When it comes to management challenges, fish fingers and circuses are at opposite extremes: one product is the acme of industrialised food processing, the other the ultimate expression of human creativity and energy. Somehow, private equity has found room for both: last week, Permira agreed to sell Iglo, which makes Birds Eye fish fingers in Europe, after nine years running the frozen foods company, while another buyout group, TPG Capital, led a deal to gain control of Montreal’s Cirque du Soleil.
谈到管理上的挑战，炸鱼条和马戏表演是两个相反极端：一个是工业化食品加工的极致，另一个是人类创造力和能量的终极表达。从某种程度来讲，私人股本找到了同时实现这两点的空间：前一阵子，私人股本集团帕米拉(Permira)同意出售在欧洲生产Birds Eye炸鱼条的Iglo公司，帕米拉经营这家冷冻食品公司已有9年时间；另一家收购集团德太集团(TPG Capital)则领衔达成一笔交易，获得蒙特利尔太阳马戏团(Cirque du Soleil)控股权。

The coincidence made me wonder at the sheer breadth of private equity-owned businesses, which seems to defy the caricature of buyout kings as asset-stripping short-termists, interested only in targets with an annuity-like stream of revenue. But something else links these two apparently disparate businesses. All great enterprises start like a troupe of inventive and inspired circus performers. But over time most end up churning out the equivalent of pre-cut breaded strips of reconstituted seafood. The big question is: how can entrepreneurial and inventive companies slow their slippery slide to a fish-fingery fate?
这一巧合让我想知道私人股本所有的企业到底有多少类型，它们似乎要挑战人们的这种不良印象：收购界的巨擘是低价掠夺资产的短期主义者，只对能带来源源不断收入的目标感兴趣。但其他一些因素将这两类看似迥然不同的业务联系在一起。所有的大企业在一开始，都像由富有创造力和灵感的马戏演员组成的马戏团。但随着时间的流逝，多数企业最终生产的东西，都像预先切好、裹着面包屑的脱水海鲜条。重要的问题是：富有创造力的初创企业，如何能放慢沦为炸鱼条生产者的速度？