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Microsoft chairman backs Nadella’s shift in strategy
When Microsoft announced it would acquire Nokia for $7.2bn in September 2013, the move confused many industry observers. A month earlier, Steve Ballmerhad revealed he was stepping down as chief executive.
当微软(Microsoft)在2013年9月宣布将斥资72亿美元收购诺基亚(Nokia)时，许多业内观察员困惑不已。就在消息公布前一个月，史蒂夫?鲍尔默(Steve Ballmer)透露自己将辞去首席执行官一职。
The man tasked with finding a replacement to lead the Windows maker was John Thompson, 65, a Microsoft board member who succeeded company co-founder Bill Gatesas chairman last year.
为微软寻找领导者的任务落到了65岁的约翰?汤普森(John Thompson，见上图)身上。汤普森是微软董事会成员，去年接替微软联合创始人比尔?盖茨(Bill Gates)成为董事长。
In July, Satya Nadella, Mr Thompson’s pick for the top job, decided Nokia was an albatross and wrote down almost the entirety of the purchase while cutting 7,800 jobs at the Finnish group. The move was a stark repudiation of Microsoft’s ambition to become a leading player in the smartphone sector.
汤普森选择由萨蒂亚?纳德拉(Satya Nadella)出任微软首席执行官。今年7月，纳德拉得出结论：诺基亚是一个沉重负担，于是减记了几乎全部诺基亚资产，同时裁掉了这家芬兰公司7800个职位。此举是对微软在智能手机领域称雄这一目标的彻底否定。
But asked if he considers the Nokia deal a costly blunder, Mr Thompson says has “no regrets” about the transaction.
但是，在问及是否现在认为收购诺基亚是一个代价高昂的错误时，汤普森表示对这笔交易“不后悔”。
“I’ll always raise my hand and say I voted for it,” says Mr Thompson. “No one ever wants to write off $7.8bn. But no one ever wants to?.?.?.?limit the options.
汤普森说：“我会永远举手赞成这笔交易。没人愿意减记78亿美元，但没人想要……限制选择自由。”
“We were in the midst of a CEO search and?.?.?.?if we had said, ‘Gee, we’re not going to continue to pursue the Nokia deal because Steve has announced that he’s going to retire, and we’re going to wait for the new CEO to get his or her sea legs’?.?.?.?we could have found ourselves in the position where Nokia was not available to us.”
“那时我们正在物色CEO……如果我们当时说，‘哎呀，我们不打算继续进行诺基亚收购交易，因为史蒂夫宣布他要退休了，我们要等新CEO站稳了脚跟再说’……我们可能会发现买不到诺基亚了。”
Mr Thompson says he supports Mr Nadella’s change of course, as part of a broader effort to “reshape Microsoft”. Over the past 18 months, the company has cut more than 25,000 jobs, handed over much of its advertising operations to AOL and decided to give away the latest version of its Windows operating system to consumers for free.
汤普森表示，他支持纳德拉的路线改变，作为“重塑微软”整体努力的一部分。在过去一年半时间里，微软已经裁掉了逾2.5万个职位，将广告业务交给美国在线(AOL)，并决定向消费者免费提供最新版本的操作系统Windows 10。
“I give Satya enormous credit for saying, ‘Wait a minute, we can’t keep doing this’,” says Mr Thompson, adding that his role is to be a “coach or mentor to Satya”, while leaving large strategic calls to the chief executive.
汤普森说：“我对萨蒂亚给予高度肯定，因为他说‘等一下，我们不能继续这么做’。”他表示，自己的角色相当于“萨蒂亚的教练或导师”，同时让这位首席执行官作出重大战略决策。
But people who know Mr Thompson credit him with more than being a sounding board. His role in remaking the board — including the departure of Mr Ballmer to give more room to his successor, and the decision by Mr Gates to step down as chairman — has been key in giving Mr Nadella room to rebuild the company.
但熟悉汤普森的人表示，他不止是个倾听者。他在重组董事会方面发挥的关键作用（包括鲍尔默的引退以及盖茨决定辞去董事长）给了纳德拉更多空间去重建公司。
Microsoft hopes to increase revenues from selling software licenses to its cloud computing products, such as its Office 365 productivity suite and its Azure online storage business.
微软希望通过出售云计算产品软件许可来增加营收，比如它的Office 365办公套装，以及Azure在线存储业务。
“The whole world is moving to the cloud. If we don’t make a big bet on the cloud, what are we going to bet on?” Mr Thompson says.
汤普森说：“整个世界正走向云计算。如果我们不大举押注云计算，还能把押注什么？”
But he admits that for the strategy to be successful, Microsoft needs to create a more “open” culture, willing to build applications and services that run on multiple software platforms and devices, regardless of who makes them.
但他承认，该战略要想取得成功，微软需要营造一个更“开放”的文化环境，愿意面向多种软件平台和设备构建软件以及服务，无论这些平台和设备的制造者是谁。
Mr Thompson says Mr Nadella has “spent more time in Silicon Valley in 18 months than Steve spent in five years”.
汤普森表示，纳德拉“在18个月里在硅谷花的时间超过史蒂夫在五年里花的时间。”
The company has made its Office products available on Apple’s iOS and Google ’s Android mobile systems, while also releasing tools for software developers to build applications to run its own platform, such as Windows 10.
微软已经推出了能够在苹果(Apple) iOS以及谷歌(Google)安卓移动操作系统上运行的Office产品，同时还发布了工具，让软件开发人员可以构建能在Windows 10等微软平台上运行的软件。
Will the strategy to create a softer, more collaborative Microsoft work? “Time will tell,” he says. “Is it too late? I don’t know. If it is, then we’ll know in two or three years.”
旨在缔造一个更随和、更协作的微软的战略会否奏效？汤普森说：“只能让时间来证明。现在是否为时已晚？我不知道。如果是，那么两三年后我们就可见分晓。”
Mr Nadella’s new playbook may borrow some tips from Mr Thompson’s old one. After 28 years as an executive at IBM, he spent a decade as chief executive of Symantec, the computer security software company. Mr Thompson was credited with streamlining the business, abandoning or selling divisions such as those building software development tools, to focus on cyber security.
纳德拉在运筹帷幄时或许可从汤普森的经历借鉴一二。汤普森曾在IBM当了28年高管，后又在计算机安全软件公司赛门铁克(Symantec)担任了10年的首席执行官。外界对汤普森给予肯定，认为他明智地精简了业务，放弃或售出一些部门（比如构建软件开发工具的部门），专注于网络安全产品。
By the time he resigned in 2008, Symantec’s annual revenues had increased from $600m to $6bn. However, his tenure also featured errors, such as Symantec’s $10bn acquisition of Veritas Software, a data storage company. Last month, private equity group Carlyle led a buyout of Veritas for $8bn.
2008年汤普森从赛门铁克辞职时，该公司年收入已从6亿美元增加到60亿美元。不过他在执掌赛门铁克期间也不是没犯过错误，比如赛门铁克斥资100亿美元收购的数据存储公司Veritas Software，上月被私人股本集团凯雷(Carlyle)以80亿美元接手。
cloud computing start-up based in San Jose. The privately held company has generated $350m-$400m in revenues since it was founded in 2008, but is not yet profitable.
2010年，汤普森成为Virtual Instruments首席执行官，这是一家云计算初创企业，总部设在圣何塞。该公司为私人持股，自2008年成立以来总共产生了3.5亿—4亿美元营收，但尚未实现盈利。
As one of the most prominent African-Americans in the tech sector, Mr Thompson accepts he is a rarity. But he defended the record of tech companies, arguing “the candidate pool in engineering talent isn’t rich with diversity” while suggesting schools and universities needed to do more to add to this pool.
作为高科技行业最知名的非裔美国人之一，汤普森承认自己比较特殊。但他为科技公司缺乏非裔人才提出辩解，称“工程人才库缺乏丰富的多样性”，他建议各大院校要加大努力来丰富这一人才库。
Recalling joining IBM in the 1970s, Mr Thompson said he had an “800-pound Afro, a big moustache, [wore] flower-coloured shirts and bell-bottom pants”.
汤普森回顾上世纪70年代自己加入IBM时，留着“800磅重的爆炸头，一脸大胡子，（穿着）花衬衫和喇叭裤。”
“The idea that I would go work for IBM, was, are you kidding me?,” he says. “Once I got there I realised, holy smokes, this is a great company and, by the way, I had lots of people who were willing to help me .?.?.?I think that same possibility exists for every African-American, every person of colour or female if they choose to pursue it.”
他说：“当时要说我会去IBM工作，我会觉得是个玩笑。可是一旦我进了那儿我就发现，天啊，这家公司真伟大，而且公司里有很多人愿意帮助我……我觉得对于每一个非裔美国人，每一个有色人种，或每一位女性来说，如果他们选择从事这一职业，都会得到同样的机会。”
Additional reporting by Richard Waters 理查德?沃特斯(Richard Waters)补充报道
译者/彩云
微软新任CEO的“靠山” Microsoft chairman backs Nadella’s s
更新于2015年09月14日
来源于酷悠网
Microsoft chairman backs Nadella’s shift in strategy
When Microsoft announced it would acquire Nokia for $7.2bn in September 2013, the move confused many industry observers. A month earlier, Steve Ballmerhad revealed he was stepping down as chief executive.
当微软(Microsoft)在2013年9月宣布将斥资72亿美元收购诺基亚(Nokia)时，许多业内观察员困惑不已。就在消息公布前一个月，史蒂夫?鲍尔默(Steve Ballmer)透露自己将辞去首席执行官一职。
The man tasked with finding a replacement to lead the Windows maker was John Thompson, 65, a Microsoft board member who succeeded company co-founder Bill Gatesas chairman last year.
为微软寻找领导者的任务落到了65岁的约翰?汤普森(John Thompson，见上图)身上。汤普森是微软董事会成员，去年接替微软联合创始人比尔?盖茨(Bill Gates)成为董事长。
In July, Satya Nadella, Mr Thompson’s pick for the top job, decided Nokia was an albatross and wrote down almost the entirety of the purchase while cutting 7,800 jobs at the Finnish group. The move was a stark repudiation of Microsoft’s ambition to become a leading player in the smartphone sector.
汤普森选择由萨蒂亚?纳德拉(Satya Nadella)出任微软首席执行官。今年7月，纳德拉得出结论：诺基亚是一个沉重负担，于是减记了几乎全部诺基亚资产，同时裁掉了这家芬兰公司7800个职位。此举是对微软在智能手机领域称雄这一目标的彻底否定。
But asked if he considers the Nokia deal a costly blunder, Mr Thompson says has “no regrets” about the transaction.
但是，在问及是否现在认为收购诺基亚是一个代价高昂的错误时，汤普森表示对这笔交易“不后悔”。
“I’ll always raise my hand and say I voted for it,” says Mr Thompson. “No one ever wants to write off $7.8bn. But no one ever wants to?.?.?.?limit the options.
汤普森说：“我会永远举手赞成这笔交易。没人愿意减记78亿美元，但没人想要……限制选择自由。”
“We were in the midst of a CEO search and?.?.?.?if we had said, ‘Gee, we’re not going to continue to pursue the Nokia deal because Steve has announced that he’s going to retire, and we’re going to wait for the new CEO to get his or her sea legs’?.?.?.?we could have found ourselves in the position where Nokia was not available to us.”
“那时我们正在物色CEO……如果我们当时说，‘哎呀，我们不打算继续进行诺基亚收购交易，因为史蒂夫宣布他要退休了，我们要等新CEO站稳了脚跟再说’……我们可能会发现买不到诺基亚了。”
Mr Thompson says he supports Mr Nadella’s change of course, as part of a broader effort to “reshape Microsoft”. Over the past 18 months, the company has cut more than 25,000 jobs, handed over much of its advertising operations to AOL and decided to give away the latest version of its Windows operating system to consumers for free.
汤普森表示，他支持纳德拉的路线改变，作为“重塑微软”整体努力的一部分。在过去一年半时间里，微软已经裁掉了逾2.5万个职位，将广告业务交给美国在线(AOL)，并决定向消费者免费提供最新版本的操作系统Windows 10。
“I give Satya enormous credit for saying, ‘Wait a minute, we can’t keep doing this’,” says Mr Thompson, adding that his role is to be a “coach or mentor to Satya”, while leaving large strategic calls to the chief executive.
汤普森说：“我对萨蒂亚给予高度肯定，因为他说‘等一下，我们不能继续这么做’。”他表示，自己的角色相当于“萨蒂亚的教练或导师”，同时让这位首席执行官作出重大战略决策。
But people who know Mr Thompson credit him with more than being a sounding board. His role in remaking the board — including the departure of Mr Ballmer to give more room to his successor, and the decision by Mr Gates to step down as chairman — has been key in giving Mr Nadella room to rebuild the company.
但熟悉汤普森的人表示，他不止是个倾听者。他在重组董事会方面发挥的关键作用（包括鲍尔默的引退以及盖茨决定辞去董事长）给了纳德拉更多空间去重建公司。
Microsoft hopes to increase revenues from selling software licenses to its cloud computing products, such as its Office 365 productivity suite and its Azure online storage business.
微软希望通过出售云计算产品软件许可来增加营收，比如它的Office 365办公套装，以及Azure在线存储业务。
“The whole world is moving to the cloud. If we don’t make a big bet on the cloud, what are we going to bet on?” Mr Thompson says.
汤普森说：“整个世界正走向云计算。如果我们不大举押注云计算，还能把押注什么？”
But he admits that for the strategy to be successful, Microsoft needs to create a more “open” culture, willing to build applications and services that run on multiple software platforms and devices, regardless of who makes them.
但他承认，该战略要想取得成功，微软需要营造一个更“开放”的文化环境，愿意面向多种软件平台和设备构建软件以及服务，无论这些平台和设备的制造者是谁。
Mr Thompson says Mr Nadella has “spent more time in Silicon Valley in 18 months than Steve spent in five years”.
汤普森表示，纳德拉“在18个月里在硅谷花的时间超过史蒂夫在五年里花的时间。”
The company has made its Office products available on Apple’s iOS and Google ’s Android mobile systems, while also releasing tools for software developers to build applications to run its own platform, such as Windows 10.
微软已经推出了能够在苹果(Apple) iOS以及谷歌(Google)安卓移动操作系统上运行的Office产品，同时还发布了工具，让软件开发人员可以构建能在Windows 10等微软平台上运行的软件。
Will the strategy to create a softer, more collaborative Microsoft work? “Time will tell,” he says. “Is it too late? I don’t know. If it is, then we’ll know in two or three years.”
旨在缔造一个更随和、更协作的微软的战略会否奏效？汤普森说：“只能让时间来证明。现在是否为时已晚？我不知道。如果是，那么两三年后我们就可见分晓。”
Mr Nadella’s new playbook may borrow some tips from Mr Thompson’s old one. After 28 years as an executive at IBM, he spent a decade as chief executive of Symantec, the computer security software company. Mr Thompson was credited with streamlining the business, abandoning or selling divisions such as those building software development tools, to focus on cyber security.
纳德拉在运筹帷幄时或许可从汤普森的经历借鉴一二。汤普森曾在IBM当了28年高管，后又在计算机安全软件公司赛门铁克(Symantec)担任了10年的首席执行官。外界对汤普森给予肯定，认为他明智地精简了业务，放弃或售出一些部门（比如构建软件开发工具的部门），专注于网络安全产品。
By the time he resigned in 2008, Symantec’s annual revenues had increased from $600m to $6bn. However, his tenure also featured errors, such as Symantec’s $10bn acquisition of Veritas Software, a data storage company. Last month, private equity group Carlyle led a buyout of Veritas for $8bn.
2008年汤普森从赛门铁克辞职时，该公司年收入已从6亿美元增加到60亿美元。不过他在执掌赛门铁克期间也不是没犯过错误，比如赛门铁克斥资100亿美元收购的数据存储公司Veritas Software，上月被私人股本集团凯雷(Carlyle)以80亿美元接手。
cloud computing start-up based in San Jose. The privately held company has generated $350m-$400m in revenues since it was founded in 2008, but is not yet profitable.
2010年，汤普森成为Virtual Instruments首席执行官，这是一家云计算初创企业，总部设在圣何塞。该公司为私人持股，自2008年成立以来总共产生了3.5亿—4亿美元营收，但尚未实现盈利。
As one of the most prominent African-Americans in the tech sector, Mr Thompson accepts he is a rarity. But he defended the record of tech companies, arguing “the candidate pool in engineering talent isn’t rich with diversity” while suggesting schools and universities needed to do more to add to this pool.
作为高科技行业最知名的非裔美国人之一，汤普森承认自己比较特殊。但他为科技公司缺乏非裔人才提出辩解，称“工程人才库缺乏丰富的多样性”，他建议各大院校要加大努力来丰富这一人才库。
Recalling joining IBM in the 1970s, Mr Thompson said he had an “800-pound Afro, a big moustache, [wore] flower-coloured shirts and bell-bottom pants”.
汤普森回顾上世纪70年代自己加入IBM时，留着“800磅重的爆炸头，一脸大胡子，（穿着）花衬衫和喇叭裤。”
“The idea that I would go work for IBM, was, are you kidding me?,” he says. “Once I got there I realised, holy smokes, this is a great company and, by the way, I had lots of people who were willing to help me .?.?.?I think that same possibility exists for every African-American, every person of colour or female if they choose to pursue it.”
他说：“当时要说我会去IBM工作，我会觉得是个玩笑。可是一旦我进了那儿我就发现，天啊，这家公司真伟大，而且公司里有很多人愿意帮助我……我觉得对于每一个非裔美国人，每一个有色人种，或每一位女性来说，如果他们选择从事这一职业，都会得到同样的机会。”
Additional reporting by Richard Waters 理查德?沃特斯(Richard Waters)补充报道
译者/彩云
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