企业家怎样让企业活得更长

联想是在中关村土生土长,从一家小企业成长到大的一家跨国公司。2000年后,他们决定开展风险投资业务,从2001年到2008年联想投资的风险投资金额大概有3亿多美元,投了80多家企业,每投资一家企业他们都要在一年、两年后对该企业进行复盘,研究这个投资的成功与否。用联想董事局主席柳传志在2009中关村论坛演讲中的话说,“我们对企业创新创业的能力和企业家精神是有一定发言权的”。为什么说企业家的因素特别重要呢？且听柳传志娓娓道来     

Almost ready: how leaders move up

Most designated CEO successors are talented, hardworking, and smart enough to go all the way--yet fail to land the top job. What they don't realize is, the qualities that helped them in their climb to the number two position aren't enough to boost them to number one. In addition to running their businesses well, the author explains, would-be CEOs must master the art of forming coalitions and winning support. They must also sharpen their self-awareness and their sensitivity to the needs of bosses and influential peers because they typically receive little performance feedback once they're on track to become CEO. Indeed, the ability to pick up on subtle cues is often an important part of the test. When succession doesn't go well--or fails altogether--many people pay the price: employees depending on a smooth handoff at the top, investors expecting continuous leadership, and families uprooted when jobs don't pan out. Among those at fault are boards that do not keep a close watch on the succession process, human resource organizations that should have the capacity to help but are not up to the task, and CEOs who do a poor job coaching potential successors. But the aspiring CEO also bears some responsibility. He can dramatically increase his chances of success by understanding his boss's point of view, knowing his own limitations, and managing what psychologist Gerry Egan has called the "shadow organization"--the political side of a company, characterized by unspoken relationships and alliances--without being labeled "political." Most of all, he must learn to conduct himself with a level of maturity and wisdom that signals he is ready--not almost ready--to be chief executive.     

Innovation killers: how financial tools destroy your capacity to do new things

Most companies aren't half as innovative as their senior executives want them to be (or as their marketing claims suggest they are). What's stifling innovation? There are plenty of usual suspects, but the authors finger three financial tools as key accomplices. Discounted cash flow and net present value, as commonly used, underestimate the real returns and benefits of proceeding with an investment. Most executives compare the cash flows from innovation against the default scenario of doing nothing, assuming--incorrectly--that the present health of the company will persist indefinitely if the investment is not made. In most situations, however, competitors' sustaining and disruptive investments over time result in deterioration of financial performance. Fixed- and sunk-cost conventional wisdom confers an unfair advantage on challengers and shackles incumbent firms that attempt to respond to an attack. Executives in established companies, bemoaning the expense of building new brands and developing new sales and distribution channels, seek instead to leverage their existing brands and structures. Entrants, in contrast, simply create new ones. The problem for the incumbent isn't that the challenger can spend more; it's that the challenger is spared the dilemma of having to choose between full-cost and marginal-cost options. The emphasis on short-term earnings per share as the primary driver of share price, and hence shareholder value creation, acts to restrict investments in innovative long-term growth opportunities. These are not bad tools and concepts in and of themselves, but the way they are used to evaluate investments creates a systematic bias against successful innovation. The authors recommend alternative methods that can help managers innovate with a much more astute eye for future value.     

新三板做市商作用如何体现

在2015年北京科博会期间的2015中国金融论坛上，全国股份转让系统公司机构业务部总监贾忠磊特别介绍了新三板的做市商制度，他认为：从2014年8月25号推出做市业务以后，运行了九个月，作用表现得非常明显。     

If private equity sized up your business

As the dust settles on the recent frenzy of private equity deals (including transactions topping $20 billion), what lessons can companies glean? Directors and executives of public companies may now be slightly less fearful of imminent takeover, yet the pressure remains: They face shareholders who wonder why they aren't getting private-equity-level returns. Rather than dismiss the value private equity has created as manipulated or aberrant, public company leaders should recognize the disciplined management that often underlies it. Pozen, a longtime leader in the financial services industry, finds that in the aftermath of buyouts, companies undergo five major thrusts of reform. These translate into five key questions that directors should pose to senior management: Have we left too much cash on our balance sheet instead of raising our cash dividends or buying back shares? Do we have the optimal capital structure, with the lowest weighted after-tax cost of total capital, including debt and equity? Do we have an operating plan that will significantly increase shareholder value, with specific metrics to monitor performance? Are the compensation rewards for our top executives tied closely enough to increases in shareholder value, with real penalties for nonperformance? Finally, does our board have enough industry experts who have made the time commitments and been given the financial incentives necessary to maximize shareholder value? The era of private equity is far from over - the top funds have become very large and are likely to play an influential role in future market cycles. Boards that ask these questions, and act on them, won't just beat the takeover artists to the punch. They will build stronger businesses.     

Understanding what your sales manager is up against

Every year, the research firm CSO Insights publishes the results of its Sales Performance Optimization survey, an online questionnaire given to more than 1,000 sales executives worldwide that seeks to examine the effectiveness of key sales practices and metrics. In this article, two partners from CSO provide the 2005 and 2006 survey highlights, which describe the challenges today's sales organizations face and how they're responding. An overall theme is the degree to which the buy cycle has gotten out of sync with the sell cycle. Buyers have always had a buy cycle, starting at the point they perceive a need. Sellers have always had a sales cycle, starting at the point they spot a prospect. Traditionally, the two have dovetailed--either because the seller created the buyer's perception of need or because the buyer pursued a need by contacting a salesperson (often for product information). Now the buy cycle is often well under way before the seller is even aware there is a cycle--in part because of the information asymmetry created by the Internet. The implications for managing a sales organization are profound in that sales training must now address how reps handle an environment in which buyers have more knowledge than they do. The authors offer evidence that sales executives are taking--and should take--aggressive action to train and retain sales talent, manage the sales process, and use sales support technologies to meet the challenges of this new environment.     

Consumerism's sea change: how it will affect your company in the coming years

Consumerism and care management are the cost-containment strategies most employers say they will focus on over the next five years. This article reviews the growth of these strategies and the different ways employers have implemented them. The author then delineates the ten key ways that consumerism may affect companies over the next five- to ten-year time period, as these strategies continue to move health benefits toward greater transparency, flexibility and accountability.     

金融危机下的香港联系汇率制：坚守还是放弃？

金融危机下的世界处于动荡之中，避险资金纷纷涌入香港，实施了25年的联系汇率制面临新的考验。通过考察香港联系汇率制实施的历史经验，分析其在新形势下面临的挑战，可以看到，目前形势下联系汇率制仍然是香港较好的选择，突然放弃联系汇率制不利于香港经济的稳定发展。     

从一则案例看欧债危机对于香港转口业务的影响

中国信保专家指出：香港作为贸易港,背靠全球最大的生产工厂中国大陆,其出口业务遍及全球,不可避免的,全球各国各行业的风险都可能在香港买方身上体现出来     

Nonprofits: check your attention to customers

Nonprofit organizations chronically face financial difficulties. Now the situation has worsened because they are being squeezed between the uncertain economic climate and cutbacks in government support. While the managers of these institutions may think that they have already tried everything possible, more than ever they must be innovative in developing additional funding sources. As Mr. Andreasen argues, most nonprofits have failed to exploit marketing techniques which can build support from users or customers that leads to improved cash flow. The author contends that managers of nonprofit organizations focus too closely on their products or services; he admonishes them to give more attention to the needs and wants of their consumers.     

金融危机加快拉美私营养老金改革步伐

2008年以来的金融危机给全球养老金行业带来巨大冲击.拉丁美洲作为世界上率先进行社保私有化改革的地区,在这场危机中无疑受到很大影响,其中最令世界瞩目的是阿根廷私营养老金体系的国有化改革事件.     

Managing your boss: a compatible relationship with your superior is essential to being effective in your job

Good managers recognize that a relationship with a boss involves mutual dependence and that, if it is not managed well, they cannot be effective in their jobs. They also recognize that the boss-subordinate relationship is not like the one between a parent and a child, in that the burden for managing the relationship should not and cannot fall entirely on the boss. Bosses are only human; their wisdom and maturity are not always greater than their subordinates'. Effective managers see managing the relationship with the boss as part of their job. As a result, they take time and energy to develop a relationship that is consonant with both persons' styles and assets and that meets the most critical needs of each.     

Match your innovation strategy to your innovation ecosystem

High-definition televisions should, by now, be a huge success. Philips, Sony, and Thompson invested billions of dollars to develop TV sets with astonishing picture quality. From a technology perspective, they've succeeded: Console manufacturers have been ready for the mass market since the early 1990s. Yet the category has been an unmitigated failure, not because of deficiencies, but because critical complements such as studio production equipment were not developed or adopted in time. Under-performing complements have left console producers in the position of offering a Ferrari in a world without gasoline or highways--an admirable engineering feat, but not one that creates value for customers. The HDTV story exemplifies the promise and peril of innovation ecosystems--the collaborative arrangements through which firms combine their individual offers into a coherent, customer-facing solution. When they work, innovation ecosystems allow companies to create value that no one firm could have created alone. The benefits of these systems are real. But for many organizations the attempt at ecosystem innovation has been a costly failure. This is because, along with new opportunities, innovation ecosystems also present a new set of risks that can brutally derail a firm's best efforts. Innovation ecosystems are characterized by three fundamental types of risk: initiative risks--the familiar uncertainties of managing a project; interdependence risks--the uncertainties of coordinating with complementary innovators; and integration risks--the uncertainties presented by the adoption process across the value chain. Firms that assess ecosystem risks holistically and systematically will be able to establish more realistic expectations, develop a more refined set of environmental contingencies, and arrive at a more robust innovation strategy. Collectively, these actions will lead to more effective implementation and more profitable innovation.     

Medicare payment: how low it will go and how to prepare

Hospitals should begin preparing now for a decade of reductions in Medicare payment with strategies aimed at: Partnering with clinical leadership, Performing detailed margin analysis, Engaging with service line managers and physicians, Revamping care coordination, Ensuring efficient operating room utilization, Improving emergency department operations.     

创业者怎样面对创业板

对于创业者们来说,重要的是做好自己的公司,让它发展、长大,让公司的股票升值,让自己、股东、员工、社会都从中受益,这才是真正的创业者风险投资要寻求退出是天经地义的,他们是拿钱做生意,不是做慈善。投资过的企业尽快上市,是VC最大的目标。这样VC手里持有的股份,就可以在证券市场公开交易了,股份就实现了所谓的"流动性",变现就变得容易多了。如果公司上不了市,VC要套现手里的股份,还是有很大难度的。     

神雾集团如何做大赚钱的学问

在坐落于北京中关村科技园区昌平园的神雾集团大楼内,《国际融资》记者独家专访了北京神雾环境能源科技集团股份有限公司(简称:神雾集团)董事长兼总经理吴道洪博士。吴博士独特的创业经历与睿智的战略手笔,让我们看到了一家中国民营企业18年来是怎样从一家小微公司,发展成集"节能技术的研发-制造-设备配套-咨询与设计-工程总承包"全产业链布局,拥有石油化工甲级设计、咨询和工程总承包资质,冶金甲级设计、咨询和工程总承包资质,北京市唯一炉窑工程专业承包一级资质等工程资质,节能核心设备制造基地,全球最大的节能与低碳技术联合实验室等七家全资或控股子公司的股份制集团公司;又是怎样从最初销售工业炉喷嘴节能技术产品,创新研发出适用中国劣质黑色金属矿、劣质有色金属矿和冶金固废处理的高效清洁冶炼新技术和新工艺,并使多项核心技术走在了世界前列     

与投资人交往大有门道

注重企业与投资人对接实效的滨海国际股权交易所（以下简称股交所）,自成立推出一个＂投资中国＂的品牌计划,结合他们在各地掌握的好项目,紧锣密鼓地开展系列小型封闭式对接活动,其中一项就是为对接企业进行投融资方面的培训。不少股交所会员机构承担了这一授课任务。前不久在北京举办的第12届国际电子商务大会股权对接会上,欧瑞斯中国基金投资经理秦大川讲授了融资企业应该如何与投资人打交道,这里大有门道。《国际融资》记者认为,这对项目企业取得融资知识与经验是一种有意义、有针对性的培训方式     

中小企业如何捕捉商机

在过去的三十多年里,随着中国经济的高速发展,中国企业也在不断做大、做强。但是,对于绝大多数的中小型企业来说,一味地追大、追强显然并不现实,尤其在当前全球经济低迷徘徊的经济环境下,中小企业更要探寻合身的突破之路。为此,《国际融资》记者采访了享誉全球"隐形冠军"之父、成长型企业的管理专家、西蒙顾和管理咨询公司主席、合伙人,来自欧洲的管理大师赫尔曼·西蒙先生。他对于在当前环境下中国中小企业如何捕捉商机,如何潜入,如何浮出,如何思考,如何决策给出了自己精辟的观点