ジャンル: 経済・ビジネス
英語難易度: ★★★
オススメ度: ★★★☆☆
ちょっと仕事の方がここ一年ほど立て込んでいて、ずっと本を手に取る余裕がありませんでした。 (と言いながら、息抜きに映画は観てましたけどね) 本書を読み終わるにも随分時間がかかりましたが、それは私の金融業界界隈の語彙不足・知識不足もあっだからだと思いますが。
さて、この本はかのビル・ゲイツが毎年恒例の「今年の5冊」の2014年版の中で、超オススメとして紹介していた本です。
[優秀であるにも関わらず、人はどのようにして判断を誤るのか]
このテーマには以前から興味があり、第二次世界大戦時の日本軍の戦略失敗の分析を行った「失敗の本質」を和書で読んで感銘を受けてから、このような本が洋書でもないだろうかと探していて手にしたものです。 結果、本書は失敗にだけフォーカスしているわけではなく、また失敗の本質をロジカルに解き明かす事を意図した本ではありませんでしたが、私のいま抱えている仕事やプロジェクトに照らし合わせて読んでいると、紹介されたエピソードのような悲惨な結果が待っているのかもしれないと想像し、ゾッとする箇所がいくつもありました。 大企業病特有の無駄な会議や、外資系にいきなり転職してきて散々かき回した上で、ポイって辞めていくプロ経営者など、どこかで見たあるあるシーンが盛り沢山でしたね。
(1969年発刊)
メモポイント
⚫︎ The Fate of the Edsel
フォードが発売したブランド車「エドセル」の大失敗のエピソード。このエドセルブランドの名前を決める会議シーンがあり、それが会社資源の無駄使いの典型。 清水義範の小説にあった社員達で会社のモットーを決める無駄な会議の話を思い出す。 今でも「エドセル」という言葉が鳴り物入りで大金をかけて登場したものの大コケする商品の代名詞になっているそうです。
あと外資系によくあるのが、外部招聘した「プロ経営者」のお話。 入社して周りも良く分からないままに人の首を切り、形式のみに固執して稚拙な判断を繰り返す。自分の思い込みで多くの人を巻き込み、大金をかけてギャンブルのようなビジネスを進める。んで、出てきたのはブランド名を新たにつけるのと、会社のレターパッドのデザインを変える、そして大量の広告投下。内実伴わないので当然失敗、そして転職。 ゲー、Pied Piper。 よきにはからえ、が多過ぎる。 詳細を見ずして何がマネジメントか。
On the very stroke of that hour on that day, the telephone operators in Krafve’s domain began greeting callers with “Edsel Division” instead of “Special Products Division”; all stationery bearing the obsolete letterhead of the division vanished and was replaced by sheaves of paper headed “Edsel Division”; and outside the building a huge stainless-steel sign reading “EDSEL DIVISION” rose ceremoniously to the rooftop.
⚫︎ One Free Bite
宇宙服製造会社の技術者、ライバル会社への転職が大揉めに揉める話。リアルで臨場感あり。面白い。前職で培ったノウハウは誰のものか。転職を打ち明けられた上司のリアクションは洋の東西を問わずリアルな描写。 自身も転職経験はあるが、ペロって会社を辞めてライバル会社に移ることのできる人のメンタルはちょっと苦手。自由なんだろうし当然の権利だろうけど…
Wohlgemuth began this interview by rather melodramatically handing Galloway a lapel pin in the form of a Mercury capsule, which had been awarded to him for his work on the Mercury space suits; now, he said, he felt he was no longer entitled to wear it. Why, then, Galloway asked, was he leaving? Simple enough, Wohlgemuth said—he considered the Latex offer a step up both in salary and in responsibility. Galloway replied that in making the move Wohlgemuth would be taking to Latex certain things that did not belong to him—specifically, knowledge of the processes that Goodrich used in making space suits. In the course of the conversation, Wohlgemuth asked Galloway what he would do if he were to receive a similar offer. Galloway replied that he didn’t know; for that matter, he added, he didn’t know what he would do if he were approached by a group who had a foolproof plan for robbing a bank. Wohlgemuth had to base his decision on loyalty and ethics, Galloway said—a remark that Wohlgemuth took as an accusation of bad faith. He lost his temper, he later explained, and gave Galloway a rash answer. “Loyalty and ethics have their price, and International Latex has paid it,” he said.
⚫︎ In Defense of Sterling
1967年のイギリス・ポンド切り下げ前のゴタゴタ時の英米両政府金融G-menと金融投機筋とのバトル。 Federal Reserve Board (連邦準備制度理事会) のvice-President, Mr. Coombs登場。
Anticipating lively action at the London opening, which would take place at about 5 A.M. New York time, Coombs went to Liberty Street on Sunday afternoon in order to spend the night at the bank and be on hand when the transatlantic doings began. As an overnight companion he had a man who found it advisable to sleep at the bank so often that he habitually kept a packed suitcase in his office—Thomas J. Roche, at that time the senior foreign-exchange officer. Roche welcomed his boss to the sleeping quarters—a row of small, motel-like rooms on the eleventh floor, each equipped with maple furniture, Old New York prints, a telephone, a clock radio, a bathrobe, and a shaving kit—and the two men discussed the weekend’s developments for a while before turning in. Shortly before five in the morning, their radios woke them, and, after a breakfast provided by the night staff, they repaired to the foreign-exchange trading room, on the seventh floor, to man their fluoroscope.
At five-ten, they were on the phone to the Bank of England, getting the news. The bank-rate rise had been announced promptly at the opening of the London markets, to the accompaniment of great excitement; later Coombs was to learn that the Government Broker’s entrance into the Stock Exchange, which is usually the occasion for a certain hush, had this time been greeted with such an uproar that he had had difficulty making his news known. As for the first market reaction of the pound, it was (one commentator said later) like that of a race horse to dope; in the ten minutes following the bank-rate announcement it shot up to $2.7869, far above its Friday closing. A few minutes later, the early-rising New Yorkers were on the phone to the Deutsche Bundesbank, the central bank of West Germany, in Frankfurt, and the Swiss National Bank, in Zurich, sounding out Continental reaction. It was equally good. Then they were back in touch with the Bank of England, where things were looking better and better. The speculators against the pound were on the run, rushing now to cover their short sales, and by the time the first gray light began to show in the windows on Liberty Street, Coombs had heard that the pound was being quoted in London at $2.79—its best price since July, when the crisis started.
⚫︎ もう一人のFederal Reserve Boardの立役者。 Mr.Hayes。魅力的な人物。 経験も無いのに持ち前の知性でスマートに学習し習得する。カッコいい。 このような超然としたキャラクターに憧れる
after a Navy stint, in 1947 became an assistant vice-president and two years later head of New York Trust’s foreign department despite total lack of previous experience in foreign banking. Apparently learned fast; astounded his colleagues and superiors, and gained reputation among them as foreign-exchange wizard by predicting precise amount of 1949 pound devaluation ($4.03 to $2.80) a few weeks before it occurred.
(中略)
he has a distinctly unbankerlike philosophical curiosity about almost everything else. And although casual acquaintances sometimes pronounce him dull, his close friends speak of a rare capacity for enjoyment and an inner serenity that seem to make him immune to the tensions and distractions that fragment the lives of so many of his contemporaries.
特に上述の最後の章が印象に残りました。「Too Big To Fail」(236冊目)にも似た臨場感溢れるエピソード。 読み応えあります。多くを語らなくてもメンバー達がお互いに協力し、それぞれの持ち場で力を発揮しあって不可能を可能にしていく。 そんな話に弱いんですよねー。 グッときます。
