三井物產社長：鼓勵開拓精神

Guessing what was on the mind of a Mitsui & Co chief executive used to be easy enough. As the most resource-focused of Japan’s titanic sogo shosha general trading houses, copper prices, iron ore supply and the geopolitics of energy were corporate life and death.

要猜測三井物產(Mitsui & Co)社長心中所想曾經非常容易。作為日本巨型“綜合商社”中最側重資源業(yè)務的一家，銅價、鐵礦石供應和能源的地緣政治狀況決定著公司的成敗。

As he approaches his fourth year in charge, Tatsuo Yasunaga’s preoccupations include mayonnaise deployment at McDonald’s, Earth-mapping micro-satellites, Indonesia’s appetite for yoghurt and whether a convoy of trucks can cross the US without drivers.

在安永龍夫(Tatsuo Yasunaga)掌管三井物產即將進入第4個年頭時，他關注的事情包括麥當勞(McDonald’s)蛋黃醬的使用、繪制地球地圖的微型衛(wèi)星、印度尼西亞對酸奶的興趣以及卡車車隊能否在沒有司機的情況下穿越美國。

He is not running a grand old mansion of salarymen, he insists from an office overlooking the grounds of the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo, but a hothouse of entrepreneurs: “We are finding new markets . . . industry-wise, business-wise, penetrating new frontiers.”

在可以俯瞰東京中心皇居(Imperial Palace)庭院的辦公室里，他堅持表示，他管理的不是一座安置支薪人士的舊式豪華宅邸，而是一座培養(yǎng)企業(yè)家的暖房：“我們正發(fā)現(xiàn)新的市場……無論是就行業(yè)還是業(yè)務而言，以及進軍新的前沿。”

The bewildering splay of Mitsui’s trading and investment interests — animal feed to air cargo; prosciutto to passenger trains; telecoms to tailoring — is not new. Its 2017 negotiations over a port investment in Colombo that could transform Japanese trade routes, for example, are certainly not hindered by Mitsui subsidiaries having built Sri Lanka’s parliament building in 1982. Even the activities Mitsui considers core — chemicals, machinery, infrastructure, healthcare and retail — are diverse.

三井物產的貿易和投資業(yè)務無所不有，令人眼花繚亂(從動物飼料到航空貨運;從熏火腿到客運列車;從電信到服裝制造)，這并不是新近出現(xiàn)的狀況。例如，2017年該公司就科倫坡一港口投資的談判(這筆投資可能會改變日本的貿易路線)，肯定受益于如下事實：該公司的子公司1982年建造了斯里蘭卡的議會大廈。甚至連三井物產認為核心的業(yè)務(化工品、機械、基礎設施、醫(yī)療和零售)都種類繁多。

For many years, Japan’s trading companies, led by Mitsui and Mitsubishi, have been steadily turning into something between private equity houses and venture capitalists. There have been “significant failures” along the way, admits Mr Yasunaga, and shareholders have demanded investment discipline.

多年來，以三井物產和三菱(Mitsubishi)為首的日本貿易公司一直在穩(wěn)步變成介于私人股本集團和風投資本家之間的某種企業(yè)。安永龍夫承認，在此過程中遭遇過“重大失敗”，股東已要求不要亂投資。

But Mr Yasunaga’s mission now is to accelerate the shift away from resources. He is pushing the venture capital and private equity themes, and hoping that Mitsui’s “DNA-rooted” entrepreneurialism will create new business lines to take its investments deeper into consumer markets and absorb new technologies. The trading house model, he says, is well placed to make it happen. And unlike pure private equity groups such as Bain and KKR, he adds, Mitsui is used to taking a very long view.

但安永龍夫現(xiàn)在的任務是加速向資源業(yè)務以外的其他領域的轉型。他正推動風投和私人股本主題，希望三井物產骨子里的那種創(chuàng)業(yè)精神，將締造新的業(yè)務并令其投資更深入地進入消費市場并吸納新的技術。他表示，這種貿易行模式非常有利于實現(xiàn)這個目標。他補充稱，與貝恩(Bain)和KKR等純私人股本集團不同，三井物產習慣于把眼光放長遠。

He talks with unusual bluntness for a Japanese CEO of streamlining Mitsui’s headquarters and of introducing artificial intelligence and internet-of-things technology. He has taken, he says with pride, to confronting Mitsui staff — especially those in the core competency of risk management — with the question: “When can your job be replaced by AI?”

他以日本首席執(zhí)行官不常見的直率口吻，談到三井物產總部的機構精簡和引入人工智能和物聯(lián)網技術。他驕傲地表示，他直截了當?shù)貑柸锂a員工(特別是那些位于風險管理核心職位上的員工)這個問題：“你的工作什么時候可能被人工智能取代?”

The funding side of this endeavour involves earmarking $200m from Mitsui’s published investment plans of $5bn-$6bn to 2020, for a special account to spend on new ventures. These may fall outside Mitsui’s comfort zone and will, Mr Yasunaga says, involve the company “sharpening pencils”.

就資金而言，這種努力涉及從三井物產已公布的截至2020年的投資計劃(500億美元至600億美元)中預留2億美元，用于一個開發(fā)新業(yè)務的特別賬戶。安永龍夫表示，這種做法可能會讓三井物產緊張，它肯定會“討價還價”。

There is a personal flavour to this enthusiasm. In 2016, a year after taking over as chief executive, Mr Yasunaga became the first Mitsui president since the second world war to announce an annual loss, as his predecessors’ bets on metal and energy soured during a global commodities rout. It was humiliating stuff. For all the breadth of its portfolio, he had inherited a company whose profits (it disclosed at the time) fell ¥2.8bn ($23.7m) for every $1 per barrel drop in the price of crude and had been, just three years earlier, 90 per cent derived from resources and energy.

這種熱情帶有安永龍夫個人的印記。2016年，在接任社長一年后，他成為自二戰(zhàn)以來三井物產首位宣布年度虧損的社長，他的前任們押注于金屬和能源，在全球大宗商品價格暴跌時期這些投資遭遇虧損。這是一件丟臉的事情。盡管他接管的公司是一家業(yè)務組合廣泛的公司，但根據(jù)當時披露的數(shù)據(jù)，原油每桶價格每下跌1美元，該公司利潤就下挫28億日元(合2370萬美元)，而且就在3年前，該公司90%的利潤來自資源和能源。

He vowed to “exhaust all possible means to return to profitability”, and the current strategy, in which 50 per cent of profits will come from the consumer side of the business, is the result. On that note, his current preoccupation is Russian male life expectancy.

他發(fā)誓將“窮盡一切辦法恢復盈利”，當前的戰(zhàn)略就是這一努力的結果：50%的利潤將來自該業(yè)務的消費者領域。關于這點，他目前關注的是俄羅斯男性的預期壽命。

Russia has a population of more than 144m. “They need access to quality products,” says Mr Yasunaga, describing Mitsui’s recent investment in R-Pharm, the Russian drugs group. “This is a platform to penetrate the pharmaceuticals business in Russia, and we are bringing in Japanese products and devices.” He points out that the average healthy life expectancy for men was 66.5 in 2016, “so there is big headroom”.

俄羅斯的人口超過1.44億。“他們需要獲得高質量的產品，”安永龍夫在談到三井物產最近對俄羅斯制藥集團R-Pharm的投資時表示，“這是一個進軍俄羅斯制藥行業(yè)的平臺，我們將帶去日本的產品和設備。”他指出，2016年俄羅斯健康男性的預期壽命平均為66.5歲，“因此這方面有著巨大的提高空間”。

Mitsui’s core interests in Russia will continue to be its large and expanding resource-related investments, particularly in liquefied natural gas. But the R-Pharm move is about leveraging a history of engagement with the country (and more than 60 others to which Mitsui’s resource-trading background has given it access and expertise) into markets where the margins may be greater.

三井物產在俄羅斯的核心業(yè)務將繼續(xù)是大規(guī)模日益擴大的資源相關投資，尤其是液化天然氣。但投資R-Pharm的意義在于利用與俄羅斯接觸的歷史(三井物產還與其他逾60個國家有接觸的歷史，其資源貿易背景令其能夠進入這些市場并享有專長)，進入利潤率可能更高的市場。

“Thanks to our successful experience,” he says, “and efforts to keep good contacts through our governmental affairs activities, we can control to some extent our investment . . . so we would like to increase our exposure to Russia.”

“由于我們的成功經驗，”他表示，“以及通過我們的政府事務活動保持良好聯(lián)系的努力，我們能夠在某種程度上控制我們的投資……因此我們希望擴大我們在俄羅斯的業(yè)務。”

Mr Yasunaga faces two challenges; both point to the difficulties of bringing cultural change to a company whose history dates back to 1876. Firstly, the Japanese corporate recruitment model — whereby a company takes a large bloc of entrants once a year — is inflexible. Mr Yasunaga has already increased to about 60 a year the number of people it hires from outside.

安永龍夫面臨兩項挑戰(zhàn);這兩個都顯示出，讓這個歷史可追溯到1876年的公司實現(xiàn)文化變革是困難的。首先，日本企業(yè)聘用模式不靈活，根據(jù)這種模式，公司每年一次大規(guī)模招人。安永龍夫已將該公司每年從外部招聘員工的數(shù)量增加到大約60人。

The second is the accusation that corporate Japan — and the country in general — erects barriers to entrepreneurship. The innovation of which he is most proud is a support system that encourages staff to create business start-ups within the company. Twenty proposals have been received in the first year.

其次是有人指責日本企業(yè)界(以及整個日本)針對創(chuàng)業(yè)設置障礙。他最引以為傲的創(chuàng)新是建立了一個支持體系，鼓勵員工在公司內部創(chuàng)業(yè)。第一年就收到了20份提案。

“It encourages our young guys to . . .  run the business themselves, utilising Mitsui’s business platform for legal, accounting, taxation and even marketing,” he says. Mitsui will offer co-investment but let the founders keep the stock option. “I’d like to encourage them to enjoy business,” he says.

他表示：“它鼓勵我們的年輕人……自己管理企業(yè)，利用三井物產的法律、會計、稅收甚至營銷服務平臺。”三井物產將共同參與投資，但會讓創(chuàng)始人持有期權。他表示：“我想鼓勵他們享受工作。”

Additional reporting by Peter Wells

彼得•韋爾斯(Peter Wells)補充報道