硅谷的一位冠軍CEO要離職了,這個(gè)消息讓人大吃一驚。 已經(jīng)掌舵11年的Intuit(財(cái)捷)公司CEO布拉德·史密斯(Brad Smith)準(zhǔn)備在明年1月1日讓執(zhí)行副總裁薩山·谷達(dá)茲(Sasan Goodarzi)接任,自己以執(zhí)行主席的身份敦促公司實(shí)現(xiàn)過渡。在宣布決定前,本刊對(duì)史密斯進(jìn)行了專訪,他在采訪中表示:“我不想成為就差半步?jīng)]能把棒交出去的運(yùn)動(dòng)員?!薄拔蚁朐谧约哼€在學(xué)習(xí)區(qū)、還有動(dòng)力的時(shí)候離開?!? 公司在兩周前宣布了這一決定,令人大吃一驚,一方面史密斯才54歲,另一方面擁有TurboTax、 QuickBooks及相關(guān)軟件的Intuit近期市場表現(xiàn)異常出色。即使科技股整體股價(jià)偏高,Intuit的股價(jià)更是屢創(chuàng)新高,華爾街投資者對(duì)Intuit的未來卻愈發(fā)樂觀。六家機(jī)構(gòu)將該股票評(píng)級(jí)為“強(qiáng)烈建議購買”,5月只有兩家;沒有一家建議賣出股票。 雖然史密斯即將離任的消息讓人吃驚,但繼任者人選卻在大家意料之中。50歲的谷達(dá)茲主管Intuit的最大部門,該部門負(fù)責(zé)為小企業(yè)和個(gè)體戶提供QuickBooks Online和其它服務(wù);盡管規(guī)模龐大,卻是去年Intuit增長最快的部門。谷達(dá)茲還曾主管Intuit的其他主要部門,比如負(fù)責(zé)銷售TurboTax的個(gè)人用戶業(yè)務(wù),同樣取得了出色業(yè)績。史密斯說:“和11年前的我相比,現(xiàn)在的薩山準(zhǔn)備更充分。” 谷達(dá)茲不僅會(huì)因?yàn)榍叭蜟EO的出色工作面臨巨大壓力,而且分析師都認(rèn)為當(dāng)前市場上股價(jià)整體偏高、難以持續(xù),除此之外,他還將面臨其它嚴(yán)峻考驗(yàn)。Intuit實(shí)現(xiàn)了從產(chǎn)品型公司到在云端出售服務(wù)的平臺(tái)型公司的轉(zhuǎn)變,這一轉(zhuǎn)型是史密斯最重要的成就。但史密斯說,在這個(gè)項(xiàng)目上“我們還有很多工作要做”。對(duì)任何組織而言,實(shí)現(xiàn)這種根本性的轉(zhuǎn)變都十分困難。而且,盡管Intuit在美國市場占主導(dǎo)地位,也已經(jīng)進(jìn)入了加拿大、澳大利亞、英國市場,但在其它國家卻不為人知;競爭者中的后起之秀已經(jīng)盤踞全球主要市場,對(duì)Intuit能否抓住未來最佳增長機(jī)會(huì)造成威脅。 出生在德黑蘭的谷達(dá)茲所擁有的全球視角能有所幫助。他9歲時(shí)被父母送來美國讀書。當(dāng)時(shí)是1978年,短短數(shù)月之后,就發(fā)生了伊朗革命,美國大使館被占領(lǐng)、52名美國人質(zhì)被劫持逾一年之久?!昂芏嗳硕加X得我是個(gè)壞孩子”,谷達(dá)茲說:“學(xué)前班時(shí)我成績不好,被開除后轉(zhuǎn)學(xué)去了公立學(xué)校。我的童年十分痛苦,也是這些痛苦塑造了現(xiàn)在的我。它讓我成為夢想家,讓我擁抱多樣性。我最終振作起來,(從中佛羅里達(dá)大學(xué))獲得了電氣工程師學(xué)位”。他還在西北大學(xué)凱洛格商學(xué)院獲得MBA。分別在霍尼韋爾和英維斯集團(tuán)工作后,谷達(dá)茲于13年前進(jìn)入Intuit。 被問及全球市場的問題時(shí),谷達(dá)茲首先表示Intuit“在美國和其它已經(jīng)有業(yè)務(wù)的國家仍有大量上升空間”,接著說“今后十年,全球市場的增長將為公司帶來重大機(jī)遇?!钡访芩拐f,問題在于“我們要有能力進(jìn)行復(fù)制”,也就是說打造一個(gè)在多個(gè)國家都能通用的劇本。 大多數(shù)投資者最想問史密斯的問題是:為什么是現(xiàn)在?為什么在一個(gè)很多人才剛當(dāng)上CEO的年紀(jì)而且公司正在全速發(fā)展的時(shí)候離開?為什么要在公司股票表現(xiàn)強(qiáng)勢時(shí)離開?史密斯2008年1月出任CEO以來,Intuit的股票上漲了588%,遠(yuǎn)超納斯達(dá)克230%和標(biāo)普107%的漲幅。 史密斯回答了三點(diǎn):公司已經(jīng)準(zhǔn)備好了,已經(jīng)基本上實(shí)現(xiàn)了向以云端為基礎(chǔ)的平臺(tái)業(yè)務(wù)的轉(zhuǎn)變;新CEO準(zhǔn)備好了;他自己也準(zhǔn)備好了。作為運(yùn)動(dòng)狂人,史密斯并不是說自己累了。去年,他的直接報(bào)告中的反饋意見說:“如果他能保持正常節(jié)奏,情況會(huì)更好。這人總是精力旺盛到亢奮?!痹谛紱Q定的前一天,他去西雅圖參加了Nordstrom的董事會(huì),又飛回來在斯坦福大學(xué)一個(gè)以比爾·坎貝爾(Bill Campbell)命名的會(huì)議上發(fā)言,坎貝爾是硅谷傳奇式的創(chuàng)業(yè)家導(dǎo)師,曾任Intuit公司CEO。 回答了時(shí)間問題后,下一個(gè)無法避免的問題就是接下來要做什么了。史密斯只提到了Intuit執(zhí)行主席的新角色、Nordstrom和SurveyMonkey董事會(huì)成員以及在像史密斯的家鄉(xiāng)西弗吉尼亞等“被忽略的地區(qū)”提升公共教育的想法。 我問他CEO生涯教會(huì)了他什么,他的答案或許能讓我們對(duì)他的長期規(guī)劃有一點(diǎn)概念?;卮疬@個(gè)問題時(shí),史密斯想了一會(huì),說:“你能夠改造自己,在保持本質(zhì)核心不變的情況下,實(shí)現(xiàn)對(duì)公司或你自己的改造?!盜ntuit公司1983年成立以來,自我改造是它的核心競爭力。在不久的將來,很可能我們將看到一個(gè)重新改造過的布拉德·史密斯。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)) 譯者:Agatha |
In a surprise move, one of Silicon Valley’s champion CEOs is stepping down. After 11 years at the helm, Intuit chief Brad Smith will hand over the job to Executive V.P. Sasan Goodarzi on January 1 and will oversee the transition as executive chairman. “I never wanted to be that athlete who loses half a step or can’t complete the pass,” he told Fortune in an exclusive pre-announcement interview. “I wanted to step down when I was still in my learning zone and still had gas in the tank.” The announcement, made at the market close Thursday, came as a shock because Smith is only 54 and Intuit, maker of TurboTax, QuickBooks, and related software, is performing exceptionally well. Even as the share price has recently hit record highs in a generally pricey market for tech stocks, Wall Street analysts have become more upbeat about its future. Six of them now rate the stock a “strong buy,” up from two in May; none recommend selling. While Smith’s move is surprising, his successor’s identity is not. Goodarzi, 50, runs Intuit’s biggest unit, which targets small businesses and the self-employed with QuickBooks Online and other services; despite its large size, it was Intuit’s fastest-growing division last year. He previously ran Intuit’s other main unit, the consumer business that sells TurboTax, and excelled there also. Smith says, “Sasan is better prepared to be CEO than I was 11 years ago.” Goodarzi will face formidable challenges, leaving aside the problems of following a star predecessor and taking the reins when many analysts think stock prices generally are unsustainably high. Intuit has transformed itself from a product company to a platform company that sells services in the cloud—a transformation that is Smith’s most important achievement—but “we still have a lot of work to do” on that project, he says. Such fundamental change is hard in any organization. And while Intuit dominates in the U.S. and has a presence in Canada, Australia, and the U.K., it’s virtually unheard of elsewhere; upstart competitors are already becoming entrenched in major global markets, threatening to cut Intuit out of tomorrow’s best growth opportunities. It helps that Goodarzi, born in Tehran, brings a global perspective to the CEO’s job. His parents sent him to school in the U.S. at age 9. It was 1978, just months before the Iranian revolution and the takeover of the U.S. embassy by students who held 52 Americans hostage for over a year. “A lot of people thought I was the bad guy,” Goodarzi told me. “In prep school my grades were not so good. I got kicked out and went to public school. It was an amazingly tough childhood that shaped a lot of what I am today. It shaped me in terms of being a dreamer and also in appreciating diversity. I eventually got my act together and got my electrical engineering degree” from the University of Central Florida. He also holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. After stints at Honeywell and Invensys, he joined Intuit 13 years ago. Asked about the global market, Goodarzi notes first that Intuit has “a tremendous amount of headroom in the U.S. and the countries we’re in,” then adds that “ten years from now international growth will be a huge leg of opportunity for the company.” The challenge, Smith says, is that “we have to develop an ability to rinse and repeat”—to create a playbook that can be used in multiple countries. The question most investors will want to ask Smith is, Why now? Why leave at an age when most CEOs are just getting the job and when the company is firing on all cylinders? And especially, why leave when he has delivered such knockout stock performance? Since he became CEO in January 2008, Intuit stock has risen 588%, obliterating the Nasdaq’s 230% rise and the S&P’s 107%. Smith answers by citing three factors: The company is ready, having largely achieved its transition to a cloud-based platform business; a new CEO is ready; and he’s ready. A fitness fanatic, he doesn’t suggest that he’s tired. Just last year, he got feedback from his direct reports saying, “A normalized pace would be good. This guy is always on hyperkinetic energy.” He spent his last day before the announcement in Seattle, where he’s on the Nordstrom board, then flying back to speak at a Stanford University conference named after Bill Campbell, a legendary mentor to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and a former Intuit CEO. After Why now?, the inevitable question for Smith is What’s next? He mentions only his new role as executive chairman, plus his board service at Nordstrom and SurveyMonkey and his passion for improving public education “in the overlooked zip codes” like the area he came from in West Virginia. A hint at a longer-term answer may come from his reply when I asked for the most important things he’d learned as CEO. Smith thought awhile and said, “You are capable of reinventing yourself, as a company or as a leader, while preserving the core of what you are.” Self-reinvention has been Intuit’s key competency since its 1983 founding. Some kind of reinvented Brad Smith is likely waiting in the not-distant future. |