麦肯锡的未来 (中英文对照)

The future of the Firm

麦肯锡的未来

McKinsey looks set to stay top of the heap in management consulting

麦肯锡看起来打算一直居于管理咨询的顶端

IT IS one of the engines of global capitalism. Not only does McKinsey provide advice t o most of the world'sleading companies. It also pioneered the idea that business is a prof ession rather than a mere trade—and aprofession that thrives on raw brainpower more t han specialist industry knowledge or plain old common sense.Yet McKinsey's name has s uffered a succession of blows in the past 15 years.

麦肯锡是全球资本主义的引擎之一。他们不仅为大多数世界领先的公司提供建议，而且还开创了这样的想法，商业并不是单纯的贸易，而是一种职业，是依靠脑力劳动而不是专业的行业知识或是浅显易懂的旧常识。然而，麦肯锡的名字在过去的15年却遭受了一连串的打击。

The Firm, as it calls itself, was deeply involved in the Enron debacle: the energy comp any's boss, JeffSkilling, was a McKinsey veteran who praised the consultancy for doing G od's work, and the McKinsey Quarterlypublished articles on Enron as enthusiastically as H ello! runs pieces about the Beckhams. In 2010 Anil Kumar, aMcKinsey consultant, admitt ed passing inside information to Raj Rajaratnam of Galleon, a hedge fund. Lastyear Rajat Gupta, a former McKinsey managing partner, was also convicted of passing inside infor mation to MrRajaratnam.

就公司本身而言，如他们自己所说，深深的陷入了安然事件：安然能源公司的老板，也曾是麦肯锡的一名老将，杰夫·斯基林，赞扬咨询工作是上帝的使命，并在《麦肯锡季刊》上发表有关安然文章，热情满腔的好像在于贝嫂打招呼一样。在2010年，麦肯锡的顾问，阿尔尼·库马尔承认向帆船的拉贾拉特南透露了对冲基金的内部消息。去年前麦肯锡经理合伙人，拉雅·古普塔，也被怀疑向拉贾拉特南先生传递内部信息。

Life is getting tougher for professional-services firms. Midsized consultancies are alrea dy suffering: MonitorGroup went bankrupt last year—Deloitte later bought it for 120m—a

nd Booz & Co and Roland Berger areagonising about their futures. If the legal profession is anything to go by, worse is to come: Dewey & LeBoeufcollapsed last year after borrowi ng heavily in a dash for growth, and other elite law firms are struggling to winbusiness.

如今专业服务型公司面临着越来越多的困难，去年中型咨询公司摩立特集团的破产印证了这个事实—德勤后来用了1.2亿美元买下了它—博斯公司和罗兰贝格也在烦恼自己的期货。如果不是法律界的存在，还会有更糟糕的事发生：杜威和勒伯夫为了增长而借了大量的贷款，在他们破产后，会有大量的精英律师事务所努力赢得业务。

So, are McKinsey's best days behind it? Two new publications offer some interesting a nswers. The Firm, byDuff McDonald, is a generally admiring book that nevertheless asks hard questions about the organisation'sfuture. Consulting on the Cusp of Disruption, by C layton Christensen and two colleagues, is a penetratingarticle in the October Harvard Bus iness Review, arguing that the comfortable world of the strategyconsultancies is about to be turned upside down.

所以，麦肯锡的黄金时光会接踵而来吗？两个新的出版刊物提供了一些有趣的答案。达夫·麦当劳的公司，普遍让人羡慕，却也仍然会考虑一些有关组织未来的难题。克里斯坦森和他的两位同事10月份在《哈佛商业评论》上发表了精辟的文章中提到咨询行业正处于风口浪尖，他们认为处于舒适世界的战略咨询公司即将天翻地覆。

McKinsey's success depends above all on an unimpeachable reputation for integrity. It cannot continue toserve most of the world's leading companies if its consultants are willi ng to spill secrets. Mr McDonald arguesthat the firm's size makes it impossible to avoid re peats of the Kumar problem. It is now a giant factory with1,200 consultants rather than t he cosy club of old. The firm has to keep growing, not least to provide itspartners with th e 1.5mor so a year that they earn. But every time it grows it puts its most important asse t atrisk.

麦肯锡的成功全部依赖于他们无可指摘的诚信声誉。如果他们的顾问把内部秘密泄露了出去，他们就不能继续服务于世界领先公司。麦当劳先生认为，该公司的体系使他们不可能避免库马尔问题的再次发生，它现在是一个拥有1200名顾问的巨大工厂，而不是一个温馨舒适的老年俱乐部。该公司将保持继续增长，但其合作伙伴必须保证每年至少为他们提供150万美元左右供他们赚取。但是每一次增长，都是一次巨大的资产风险。