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美国公使孔庙演讲(下)
今日中国最深刻的变化恐怕是外国的特别是西方的尤其是美国的管理思想与科
学技术模式的渗入。这一变化是邓小平所开创、其接班人所继续执行的“改革开放”
的必然产物。总的来说,这一变化给中国和西方都带来了惊人的积极效果,这是中
国有史以来所发生的最伟大最快速的经济增长以及中国人民从共同贫穷的困顿中走
向物质繁荣的一个主要因素,这一繁荣在20年前几乎无人想象得到。
对于人际关系而言,个体与个体之间,国与国之间,恐怕最切实的方面就是这
一变化造就了在中国境内中国人与外国人交往的轻松与亲切的气氛,中国有史以来
第一次允许我们成为真正的伙伴。二十年前,我是“贵宾”,如今,我们都只是
“老外”而已。
中美两国人民在工商界恐怕比其他任何领域都相互了解得更多,随着开展每一
个合资项目,每一个合同的签订,每一批商品与服务的销售,中国人和美国人都在
为着双方的利益打交道。每一方都向对方有所提供,双方都在学习相互尊重。工商
界是我们两国间的一个广阔的交汇地带。是工商企业,在创造更繁荣的未来方面贡
献得最多,并使中国进一步融为世界的领导力量。
这样一个繁荣的,有活力的稳定的中国,一个决定并维护新的千年中灵活多变
的世界秩序的领导力量,肯定是多数中国人想看到的,也是美国人民共同的想法,
并且希望帮助它成为现实。
各国政府恐怕都可以进一步优化前景,但并不能将其变为现实。只有辛勤的工
作、我们今天的新工商管理硕士们经营的企业以及聪明才智被管理者发挥出来的民
众才能将远景变为现实。我们的新硕士们需要和会计师、保险统计师、经纪人、财
政规划者、借贷员、银行审核员、系统分析员以及其他可影响市场经济的无数行业
的人士合作。同样的,只有在文明社会的经济与法律机构占有坚实的地位时远景才
能变为现实,也就是说要有:一系列秉公执行的民法与刑法、独立的司法体系、保
护个体利益的管理机构,保证职业道德的行业机构———总之,一个可确保在国际
化民主化的市场经济社会中道德价值观的机构网络。
中国正经历着伟大的变革,发生在以今天的新MBA硕士研究生所代表的一代当中。
这一变化继续以高速发展,创造着新的财富和从未有过的利益。这些变化也具有不
稳定因素,产生着贫富的差距,一些曾困扰旧中国的社会痼疾有所抬头。变化也产
生着它自身的后坐力,而导致不可人意的有误导作用的扭曲的事物,因而就存在着
风险。
在发生不同寻常的社会变革的任何时刻都会带来风险与机遇。而就要接受硕士
学位的在座的经理们将很独特地同时面对二者。你们的新学位将帮助你们评估风险
与机遇,在尽可能争取后者的同时减小前者。但是,为中国工作的新的MBA硕士们将
担当公司财务收支平衡之外的角色,将负起超越公司利润之外的责任。
硕士(master)一词来源于拉丁词magister,意思是老师。这既预示着这一称
呼的崇高,也预示着当你接受硕士这一头衔的时候所应负起的特殊责任。在今天的
工商界,恐怕没有比中国工商管理人员的教育角色更清晰更重要的了。因为在你们
的工作中,你们要寻求将这一硕士学位所给予你们的最好的现代管理技术与要管理
的中国雇员的无尽力量结合起来。
在供奉中国教师祖师爷的大殿里召开毕业典礼的今天,你们开始了很风光的事
业,这真是加倍的合适,孔子有一句忠言:有君子之道四焉:其行己也恭,其事上
也敬,其养民也惠,其使民也义。意思是一个优秀的工商管理硕士应表现出四方面
的特征:个人行为要诚实,对上级交付的工作要认真,对属民的需求能慷慨提供,
与属民打交道时要公正。
孔夫子的话已经说过了,现在让我代表自己,如果我也能代表在座的所有的人
的话,向新的硕士们表示祝贺,预祝他们的每一次努力都取得成功,并且最后一次
提醒他们,好像在经过了一年的艰苦学习之后他们还需要提醒似的,孔夫子说过,
先事后得,也就是先要工作,然后才能得到酬报。
Perhaps the most profound change in today's China has
been the deep penetration of foreign, particularly Western,
and most particularly American ideas and cultural models.
This change comes as the inevitable result of the \"reform
and opening\" policies espoused by Deng Xiaoping and pursued
by his successors. This change has been, on the whole,
tremendously positive for both China and the West. It has
been one major factor generating the greatest and fastest
economic growth China has ever known, and bringing Chinese
people from the miseries of the \"poorfare\" state to a
material prosperity few would have imagined twenty years ago.
Perhaps most positively for human relations, among
individuals as well as among nations, the change has created
an ease and intimacy of contact between Chinese and
foreigners, in China itself, that has allowed us, for the
first time ever, to become true partners. Two decades ago,
I was a \"guibin\"; now we're all just \"laowai\".
It is perhaps in business, more than in any other field,
that Chinese and Americans come to know each other best.
With every joint venture, every contract signed, every sale
of goods and services, Americans and Chinese deal with one
another for mutual benefit. Each has something to offer,
and both learn to respect one another. Business is the
great meeting ground between our two countries. It is
business and enterprise that will do the most to create a
yet more prosperous future for China, and integrate China yet
further into world leadership.?
Such a prosperous, dynamic and stable China, a world
leader that shapes and upholds a supple world order of the
new millennium, must surely be what most Chinese want to see
for their country; and it is a vision of China that
Americans share and would want to help make reality.?
Governments can perhaps refine that vision, but they
cannot make it become reality. Only the hard work and
enterprise of our new Masters of Business Administration and
the people whose talents they manage can turn vision into
reality. And our new MBAs need to be joined by
accountants, actuaries, brokers, financial planners, loan
officers, bank examiners, systems analysts and the countless
other professionals who power market economies. Similarly,
vision will become reality only when the economic and legal
institutions of civil society stand firmly in place: a
fairly-enforced body of civil and criminal law, and
independent judiciary, the regulatory bodies that protect
individuals' interests, professional associations that ensure
professional ethics - in sum, the network of institutions
that ensure moral values in an international, democratic
market society.?
So China has undergone profound change in the generation
that today's new MBA graduates represent, and the change
continues at high velocity, creating new wealth and fresh
benefits. These changes in China have also had their
destabilizing elements; they have produced disparities of
wealth and poverty, and revived some of the ills that
plagued China in imperial times. Change has created its own
backlash, and it has led to unfortunate and misleading
caricatures. So there are risks.?
Any moment of dramatic social change brings its own risks
and opportunities, and the excutives about to receive their
master's degrees will share uniquely in both. Their new
degrees will help them assess both risk and opportunity, and
to minimize the former while making the most of the latter.
But these new MBAs who work in China will have a role
beyond the balance sheet and will carry a responsibility that
transcends the bottom line.?
The word master comes from the Latin word magister, which
means \"teacher\". This suggests both the nobility of your
calling and the special responsibility you take on when you
assume the academic title of \"master\". In today's business
world, perhaps nowhere is the business manager's teaching role
clearer and more important than it is in China, as in your
work you seek to combine the best of modern management
techniques that this master's degree has given you with the
numberless strengths of the Chinese people you will manage.
It is doubly appropriate, then, that on this commencement
day you begin your new magisterial careers in the halls
sacred to the teacher of Chinese teachers, who had a closing
piece of advice: 有君子之道四焉:其行己也恭,其事上也敬,其养民也惠,
其使民也义。 Translated in context, Confucius says: \"The good
MBA shows four traits of character: he is earnest in
personal conduct, serious in serving his prince; in providing
for his people's needs he is generous, and in dealing with
them just.\"?
Now that Confucius has spoken, let me speak for myself
and, if I may, on behalf of all those here, congratulate
the new MBAs, wish them well in every endeavor they
undertake and remind them one last time, as if after this
past year's grueling grind they needed reminding, that
Confucius also said: 先事后得 \"Work first, then get your
reward.\"? |
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