熊彼特

Life in the fast lane

快车道生活

Business people are racing to learn from Formula One drivers

商务人士竞相向一级方程式车手学习

ON THE face of it business executives and Formula One drivers have nothing in common, other than the fact that they do their jobs sitting down. Racing drivers hurtle round a track, touching speeds of 350km an hour. Office-bound managers may occasionally wheel their chairs from one side of their desks to the other. Drivers risk a high-speed pile-up if they lose concentration. Executives merely risk spilling coffee on a Hermès tie.

乍看之下，商业高管和一级方程式车手除了都是坐着干活之外并没有什么共同之处。车手在赛道上疾驰，速度可触及350公里每小时，而办公室里的经理们可能偶尔会把椅子从办公桌的一边滑到另一边。车手们要是一分神可能有高速连环相撞的危险，高管们则最多只会把咖啡溅到爱马仕领带上。

Yet one of the motor-racing world’s gurus now spends much of his time talking to chief executives. Aki Hintsa, a Finnish surgeon, was chief medical officer for the McLaren F1 team for 11 years. His clients have included two former world champions, Sebastian Vettel and Mika Hakkinen, as well as Lewis Hamilton, the current holder. Dr Hintsa’s relationship with the business world started informally when a CEO friend turned to him in despair, complaining of burnout. His business, Hintsa Performance, employs 30 people, applying his methods from discreet offices in Geneva and Helsinki. It earns more than 80% of its revenues from working with management teams and individual bosses.

然而，赛车界的一位高手现在大部分时间都在和首席执行官们谈话。芬兰外科医生亚基·辛萨（Aki Hintsa）担任迈凯轮F1车队的首席医疗官达11年。他的客户包括两位前世界冠军—塞巴斯蒂安·维泰尔（Sebastian Vettel）和米卡·哈基宁（Mika Hakkien），还有去年的世界冠军刘易斯·汉密尔顿（Lewis Hamilton）。辛萨不经意间开始涉足商业界，当时一位CEO朋友因为身心俱疲而绝望地向他求助。他的公司Hintsa Performance位于日内瓦和赫尔辛基的办公室并不起眼，有30名员工在那里将他的方法付诸实施。与管理团队和个别老板的合作为公司贡献了超过80%的收入。

Can business people really learn from Formula One? Dr Hintsa argues that the two worlds have more in common than you might think. Drivers sit atop a pyramid of 500-700 employees, from engineers to marketing departments, whose livelihoods depend on them. Surrounded by sycophants, drivers can easily lose control of their egos. They live horribly peripatetic lives—races are run in every corner of the world. Dr Hintsa says that his grand-prix experience forced him to focus on two problems that also plague executives always on the move.

商务人士真的能从F1中学到什么吗？辛萨博士认为这两个世界的共通之处比你想象的要多。车手实际上是坐在500-700名员工组成的金字塔的顶端。从工程师到市场营销部，这些员工都要靠他们过活。车手身边尽是些阿谀奉承的人，这很容易让他们自我膨胀。他们的生活极度奔波——比赛遍布世界上的每一个角落。辛萨说，他的大奖赛经验迫使他关注两个问题，而这两个问题也始终困扰着不断旅行的高管。

The first is lack of sleep. A growing body of evidence shows that shortage of shut-eye cripples individuals and poisons organisations. One study shows that staying awake for 20 hours has the same impact on the performance of various cognitive tasks as a blood-alcohol level of 0.1%, well over the limit for driving a car in most countries. Another study shows that being deprived of sleep leads people to adopt a more negative attitude or tone of voice. Employees are also more likely to report disengagement from work if a bad night’s sleep makes their bosses grouchy.

首先是睡眠不足。越来越多的证据显示，缺乏合眼的时间不单让身体虚弱，更会对公司造成不良影响。一项研究表明，连续20小时不睡觉对各种认知任务的影响相当于血液里0.1%的酒精含量，而这大大超过了大多数国家的驾车限度。另一项研究表明，缺乏睡眠让人们的态度和说话的语气都更为负面。如果老板晚上睡得不好导致心情不佳，员工离职的可能性也会更高。

Yet sleep deprivation is commonplace in the business world—and is sometimes worn as a badge of honour. A recent survey of 196 business leaders by McKinsey, a management consultancy, revealed that 66% were dissatisfied with the quantity of sleep they got and 55% were dissatisfied with the quality.

然而，睡眠不足在商业界司空见惯，有时甚至还被看作是一种荣誉。管理咨询公司麦肯锡最近对196位企业领导的调查显示，66%的人不满意自己的睡眠质量，55%的人不满意睡眠的时长。

1.rely on 依靠

例句:We had to rely on a compass and a lot of luck to get here.

我们不得不依靠指南针和不错的运气找到这儿来。

2.global growth 全球经济增长

例句:Sound public finances are a decisive component of economic stability and sustainable global growth.

健全的公共财政，是经济稳定和全球持续增长的一个决定性因素。

3.expect to 期望

例句:You cannot expect to like all the people you will work with.

不要指望你会喜欢所有和你共事的人。

4.blame for 因…怪罪，责怪

例句:The policy is partly to blame for causing the worst unemployment in Europe.

欧洲出现了最严重的失业情况，这应当部分归咎于这项政策。