薩桑?古達(dá)齊對(duì)自己6月所做的事情耿耿于懷,但他覺(jué)得自己沒(méi)得選擇。
Intuit為消費(fèi)者和小企業(yè)主開(kāi)發(fā)TurboTax、QuickBooks和其他財(cái)務(wù)軟件,作為Intuit的首席執(zhí)行官,古達(dá)齊負(fù)責(zé)的這家公司長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)都是《財(cái)富》美國(guó)“最佳雇主100強(qiáng)”榜單的常駐企業(yè),當(dāng)前位列11。然而在6月份,他解雇了715名雇員,這在公司37年的歷史中可謂是史無(wú)前例。他在一個(gè)長(zhǎng)篇博客中對(duì)雇員說(shuō):“我懷著沉重的心情向大家宣布這些變化?!彼睦碛珊退?dāng)前所做的事情值得我們?nèi)ッ芮嘘P(guān)注,因?yàn)楦餍懈鳂I(yè)的各大公司現(xiàn)如今都面臨著古達(dá)齊所面臨的同樣問(wèn)題,而且有可能會(huì)被迫做出一些同樣的決定。
Intuit的業(yè)務(wù)蒸蒸日上,而且股價(jià)創(chuàng)下了歷史新高, 其解雇數(shù)百名員工的原因并非是需求崩潰或成本削減,而在于它所面臨的挑戰(zhàn)——要想成為顛覆的引領(lǐng)者,就必須顛覆自我。這是Intuit的核心能力,數(shù)十年以來(lái),它一直通過(guò)顛覆自我來(lái)跟上Windows操作系統(tǒng)、互聯(lián)網(wǎng)、移動(dòng)設(shè)備和云計(jì)算的發(fā)展步伐,并借此保持了自身的獨(dú)立地位。在近幾年,公司已經(jīng)打造了新的業(yè)務(wù)模式,借助這種模式,公司能夠?qū)⑹褂肐ntuit軟件的傳統(tǒng)客戶(hù)與會(huì)計(jì)、簿記員聯(lián)系起來(lái)。
如今在人工智能領(lǐng)域,再次自我顛覆的時(shí)刻到了。古達(dá)齊對(duì)雇員說(shuō):“有鑒于客戶(hù)需求的快速演變以及競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手企圖顛覆我們的目標(biāo),我們必須現(xiàn)在就采取行動(dòng),而且是刻不容緩?!边@意味著要取消那些與“公司投資的未來(lái)沒(méi)有多少關(guān)聯(lián)”的工作崗位,并聘請(qǐng)700多名新雇員,以“打造公司未來(lái)發(fā)展所需的能力?!?/p>
技能再培訓(xùn)這個(gè)話題涉及面更廣泛,這也是各行各業(yè)的公司所關(guān)注的熱門(mén)話題,因?yàn)橐咔榧铀倭诉@一技術(shù)趨勢(shì)。培訓(xùn)在現(xiàn)實(shí)中可行嗎,還是說(shuō)在當(dāng)前的緊迫局勢(shì)下,公司需通過(guò)招聘獲得所需的技能。在首席數(shù)據(jù)官阿肖克?斯里瓦斯塔瓦的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下,Intuit采取了兼而有之的策略。他說(shuō),公司為雇員提供一套嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)?shù)娜斯ぶ悄苷n程,為期6個(gè)月。期間,學(xué)習(xí)者會(huì)從“人工智能的定義一直學(xué)到算法”。對(duì)于那些希望“大致了解人工智能”的人來(lái)說(shuō),公司也為他們提供為期一天的課程。同時(shí),斯里瓦斯塔瓦還為產(chǎn)品經(jīng)理、高管和其他不太涉及技術(shù)的員工創(chuàng)建了一套分為5個(gè)部分的課程,由其親自教授。
然而,這一點(diǎn)還不夠,因此斯里瓦斯塔瓦還負(fù)責(zé)招聘Intuit當(dāng)前所需的專(zhuān)業(yè)軟件工程師。他描述了自己如何選擇這些工程師,這一點(diǎn)對(duì)于任何因公司所需的新技能而開(kāi)展招聘或希望被聘的人來(lái)說(shuō)都是寶貴的準(zhǔn)則,而且與技能的種類(lèi)無(wú)關(guān)。他說(shuō):“很明顯,[候選者]應(yīng)具有合適的技術(shù)資質(zhì)。這一點(diǎn)是毋庸置疑的。然而,我可以告訴你我真正要找的是什么樣的人。我尋找的是那些頭腦靈活的思考者,以任務(wù)為導(dǎo)向的人,能夠非常有效地與其他人溝通和協(xié)作的人,能夠從他人角度出發(fā)來(lái)看待這個(gè)世界的人,能夠吸納多元化理念、多元化思考方式的人。這便是我想要找的人?!?/p>
52歲的古達(dá)齊于2019年1月?lián)蜪ntuit的首席執(zhí)行官,此前他曾擔(dān)任過(guò)該公司各大主要部門(mén)的負(fù)責(zé)人。古達(dá)齊出生于德黑蘭,9歲的時(shí)候來(lái)到了美國(guó)。他曾在霍尼韋爾和Invensys工作過(guò),然后于14年前加入了Intuit。近期,他與《財(cái)富》探討了Intuit最近的重構(gòu),最近收購(gòu)Credit Karma的交易,聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會(huì)對(duì)TurboTax營(yíng)銷(xiāo)的調(diào)查等等。以下內(nèi)容為刪減后的對(duì)話:
很多公司都在使用人工智能,但你們似乎更進(jìn)了一步,將其作為Intuit重構(gòu)的中心目標(biāo)。為什么?
古達(dá)齊:“電”和“互聯(lián)網(wǎng)”的發(fā)明點(diǎn)燃了全球的創(chuàng)新。首先是“電”,它的出現(xiàn)遠(yuǎn)早于我們這個(gè)時(shí)代。第二個(gè)是“互聯(lián)網(wǎng)”。它引發(fā)了數(shù)不清的創(chuàng)新,而且我們依然在以互聯(lián)網(wǎng)為基礎(chǔ)進(jìn)行創(chuàng)新。在我看來(lái),第三個(gè)會(huì)改變世界的就是人工智能。我們得在5-10年之后再來(lái)看人工智能,毫無(wú)爭(zhēng)議的是,它的影響力將毫不遜于前兩者。
這也是為什么它成為我們策略核心的原因。我們花了不少時(shí)間來(lái)弄清楚公司所說(shuō)的人工智能到底是什么,因?yàn)樗腥硕荚谑褂萌斯ぶ悄苓@個(gè)詞,用起來(lái)很時(shí)髦。我們將人工智能定義為機(jī)器學(xué)習(xí),知識(shí)改造和自然語(yǔ)言處理。我們認(rèn)為這三個(gè)元素將從根本上加速創(chuàng)新進(jìn)程。
在看了我們的策略后你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn),我們正在打造一個(gè)人工智能驅(qū)動(dòng)的專(zhuān)家平臺(tái),也就是用技術(shù)解決海量的客戶(hù)問(wèn)題,并實(shí)現(xiàn)服務(wù)的數(shù)字化。
從實(shí)用的角度來(lái)講,人工智能的作用是什么?它能夠做哪些以前做不了的事,以及如何增添價(jià)值?
如果你在紐約或加州,想和位于不同地方的專(zhuān)家進(jìn)行接洽,比如這些專(zhuān)家在愛(ài)達(dá)荷州的博伊斯?;谖覀兯莆盏挠嘘P(guān)你的信息,人工智能能夠做到:立即幫助博伊斯的簿記員了解你的稅務(wù)狀況;列出簿記員需要向你分享的三類(lèi)洞見(jiàn),重點(diǎn)在于樹(shù)立你的信心并建立關(guān)系;幫助簿記員提供有助于你省錢(qián)的洞見(jiàn),對(duì)于小企業(yè)來(lái)說(shuō)也能提供同樣的幫助?;谒形覀兛吹降臄?shù)據(jù),我們認(rèn)為你可以購(gòu)買(mǎi)庫(kù)存。順便提一下,基于我們所掌握的你的信息和信譽(yù),你可以貸款10萬(wàn)美元。人工智能可以做上述所有事情,而不用簿記員去費(fèi)神費(fèi)力?;谌斯ぶ悄軐?duì)你和類(lèi)似人士的了解,它還知道如何忽略與你不相關(guān)的一些事情。
Intuit從來(lái)沒(méi)有像6月份那樣解雇過(guò)如此多的雇員。為什么說(shuō)這是公司正確的發(fā)展方向?
為了管理這些位于云端的復(fù)雜分布式人工智能模型,我們需要系統(tǒng)工程師、全棧工程師、在原生計(jì)算和云端移動(dòng)計(jì)算領(lǐng)域有著豐富經(jīng)驗(yàn)的工程師。我們需要大量的勞動(dòng)力分析師和流程工程師。這一點(diǎn)要求對(duì)我們的員工進(jìn)行培訓(xùn),同時(shí)還要求我們從外部引入這些技能。培訓(xùn)做起來(lái)真的很難,非常困難。聘請(qǐng)具有這些技能的人員比培訓(xùn)現(xiàn)有員工要容易的多,然而現(xiàn)實(shí)中具備這些技能的人并不多,因此不得不耗費(fèi)時(shí)間雙管齊下。
例如,我們正在投資我們的培訓(xùn)能力,因?yàn)槲覀兇_實(shí)有人了解系統(tǒng)改造,或全棧改造,然而,我們需要培養(yǎng)相關(guān)能力來(lái)提供培訓(xùn)。因此我們所采取的方式是打造我們的教育能力,并在公司內(nèi)部進(jìn)行教學(xué),同時(shí)使用像亞馬遜這樣的第三方——我們和亞馬遜合作非常緊密,因?yàn)槲覀儗⒁磺卸嫁D(zhuǎn)移到了亞馬遜AWS云服務(wù)上,來(lái)傳授這些能力。
在過(guò)去的18個(gè)月中,我們進(jìn)行了三次“收購(gòu)式招聘”,并借此引入了這一領(lǐng)域的技術(shù),包括云軟件制造商Applatix、營(yíng)銷(xiāo)分析Origami Logic,以及剛剛收購(gòu)的幫助小企業(yè)管理庫(kù)存和訂單的TradeGecko。
美國(guó)司法部最近批準(zhǔn)了貴公司以71億美元的價(jià)格收購(gòu)Credit Karma的交易,前提是同意向Square出售稅務(wù)籌劃業(yè)務(wù)。為什么會(huì)提出這樣的交易?
我們擁有5700萬(wàn)客戶(hù),Credit Karma擁有1億多名客戶(hù)。后者掌握了你的所有開(kāi)支和信用歷史,而我們擁有你所有的收入信息。在得到你的許可后,我們將賦予你這類(lèi)數(shù)據(jù)的力量,這樣你便可以以最低的價(jià)格獲取適合你的最佳金融產(chǎn)品,包括信用卡、個(gè)人貸款、住房貸款、汽車(chē)貸款、家庭和汽車(chē)保險(xiǎn)。如今,當(dāng)你拿到一張信用卡時(shí),你并不知道這個(gè)根據(jù)你的信譽(yù)分?jǐn)?shù)所授予的利率是否是最低利率,但我們?nèi)缃癖憧梢詫?shí)現(xiàn)這一點(diǎn)。
去年,2300萬(wàn)人使用了發(fā)薪日貸款,并為此支付了過(guò)多的資金。我們可以根據(jù)所掌握的你的個(gè)人情況,讓你盡早獲取你的退稅和薪資信息。順便說(shuō)一下,如果需要的話,我們可以提供現(xiàn)場(chǎng)專(zhuān)家咨詢(xún),因?yàn)檫@恰好就是要整合至Credit Karma的服務(wù)。
Intuit的使命是“助力全球繁榮”,但這項(xiàng)業(yè)務(wù)大多位于美國(guó),什么時(shí)候才能真正走向全球?
我們已經(jīng)取得了一些進(jìn)展。如今,公司云QuikBooks近30%的消費(fèi)者都來(lái)自于其他國(guó)家,營(yíng)收增速達(dá)到了52%。我們研究了自身的發(fā)展歷史,以了解我們什么時(shí)候進(jìn)駐了哪一個(gè)國(guó)家,以及我們?nèi)绾巫龀鲞@一決定?我們都做出了哪些選擇?我們還研究了那些與生俱來(lái)的國(guó)際化公司,或其國(guó)際業(yè)務(wù)大獲成功的公司。因此,我們研究了我們的一位競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手Xero[一家總部位于新西蘭的稅務(wù)和會(huì)計(jì)軟件公司,在全球各地都設(shè)有業(yè)務(wù)]。我們研究了愛(ài)彼迎和PayPal,來(lái)了解它們?nèi)绾未蛟煲患覈?guó)際化的公司。所有這些形成了一個(gè)有關(guān)公司全球化的手冊(cè),而且正是因?yàn)檫@本手冊(cè),我們才能夠加速我們?cè)谝堰M(jìn)駐國(guó)家的業(yè)務(wù),并決定退出某些國(guó)家。我們剛剛在9月宣布了將從印度退出,因?yàn)樨?cái)務(wù)管理在印度并非是一個(gè)強(qiáng)有力的行業(yè)門(mén)類(lèi)。其他很多業(yè)務(wù)都是,但財(cái)務(wù)管理除外。
你可能需要與下一任的首席執(zhí)行官來(lái)交流國(guó)際業(yè)務(wù)的成功一事,因?yàn)槲覀冞€得花10-15年的時(shí)間才能真正讓國(guó)際業(yè)務(wù)成為公司的重要業(yè)務(wù)。然而,我對(duì)公司的進(jìn)展感到欣慰,這一點(diǎn)對(duì)于我們的未來(lái)至關(guān)重要。
聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會(huì)一直在調(diào)查Intuit,因?yàn)橛腥朔Q(chēng)公司利用TurboTax欺騙用戶(hù)為其服務(wù)支付費(fèi)用,而這些用戶(hù)本可以通過(guò)IRS Free File項(xiàng)目進(jìn)行免費(fèi)報(bào)稅。這一切都源自于ProPublica的報(bào)道,這件事到底怎么回事?
我們堅(jiān)信,幫助客戶(hù)免除稅務(wù)的理念是我們工作的一個(gè)重要組成部分,實(shí)際上也是我們策略的一個(gè)重要組成部分。我們與IRS圍繞Free File項(xiàng)目所做的工作都是免費(fèi)的。落腳點(diǎn)都是為了做好事,但這件事剛好被某些新聞媒體給扭曲了。到目前為止,當(dāng)我們每每與聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會(huì)以及檢察長(zhǎng)接觸時(shí),他們的反饋都是:“既然我們已經(jīng)了解了數(shù)據(jù),我們真的不確定這有什么可大驚小怪的?!币虼?,我們對(duì)于這件事的后續(xù)進(jìn)展非常有信心,因?yàn)槲覀儾粌H有可查的歷史記錄,同時(shí)還有文件證明,我們?cè)谶@一方面所做的每一件事都是免費(fèi)的。
我們學(xué)到的最重要的一點(diǎn)在于,即便你在做好事而且還不要錢(qián),但如果你很難解釋清楚,那么倒不如退一步問(wèn)問(wèn)自己,在這個(gè)領(lǐng)域投入精力提供免費(fèi)服務(wù)合適嗎?我也在公司分享了這個(gè)看法。我們當(dāng)前在這一方面所做的評(píng)估比以往任何時(shí)候都更加慎重,目前仍在開(kāi)展當(dāng)中。我想說(shuō)的是,事實(shí)站在我們這一邊,而且很快就會(huì)真相大白。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng))
譯者:馮豐
審校:夏林
薩桑?古達(dá)齊對(duì)自己6月所做的事情耿耿于懷,但他覺(jué)得自己沒(méi)得選擇。
Intuit為消費(fèi)者和小企業(yè)主開(kāi)發(fā)TurboTax、QuickBooks和其他財(cái)務(wù)軟件,作為Intuit的首席執(zhí)行官,古達(dá)齊負(fù)責(zé)的這家公司長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)都是《財(cái)富》美國(guó)“最佳雇主100強(qiáng)”榜單的常駐企業(yè),當(dāng)前位列11。然而在6月份,他解雇了715名雇員,這在公司37年的歷史中可謂是史無(wú)前例。他在一個(gè)長(zhǎng)篇博客中對(duì)雇員說(shuō):“我懷著沉重的心情向大家宣布這些變化?!彼睦碛珊退?dāng)前所做的事情值得我們?nèi)ッ芮嘘P(guān)注,因?yàn)楦餍懈鳂I(yè)的各大公司現(xiàn)如今都面臨著古達(dá)齊所面臨的同樣問(wèn)題,而且有可能會(huì)被迫做出一些同樣的決定。
Intuit的業(yè)務(wù)蒸蒸日上,而且股價(jià)創(chuàng)下了歷史新高, 其解雇數(shù)百名員工的原因并非是需求崩潰或成本削減,而在于它所面臨的挑戰(zhàn)——要想成為顛覆的引領(lǐng)者,就必須顛覆自我。這是Intuit的核心能力,數(shù)十年以來(lái),它一直通過(guò)顛覆自我來(lái)跟上Windows操作系統(tǒng)、互聯(lián)網(wǎng)、移動(dòng)設(shè)備和云計(jì)算的發(fā)展步伐,并借此保持了自身的獨(dú)立地位。在近幾年,公司已經(jīng)打造了新的業(yè)務(wù)模式,借助這種模式,公司能夠?qū)⑹褂肐ntuit軟件的傳統(tǒng)客戶(hù)與會(huì)計(jì)、簿記員聯(lián)系起來(lái)。
如今在人工智能領(lǐng)域,再次自我顛覆的時(shí)刻到了。古達(dá)齊對(duì)雇員說(shuō):“有鑒于客戶(hù)需求的快速演變以及競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手企圖顛覆我們的目標(biāo),我們必須現(xiàn)在就采取行動(dòng),而且是刻不容緩?!边@意味著要取消那些與“公司投資的未來(lái)沒(méi)有多少關(guān)聯(lián)”的工作崗位,并聘請(qǐng)700多名新雇員,以“打造公司未來(lái)發(fā)展所需的能力?!?/p>
技能再培訓(xùn)這個(gè)話題涉及面更廣泛,這也是各行各業(yè)的公司所關(guān)注的熱門(mén)話題,因?yàn)橐咔榧铀倭诉@一技術(shù)趨勢(shì)。培訓(xùn)在現(xiàn)實(shí)中可行嗎,還是說(shuō)在當(dāng)前的緊迫局勢(shì)下,公司需通過(guò)招聘獲得所需的技能。在首席數(shù)據(jù)官阿肖克?斯里瓦斯塔瓦的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下,Intuit采取了兼而有之的策略。他說(shuō),公司為雇員提供一套嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)?shù)娜斯ぶ悄苷n程,為期6個(gè)月。期間,學(xué)習(xí)者會(huì)從“人工智能的定義一直學(xué)到算法”。對(duì)于那些希望“大致了解人工智能”的人來(lái)說(shuō),公司也為他們提供為期一天的課程。同時(shí),斯里瓦斯塔瓦還為產(chǎn)品經(jīng)理、高管和其他不太涉及技術(shù)的員工創(chuàng)建了一套分為5個(gè)部分的課程,由其親自教授。
然而,這一點(diǎn)還不夠,因此斯里瓦斯塔瓦還負(fù)責(zé)招聘Intuit當(dāng)前所需的專(zhuān)業(yè)軟件工程師。他描述了自己如何選擇這些工程師,這一點(diǎn)對(duì)于任何因公司所需的新技能而開(kāi)展招聘或希望被聘的人來(lái)說(shuō)都是寶貴的準(zhǔn)則,而且與技能的種類(lèi)無(wú)關(guān)。他說(shuō):“很明顯,[候選者]應(yīng)具有合適的技術(shù)資質(zhì)。這一點(diǎn)是毋庸置疑的。然而,我可以告訴你我真正要找的是什么樣的人。我尋找的是那些頭腦靈活的思考者,以任務(wù)為導(dǎo)向的人,能夠非常有效地與其他人溝通和協(xié)作的人,能夠從他人角度出發(fā)來(lái)看待這個(gè)世界的人,能夠吸納多元化理念、多元化思考方式的人。這便是我想要找的人?!?/p>
52歲的古達(dá)齊于2019年1月?lián)蜪ntuit的首席執(zhí)行官,此前他曾擔(dān)任過(guò)該公司各大主要部門(mén)的負(fù)責(zé)人。古達(dá)齊出生于德黑蘭,9歲的時(shí)候來(lái)到了美國(guó)。他曾在霍尼韋爾和Invensys工作過(guò),然后于14年前加入了Intuit。近期,他與《財(cái)富》探討了Intuit最近的重構(gòu),最近收購(gòu)Credit Karma的交易,聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會(huì)對(duì)TurboTax營(yíng)銷(xiāo)的調(diào)查等等。以下內(nèi)容為刪減后的對(duì)話:
很多公司都在使用人工智能,但你們似乎更進(jìn)了一步,將其作為Intuit重構(gòu)的中心目標(biāo)。為什么?
古達(dá)齊:“電”和“互聯(lián)網(wǎng)”的發(fā)明點(diǎn)燃了全球的創(chuàng)新。首先是“電”,它的出現(xiàn)遠(yuǎn)早于我們這個(gè)時(shí)代。第二個(gè)是“互聯(lián)網(wǎng)”。它引發(fā)了數(shù)不清的創(chuàng)新,而且我們依然在以互聯(lián)網(wǎng)為基礎(chǔ)進(jìn)行創(chuàng)新。在我看來(lái),第三個(gè)會(huì)改變世界的就是人工智能。我們得在5-10年之后再來(lái)看人工智能,毫無(wú)爭(zhēng)議的是,它的影響力將毫不遜于前兩者。
這也是為什么它成為我們策略核心的原因。我們花了不少時(shí)間來(lái)弄清楚公司所說(shuō)的人工智能到底是什么,因?yàn)樗腥硕荚谑褂萌斯ぶ悄苓@個(gè)詞,用起來(lái)很時(shí)髦。我們將人工智能定義為機(jī)器學(xué)習(xí),知識(shí)改造和自然語(yǔ)言處理。我們認(rèn)為這三個(gè)元素將從根本上加速創(chuàng)新進(jìn)程。
在看了我們的策略后你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn),我們正在打造一個(gè)人工智能驅(qū)動(dòng)的專(zhuān)家平臺(tái),也就是用技術(shù)解決海量的客戶(hù)問(wèn)題,并實(shí)現(xiàn)服務(wù)的數(shù)字化。
從實(shí)用的角度來(lái)講,人工智能的作用是什么?它能夠做哪些以前做不了的事,以及如何增添價(jià)值?
如果你在紐約或加州,想和位于不同地方的專(zhuān)家進(jìn)行接洽,比如這些專(zhuān)家在愛(ài)達(dá)荷州的博伊斯?;谖覀兯莆盏挠嘘P(guān)你的信息,人工智能能夠做到:立即幫助博伊斯的簿記員了解你的稅務(wù)狀況;列出簿記員需要向你分享的三類(lèi)洞見(jiàn),重點(diǎn)在于樹(shù)立你的信心并建立關(guān)系;幫助簿記員提供有助于你省錢(qián)的洞見(jiàn),對(duì)于小企業(yè)來(lái)說(shuō)也能提供同樣的幫助。基于所有我們看到的數(shù)據(jù),我們認(rèn)為你可以購(gòu)買(mǎi)庫(kù)存。順便提一下,基于我們所掌握的你的信息和信譽(yù),你可以貸款10萬(wàn)美元。人工智能可以做上述所有事情,而不用簿記員去費(fèi)神費(fèi)力?;谌斯ぶ悄軐?duì)你和類(lèi)似人士的了解,它還知道如何忽略與你不相關(guān)的一些事情。
Intuit從來(lái)沒(méi)有像6月份那樣解雇過(guò)如此多的雇員。為什么說(shuō)這是公司正確的發(fā)展方向?
為了管理這些位于云端的復(fù)雜分布式人工智能模型,我們需要系統(tǒng)工程師、全棧工程師、在原生計(jì)算和云端移動(dòng)計(jì)算領(lǐng)域有著豐富經(jīng)驗(yàn)的工程師。我們需要大量的勞動(dòng)力分析師和流程工程師。這一點(diǎn)要求對(duì)我們的員工進(jìn)行培訓(xùn),同時(shí)還要求我們從外部引入這些技能。培訓(xùn)做起來(lái)真的很難,非常困難。聘請(qǐng)具有這些技能的人員比培訓(xùn)現(xiàn)有員工要容易的多,然而現(xiàn)實(shí)中具備這些技能的人并不多,因此不得不耗費(fèi)時(shí)間雙管齊下。
例如,我們正在投資我們的培訓(xùn)能力,因?yàn)槲覀兇_實(shí)有人了解系統(tǒng)改造,或全棧改造,然而,我們需要培養(yǎng)相關(guān)能力來(lái)提供培訓(xùn)。因此我們所采取的方式是打造我們的教育能力,并在公司內(nèi)部進(jìn)行教學(xué),同時(shí)使用像亞馬遜這樣的第三方——我們和亞馬遜合作非常緊密,因?yàn)槲覀儗⒁磺卸嫁D(zhuǎn)移到了亞馬遜AWS云服務(wù)上,來(lái)傳授這些能力。
在過(guò)去的18個(gè)月中,我們進(jìn)行了三次“收購(gòu)式招聘”,并借此引入了這一領(lǐng)域的技術(shù),包括云軟件制造商Applatix、營(yíng)銷(xiāo)分析Origami Logic,以及剛剛收購(gòu)的幫助小企業(yè)管理庫(kù)存和訂單的TradeGecko。
美國(guó)司法部最近批準(zhǔn)了貴公司以71億美元的價(jià)格收購(gòu)Credit Karma的交易,前提是同意向Square出售稅務(wù)籌劃業(yè)務(wù)。為什么會(huì)提出這樣的交易?
我們擁有5700萬(wàn)客戶(hù),Credit Karma擁有1億多名客戶(hù)。后者掌握了你的所有開(kāi)支和信用歷史,而我們擁有你所有的收入信息。在得到你的許可后,我們將賦予你這類(lèi)數(shù)據(jù)的力量,這樣你便可以以最低的價(jià)格獲取適合你的最佳金融產(chǎn)品,包括信用卡、個(gè)人貸款、住房貸款、汽車(chē)貸款、家庭和汽車(chē)保險(xiǎn)。如今,當(dāng)你拿到一張信用卡時(shí),你并不知道這個(gè)根據(jù)你的信譽(yù)分?jǐn)?shù)所授予的利率是否是最低利率,但我們?nèi)缃癖憧梢詫?shí)現(xiàn)這一點(diǎn)。
去年,2300萬(wàn)人使用了發(fā)薪日貸款,并為此支付了過(guò)多的資金。我們可以根據(jù)所掌握的你的個(gè)人情況,讓你盡早獲取你的退稅和薪資信息。順便說(shuō)一下,如果需要的話,我們可以提供現(xiàn)場(chǎng)專(zhuān)家咨詢(xún),因?yàn)檫@恰好就是要整合至Credit Karma的服務(wù)。
Intuit的使命是“助力全球繁榮”,但這項(xiàng)業(yè)務(wù)大多位于美國(guó),什么時(shí)候才能真正走向全球?
我們已經(jīng)取得了一些進(jìn)展。如今,公司云QuikBooks近30%的消費(fèi)者都來(lái)自于其他國(guó)家,營(yíng)收增速達(dá)到了52%。我們研究了自身的發(fā)展歷史,以了解我們什么時(shí)候進(jìn)駐了哪一個(gè)國(guó)家,以及我們?nèi)绾巫龀鲞@一決定?我們都做出了哪些選擇?我們還研究了那些與生俱來(lái)的國(guó)際化公司,或其國(guó)際業(yè)務(wù)大獲成功的公司。因此,我們研究了我們的一位競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手Xero[一家總部位于新西蘭的稅務(wù)和會(huì)計(jì)軟件公司,在全球各地都設(shè)有業(yè)務(wù)]。我們研究了愛(ài)彼迎和PayPal,來(lái)了解它們?nèi)绾未蛟煲患覈?guó)際化的公司。所有這些形成了一個(gè)有關(guān)公司全球化的手冊(cè),而且正是因?yàn)檫@本手冊(cè),我們才能夠加速我們?cè)谝堰M(jìn)駐國(guó)家的業(yè)務(wù),并決定退出某些國(guó)家。我們剛剛在9月宣布了將從印度退出,因?yàn)樨?cái)務(wù)管理在印度并非是一個(gè)強(qiáng)有力的行業(yè)門(mén)類(lèi)。其他很多業(yè)務(wù)都是,但財(cái)務(wù)管理除外。
你可能需要與下一任的首席執(zhí)行官來(lái)交流國(guó)際業(yè)務(wù)的成功一事,因?yàn)槲覀冞€得花10-15年的時(shí)間才能真正讓國(guó)際業(yè)務(wù)成為公司的重要業(yè)務(wù)。然而,我對(duì)公司的進(jìn)展感到欣慰,這一點(diǎn)對(duì)于我們的未來(lái)至關(guān)重要。
聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會(huì)一直在調(diào)查Intuit,因?yàn)橛腥朔Q(chēng)公司利用TurboTax欺騙用戶(hù)為其服務(wù)支付費(fèi)用,而這些用戶(hù)本可以通過(guò)IRS Free File項(xiàng)目進(jìn)行免費(fèi)報(bào)稅。這一切都源自于ProPublica的報(bào)道,這件事到底怎么回事?
我們堅(jiān)信,幫助客戶(hù)免除稅務(wù)的理念是我們工作的一個(gè)重要組成部分,實(shí)際上也是我們策略的一個(gè)重要組成部分。我們與IRS圍繞Free File項(xiàng)目所做的工作都是免費(fèi)的。落腳點(diǎn)都是為了做好事,但這件事剛好被某些新聞媒體給扭曲了。到目前為止,當(dāng)我們每每與聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會(huì)以及檢察長(zhǎng)接觸時(shí),他們的反饋都是:“既然我們已經(jīng)了解了數(shù)據(jù),我們真的不確定這有什么可大驚小怪的。”因此,我們對(duì)于這件事的后續(xù)進(jìn)展非常有信心,因?yàn)槲覀儾粌H有可查的歷史記錄,同時(shí)還有文件證明,我們?cè)谶@一方面所做的每一件事都是免費(fèi)的。
我們學(xué)到的最重要的一點(diǎn)在于,即便你在做好事而且還不要錢(qián),但如果你很難解釋清楚,那么倒不如退一步問(wèn)問(wèn)自己,在這個(gè)領(lǐng)域投入精力提供免費(fèi)服務(wù)合適嗎?我也在公司分享了這個(gè)看法。我們當(dāng)前在這一方面所做的評(píng)估比以往任何時(shí)候都更加慎重,目前仍在開(kāi)展當(dāng)中。我想說(shuō)的是,事實(shí)站在我們這一邊,而且很快就會(huì)真相大白。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng))
譯者:馮豐
審校:夏林
Sasan Goodarzi didn’t like doing what he did last June, but he felt he had to.
As CEO of Intuit, maker of TurboTax, QuickBooks, and other finance software for consumers and small-business owners, he oversees a longtime stalwart on Fortune’s ranking of America’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, currently No. 11. But in June he laid off 715 employees, an unprecedented event in the company’s 37-year history. “It is with a heavy heart that I communicate these changes,” he told employees in a long blog post. His reasons and what he’s doing now are worth a close look because companies across the economy are facing the same issues that Goodarzi faces and will likely confront some of the same decisions.
Intuit isn’t laying off hundreds because of crushed demand or cost cutting; business is booming, and the stock is hitting all-time highs. The challenge is keeping the company ahead of disruption by disrupting itself. That’s a core competency at Intuit, which has stayed independent by disrupting itself over the decades to meet the advent of the Windows operating system, the Internet, mobile devices, and cloud computing. In recent years the company has created new business models in which it connects its traditional customers with accountants and bookkeepers, with all parties using Intuit software.
Now, in the era of artificial intelligence, it’s time to self-disrupt again. “With customer needs rapidly evolving and competitors aiming to disrupt us, we need to act now and with urgency,” Goodarzi told employees. That meant eliminating jobs that were “not aligned to where we are investing for the future” and hiring over 700 new employees “to build the capabilities needed as we look ahead.”
The broader issue is reskilling, a hot topic for companies in every industry as the pandemic accelerates technology trends. Is training a realistic option, or does today’s urgency require hiring the needed skills? Intuit does both under chief data officer Ashok Srivastava. The company offers employees a rigorous six-month course in A.I. in which students “go through it from the definition of A.I. all the way to algorithms,” he says. A one-day course is available for those who want “a glimpse of A.I.,” and Srivastava teaches a five-part course that he created for product managers, executives, and others who are less tech-focused.
But that isn’t enough, so Srivastava also oversees the hiring of the specialized software engineers Intuit needs right away. His description of how he chooses them is a valuable guide for anyone hiring or looking to be hired for the new skills a company needs, whatever they may be. “Obviously [candidates] should have the right technical credentials,” he says. “That goes without saying. But I can tell you what I'm really looking for. I'm looking for people who are flexible thinkers, who are mission oriented, people who can communicate and collaborate very effectively with others, who can see the world from another person's point of view, who can represent diverse ideas, diverse ways of thinking about things. That's what I'm looking for.”
Goodarzi, 52, became Intuit’s CEO in January 2019 after leading each of its major businesses. Born in Tehran, he came to the U.S. at age 9; he worked at Honeywell and Invensys before joining Intuit 14 years ago. He spoke recently with Fortune about Intuit’s latest reinvention, the recent acquisition of Credit Karma, a Federal Trade Commission investigation of TurboTax marketing, and more. Edited excerpts:
Many companies are using A.I., but you’re doing more—putting it at the center of Intuit’s reinvention. How come?
Goodarzi: There have been two platforms that have ignited global innovation. One was electricity, which was long before our time. The second was the Internet. It ignited an incredible amount of innovation, and we're still innovating based on that. And to me, the third one is A.I. We're going to look back at A.I. in five to 10 years and, undisputed, it will be as powerful as the impact of electricity and the Internet.
That's why it's core to our strategy. We spent quite a bit of time describing what we mean by A.I., because everybody uses the word “A.I.”—it's a fancy word to use. We defined A.I. as machine learning, knowledge engineering, and natural language processing. Those three elements we believe fundamentally can accelerate innovation.
When you look at our strategy, it is about being an A.I.-driven expert platform. It's all about technology solving massive customer problems and digitizing services.
Practically, what will be the role of A.I.? What can it do that couldn't be done before, and how will it add value?
If you're in New York or California and you're engaging with an expert, the expert can be anywhere. They can be in Boise, Idaho. A.I. instantly helps that bookkeeper in Boise understand your tax situation based on everything we know about you. It will lay out the three insights the bookkeeper needs to share with you. It's all about building your confidence and building a relationship. A.I. will help the bookkeeper deliver insights that will save you money. It can do the same thing with a small business. Based on all the data we see, we think you can go buy inventory. And by the way, based on what we know about you and your creditworthiness, you’re eligible for taking out a $100,000 loan. A.I. does all that rather than the bookkeeper having to crunch all the work. And based on what it knows about you and people like you, it also knows how to skip a bunch of stuff that's not relevant for you.
Intuit has never laid off as many employees as you laid off in June. Why was that the right way to go?
To manage these complex distributed A.I. models in the cloud, we need systems engineers, full-stack engineers, engineers who have a lot of experience with native computing and mobile computing in the cloud. We need a lot of workforce analysts and process engineers. This requires training our folks, but it also requires bringing skills in from the outside. The training side is really hard. It's really hard. It's much easier to go hire someone with these skills versus training, but there aren't actually too many people like this. So you have to invest the time doing both.
We’re investing in our training capability because we do have people who understand systems engineering, for example, or full-stack engineering, but we need to build the capability to provide the training. So the approach we're taking is to build out our educational capabilities and teach internally while also using partners like Amazon—we're very close partners with them since we've shifted everything to Amazon Web Services—to teach these capabilities.
And in the past 18 months we've made three “acquihires” where we've brought in skills in this area—Applatix [a maker of cloud software], Origami Logic [marketing analytics], and we just acquired TradeGecko [software to help small businesses manage inventory and orders].
The U.S. Justice Department recently cleared your $7.1 billion acquisition of Credit Karma after the company agreed to sell its tax preparation business to Square. Why this deal?
We have 57 million customers; Credit Karma has 100-million-plus customers. They have all your spending and credit history. We have all your income information. With your permission, we're going to give you the power of that data so you can get access to the best financial products that are right for you at the lowest rates—credit cards, personal loans, home loans, auto loans, home and auto insurance. Right now, when you go get a credit card, you don't know if it's the best rate you can get based on your credit score. We can now make that happen.
Last year 23 million people went to get payday loans and paid exorbitant amounts of money. We can give you early access to your tax refund and your paycheck based on what we know about you. And by the way, we can give you live expertise if you need it, because it's just a service that will plug into Credit Karma.
Intuit’s mission is “powering prosperity around the world,” but the business is still mostly in the U.S. When will it become truly global?
We are getting traction. We now have almost 30% of all of our cloud QuickBooks customers international, and revenue is growing at 52%. We studied our own history to understand, when we went into a country, how did we make that decision? What choices did we make? We also studied companies that were born international or have been successful internationally. So we studied one of our competitors, Xero [a New Zealand–based tax and accounting software company that operates globally]. We studied Airbnb and PayPal to understand how they approach building a global company. All of that informed a global playbook, and because of that playbook we've been able to accelerate in countries that we're in and make decisions to back off of certain countries. We just announced in September that we're backing off from India because financial management is not a strong category in India. A lot of other things are, but not financial management.
You'll probably be talking about the success of international with the next CEO, because it's going to take us another 10 to 15 years to really have it be a substantial part of the company. But I like our progress. That's essential to our future.
The Federal Trade Commission has been investigating Intuit over allegations that it deceived users of TurboTax into paying for the service when they could have filed for free through the IRS Free File program. This all arose out of reporting by ProPublica. Where does the matter stand?
Our very strong belief is that the notion of making free taxes available to customers is an important part of what we do as a company and actually an important part of our strategy. The work that we've done with the IRS around the Free File program has all been philanthropic. It has all been around doing good, and the matter has just been very much twisted by a certain outlet. So far in every engagement we've had with the FTC and attorneys general, their feedback has been, “Now that we understand the data, we're not actually sure what the fuss is about.” So we have a lot of confidence in terms of how this will play out, because we have not only a track record, but documentation that everything we've done is philanthropic.
The biggest learning we've had, and I've shared this with the company, is that even when you're doing something that's good and philanthropic, if you have a hard time explaining it, then it's time to step back and say, well, is this the right place for us to be investing philanthropic efforts? That's what we're evaluating now more than ever. It's proceeding, and I would say the facts are on our side, and that will reveal itself very soon.