推荐序一 “时运”再差，也能成就一番了不起的变革

里卡多·塞姆勒（Ricardo Semler）^[1]

塞氏企业（Semco SA）CEO

麻省理工学院斯隆管理学院教授、畅销书作者

把握时机绝非易事。时机和运气也往往是商业世界中最为珍贵的宝藏。我的合作伙伴Zeca笑称我为“时运最差的人”，因为我总是踩不到时机的节点上，不是太超前就是太滞后。

Timing is a very tricky thing，and many times the most valuable issue in business，along with luck. I have a partner，Zeca，who calls me The King of Bad Timing，saying that I am either way behind or too ahead of the times.

20世纪80年代的我，就不是那个抓住时机的幸运儿。1986年，我们成立了一家名为Semco Energy的公司，主要制造风力涡轮机。但当时人们都认为风力发电是完全不切实际的，所以我们的产品也无人问津；1989年，公司就难以为继了。然而，Zeca现在主营的风力涡轮机业务，生意是如火如荼，占据了巴西市场超过十亿美元的份额。但不凑巧的是，对于这部分的业务，我居然完全没有持股！

This was evident in the 80's，when we started a company called SemcoEnergy，that made wind turbines for aeolic energy. It lasted from 1986 to 1989-nobody believed these wild Don Quixote-like structures would make any sense. Nobody bought any. Zeca is now in that business，and does more than a billion dollars of business in Brazil with wind turbines. Me，I am not even a shareholder in this business of his. Makes one laugh…

1998年，我们发起了一个名为“HomeWork”的项目，并在圣保罗设立了14个小型办公室。这是一个联合办公项目，租用办公室的人通过刷信用卡进出，按分钟计费，而且办公室里还配有浴室。销售人员或者其他需要频繁与客户见面的人，可以在一天中空闲的一到两小时来这里办公。所以，我们也提供传真机、电脑及休闲区等。休闲区里的吊床可以供大家放松身心，营造出一种在家办公的氛围。只可惜，由于当时没有市场需求，两年内这个项目就已经无法再继续做下去。

Then，in 1998 we launched HomeWork，which had 14 small offices around the city of São Paulo. It was a co-working project，where people could use the space by the minute (credit card on entry and exit)，and even had showers. It was meant for salespeople and others that were in between appointments and had an hour or two to spare，and work from someplace. We had fax machines as well as computers，and green areas with hammocks for people to relax and do some home office work. In two years the business was closed，no customers.

成功与失败可以轻松地定义一个企业家，并为他打上难以撕下的标签，因为谈论成功总是比复盘失败容易。当我们的企业从110名员工发展到5000名员工时，我觉得我可以抛开失败的过往，来和大家谈谈成功的秘诀了。

An entrepreneur is defined as easily by his failures，as with successes，which are always easy to talk about. When we went from 110 to 5，000 employees，it was easy to mention only the successes.

一直以来，我对中国始终怀有热忱的向往，这种真挚的感情从我第一次来中国就开始酝酿发酵。1983年，当我第一次踏上中国的土地，这次经历了重重困难的旅行终于揭开了序幕。我曾亲眼见过一座高楼大厦都没有的广东，在新疆喀什的市场买过骆驼，在成都和熊猫看护员共同度过了两天，也曾在北京的巴西大使馆留下过足迹，在那里，我曾和中国联合国维和部队的成员一同探寻过地下城……

I've been an avid follower of China for a long time，since my first visit-very difficult to arrange-in 1983. I've been in Guandong when there were no high buildings anywhere，in Xinjiang，bought camels in the market in Kashgar，stayed with pand caretakers for two days in Chengdu，and stayed at the Brazilian embas-sy compound in Beijing，with a long visit to closed-off parts of the underground city with officials from the Chinese UN corps.

但我和中国的缘分，远比以上这些经历深刻得多。1938年，我的母亲和祖父母为逃离希特勒的统治登上了一艘去往上海的船。抵达上海后，他们在法租界生活，深深感受到了中国人民的真挚和热诚。日本侵华战争结束后的20世纪40年代初期，他们也曾流落到上海的贫民窟，并在那里生活多年。

But my connection with China is older than that. In 1938 my mother and her parents landed from a ship in Shanghai，fleeing Hitler. They made a life in the French Quarter，received with cordiality by the Chinese. After the Japanese invasion in the early forties，my family spend years in the Ghetto in Shanghai.

我最近回到上海拜访故所，惊讶地发现我母亲曾经住过的房子依然完好无损。房子外面的标识上写着：“美国前财政部长布卢门撒尔旧居”，布卢门撒尔在青少年时期也曾住在这里，他那时的年纪也和我母亲相仿。1949年，我的家人离开中国，之后的经历也成了一段被尘封的历史。

I went recently to visit，and saw，to my surprise，that the house where she lived was intact，and with a sign outside，saying that the Finance Minister of Jimmy Carter had lived there-an adolescent at the time，just like my mother. In 1949 they were forced to leave，of course，and the rest is history.

长久以来，中国一直蕴含着一股坚实的力量，中国更是智慧和策略的源头。现在中国在强大的社会主义制度引领下发展迅猛，商业也敏锐灵动，充满智慧。

The Chinese have always been a force，and a source of wisdom and strategy，and now have exploded in growth，from this formidable combination of socialism-that can somehow be called communism from a political standpoint-and business acumen and smarts.

1993年，在法兰克福书展上，我的第一本书面向出版商发售，出版订金高达数十万美元。我记得当时中国出版商代表团找到我，问我可否免费在中国出版这本书。听到这个问题我笑了，他们看到我的反应也不好意思地笑了，但我当时立刻就同意了他们的提议，并决定免费在中国出版。

When my first book was being sold to publishers during the Frankfurt Book Fair of 1993，and book deal advances were always in the hundreds of thousands of dollars，I received a delegation from publishers from China，who asked me whether I wanted to publish the book in China，for free. I laughed，and they laughed，and I immediately agreed.

中国经历了史无前例的高速发展，现在似乎迎来了面临选择的十字路口。我们还能继续踩着油门义无反顾地往前冲吗？还能依靠金字塔式的组织架构，命令和控制员工，用工资来驱动他们夜以继日地工作，从而为企业赚取更多的收益和利润吗？虽然这套方法让我们获得了令人羡艳的卓越成就，但在未来可能已经行不通了。

After a strong - the strongest the world has seen - push to grandeur in business and development，China now seems to be at a crossroads. To simply step on the accelerator，more and more，counting on long hours，insufficient wages-compared to the company revenues and profits -and a Command and Control pyramidal structure will probably not work well. Even if it was the basis for this extraordinary success，so far.

中国作为整个世界不可分割的重要一环，和其他国家一样需要逐渐进化衍生出一种全新的组织模式。这种全新的组织模式主张推行员工的自管理，给予员工更多的信任和放权。以上这些听起来似乎遥不可及，但也是全新组织模式中最为关键的部分。通过不懈的努力，塞氏研究院已经将这种新兴的理念和组织变革模式传递给全世界越来越多的国家，我对此感到非常骄傲和自豪。现在中国也成立了塞氏研究院，我非常期待看到塞氏变革能够在中国生根发芽、开花结果！

China，like the rest of an interwoven world，requires a model that slowly converts to more self-management，more information for all，more trust. All very difficult，but they are the essential parts of a new type of business organization. I am proud that Semco Style Institute is able to bring this philosophy and organizational change to more and more companies，in countries all around the world，and that it's now time to make this happen within China.

我的朋友魏浩征先生作为组织变革领域的专家，看到他正努力地把自己的知识和经验毫无保留地与中国的企业进行分享，以期帮助中国的企业平稳顺利地渡过组织变革的关键时期，从而更好地迎接未来的挑战，我感到非常欣喜。中国的发展领先于全球水平，我十分乐于追随中国的步伐，希望能够在中国新的发展阶段看到更多的企业勇敢迈出组织变革的第一步，让企业本身更加公开透明，让员工享有更多自主管理的权力，从而让更多中国企业真正成为新时代组织的领袖与楷模。而我则会坚定地作为新时代中国企业的忠实伙伴，相伴左右，永不缺席！

My friend David Wei is a master in these matters. It is a pleasure to see him expound on his depth of knowledge and experience，share it with the Chinese business public，and assist companies in implementing a fundamental and necessary change，for the future. It will also be a pleasure to follow the development of the world's leading country，in the hopes that the new phase of growth will include a distribution of power and transparency inside businesses，to make them—also in this sense—leaders of a new era of organizations. For that，you can count on me，a friend of the new China.

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[1] 里卡多·塞姆勒是经典的《塞氏企业》和《七日周末》的畅销书作者。他也曾是麻省理工学院斯隆管理学院的领导力教授和哈佛大学的访问学者。30年前，里卡多在塞氏企业实施了对员工友好的颠覆性企业自管理变革项目。现在，他正在努力通过Lumiar School（卢米亚尔学校）将企业自管理的理念引入教育之中。塞氏研究院是基于里卡多经营理念的管理研究院。位于巴西的塞氏企业是首个实施里卡多革命性思想和成功商业理念的公司。Ricardo Semler is the best-selling author of the classic Maverick and The Seven-Day Weekend. He was Professor of Leadership at MIT 's Sloan School of Management and Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School. Ricardo is a champion of the employee-friendly radical corporate democracy that he implemented at Semco for over 30 years ago and he is working to bring radical corporate democracy to education through Lumiar School. Semco Style is based on the philosophy of Ricardo Semler，Semco being the Brazilian company where he first implemented his revolutionary and successful business ideas.

[2] 法鲁克在管理咨询方面拥有多年的经验。他曾在多家咨询公司工作，例如毕马威（KPMG）。他也曾在荷兰历史最悠久的领导力学院（de Baak）的管理委员会工作。这些经历让他深谙战略领导力计划的战略价值。塞氏研究院旨在建立更具弹性和适应性的组织，以激发更高绩效和促进企业家精神。Farouk has an extensive background in management consulting. His work experience at consulting companies，e. g. KPMG，and in the management board of the oldest Leadership Institute of The Netherlands，de Baak，learned him the strategic value of strategic leadership programs. Semco Style Institute helps building organizations that show adaptability，stimulate performance and foster entrepreneurship.