Arora joined SoftBank last year to oversee the Japanese company’s investment strategy, a task overseen so far by the legendary SoftBank founder, Masayoshi Son. Before joining SoftBank, Arora had been the top business executive at Google , having risen in the search giant’s ranks after running its highly profitable European business. He started his career as an investment analyst and also worked at Deutsche Telecom, making him a fit in all sorts of ways for SoftBank, a communications and Internet company.

谷歌前高管尼克什o阿羅拉去年加入軟銀集團，負責這家日本公司的投資戰略，這項任務此前一直由軟銀傳奇創始人孫正義親自主抓。加入軟銀之前，阿羅拉曾在谷歌經營盈利頗豐的歐洲業務，並最終躋身這家搜索巨頭的最高領導層。他最早是一名投資分析員，還在德國電信工作過，這些經歷讓他成爲軟銀這家通信和互聯網公司的合適人選。

Besides the improbable achievement of becoming the most recognizable entrepreneurs in Japan, Son, known by the nickname “Masa,” has proven to be an extraordinary investor. He wagered early on Yahoo Japan and Alibaba. The latter investment alone may be one of the greatest investments ever, parlaying a bet of about $200 million into a stake worth in the neighborhood of $70 billion.

以暱稱“Masa”聞名的孫正義不但憑藉其巨大成就而成爲日本最知名的企業家，他還是一名傑出的投資者。早在很久以前，他就投資了雅虎日本和阿里巴巴公司。後者也許堪稱史上最佳投資之一，2億美元的投入如今已經升值到了大約700億美元。

Arora says Son aims to turn his “hobby” of investing into a foundation for the future of SoftBank. Already, Arora has had a busy nine months. Since he joined the company SoftBank has made nine investments, including the recently announced $100-million stake the U.S. geolocation advertising technology company Banjo. Others include a $250-million stake in GrabTaxi, an Uber competitor in Southeast Asia; a $627-million investment in , an Indian e-commerce company; and the $90 million SoftBank invested in , a property site in India.

阿羅拉表示，孫正義打算把他的投資“愛好”轉變爲軟銀未來發展的基石。他已經走馬上任9個月了。自阿羅拉加入軟銀以來，該公司已經進行了9次投資，包括最近出資1億美元投資美國定位廣告技術公司Banjo。其他的投資手筆還包括2.5億美元投資Uber在東南亞的競爭對手GrabTaxi，6.27億美元投資印度電子商務公司，斥資9000萬美元投資印度房地產網站。

SoftBank also was rumored to have attempted to acquire the ailing film studio DreamWorks Animation, a deal that was said to collapse just before it was done.

坊間傳聞，軟銀還試圖收購境況不佳的夢工場動畫公司，不過據說該計劃最終流產了。

Son surprised the technology and investing world earlier this week by announcing that Arora would become SoftBank’s president in June, making the Indian-born executive part of a top-level management team that includes Ron Fisher, a 20-year SoftBank veteran. Son, 57, also anointed Arora, 47, his likely successor as CEO, though he has no plans to retire.

上週，孫正義宣佈阿羅拉將於今年6月擔任軟銀總裁，此舉震驚了科技界和投資界。如此一來，這位出生於印度的高管就會成爲軟銀高層管理團隊的一員，團隊中還包括在軟銀工作了20年、經驗豐富的羅恩o費舍爾。57歲的孫正義還表示，47歲的阿羅拉有望接替他擔任首席執行官，儘管孫正義本人還沒有退休計劃。

Arora, who was in Japan for the announcement, returned mid-week to Silicon Valley, where he is based. He answered questions about his role at SoftBank, the nature of his relationship with Son, and the future for SoftBank’s risky acquisition of the laggard U.S. telecommunications company Sprint.

宣佈這一決定時，阿羅拉正在日本，隨後他已返回在硅谷的辦公室。在這篇訪談中，他談到了自己在軟銀扮演的角色、與孫正義的關係、軟銀爲何冒險收購不景氣的美國通訊公司Sprint等諸多問題。

How did you come together with Masayoshi Son?

你是如何與孫正義走到一起的？

Masa has been spectacularly successful over the last 37 years in identifying trends, investing in them–either by putting money into them or investing in the entrepreneurs behind them—through joint ventures, or by doing it himself. He bought Vodafone Japan and made it into SoftBank. He identified the importance of the iPhone and, by working with Steve Jobs, he got exclusivity in Japan. Very few No. 2 or No. 3 networks have been transformed into successful companies. He saw the opportunity.

在過去37年中，孫正義成功地確認行業趨勢，並利用合資或自己出資投資於這些趨勢——或是向這些趨勢本身投入重金，或是投資相關公司背後的企業家。他收購了沃達豐日本公司，並將其改造爲軟銀集團。他意識到了iPhone的重要性，並通過與史蒂夫o喬布斯合作得到了日本的專營權。幾乎沒有其他的網絡公司能實現如此成功的轉型。他發現了這種機遇。

He’s also a great investor. He turned a less-than-$10-million investment in Yahoo Japan into a 40% stake worth around $8 billion to $10 billion. Alibaba is not his first big return. He’s been very astute in his ability to identify trends. If you look at the evolution of Softbank it’s been a strong Japanese business with one person as a global CEO and with Masa doing all the investing. We met six years ago when Yahoo and Microsoft were doing their search deal. They hadn’t spent a lot of time figuring out Yahoo Japan. He wanted to make sure they had the best search, and he came to Google and sat down with me. He structured a deal that didn’t conflict with Yahoo. It was another instance of him anticipating a trend. And when he does a deal he acts boldly, without nickel and diming anything. That’s when we became friends. He is always true to his word and focused on the big picture.

他還是個偉大的投資家。當初投資雅虎日本時，他花費了不到1000萬美元，現在這筆投資已經轉變成了該公司40%的股權，價值大約在80億到100億美元之間。阿里巴巴並非他挖到的第一桶金。他十分機敏，善於把握趨勢。如果你看看軟銀的演變歷程，會發現這是一家強大的日本公司，有一個人擔任全球的首席執行官，而孫正義則負責所有的投資。我們結識於6年前，當時雅虎和微軟正商談搜索合作，還沒有花費大量時間解決雅虎日本的問題。孫正義想確保他們擁有最好的搜索引擎，於是他來到谷歌，和我坐下來聊了聊。隨後，他提出了一個與雅虎不相牴觸的交易協定。這是他預判趨勢的又一個例子。進行交易時，他敢於冒險，絕不斤斤計較。就在那時，我們成了朋友。他總是遵守諾言，以大局爲重。

We spent a lot of time talking about the telecom market. We ended up going from peripheral conversations to deep conversations to Masa saying, ‘Why don’t we work together?’ He said, ‘I need to take what I do as a hobby, investing in global technology companies, to investing being part of SoftBank’s future.’

我們花了許多時間來探討電信市場。最後，我們的談話由淺入深，孫正義說：“我們幹嘛不合作呢？我需要把自己的事情當愛好來做，投資全球的科技公司，以此投資軟銀的未來。”

How are you approaching the task of investing on behalf of SoftBank?

你是怎樣代表軟銀來進行投資的？

For me it’s almost like a very well-funded startup playing in the big leagues. It has a strong balance sheet, and more than 50% of the assets are outside of Japan. We started talking about everything. He, Ron Fisher and I all spend time with Marcelo [Claure, the CEO of Sprint]. We also spend time on the Japanese business. I’ve spent a lot of time with the entrepreneurs of the Indian companies we’ve invested in. So I’ve spent the nine months investing, working with portfolio businesses, and starting to build a global team.

對我來說，這幾乎就像一家資金充足的初創公司開始大展拳腳。軟銀的資產負債表非常健康，超過50%的資產都位於日本境外。我們開始討論一切事情。我和孫正義、羅恩o費舍爾花了些時間與馬西羅o克羅爾（Sprint公司首席執行官）談話。我們還探討了日本業務。另外，我還用了不少時間與我們投資的印度公司的企業家們交流。就這樣，我用了9個月來投資，與我們投資的公司並肩合作，並開始打造一個全球化團隊。

What types of investments are you looking for?

你尋求哪種類型的投資？

Masa and I share an insight: If you look at innovative companies, almost every one goes through a lifecycle. It creates disruption, becomes a market leader, and then matures, either because the founders move on or the business model is copied and competition increases. Then it becomes very hard to be the innovation leader. We sat down and said: How do you create innovative companies for the long term? One way is to find the entrepreneurs and nurture them. If we can find five to ten people to work with every few years we’ll build for the future.

孫正義和我觀點一致：如果你去研究創新公司，會發現幾乎每一家都有同樣的生命週期。它們顛覆了舊有格局，成爲了市場領袖，然後走向成熟期，可能是因爲創始人選擇了新的方向，或是商業模式被模仿，或是競爭加劇。然後，這些公司就很難成爲創新領袖了。我們可以坐下來討論一下：你如何才能創立一家長期擁有創新力的公司？其中一種方法是找到企業家，培養他們。如果我們每過幾年，都能找到5至10個合適人選，與他們一起創造未來。

What themes should we take away from the companies SoftBank has invested in recently?

在軟銀最近投資的公司中，有哪些經驗可供我們借鑑？

We’ve been more opportunistic than thematic. The theme is that we want to make sure it’s a big addressable market. Masa has a saying, that of two small fish, one will become a whale and the other will become a tuna. We obviously want to invest in the fish that will become whales.

我們更傾向於伺機而動，而不是固守一個主題。我們的核心思路是確保要投資的是一個大型目標市場。孫正義有個說法：兩條小魚，有一條會成爲鯨魚，另一條會成爲金槍魚。顯然，我們想要投資那條潛在的鯨魚。

Would you like to comment on Verizon’s agreement to buy AOL?

對威瑞森公司收購美國在線這筆交易，你有何評價？

No. There are so many related situations with Sprint, a competitor to Verizon, and Tim [Armstrong], who I worked with at Google.

沒有。Sprint是威瑞森的競爭對手，蒂姆（阿姆斯特朗）是我之前在谷歌的同事，我和他們之間的交集太多了。

Did SoftBank ever comment about its attempt to buy DreamWorks, and would you like to now?

軟銀對試圖收購夢工廠的行爲有過什麼評論嗎？或者你現在來說幾句？

No.

沒有。

What are your thoughts on Sprint?

你對Sprint有什麼看法？

After Masa acquired the assets, we should have gone for restructuring faster. Now Marcelo is cleaning up the things that should have been cleaned up a while ago.

在孫正義收購這筆資產後，我們本應該更快地進行改組。現在，馬西羅正在清理那些早就該收拾好的事情。