The chief executives are dropping like flies. Ken Thompson, Jimmy Cayne, Chuck Prince, Stan O'Neal. There's more to come. And you're thinking - at last, they get their comeuppance.
But spare a prayer for the CEO. It is tougher than you think to be a CEO. What goes through the mind of the CEO isn't just about money and power. It also is about the burden of failure.
When thousands of people are depending on you, that is a heavy burden. You don't want to let your employees, shareholders and board down. In failure, you do.
Just look at Chuck Prince and Jimmy Cayne. Broken men. As Cayne said at the final Bear Stearns Cos. (BSC) shareholder meeting, 'Words alone can't describe the pain I feel.' He knows his legacy: the destruction of his bank and almost $1 billion of his personal wealth.
A few years ago, I was CEO of a big joint venture that was the Internet portal for Vodafone Group PLC (VOD) and Vivendi SA (12777.FR), two of Europe's largest companies. At its peak, the venture had eight operating companies and more than 1,000 employees. It was a high profile affair. Vivendi CEO Jean-Marie Messier was chairman of the board. Other board members included Vodafone CEO Sir Christopher Gent and Vivendi Vice-Chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr.
Starting and building the company was tough. I had done plenty of 100 hour workweeks as a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) banker, but I never worked as hard as when I was CEO.
But it was much more than just long hours. There was an enormous weight of individual responsibility and accountability. At Goldman, you cloaked yourself in the collective organization. As CEO, you were naked.
True, the CEO is extraordinarily well-paid. He is powerful. He makes decisions. He can hire and fire people. But in the end, his power is always dependent on others. 'You're gonna have to serve somebody,' as Bob Dylan said.
I had to beg a prospective finance chief to join my management team. I had to ask board members for money to invest. And I had to deliver the goods - a slew of fancy Web sites - for operating partners and customers.
These are all undertakings on behalf of the company. But as CEO, you answer for more than the company. They are your personal undertakings. Expensive acquisition? Missed launch deadline? Product failure? Cost over-run? Unhappy business partner? Bad press? It all comes back to the CEO.
Or, at least I thought it did.
Some CEOs manage to create a distance between their personal lives and the life of the company. Dick Parsons, former Time Warner Inc. (TWX) CEO, openly admitted that the CEO job wasn't his life. He liked to fly to Tuscany to look after his vineyard.
I found it tough to check out like that. I lived and breathed the company. And when things weren't going well, I took it very personally. One Christmas holiday I took my family to France. But I barely saw them. I was on the phone as one of our new Web sites crashed repeatedly at launch.
I think most CEOs are that obsessed. Hank Greenberg of American International Group Inc. (AIG), Sandy Weill of Citigroup Inc. (C) and Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) didn't go home at night, throw one back and forget about work. A critic would say they identified way too closely with their companies.
I wouldn't waste my pity on a CEO such as Stan O'Neal, who rose through the ranks at Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER). His one bold initiative was to have Merrill overpay for subprime lender First Franklin at the peak of the credit bubble.
But Wachovia Corp.'s (WB) Ken Thompson was more of a builder CEO. He essentially created Wachovia, first by restoring First Union to health and then by reversing First Union into Wachovia in 2001. And he did a solid job of building Wachovia since he took over as CEO in 2003.
Of course, there is no getting around the disastrous Golden West Financial acquisition of 2006. And that is what took him down. An unhappy shareholder should say good riddance. But it takes a hard heart to feel nothing for Thompson when in his farewell he said, 'It's been an honor to serve this great company for 32 years. I have complete confidence in the ability of 120,000 Wachovia employees and thank them for their dedication and commitment to Wachovia.' By the time my CEO job was drawing to a close, I felt I had done a good job. I also felt lousy because it just wasn't working.
The technologies we were implementing were too immature. Relationships with our operating partners were deteriorating. The next step was to downsize and re-focus the business. And the weight of failure was too heavy for me. So I went.
Next time, Jim Cramer or some other talking head calls for the firing of another CEO, pause for a moment. To err is human, to forgive divine.
《华尔街日报》--眼下，首席执行长们接二连三地黯然退场，比如肯•汤普森(Ken Thompson)、吉米•凯恩(Jimmy Cayne)、查克•普林斯(Chuck Prince)、斯坦•奥尼尔(Stan O'Neal)。接下来还会有更多的CEO步他们的后尘。你或许在想，他们总算是罪有应得了。
不过，还是请为CEO们祈祷吧。当CEO可比你想像的要难多了。CEO脑子里想的可不只是钱和权，还有失败的重负。
当数千个人都依靠你的时候，这就成了一项繁重的负担。你不想令你的员工、股东和董事会失望。但是如果你失败了，你就辜负了他们的期望。
看看普林斯和凯恩就知道了。他们都已心力交瘁。正如凯恩在贝尔斯登公司(Bear Stearns Cos.)最后一次股东大会上所说的一样，我感受到的痛苦无以言表。他知道自己身后留下了些什么：他的银行垮了，自己也丧失了近10亿美元的财富。
几年前，我曾担任一个大型合资企业的CEO。该企业是欧洲两家大型公司沃达丰空中通讯公司(Vodafone Group PLC)和Vivendi SA联手成立的互联网门户。在鼎盛时期，这个合资企业旗下有8家运营公司和1,000多名员工，很是风光。Vivendi首席执行长让•马里•梅西埃(Jean-Marie Messier)任公司董事长，董事包括沃达丰CEO克里斯托弗•根特爵士(Sir Christopher Gent)和Vivendi副董事长小埃德加•布朗夫曼(Edgar Bronfman Jr.)。
公司的创立和发展都是很艰巨的任务。之前我在高盛集团(Goldman Sachs Group Inc.)当银行家时常常每周工作100来个小时，但这与CEO的工作相比简直是小巫见大巫。
不过还不只是工作时间长的问题。个人的责任和义务也如泰山压顶。在高盛的时候，你还有集体作挡箭牌；而在CEO的位子上，你就只能靠自己了。
没错，CEO们薪酬丰厚，有权有势，运筹帷幄，掌握着员工的生杀大权。但最终，他的权力还是要依赖其他人。正如鲍勃•迪伦(Bob Dylan)在歌中唱到的那样：你总要替某个人卖命。
我曾不得不央求一位可能要做首席财务长的人加入我的团队、请求董事们批准投资资金，我还不得不为运营合作伙伴和客户提供产品──一大堆花里胡哨的网站。
这些事都是为了公司而做的。不过作为CEO，除了公司，你还需要对其他事情负责。这些都是要你个人承受的事。价格不菲的收购？错过了产品发布截至日期？产品故障？超支？商业伙伴的不满？负面新闻？所有这一切都会回到CEO这里。
或者说，至少我是这么认为的。
有些CEO能做到公私分明。时代华纳公司(Time Warner Inc.)前CEO迪克•帕森斯(Dick Parsons)曾公开承认，CEO的工作并非他的生活。他喜欢飞到托斯卡纳去照看他的葡萄园。
我发现自己很难做到这一点。我的生活整日都是围着公司转。如果事情进展得不顺利，我会觉得是我的错。一次圣诞节的时候，我带家人去了法国。但我几乎都见不到他们，因为公司的一个新网站推出的时候反复瘫痪，我不得不一直拴在电话上。
我想大部分CEO都是这样缠在公司的事务里。美国国际集团(American International Group Inc.)的汉克•格林伯格(Hank Greenberg)、花旗集团(Citigroup Inc.)的桑迪•威尔(Sandy Weill)和惠普公司(Hewlett-Packard Co.)的卡莉•菲奥莉娜(Carly Fiorina)这些人不会晚上回家后就把工作抛在脑后。批评人士可能会说，这些人和公司简直成了连体婴儿了。
我不会把同情心浪费在像奥尼尔这样的CEO身上，他在美林公司(Merrill Lynch & Co.)算是平步青云，登上了CEO的位子。他的一个大胆举措是在信贷泡沫顶峰的时候，收购次级抵押贷款放贷机构First Franklin时多付了一大笔钱。
不过Wachovia Corp.的汤普森从更大程度上讲是位建设型CEO。基本上是他一手创建了Wachovia。他先是让First Union恢复正常运转，接着在2001年和First Union合并，并保留了Wachovia的名字。从2003年担任Wachovia的CEO以来，他为该行的发展做了实实在在的工作。
当然，我们无法回避2006年Wachovia对Golden West Financial灾难性的收购。正是这桩交易把他拉下了马。不满的股东可能会说现在总算解脱了。但是当汤普森在告别会上说，"我很荣幸能在这家伟大的公司服务32年，我完全相信12万名Wachovia员工的能力，同时感谢他们对Wachovia做出的贡献"时，只有铁石心肠的人才会无动于衷。我的CEO工作接近尾声的时候，我感觉自己工作做的不错。但同时也感觉挺糟糕，因为有些事就是行不通。
我们采用的技术太不成熟，和运营伙伴的关系在恶化，下一步还要裁员、重新调整业务重心。失败的重压对我来说将难以承受，所以我决定离开。
下一次，当吉姆•克拉姆(Jim Cramer)或是其他评论员呼吁开掉某位CEO的时候，请别那么着急。毕竟，人非 贤，孰能无过。
关键字:双语新闻
生词表:
But spare a prayer for the CEO. It is tougher than you think to be a CEO. What goes through the mind of the CEO isn't just about money and power. It also is about the burden of failure.
When thousands of people are depending on you, that is a heavy burden. You don't want to let your employees, shareholders and board down. In failure, you do.
Just look at Chuck Prince and Jimmy Cayne. Broken men. As Cayne said at the final Bear Stearns Cos. (BSC) shareholder meeting, 'Words alone can't describe the pain I feel.' He knows his legacy: the destruction of his bank and almost $1 billion of his personal wealth.
A few years ago, I was CEO of a big joint venture that was the Internet portal for Vodafone Group PLC (VOD) and Vivendi SA (12777.FR), two of Europe's largest companies. At its peak, the venture had eight operating companies and more than 1,000 employees. It was a high profile affair. Vivendi CEO Jean-Marie Messier was chairman of the board. Other board members included Vodafone CEO Sir Christopher Gent and Vivendi Vice-Chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr.
Starting and building the company was tough. I had done plenty of 100 hour workweeks as a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) banker, but I never worked as hard as when I was CEO.
But it was much more than just long hours. There was an enormous weight of individual responsibility and accountability. At Goldman, you cloaked yourself in the collective organization. As CEO, you were naked.
True, the CEO is extraordinarily well-paid. He is powerful. He makes decisions. He can hire and fire people. But in the end, his power is always dependent on others. 'You're gonna have to serve somebody,' as Bob Dylan said.
I had to beg a prospective finance chief to join my management team. I had to ask board members for money to invest. And I had to deliver the goods - a slew of fancy Web sites - for operating partners and customers.
These are all undertakings on behalf of the company. But as CEO, you answer for more than the company. They are your personal undertakings. Expensive acquisition? Missed launch deadline? Product failure? Cost over-run? Unhappy business partner? Bad press? It all comes back to the CEO.
Or, at least I thought it did.
Some CEOs manage to create a distance between their personal lives and the life of the company. Dick Parsons, former Time Warner Inc. (TWX) CEO, openly admitted that the CEO job wasn't his life. He liked to fly to Tuscany to look after his vineyard.
I found it tough to check out like that. I lived and breathed the company. And when things weren't going well, I took it very personally. One Christmas holiday I took my family to France. But I barely saw them. I was on the phone as one of our new Web sites crashed repeatedly at launch.
I think most CEOs are that obsessed. Hank Greenberg of American International Group Inc. (AIG), Sandy Weill of Citigroup Inc. (C) and Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) didn't go home at night, throw one back and forget about work. A critic would say they identified way too closely with their companies.
I wouldn't waste my pity on a CEO such as Stan O'Neal, who rose through the ranks at Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER). His one bold initiative was to have Merrill overpay for subprime lender First Franklin at the peak of the credit bubble.
But Wachovia Corp.'s (WB) Ken Thompson was more of a builder CEO. He essentially created Wachovia, first by restoring First Union to health and then by reversing First Union into Wachovia in 2001. And he did a solid job of building Wachovia since he took over as CEO in 2003.
Of course, there is no getting around the disastrous Golden West Financial acquisition of 2006. And that is what took him down. An unhappy shareholder should say good riddance. But it takes a hard heart to feel nothing for Thompson when in his farewell he said, 'It's been an honor to serve this great company for 32 years. I have complete confidence in the ability of 120,000 Wachovia employees and thank them for their dedication and commitment to Wachovia.' By the time my CEO job was drawing to a close, I felt I had done a good job. I also felt lousy because it just wasn't working.
The technologies we were implementing were too immature. Relationships with our operating partners were deteriorating. The next step was to downsize and re-focus the business. And the weight of failure was too heavy for me. So I went.
Next time, Jim Cramer or some other talking head calls for the firing of another CEO, pause for a moment. To err is human, to forgive divine.
《华尔街日报》--眼下，首席执行长们接二连三地黯然退场，比如肯•汤普森(Ken Thompson)、吉米•凯恩(Jimmy Cayne)、查克•普林斯(Chuck Prince)、斯坦•奥尼尔(Stan O'Neal)。接下来还会有更多的CEO步他们的后尘。你或许在想，他们总算是罪有应得了。
不过，还是请为CEO们祈祷吧。当CEO可比你想像的要难多了。CEO脑子里想的可不只是钱和权，还有失败的重负。
当数千个人都依靠你的时候，这就成了一项繁重的负担。你不想令你的员工、股东和董事会失望。但是如果你失败了，你就辜负了他们的期望。
看看普林斯和凯恩就知道了。他们都已心力交瘁。正如凯恩在贝尔斯登公司(Bear Stearns Cos.)最后一次股东大会上所说的一样，我感受到的痛苦无以言表。他知道自己身后留下了些什么：他的银行垮了，自己也丧失了近10亿美元的财富。
几年前，我曾担任一个大型合资企业的CEO。该企业是欧洲两家大型公司沃达丰空中通讯公司(Vodafone Group PLC)和Vivendi SA联手成立的互联网门户。在鼎盛时期，这个合资企业旗下有8家运营公司和1,000多名员工，很是风光。Vivendi首席执行长让•马里•梅西埃(Jean-Marie Messier)任公司董事长，董事包括沃达丰CEO克里斯托弗•根特爵士(Sir Christopher Gent)和Vivendi副董事长小埃德加•布朗夫曼(Edgar Bronfman Jr.)。
公司的创立和发展都是很艰巨的任务。之前我在高盛集团(Goldman Sachs Group Inc.)当银行家时常常每周工作100来个小时，但这与CEO的工作相比简直是小巫见大巫。
不过还不只是工作时间长的问题。个人的责任和义务也如泰山压顶。在高盛的时候，你还有集体作挡箭牌；而在CEO的位子上，你就只能靠自己了。
没错，CEO们薪酬丰厚，有权有势，运筹帷幄，掌握着员工的生杀大权。但最终，他的权力还是要依赖其他人。正如鲍勃•迪伦(Bob Dylan)在歌中唱到的那样：你总要替某个人卖命。
我曾不得不央求一位可能要做首席财务长的人加入我的团队、请求董事们批准投资资金，我还不得不为运营合作伙伴和客户提供产品──一大堆花里胡哨的网站。
这些事都是为了公司而做的。不过作为CEO，除了公司，你还需要对其他事情负责。这些都是要你个人承受的事。价格不菲的收购？错过了产品发布截至日期？产品故障？超支？商业伙伴的不满？负面新闻？所有这一切都会回到CEO这里。
或者说，至少我是这么认为的。
有些CEO能做到公私分明。时代华纳公司(Time Warner Inc.)前CEO迪克•帕森斯(Dick Parsons)曾公开承认，CEO的工作并非他的生活。他喜欢飞到托斯卡纳去照看他的葡萄园。
我发现自己很难做到这一点。我的生活整日都是围着公司转。如果事情进展得不顺利，我会觉得是我的错。一次圣诞节的时候，我带家人去了法国。但我几乎都见不到他们，因为公司的一个新网站推出的时候反复瘫痪，我不得不一直拴在电话上。
我想大部分CEO都是这样缠在公司的事务里。美国国际集团(American International Group Inc.)的汉克•格林伯格(Hank Greenberg)、花旗集团(Citigroup Inc.)的桑迪•威尔(Sandy Weill)和惠普公司(Hewlett-Packard Co.)的卡莉•菲奥莉娜(Carly Fiorina)这些人不会晚上回家后就把工作抛在脑后。批评人士可能会说，这些人和公司简直成了连体婴儿了。
我不会把同情心浪费在像奥尼尔这样的CEO身上，他在美林公司(Merrill Lynch & Co.)算是平步青云，登上了CEO的位子。他的一个大胆举措是在信贷泡沫顶峰的时候，收购次级抵押贷款放贷机构First Franklin时多付了一大笔钱。
不过Wachovia Corp.的汤普森从更大程度上讲是位建设型CEO。基本上是他一手创建了Wachovia。他先是让First Union恢复正常运转，接着在2001年和First Union合并，并保留了Wachovia的名字。从2003年担任Wachovia的CEO以来，他为该行的发展做了实实在在的工作。
当然，我们无法回避2006年Wachovia对Golden West Financial灾难性的收购。正是这桩交易把他拉下了马。不满的股东可能会说现在总算解脱了。但是当汤普森在告别会上说，"我很荣幸能在这家伟大的公司服务32年，我完全相信12万名Wachovia员工的能力，同时感谢他们对Wachovia做出的贡献"时，只有铁石心肠的人才会无动于衷。我的CEO工作接近尾声的时候，我感觉自己工作做的不错。但同时也感觉挺糟糕，因为有些事就是行不通。
我们采用的技术太不成熟，和运营伙伴的关系在恶化，下一步还要裁员、重新调整业务重心。失败的重压对我来说将难以承受，所以我决定离开。
下一次，当吉姆•克拉姆(Jim Cramer)或是其他评论员呼吁开掉某位CEO的时候，请别那么着急。毕竟，人非 贤，孰能无过。
关键字:双语新闻
生词表:
- legacy [´legəsi]
n.遗产；传代物 六级词汇 - portal [´pɔ:tl] n.(正)门；隧道 四级词汇
- profile [´prəufail] n.侧面 vt.画...侧面 六级词汇
- collective [kə´lektiv] a.集体的 n.集体 六级词汇
- extraordinarily [ik´strɔ:dənərili] ad.非常，特别地 六级词汇
- prospective [prə´spektiv] a.预期的；未来的 四级词汇
- acquisition [,ækwi´ziʃən] n.获得；获得物 六级词汇
- repeatedly [ri´pi:tidli] ad.反复地；再三地 四级词汇
- essentially [i´senʃəli] ad.本质上，基本上 四级词汇
- disastrous [di´zɑ:strəs] a.招致灾祸的；不幸的 四级词汇
- drawing [´drɔ:iŋ] n.画图；制图；图样 四级词汇
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