金融英語泛讀:硅谷神話 Google的締造者埃里克·施密特

Search No Further：The Story of Eric Schmidt and Google硅谷神話Google的締造者埃里克·施密特

Eric Schmidt made a move that surprised many in dot-com circles when he became the chief executive officer of Google, the phenomenally successful web search engine. Google had quickly garnered a cult following for its clean interface and speedy results, and was set to become the high-tech industry's next stellar financial success.Schmidt, a veteran of computer manufacturer Sun Microsystems and Novell, the software maker, was considered the ideal visionary to guide Google into a period of growth and maturation as a business.

Schmidt was born in 1955 and graduated from Princeton University in 1976 with a degree in electrical engineering. He then earned a graduate degree in engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and a doctorate in computer science from there as well.In 1983 he was hired at Sun Microsystems, a Silicon Valley computer maker that was still a very young company.

Sun quickly emerged as an industry leader. Schmidt began there as a software manager, and in 1991，he was named head of Sun Technology Enterprises, an arm of the company charged with exploring future directions in new technologies.He returned to Sun proper in 1994 as its chief technology officer, and as such Schmidt has been credited with helping make the Java programming language ubiquitous to the web in the late 1990s.Schmidt left Sun to take a job at Novell in 1997.Hired as its new chief executive officer, Schmidt faced a formidable task:to reverse the declining fortunes of this software manufacturer.

When Schmidt arrived at Novell in March of 1997，its stock price was sinking, but he felt that the core leadership and vision was still there.“I've done my due diligence and concluded there's tremendous technology inside the company and we need to get it out as fast as we can，”he said.“This is the opportunity of a lifetime for me.”Schmidt liked to sell Novell software himself personally to CEOs around the world, and during his first year on the job logged more than 250000 air miles. By mid-1998，Novell's fortunes had improved after Schmidt helped it renew focus on its core business.

In March of 2001，Schmidt surprised many when he became board chair of Google, Inc.，the California-based Internet search engine.“I just liked the company，”Schmidt recalled.“It's as simple as that.”Five months later, he was made Google's new CEO. Google was founded in 1998 by two Stanford University doctoral students, Larry Page and Sergey Brinn.It began as a search service for the techie insiders, but quickly caught on with more and more web users for its uncluttered look and impressively quick search results.And it was soon one of the top 15 most-visited websites.“They're, the eBay of information，”a Morgan Stanley analyst, told Fortune.“You go to eBay to find things that are hard to find.You go to Google to find informaton that is hard to find.”

Succeeding Page as CEO, Schmidt was viewed as the leader who would make Google the next Yahoo or Amazon. com.Schmidt felt at home at the company, which boasts 50 employees with Ph.D.s among a staff of 400.Google's iconoclasm was evident in all aspects of the company-from the absence of large banner, ads on its search page to the motorized scooters that employees rode inside headquarters.

Over the next few months, Google's fortunes only continued to escalate. The nature of the web meant that search engines themselves, while widely used, were tough to make profitable.Google was performing about 150 million searches a day（or 1800 per second）which takes an immense amount of computing power.Google did sell what are known as“click-through”ads（if a search engine query is“tennis shoes，”for example, a small Nike ad will appear）.These small ads were only words, not images, which cut page-loading time immnsely.

With Schmidt at the helm, Google is aggressively trying to leverage its reach technology, and advertiser base. The ultimate goal is“To enable you to find anything you are looking for anywhere，”Schmidt says.

Most Friday afternoons, Google employees worldwide can tune in for a Q&A with co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.“People ask anything from‘What is our specific direction in this area?'to‘Why has the soda（in the snack rooms）changed?'”says Stacy Sullivan, director of human resources and chief culture officer. Google's focus on maintaining a“flat organization”where any employee can address company co-founders on a weekly basis.

In addition to its perks and meritocratic culture, Google is in tune with the increasing importance people place on work-life balance. The company provides an on-site doctor and dentist at headquarters and even allows employees to bring their dogs to work.

“Contributing to society”is another career goal that scores highly with its employees, and the Google culture is geared toward individuals who want to use innovation and creativity to make a tangible difference in the organization：“We're looking for people who are really thinking differently and out of the box, who want to do something that will have an impact on the world.”Every Google employee is encouraged to spend 20%of his or her time developing a new project, a practice that has already resulted in such Google innovations as Google News, Gmail, Google Talk and Froogle.

Google never lets its success rest on a reputation for being innovative alone，“Frankly, one of our biggest issues at Google is how we continue to attract the most talented people in the world and make this an engaging place for them to build their careers.”

當(dāng)埃里克·施密特加盟谷歌這一非常成功的網(wǎng)絡(luò)搜索引擎并任首席執(zhí)行官時(shí)，他的舉措震撼了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)界。谷歌因其界面簡潔、搜索迅速吸引了大批追隨者，而且成為基于高新技術(shù)獲得巨大經(jīng)濟(jì)效益的成功典范。人們認(rèn)為，在計(jì)算機(jī)制造商——太陽計(jì)算機(jī)系統(tǒng)公司和制作軟件的諾勒有限公司均有建樹的施密特，是引領(lǐng)谷歌成長壯大的理想人選。

施密特生于1955年，1976年獲得普林斯頓大學(xué)電子電氣工程學(xué)學(xué)士學(xué)位，隨后在加利福尼亞大學(xué)伯克利分校取得工程學(xué)碩士學(xué)位及計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)博士學(xué)位。1983年，他受雇于太陽計(jì)算機(jī)系統(tǒng)公司——硅谷的一家新興計(jì)算機(jī)制造公司。

太陽計(jì)算機(jī)系統(tǒng)公司很快發(fā)展成為該行業(yè)的引領(lǐng)者。在那里，施密特最初任軟件制造經(jīng)理。1991年，他成為公司分支企業(yè)——主攻新技術(shù)開發(fā)的太陽科技企業(yè)的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)。1994年，他回到太陽公司，任技術(shù)總監(jiān)。同時(shí)，他參與了流行于20世紀(jì)90年代末期的Java語言的設(shè)計(jì)。

施密特1997年離開太陽，加盟諾勒。作為首席執(zhí)行官，施密特面臨著嚴(yán)峻的挑戰(zhàn)：他必須扭轉(zhuǎn)這個(gè)軟件制造公司的虧損局面。

1997年3月施密特加盟時(shí)，諾勒的股票價(jià)格一路走低，但施密特認(rèn)為核心領(lǐng)導(dǎo)階層依然可以為企業(yè)帶來活力?！拔遗ψ龊梦业姆謨?nèi)工作，其實(shí)公司在技術(shù)上是很有實(shí)力的，我們只需盡快將這種實(shí)力展現(xiàn)出來就可以了，”他說，“對我而言，這是個(gè)千載難逢的機(jī)會?！笔┟芴叵矚g親自將諾勒的軟件向全球的首席執(zhí)行官們推廣，并在上任的第一年就飛往全球各地，總航程達(dá)25萬英里。1998年中期，施密特通過幫助諾勒恢復(fù)其核心業(yè)務(wù)而使其資產(chǎn)扭虧為盈。

2001年3月，施密特就任總部設(shè)在加州的網(wǎng)絡(luò)搜索引擎谷歌集團(tuán)的董事長，這令很多人感到驚奇。施密特回憶道：“我只是很喜歡這個(gè)公司，就這么簡單！”五個(gè)月后，他走馬上任谷歌的首席執(zhí)行官。谷歌成立于1998年，創(chuàng)始人是斯坦福的兩個(gè)博士生拉里·佩奇和謝爾蓋·布林。谷歌最初只是為內(nèi)部技術(shù)人員提供搜索服務(wù)，但它簡潔的界面和快捷的搜索吸引了越來越多的使用者。不久，它就成為15個(gè)訪客最多的網(wǎng)站之一。一位摩根斯坦利分析人士在接受《財(cái)富》采訪時(shí)說：“谷歌是信息交流的平臺，就像易趣網(wǎng)一樣。在易趣網(wǎng)上你能找到別處找不到的東西，同理，在谷歌上你可以找到別處找不到的信息?！?/p>

施密特繼佩奇之后成為谷歌第二任首席執(zhí)行官，人們都認(rèn)為在他的帶領(lǐng)下，谷歌能夠發(fā)展壯大成為第二個(gè)雅虎或亞馬遜。施密特視公司如家，公司里400多名員工中有50名擁有博士學(xué)位。“打破傳統(tǒng)”是谷歌的不二信條。從谷歌主頁不設(shè)標(biāo)幅式廣告到總部內(nèi)部職員們騎的便捷電動(dòng)滑行車，這一理念無處不在。在接下來的幾個(gè)月中，谷歌資產(chǎn)一路飆升。其實(shí)搜索引擎盡管應(yīng)用廣泛，也還是很難獲得巨額利潤，這是網(wǎng)絡(luò)本身的特點(diǎn)。而谷歌每天搜索量達(dá)1.5億次（平均每秒1800次），這么大的搜索量需要一個(gè)超強(qiáng)的計(jì)算系統(tǒng)。谷歌推出一個(gè)“點(diǎn)擊進(jìn)入”的廣告項(xiàng)目（如輸入關(guān)鍵字“網(wǎng)球鞋”，點(diǎn)擊后就會出現(xiàn)一個(gè)耐克鞋廣告），這些小廣告只有文字，沒有圖片，大大節(jié)省了下載頁面的時(shí)間。

有施密特掌舵，谷歌在開發(fā)新技術(shù)、新客戶的道路上昂首闊步。施密特說，他們的終極目標(biāo)就是“讓大家在谷歌找到在別處找不到的任何信息”。

周五下午，全球各地的谷歌員工都可以向創(chuàng)始人謝爾蓋·布林和拉里·佩奇提問。人力資源部主任、首席文化官絲德西·沙利雯說：“大家的問題多種多樣，比如‘在這一地區(qū)我們將實(shí)行什么特別計(jì)劃？’或‘（食品供應(yīng)區(qū)的）蘇打水怎么換了？’?！惫雀枇η笤谂c員工對話時(shí)創(chuàng)造一個(gè)“平臺”，使得員工可以每周都有機(jī)會與谷歌的共同創(chuàng)辦者對話。

谷歌有著優(yōu)厚的福利待遇和精英文化，還特別注重使員工的生活與工作達(dá)到平衡。公司總部有網(wǎng)上醫(yī)生和牙醫(yī)為大家排憂解難，員工們甚至可以把狗帶到工作間。

“貢獻(xiàn)社會”是谷歌員工的另一個(gè)奮斗目標(biāo)。谷歌文化旨在調(diào)動(dòng)每一位員工的積極性，讓他們用革新與創(chuàng)造力使企業(yè)呈現(xiàn)全新的面貌?！拔覀冃枰膯T工要能跳出固定模式，追求新異思維。他們要做的是能夠影響全世界的事?！惫雀韫膭?lì)每位員工抽出20%的時(shí)間開發(fā)新項(xiàng)目。這一舉措已成就了新開發(fā)的谷歌新聞、Gmail、Google Talk和Froogle。

創(chuàng)新絕非谷歌成功的唯一法寶。“坦白地說，谷歌最關(guān)心的問題之一是如何吸引世界各地的人才，如何讓他們來這里一展才華?！?/p>

實(shí)戰(zhàn)提升

核心單詞

garner['gɑ:n?]v.收集，積累；n.谷倉

maturation[,m?tju'rei??n]n.成熟

engine['end?in]n.引擎；發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)；v.給……安裝發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)

tangible['t?nd??bl]adj.非想象的；實(shí)際的

財(cái)經(jīng)知識一點(diǎn)通

搜索引擎（search engine）

是指根據(jù)一定的策略、運(yùn)用特定的計(jì)算機(jī)程序搜集互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上的信息，對信息進(jìn)行組織和處理，并將處理后的信息顯示給用戶，是為用戶提供檢索服務(wù)的系統(tǒng)。

首席執(zhí)行官（Chief Executive Officer，縮寫CEO）

是在一個(gè)企業(yè)中負(fù)責(zé)日常經(jīng)營管理的最高級管理人員，又稱為行政總裁。

翻譯練習(xí)

lt began as a search service for the techie insiders, but quickly caught on with more and more web users for its uncluttered look and impressively quick search results.

With Schmidt at the helm, Google is aggressively trying to leverage its reach technology, and advertiser base.

ln addition to its perks and meritocratic culture, Google is in tune

with the increasing importance people place on work-life balance.