Business
商业。
Yahoo
雅虎。
Googling a new boss
从谷歌来的新总裁。
Marissa Mayer takes on one of the toughest jobs in tech
玛丽莎·梅耶尔接任技术界一份最艰巨的工作。
SHORTLY after news broke on July 16th of her appointment as the new chief executive of Yahoo!, Marissa Mayer revealed that she is expecting her first child later this year. Long-suffering shareholders are hoping that Ms Mayer, who left a senior job at Google to take up her new role, will produce a new Yahoo! as well. But that will not be easy.
7月16日，在玛丽莎·梅耶尔担任雅虎新总裁的新闻发布不久之后，她坦言希望在今年晚些时候能够有第一个孩子。长期受煎熬的股东们希望梅耶尔，这位离开谷歌高层接任雅虎新工作的人同样能够缔造一个新雅虎。但这并不容易。
After losing their mojo, formerly high-flying tech firms rarely recover it-with a few notable exceptions, such as Apple after Steve Jobs's second coming as boss in 1997. Often, ailing companies lurch from one leader and rescue plan to another while their fortunes fade. That has been the fate so far of Yahoo!, which is now on to its fifth chief executive, including two interim ones, in three years.
在失去他们的运气之后，原来一帆风顺的科技公司能重振旗鼓的寥寥无几——不过也有一些例外，比如史蒂夫·乔布斯在1997年第二次回归后的苹果公司。通常，当他们的财富缩水时，境遇不佳的公司会突然撤换领导，更改解决方案。在这三年中，包括两位临时的CEO,现任的是第五位，而这一直是雅虎公司迄今为止的命运。
The size of the challenge facing Ms Mayer was highlighted by the company's second-quarter results, published on July 17th. Overall revenue, at $1.2 billion, was stuck at last year's level and net income fell slightly, to $227m. The firm's share of online-ad revenues in America has also plummeted, falling from 15.7% in 2009 to 9.5% in 2011, according to eMarketer, a research firm.
7月17日所发布的雅虎第二季度的运营结果突出了梅耶尔所面临的挑战的困难度。公司的总收入是12亿美元，停留在去年同期的水平，且收益净额稍微有所下降，至2.27亿美元。根据一家研究公司eMarketer的数据显示，雅虎公司在线广告的份额在美国也直线下滑，从2009年的15.7%下降至2011年的9.5%，
Can Ms Mayer stop the rot? Her fans in Silicon Valley claim that the 37-year-old has the talent to do so. She brings know-how from Google, where she was the 20th employee and was involved in many areas, from its search engine to gmail and Google Maps. She is also a software engineer by training, which should lend her credibility among Yahoo!'s geeks，which should lend her credibility among Yahoo!'s geeks. Throw in that she is an über-networker whose schmoozing skills can charm ad clients, and she seems a good fit.
梅耶尔能让雅虎峰回路转么？她的位于硅谷的支持者声称37岁的她有能力做到。她带着技术诀窍从谷歌而来，在谷歌她作为第20位员工并且参与了很多领域的工作，从搜索引擎到谷歌邮箱再到谷歌地图。通过培训她也成为了一名软件工程师，这使她在雅虎的技术精英里有一席之地。此外她还是一位能取悦广告顾客的交际高手，因此她是这个职位的合适人选。
But not a perfect one. Although Ms Mayer ran a sizeable team at Google, she has never had to turn round an ailing corporate juggernaut with 700m users. Nor has she overseen a huge ad-sales operation and managed a complex international alliance like the one Yahoo! has with Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce behemoth. This is in the process of being unwound, but still needs careful handling.
然而玛丽莎·梅耶尔并非一个完美的接班人。尽管她在谷歌掌控一支相当大的团队，但她从不需要拯救一家境遇不佳且拥有7亿用户的行业巨头。她也不用监管一个庞大的广告销售运营系统和处理复杂的国际性合作，如雅虎与中国的电子商务巨头——阿里巴巴的合作。这是一个需要磨合的过程，但仍需要谨慎处理。
Small wonder, then, that Yahoo!-watchers were stunned by news of Ms Mayer's recruitment. Many had expected Ross Levinsohn, the firm's interim boss and global media head, to get the top job. "Yahoo!'s choice is perplexing," says Brian Wieser of Pivotal Research Group. He thinks Ms Mayer will try hard to keep the talented Mr Levinsohn on board.
于是，雅虎的观望者对于招聘玛丽莎·梅耶尔的安排感到震惊，但这不足为奇。很多人认为公司的临时总裁和国际传媒负责人罗斯·列维索恩将会得到这个最高职位。关键性研究集团的Brian Wieser称：“雅虎的决定让人感到费解。”他认为梅耶尔会力挺有才能的列为索恩成为雅虎的高层。
To have a hope of pulling off a Jobs-like turnaround, she will need to tackle three vital tasks fast. First, she must clarify what kind of company Yahoo! wants to be. Some of its former bosses, including Mr Levinsohn, emphasised its plentiful content in areas such as sports and finance. Others trumpeted its whizz-bang technology. This flip-flopping has confused customers and employees.
要想成功实现“乔布斯式”的“峰回路转”，梅耶尔需要迅速解决三个至关重要的问题。首先，她必须理清雅虎要成为什么样的公司。包括列维索恩在内的一些雅虎的前任总裁把雅虎大部分精力都集中在像运动和金融这样的领域。其他的人则是大力推动它的whizz-bang技术。这种相反的发展方向一直困扰着它的顾客和雇员。
Second, Ms Mayer must show how Yahoo! can conquer promising new areas such as the mobile web.This could involve, say, snapping up firms such as Foursquare, which offer services based on a person's location, an area that Ms Mayer knows well from her time at Google.
第二，梅耶尔必须展示出雅虎如何能在像移动互联网这样新兴的、有前途的领域中取得胜利。这会涉及到收购如Foursquare这样的公司，它们会提供以人的地理位置为基础的服务，而这是一个梅耶尔在谷歌工作时就熟知的技术领域。
The third task is to restore battered morale while simultaneously boosting productivity. At Google Ms Mayer had a reputation for prickliness, but also for nurturing talent and helping staff to cope with heavy workloads. Earlier this year she even gave several public talks about the risks of burnout, urging people to discover the "rhythm" that helps them work hard for long periods without losing their drive. Yahoo!'s employees will need to find their own rhythms fast.
第三个问题是在提高公司效率的同时重振受挫的士气。在谷歌时，梅耶尔的脾气是出了名的暴躁，但她也因培养人才和帮助员工处理繁重的工作量的能力而著称。今年早些时候，她甚至多次做了关于过度工作的危险的公开演讲，催促人们去发现能够帮助他们长时间努力工作而不会丧失动力的“工作节奏”。看来雅虎的员工们需要赶紧找到他们自己的“工作节奏”。