世界500強CEO訪談 第15期:通用里克瓦格納 如何逆轉衰退(3)

Reporter: What do you say to those shareholders who are fed up with the stock price?

記者：那您將對那些對股票價格感到煩躁的股東們說些什么呢?

Wagoner: I’m a big shareholder myself; I share the frustration. I’m confident that as the market psychology turns and assumes some of these issues are behind us, we’ll be well positioned. I talk to major investors regularly, and of course they would love to see a higher stock price. But they say, “Keep going and do the right stuff for the future.” So that’s what we are trying to do.

瓦格納：我本身就是一個大股東，我也感到很受挫。我相信當市場心理逆轉，—些事情已經(jīng)得到了解決時，我們就會被放到一個很好的位置上。我定期與主要投資者談話，當然他們會很樂意看到一個高的股票價格，但是他們說：“繼續(xù)為了未來做正確的事情。”所以那就是我們試圖做的事情。

Reporter: What is your worst decision?

記者：您所作的一個最壞的決定是什么呢?

Wagoner: Axing the EV1 electric-car program and not putting the right resources into hybrids. It didn’t affect profitability, but it did affect image.

瓦格納：停止電子動力汽車計劃，并且不使用混合燃料。那沒有影響利益率，但是卻影響了我們的形象。

Reporter: What is the best thing?

記者：那您認為最好的事情是什么呢?

Wagoner: Driving any car in the world you want. Plus you do things that are amazing, such as meeting world leaders like George Bush and Tony Blair. I've got pressures in this job—but it’s nothing compared with those guys.

瓦格納：開到世界上任何你想開的車，還有，你可以做很多驚人的事情，比如說和世界領導人喬治布什、托尼布萊爾會談。我在現(xiàn)在的職位工作很有壓力，但是跟他們相比，這并不算是什么。

Reporter: What is your strategy for turning around the company?

記者：您使公司好轉的策略是什么呢?

Wagoner: First, we're focused on product. I invite you to look at the next generation (sport) utility. The improvement is simply stunning. We need to keep that sort of pace going. Second of all, we obviously have to step back and re-look at how we’re going to market from a sales and marketing strategy. The third area is basically a frontal assault on all areas of cost to make sure we are driving to be the absolute most efficient manufacturer in the world. That’s hard because it’s meant significant capacity reductions and it means continuing to trim down workforces in the high cost countries, like the US and Germany. Fourth is the very challenging issue of addressing health care. We have really a breakthrough agreement with the UAW. It’s historic in its nature, but I would say it’s a very important first step to getting health care costs and particularly the legacy aspect of those under control. It’s a massive disadvantage, which we simply as an enterprise cannot carry and at the same time achieve the objectives that our shareholders have for us and invest in the future of our products. We' ve got a spotlight on that this year. We’ve also made some changes in our salary plan and we’re going to need to keep working on health care. If you carry a $5 or $6 billion bill that your best competitors don’t, that’s a heavy burden.

瓦格納：首先，我們將注意力集中在產(chǎn)品上面。我請您看一下下一代的體育公用事業(yè)設備。那些進步是很令人震驚的，我們需要保持那種行進的速度。第二，很明顯，我們需要后退一步，從銷售和市場的角度來重新看一下我們應該怎樣更好的進入市場。第三是，我們要使各個方面的成本都降低，以保證我們可以成為世界上性價比最高的汽車制造商。那是很困難的，因為那意味著我們要進行能力縮減，意味著我們要在高消費國家，比說如在美國和德國繼續(xù)削減勞動力。第四就是有關很有挑戰(zhàn)性的醫(yī)療問題。我們真的與聯(lián)合汽車工會簽訂了一個很有突破性的協(xié)議。從其本質來說，那是很有歷史意義的。但是我想說，那對于掌控醫(yī)療費用，尤其是遺贈的費用，將是非常重要的第一步。在充滿競爭的今天，那是一個劣勢;作為一個企業(yè)來說，我們不能有那樣的劣勢;同時，要達到的股東所期望我們做到的目標并為我們未來的產(chǎn)品投資，我們也不能有那樣的劣勢存在。今年，公眾的注意力都集中到那上面。我們在工資計沖也做了些許調整，我們將會在衛(wèi)生保健方面繼續(xù)努力。如果你有一個50億或是60億的賬單，但是你最強大的競爭沒有，那會是一個很大的負擔。