2016年经济学人 快车道生活 商务人士学习一级方程式车手(上)

 

Schumpeter

熊彼特

Life in the fast lane

快车道生活

Business people are racing¹ 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, touching² 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 holder³. 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 discreet⁴ 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 marketing⁵ departments, whose livelihoods⁶ depend on them. Surrounded by sycophants⁷, drivers can easily lose control of their egos⁸. They live horribly peripatetic⁹ 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 cognitive¹⁰ 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 grouchy¹¹.

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 deprivation¹² 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 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

2 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

3 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

4 discreet   

adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的

参考例句：

• He is very discreet in giving his opinions.发表意见他十分慎重。
• It wasn't discreet of you to ring me up at the office.你打电话到我办公室真是太鲁莽了。

5 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

6 livelihoods   

生计，谋生之道( livelihood的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• First came the earliest individualistic pioneers who depended on hunting and fishing for their livelihoods. 走在最前面的是早期的个人主义先驱者，他们靠狩猎捕鱼为生。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• With little influence over policies, their traditional livelihoods are threatened. 因为马赛族人对政策的影响力太小，他们的传统生计受到了威胁。

7 sycophants   

n.谄媚者，拍马屁者( sycophant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The office is a menagerie of egotists and sycophants. 该办公室乃是自私者与谄媚者汇集之处。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They even praise such a disappointing program, they really are sycophants. 这么差劲的节目也有人夸赞，真是捧臭脚！ 来自互联网

8 egos   

自我，自尊，自负( ego的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Their egos are so easily bruised. 他们的自尊心很容易受到伤害。
• The belief in it issues from the puerile egos of inferior men. 这种信仰是下等人幼稚的自私意识中产生的。

9 peripatetic   

adj.漫游的，逍遥派的，巡回的

参考例句：

• Her father was in the army and the family led a peripatetic existence.她父亲是军人，所以全家人随军过着一种流动的生活。
• Peripatetic music teachers visit the school regularly.兼职音乐教师定期到校授课。

10 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

11 grouchy   

adj.好抱怨的；愠怒的

参考例句：

• Grouchy people are always complaining for no reason.满腹牢骚的人总是毫无理由地抱怨。
• Sometimes she is grouchy, but all in all she is an excellent teacher.有时候她的脾气很坏，但总的来说她还是一位好老师。

12 deprivation   

n.匮乏；丧失；夺去，贫困

参考例句：

• Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous.多实验都证实了睡眠被剥夺是危险的。
• Missing the holiday was a great deprivation.错过假日是极大的损失。