19 MARCH
Defining Corporate Performance
Maximize the wealth-producing capacity of the enterprise.
Ralph Cordiner, CEO of the General Electric Company from 1958 to 1963, asserted that top management in the large, publicly owned corporation was a "trustee." Cordiner argued that senior executives were responsible for managing the enterprise "in the best-balanced interest of shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers, and plant community cities." That is what we now call "stakeholders." Cordiner's answer still required a clear definition of results and of the meaning of "best" with respect to "balance." We no longer need to theorize about how to define performance and results in the large enterprise. We have successful examples.
Both the Germans and the Japanese have highly concentrated institutional ownership. How, then, do the institutional owners of German or Japanese industry define performance and results? Though they manage quite differently, they define them in the same way. Unlike Cordiner, they do not "balance" anything. They maximize. But they do not attempt to maximize shareholder value or the short-term interest of any one of the enterprise's "stakeholders." Rather, they maximize the wealth-producing capacity of the enterprise. It is this objective that integrates short-term and long-term results and that ties the operational dimensions of business performance—market standing, innovation, productivity, and people and their development—with financial needs and financial results. It is also this objective on which all the constituencies—whether shareholders, customers, or employees—depend for the satisfaction of their expectations and objectives.
3月19日
定义企业绩效
最大化企业的财富创造能力。
1958年至1963年担任通用电气公司首席执行官的拉尔夫·科迪纳(Ralph Cordiner)断言，大型上市企业的高层管理人员是“受托人”。科迪纳认为，高级管理人员有责任“以股东、客户、员工、供应商和工厂所在社区的最佳平衡利益”来管理企业。这就是我们现在所说的“利益相关者”。科迪纳的答案仍然需要对结果以及“最佳”相对于“平衡”的含义做出清晰的定义。我们不再需要对如何定义大型企业的绩效和结果进行理论探讨。我们有成功的案例。
德国和日本的机构持股比例都高度集中。那么，德国或日本工业的机构所有者是如何定义绩效和结果的呢？尽管他们的管理方式截然不同，但他们对绩效和结果的定义方式却相同。与科迪纳不同，他们并不追求“平衡”，而是追求最大化。但他们并不追求股东价值最大化，也不追求企业任何“利益相关者”的短期利益最大化。相反，他们追求的是企业财富创造能力的最大化。正是这一目标将短期和长期业绩融为一体，并将企业运营绩效的各个维度——市场地位、创新、生产力以及员工及其发展——与财务需求和财务业绩紧密联系起来。所有利益相关者——无论是股东、客户还是员工——都依赖于这一目标来满足他们的期望和目标。
