The Knowledge Project - [异常者] 哈里森·麦凯恩:一心一意的目标 封面

[异常者] 哈里森·麦凯恩:一心一意的目标

[Outliers] Harrison McCain: Single-Minded Purpose

本集简介

哈里森·麦凯在22岁时靠口才争取到一份制药行业的工作,从而学会了销售技巧,随后在K.C.欧文手下度过了五年关键岁月,吸收了垂直整合、 relentless deal-capture 以及“建议式管理”的宝贵经验。 他辞职时毫无计划,两个新生儿刚出生,也没有收入。他的兄弟鲍勃注意到,新不伦瑞克省的马铃薯农民将生马铃薯运往缅因州加工成冷冻薯条,然后再买回成品。麦凯家族凑了10万美元,从五个不同渠道筹集资金而不放弃股权,在弗洛伦斯维尔的一片牧场上建起了一座工厂。 公司的核心战略是完全避开竞争:进入尚未有冷冻薯条的市场,先通过出口验证市场需求,雇佣本地员工,只有在数据证明可行后才建造工厂。 美国是唯一让哈里森感到畏惧的市场,他耐心等待了16年,直到最终以5亿美元收购Ore-Ida的餐饮业务部门才成功打入。在此期间,哈里森曾几乎毁掉与麦当劳最重要的客户关系——他曾告诉对方无需参观工厂,这个错误花了数年才修复。 到2004年他去世时,麦凯食品已在六大洲运营57家工厂,产品销往160个国家,每小时加工一百万磅马铃薯制品。 ----- 时间戳: (00:00) 引言 (01:03) 交易邀约 (04:35) 向最优秀者学习 (12:30) 开始建设 (19:45) 走向全球 (27:57) 麦当劳的失误 (31:17) 运营原则 (33:24) 弗洛伦斯维尔:我喜欢这里 (36:10) 企业家的特质 ----- 升级服务:获取人工精修的字幕、无广告体验,以及每场对话末尾我的思考与反思。了解更多:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/membership ------ 通讯:《Brain Food》通讯每周日提供可操作的洞察与深思熟虑的观点,阅读只需5分钟,完全免费。了解更多并订阅:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------ 关注谢恩·帕里什: X:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/shaneparrish⁠ Instagram:⁠https://www.instagram.com/farnamstreet/⁠ LinkedIn:⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/⁠ 了解更多关于您的广告选择。访问 megaphone.fm/adchoices

双语字幕

仅展示文本字幕,不包含中文音频;想边听边看,请使用 Bayt 播客 App。

Speaker 0

全球售出的每三份冷冻薯条中,就有一份来自同一家公司,而这一切都源于一个仅有约1600人口的小镇。

One in three frozen french fries sold anywhere in the world comes from the same company, and it all traces back to a small town with a population of about 1,600.

Speaker 0

当你驾车进入弗洛伦斯维尔时,会看到一块路牌。

There's a sign when you drive into Florenceville.

Speaker 0

上面写着:弗洛伦斯维尔,世界薯条之都。

It reads, Florenceville, French fry capital of the world.

Speaker 0

你可能会觉得这只是一个玩笑,是当地商会为了吸引游客而设立的,但如果你这么想,那就还不知道真实的故事。

You might think it's a joke, something the local chamber of commerce put up to attract tourists, but that means you don't know the real story.

Speaker 0

弗洛伦斯维尔是麦凯恩食品公司的发源地。

Florenceville is the founding place of McCain Foods.

Speaker 0

他们的产品销往160多个国家。

They sell in over a 160 countries.

Speaker 0

他们雇佣了超过两万名员工,每小时处理超过一百万磅的土豆制品,年营业额超过160亿美元。

They employ more than 20,000 people, and they process more than 1,000,000 pounds of potato products every single hour, and they do over 16,000,000,000 a year in revenue.

Speaker 0

而这一切始于一对来自农民家庭的兄弟。

And it started with two brothers from a farming family.

Speaker 0

他们没有任何技术专长,预算也极其有限。

They had no technical expertise and a tiny budget.

Speaker 0

我们故事中的核心人物哈里森·麦凯并没有发明冷冻薯条。

Harrison McCain, the central figure in our story, didn't invent frozen fries.

Speaker 0

他是个来自乡下的销售员,比周围的人更早、更清晰地理解了世界的一些道理。

He was a salesman from the sticks who understood a few things about the world a little earlier and a little more clearly than the people around him.

Speaker 0

但他有将这件事以最大规模推进的雄心。

But he had the appetite to pursue it in the biggest way possible.

Speaker 0

这就是哈里森·麦凯的故事。

This is the story of Harrison McCain.

Speaker 0

1949年,22岁的哈里森·麦凯走进了一场他认为只是走个过场的面试。

In 1949, a 22 year old Harrison McCain walked into a job interview he assumed was a formality.

Speaker 0

一家制药公司需要一名销售人员。

A pharmaceutical company needed a salesman.

Speaker 0

他学过有机化学。

He'd studied organic chemistry.

Speaker 0

这应该很合适。

This should be an easy fit.

Speaker 0

销售经理让他清醒了一下。

The sales manager set him straight.

Speaker 0

还有三位药学研究生也申请了这个职位。

Three graduate pharmacists had also applied.

Speaker 0

然后他补充说,你得到这份工作的可能性为零。

Then he added, the chances of you getting this job are zilch.

Speaker 0

哈里森没有退缩。

Harrison didn't budge.

Speaker 0

他没有离开。

He didn't leave.

Speaker 0

他提出了一个原本没打算提出的条件。

He made an offer he hadn't planned to make.

Speaker 0

他甚至之前都没想过,话已经脱口而出了。

He hadn't even considered until the words were already leaving his mouth.

Speaker 0

不。

No.

Speaker 0

不。

No.

Speaker 0

不。

No.

Speaker 0

你正在犯一个严重的错误。

You're making a terrible mistake.

Speaker 0

我正是你们想要的人。

I'm just exactly the man you want.

Speaker 0

我会向我父亲借钱买辆车,而且我愿意无偿工作。

I'll borrow money from my old man to buy a car, and I'll work for no pay.

Speaker 0

你只需要支付我的开销。

You only have to pay my expenses.

Speaker 0

整整一年都不给工资。

No pay for a solid year.

Speaker 0

年底时,你要么支付我一整年的工资,要么跟我握手告别。

At the end of the year, you pay me my wages for the full year or shake hands.

Speaker 0

这是你的选择,不是我的。

Your choice, not mine.

Speaker 0

销售经理说不行。

The sales manager said no.

Speaker 0

但两天后,他又打电话回来,说:一想到你的提议,我晚上都睡不着。

But two days later, he called him back, and he said, I can't even sleep at night thinking about your offer.

Speaker 0

我给你这份工作。

I'm giving you the job.

Speaker 0

哈里森击败了三位药剂师,从第一天起就拿到了薪水,一年内就成了公司最出色的销售人员之一。

Harrison beat out three pharmacists, got a salary from day one, and was among the company's best salesman within a year.

Speaker 0

他通过承担全部风险,将拒绝变成了同意。

He turned rejection into a yes by assuming all the risk.

Speaker 0

销售经理根本没什么可失去的。

The sales manager had nothing to lose.

Speaker 0

以前从来没有人这样做过。

No one had ever done that before.

Speaker 0

22岁时,他偶然发现了足以支撑他一生的秘诀。

At 22, he stumbled onto something that would serve him for the rest of his life.

Speaker 0

当第一个人说‘不’时,这很少是最终的拒绝。

The first time someone says no is rarely the ultimate no.

Speaker 0

这将成为他所做每一笔交易的基石。

It would underpin every deal he ever made.

Speaker 0

几十年后,他给五个孩子写了一张纸条,标题为‘胆识’。

Decades later, he wrote a note to his five children labeled chutzpah.

Speaker 0

他将其定义为无视可能遭到否定回应的可能性。

He defined it as a disregard for the possibility of getting a negative reply.

Speaker 0

他的建议很简单。

His advice was simple.

Speaker 0

我宁愿尝试并听到‘不’,也不愿根本不尝试。

I would rather try and hear no than not try at all.

Speaker 0

但重要的是,他也从另一个角度来看待这个问题。

But importantly, he also came at it from the other side too.

Speaker 0

说不可能是最重要的技能之一。

Saying no might be the most important skill to learn.

Speaker 0

他写道,在商业中,最难把事情办成的人,往往是那些无法开口说不的人。

He wrote, it seems to me the people in business who have the hardest time to get things done are those who can't bring themselves to say no.

Speaker 0

他们可以说‘也许’,可以说‘我看看’,可以说‘改天’,但有时候只有一个答案,那就是简单直接的‘不’。

They can say maybe, they can say I'll see, they can say later, but sometimes there is only one answer, and it is a simple, straightforward no.

Speaker 0

他告诉他们,第一次说不非常困难,第三次就没那么难了,到第五次之后,只要需要,随时都能说出口。

He told them it was very difficult the first time, not so difficult the third time, and after the fifth time, you could say at any time it needed to be said.

Speaker 0

一个22岁的年轻人是从哪里学会这样思考和行动的?

Where does a 22 year old learn to think and act like that?

Speaker 0

通过观察,麦凯恩家族的根源可以追溯到两位兄弟,他们在19世纪20年代离开爱尔兰,定居在新不伦瑞克的圣约翰河沿岸。

From watching, the McCains trace their roots back to two brothers who left Ireland in the eighteen twenties and settled along the Saint John River in New Brunswick.

Speaker 0

他们购买了300公顷土地,开始务农。

They bought 300 hectares and started farming.

Speaker 0

这个家族至今仍在耕种这片土地。

The family has worked that land to this day.

Speaker 0

生活围绕着土豆展开。

Life revolved around potatoes.

Speaker 0

但哈里森的父亲安德鲁并不仅仅是个农民。

But Harrison's father, Andrew, wasn't just a farmer.

Speaker 0

他是个商人。

He was a trader.

Speaker 0

当美国的关税关闭了隔壁的美国市场时,他并没有抱怨政策。

When US tariffs shut down the American market right next door, he didn't complain about policy.

Speaker 0

他登上了前往加勒比海的船。

He got on a boat to the Caribbean.

Speaker 0

然后他继续前往南非。

Then he kept going to South Africa.

Speaker 0

在那个国际商人要在海上航行数周、却无法保证抵达后能否成功会面的时代,他独自找到了新的买家和新的国家。

He found new buyers and new countries by himself in an era when international businessmen weeks at sea with no guarantee of a meeting on the other end.

Speaker 0

他积累了一笔小财富。

He built a small fortune.

Speaker 0

哈里森还年轻,但他一直在观察。

Harrison was young, but he was watching.

Speaker 0

他父亲从不谈论战略。

His father never talked about strategy.

Speaker 0

他只是用行动展示了如何在一扇门关闭时,找到另一扇敞开的门。

He just showed what it looked like to see one door closed and find another one open.

Speaker 0

这种直觉后来成为了哈里森职业生涯的决定性模式。

That instinct would become the defining pattern of Harrison's career.

Speaker 0

他的母亲是一位意志坚强的前教师,与周围大多数家庭不同,她送每一个孩子上了大学。

His mother was a strong willed former school teacher, and unlike most families around them, she sent every one of her children to university.

Speaker 0

这主要是因为她不希望他们从事马铃薯生意。

It was mostly because she didn't want them going into the potato business.

Speaker 0

马铃薯生意是一种大宗商品。

The potato business was a commodity.

Speaker 0

价格受天气和遥远市场等不可控因素的影响而上下波动。

Prices went up and down at the whim of uncontrollable forces like weather and distant markets.

Speaker 0

1953年哈里森的父亲去世后,她接管了生意。

When Harrison's father died in 1953, she took over the business.

Speaker 0

她没有MBA学位,也没有任何正式资质。

She didn't have an MBA or any formal credentials.

Speaker 0

有趣的是,她后来在股票投资上的表现超过了已故的丈夫。

Interestingly, she went on to outperform her late husband at stock investing.

Speaker 0

在麦凯恩家,能力并不稀缺。

Competence in the McCain household was not in short supply.

Speaker 0

在制药公司工作之后,哈里森通过大学的人脉进入了欧文石油公司。

After the pharmaceutical job, Harrison landed at Irving Oil through a university connection.

Speaker 0

他的新老板是K。

His new boss was K.

Speaker 0

C。

C.

Speaker 0

艾尔文,有时被称为加拿大的洛克菲勒。

Irving, sometimes called the Canadian Rockefeller.

Speaker 0

K.

K.

Speaker 0

C.

C.

Speaker 0

建立了一个涵盖船坞、炼油厂、报纸、纸浆和造纸、林业以及工程的帝国。

Built an empire spawning shipyards, oil refineries, newspapers, pulp and paper, forestry, and engineering.

Speaker 0

而所有这些都属于私人所有,艾尔文认为这让他能比上市公司更快反应、更长远规划。

And all of it was privately owned, which Irving argued let him react faster and plan longer than public companies could.

Speaker 0

要理解哈里森现在正从这位导师那里一对一学习的思维方式,不妨听听这个故事。

To understand the kind of mind that Harrison was now learning directly from one on one, consider this story.

Speaker 0

一位有抱负的年轻企业家曾为了给凯西留下深刻印象,在加油站为他提供了全套服务。

An aspiring young entrepreneur trying to impress Casey once gave him full treatment at a gas station.

Speaker 0

他不仅加了油,还擦了车窗、清洁了车灯,甚至擦拭了保险杠。

Not only did he pump the gas, he washed the windows, cleaned the headlights, and even wiped down the bumpers.

Speaker 0

当他做完后,年轻人向凯西请教如何成为一名商人。

And when he was finished, the young man asked Casey for advice on becoming a businessman.

Speaker 0

欧文的回应是什么?

And Irving's response?

Speaker 0

如果你真想成功,就得干得快得多。

You will need to work a lot faster if you ever wanna be successful.

Speaker 0

这就是凯西·欧文。

That was Casey Irving.

Speaker 0

每一次互动都是一堂课,无论他是否有意为之。

Every interaction was a lesson, whether he intended it or not.

Speaker 0

凯西热爱垂直整合。

Casey loved vertical integration.

Speaker 0

他的儿子亚瑟曾解释过,凯西进入石油行业的原因是他当时在销售汽车,而汽车运行需要油和汽油。

His son Arthur once explained why Casey got into the oil business, because he was selling automobiles and cars needed oil and gas to run.

Speaker 0

为什么要把这笔生意让给别人呢?

Why give that business to someone else?

Speaker 0

如果卖油有道理,那么建炼油厂也有道理。

And if it made sense to sell oil, it made sense to build a refinery.

Speaker 0

如果建炼油厂有道理,那么造船运输油品也有道理。

And if it made sense to build a refinery, it made sense to build ships to transport it.

Speaker 0

每一步都为下一步创造了逻辑。

Each step created the logic for the next.

Speaker 0

哈里森吸收了这一切,但其中一课尤其突出。

Harrison absorbed all of this, but one lesson in particular stood out.

Speaker 0

他花了十八个月争取一份为大型电站供应欧文燃料的合同。

He spent eighteen months chasing a contract to supply a large power station with Irving fuel.

Speaker 0

当他最终签下合同时,欣喜地给凯西打了电话。

When he finally landed it, he called Casey delighted.

Speaker 0

欧文的回应是,他只是问哈里森是否在交易中加了润滑油。

Irving's response, he simply asked if Harrison had managed to add lubricating grease to the deal.

Speaker 0

润滑油占总量的4%,但100%的业务总比96%好。

The grease was about 4% of the total, but a 100% of the business is better than 96%.

Speaker 0

这就是那个教训。

That was the lesson.

Speaker 0

哈里森后来将凯西的管理风格描述为‘建议式管理’。

Harrison later described Casey's management style as management by suggestion.

Speaker 0

艾尔文会说类似这样的话:如果我们有这样一个客户,那就完美契合了。

Irving would say something like, if we had such and such account, that would fit just exactly.

Speaker 0

而这意味着:赶紧出去把客户拿下。

And what that meant was get your ass out there and get the account.

Speaker 0

没有明确的指令。

There was no directive.

Speaker 0

这是一条带有命令般分量的建议,但留给你自己去思考如何执行的空间。

It was a suggestion that carried the full weight of an order but left you room to figure out how.

Speaker 0

如果你无法想出办法,你就待不长。

And if you couldn't figure out how, you didn't last long.

Speaker 0

24岁时,哈里森就已成为整个海洋省份几乎所有地区的销售经理。

At the age of 24, Harrison was the sales manager for nearly all the Maritime provinces.

Speaker 0

他推动欧文拓展到缅因州和新英格兰地区,他们确实这么做了。

He pushed Irving to expand into Maine and New England, and they did.

Speaker 0

他正在向一位从加拿大一个小省的小镇上,以世界级规模成功创业的人学习如何经营企业。

He was learning how to grow a business at the feet of someone who'd done it on a world class scale from a small town in a tiny Canadian province.

Speaker 0

但哈里森变得越来越执着。

But Harrison was growing relentless.

Speaker 0

他无法放弃自己创业的渴望。

He couldn't let go of the desire to start something on his own.

Speaker 0

我原以为我会走进某个地方,看到一个未来可以买下的店面,结果我就会做生意了,他回忆道。

I thought I was gonna walk into a place and see a place to buy someday, and lo and behold, I'd be in business, he recalled.

Speaker 0

有一天我突然意识到,我太忙于处理太多事情,根本不可能等它自然发生,我必须主动去实现它。

And it dawned on me one day that I was too busy doing too many things for that to happen, and I had to make it happen.

Speaker 0

于是我辞了工作。

So I quit the job.

Speaker 0

他离开了那份高薪、高知名度、在一家快速成长的公司中直接追随一位传奇企业家的工作。

He walked out of a well paid, high profile position at a rapidly growing company working directly at the foot of a legendary businessman.

Speaker 0

他没有薪水。

He had no salary.

Speaker 0

当时他有一个妻子和两个新生儿,他唯一的真正资产是对创业的执着渴望。

He had a wife and two newborn kids at the time, and his only real asset was an obsessive desire to start a business.

Speaker 0

但有个问题。

But there was a problem.

Speaker 0

他不知道该从什么开始。

He had no idea of what to start.

Speaker 0

答案来自他的母亲。

The answer arrived through his mother.

Speaker 0

她看着哈里森在没有收入的情况下消耗积蓄,还要养两个年幼的孩子,于是她转向另一个儿子鲍勃,让他为哈里森想出创业点子。

She was watching Harrison burn through savings with no income and two young kids, so she turned to another son, Bob, and told him to come up with the business ideas for Harrison.

Speaker 0

鲍勃注意到了眼前的一个现象。

Bob noticed something right in front of him.

Speaker 0

当地的土豆农民正将一车车生土豆运过边境,送往缅因州的一家工厂。

Local potato farmers were shipping truckloads of raw potatoes across the border to a plant in Maine.

Speaker 0

美国人将这些土豆加工成冷冻薯条,包装后又运回加拿大。

The Americans processed them into frozen french fries, packaged them, and shipped them right back into Canada.

Speaker 0

与此同时,快餐业正在整个大陆迅速扩张。

Meanwhile, fast food was spreading across the continent.

Speaker 0

麦当劳、汉堡王、A&W、肯德基,它们的菜单上都有薯条。

McDonald's, Burger King, A and W, Kentucky Fried Chicken, all of them had french fries on the menu.

Speaker 0

它们都在快速增长,但都没有使用冷冻薯条。

All of them were growing fast, but none of them used frozen fries.

Speaker 0

鲍勃的问题显而易见。

Bob's question was obvious.

Speaker 0

为什么要将低利润的生土豆运走加工,然后再把成品运回来?

Why ship low margin raw potatoes away for processing only for the finished product to come right back?

Speaker 0

为什么不直接在这里做呢?

Why not just do it here?

Speaker 0

哈里森并没有太感兴趣。

Harrison wasn't really impressed.

Speaker 0

这个想法看似太简单了,但他想不出更好的方案,而且一天比一天更绝望,于是他抓住了这个主意。

The idea felt too simple, but he wasn't coming up with anything better, and he was getting more desperate by the day, so he grasped it.

Speaker 0

他的兄弟华莱士加入了他。

His brother Wallace joined him.

Speaker 0

他们开始深入调查,发现了一张展现两个国家在同一行业不同发展阶段的图片。

They started digging in and found a picture of two countries at different stages of the same industry.

Speaker 0

当时,在美国,冷冻食品行业已经真实存在并迅速发展。

In The United States, the frozen food business at the time was real and growing fast.

Speaker 0

美国人拥有工厂、分销网络、超市里的冷冻柜,以及公路上成队的冷藏卡车。

The Americans had plants, distribution networks, freezer cases in supermarkets, and fleets of refrigerated trucks on highways.

Speaker 0

这项技术早在20世纪40年代就已开发出来,而快餐连锁店正大量采用它。

The technology had been developed in the nineteen forties, and fast food chains were gobbling it up.

Speaker 0

在加拿大,却什么都没有。

In Canada, there was nothing.

Speaker 0

几乎没有杂货店配备冷冻柜。

Few grocery stores even had freezers.

Speaker 0

没有专门销售冷冻产品的分销商。

There were no distributors for frozen products.

Speaker 0

整个市场及其基础设施都不存在。

The market and its entire infrastructure was missing.

Speaker 0

哈里森的直觉开始在缺乏竞争中嗅到了机会。

Harrison's instinct started to sniff opportunity in the lack of competition.

Speaker 0

整个国家甚至没有一家认真的冷冻薯条生产商。

There was not a single serious frozen fry producer in the entire country.

Speaker 0

与其与五个其他品牌争夺货架空间,不如去创造这个货架本身。

Instead of fighting for shelf space against five other brands, the fight would be creating the shelf itself.

Speaker 0

为了了解更多,他走访了美国各地的冷冻食品厂,设法进入工厂,沿着生产线参观、提问并研究设备。

To learn more, he showed up at frozen food plants across The US and talked his way in, walking production lines, asking questions, and studying machinery.

Speaker 0

在一次访问中,一位工厂主给了他一个坦诚的评价。

On one visit, a plant owner gave him an honest assessment.

Speaker 0

别干这行。

Don't do it.

Speaker 0

制作薯条最好的土豆生长在美国西部的爱达荷州。

The best potatoes for fries were grown out west in Idaho.

Speaker 0

哈里森的家乡新不伦瑞克适合种植种薯,但要在那儿用那样的资本、那样的技术建立冷冻薯条生产线,远离任何大型市场数千英里,这毫无意义。

New Brunswick, where Harrison was from, was fine for seed potatoes, but building frozen fry operation there with that capital, with that expertise, thousands of miles from any big market, it made no sense.

Speaker 0

麦凯恩家族听到了这些意见,但随后就置之不理。

The McCains heard them, and then they ignored them.

Speaker 0

他们的理由很实际。

Their reasoning was practical.

Speaker 0

即使他们想在爱达荷州起步,也没有足够的资金。

They didn't have the money to start in Idaho even if they wanted to.

Speaker 0

美国人确实拥有更好的基础设施,但他们也有竞争。

The Americans had better infrastructure, sure, but they also had competition.

Speaker 0

在加拿大,谁先到达谁就能独占整个市场。

In Canada, whoever got there first could own the whole thing.

Speaker 0

当他们开始向别人讲述自己的计划时,大多数人说他们疯了。

As they started telling people what they planned to do, most said they were crazy.

Speaker 0

每个人都觉得我们傻,哈里森回忆道,但我觉得,听到的负面意见越多,我们就越坚定地想要投身其中。

Everyone felt we were stupid, Harrison recalled, but I think the more negatives we heard, the more positive we became that we wanted to go into it.

Speaker 0

这里有一件事值得停下来思考。

There's something worth pausing on here.

Speaker 0

大多数人听到阻力就会放慢脚步,但哈里森听到阻力反而加速了,这并非出于固执,而是因为他相信,当所有人都说某件事不可能成功,而你却能清晰地看到它为何可能时,你就发现了一个不会长久存在的机会。

Most people hear resistance and slow down, but Harrison heard resistance and sped up, not out of stubbornness, but out of a belief that when everyone says something can't be done, and you can see clearly why it can, you found an opportunity that won't last forever.

Speaker 0

于是,这四个兄弟凑齐了十万美元的家族资金,其中大部分是父亲去世后继承的遗产。

So the four brothers pooled a 100,000 in family money, most of it inherited after their father's death.

Speaker 0

1956年5月24日,他们正式注册成立了麦凯恩食品有限公司。

On 05/24/1956, they incorporated McCain Foods Limited.

Speaker 0

但这笔钱远远不够。

But that wasn't nearly enough money.

Speaker 0

他们需要购买工厂设备、冷藏设施,以及足够的资金缓冲,以撑到收入开始流入为止。

They needed a factory equipment, cold storage, and enough runway to survive until the revenue came in.

Speaker 0

而正是在这里,哈里森展现了另一项才能——这项才能与他的销售能力一样,定义了他的职业生涯:从别人想不到的地方筹集资金。

And this is where Harrison revealed another talent, one that would define his career as much as salesmanship, assembling capital from places other people didn't think to look.

Speaker 0

他去了加拿大丰业银行,那是他父亲和祖父一直使用的银行,申请了15万美元的信贷额度。

He started at the Bank of Nova Scotia, the bank his father and grandfather had used and asked for a $150,000 line of credit.

Speaker 0

幸运的是,那天银行的行长正好来这家分行巡视。

By luck, the bank's president was visiting the branch that day.

Speaker 0

他注意到了麦凯恩兄弟,问他们有什么需求,几分钟后离开,回来时就答应了。

He'd spotted the McCains and asked what they were after, disappeared for a few minutes, and came back with a yes.

Speaker 0

他的理由是:你们祖父一直在这家银行做生意。

His reasoning was your grandfather did business with this bank.

Speaker 0

他欠银行很多钱,但当他欠款时,他确实身无分文。

He owed the bank a lot of money, and when he owed it, he was broke.

Speaker 0

但你们的父亲把所有钱都还清了。

But your father paid all the money back.

Speaker 0

我们从未从任何一位麦凯恩身上损失过一分钱。

We never lost a nickel from any McCain.

Speaker 0

声誉本身就是一种资本。

Reputation is a form of capital.

Speaker 0

它只是比金钱积累得更慢。

It just compounds more slowly than money.

Speaker 0

随后,哈里森以近乎艺术般的执着追求政府补助。

Then Harrison pursued government grants with a tenacity that bordered on artistry.

Speaker 0

一项联邦冷藏补贴拒绝了他,因为麦凯恩食品是一家私营公司,而该计划不允许个人获利。

A federal cold storage subsidy turned him down because McCain Foods was a private company, the program didn't allow personal gain.

Speaker 0

但他从不接受拒绝,于是当场组织了一个农民合作社,通过该合作社申请,最终获得了补助。

But he wasn't one to take no for an answer, so he organized a farmer's coop on the spot, applied through that, and got the grant.

Speaker 0

他注意到该省正在寻求创造就业的项目。

He noticed that the province was seeking job creation projects.

Speaker 0

他还注意到那是一个选举年,因此他顺利拿到了47万美元的债券担保。

He also noticed it was an election year, so he walked away with a $470,000 bond guarantee.

Speaker 0

接着,他前往当地县议会,争取到了前两年近乎全额的税收减免,并告诉他们联邦和省政府已经支持他了。

Then he went to the local county council and secured a near total tax exemption for the first two years, telling them the federal and provincial governments were already backing him.

Speaker 0

五种不同的资金来源,而他没有放弃任何股权。

Five different sources of capital, and he didn't give up any equity.

Speaker 0

他为接受政府资金的辩护始终是务实而理性的。

His defense of taking government money was always practical and pragmatic.

Speaker 0

这些补助金并没有成就他的生意。

The grants didn't make his business.

Speaker 0

它们让他的生意在弗洛伦斯维尔成为可能。

They made his business in Florenceville possible.

Speaker 0

如果没有这些补助金,他可能仍然会拥有一家冷冻食品公司,因为他的性格就是这样,但他会选在更容易获得资本市场的城市建造,比如多伦多、蒙特利尔或爱达荷州。

Without the Grants, he'd probably still have a frozen food company because that was the kind of person he was, but he'd have built it somewhere with easier access to capital markets like Toronto, Montreal, or Idaho.

Speaker 0

补助金并没有造就企业家,但它们让他能在自己的小镇上实现这一目标。

The Grants didn't create entrepreneur, but they did let him do it in his small town.

Speaker 0

因为他选择留在家乡,弗洛伦斯维尔建起了工厂,当地农民有了全年稳定的买家,而这个被加拿大其他地区遗忘的小镇上的数千人也获得了稳定的工作。

And because he stayed home, Florenceville got a plant, local farmers got year round buyer, and thousands of people in a town the rest of Canada had forgotten about got steady jobs.

Speaker 0

现在有了资金,他们就必须把事情办成。

Now that they had the money, they had to build the thing.

Speaker 0

他们首先坦率而毫不羞愧地承认:他们根本不知道该怎么做。

They started by admitting plainly and without embarrassment that they didn't know how.

Speaker 0

哈里森和华莱士是销售人员。

Harrison and Wallace were salesmen.

Speaker 0

他们能说会道,足以说服任何工厂或银行,但他们完全不知道如何设计加工工厂。

They could talk their way into any factory or any bank, but they hadn't the slightest idea how to design a processing plant.

Speaker 0

于是,他们像所有伟大的创始人一样,在触及自身能力边界时采取了行动。

So they did what great founders do when they hit the edge of their own competence.

Speaker 0

他们开始寻找世界上对此最擅长的人。

They went looking for the best person in the world who could.

Speaker 0

他们找到了奥洛夫·皮尔森。

They found Olof Pearson.

Speaker 0

他拥有麻省理工学院的学位,并在20世纪40年代实际研发了冷冻薯条。

He had a degree from MIT and then actually developed frozen french fries in the nineteen forties.

Speaker 0

他设计了世界上第一座薯条加工厂。

He designed the first french fry plant ever built.

Speaker 0

据所有人评价,他是一位富有创造力的天才。

And he was by all accounts a creative genius.

Speaker 0

他常在香烟包装纸背面绘制工厂设计图,却总是忘记添加传送带等关键部件。

He'd sketch plant designs on the back of cigarette packages and constantly forget to add essential components like conveyor belts.

Speaker 0

但他恰恰在早期创业最需要的方面展现出非凡的才华。

But he was brilliant in exactly the way early ventures need brilliance.

Speaker 0

他性格不稳定、难以预测,却能解决别人连问题都描述不出来的问题。

He was uneven, unpredictable, and capable of solving problems no one else could even frame.

Speaker 0

他们在圣约翰河畔的一片牧场上建起了这座工厂。

They built the plant on a cow pasture along the banks of the Saint John River.

Speaker 0

1957年2月23日,工厂正式开业,雇员有30人。

On 02/23/1957, it opened with 30 employees.

Speaker 0

它的产能约为每小时一千磅冷冻产品。

They had a capacity of of about a thousand pounds of frozen produce per hour.

Speaker 0

早期的日子一片混乱。

The early days were chaos.

Speaker 0

其中一位早期员工对此描述得非常到位。

One of the first employees described it perfectly.

Speaker 0

这是危机管理。

It was management by crisis.

Speaker 0

你永远不知道某一天会做什么工作。

You never knew what you were going to be doing on any given day.

Speaker 0

哈里森的头衔是总裁,但这没什么实际意义。

Harrison's title was president, but that didn't mean much.

Speaker 0

他什么都干,从生产线上工作到装货上卡车。

He did everything from working the production line to loading the trucks.

Speaker 0

他每周只拿100美元薪水,却给一些资历较深的员工支付150美元。

He took a salary of a $100 a week while he paid some of his more senior people 1 50.

Speaker 0

他正在努力创建一家公司,而公司优先生存。

He was trying to build a company, and the company ate first.

Speaker 0

他们的设备大多是二手的,而且经常出故障。

Their equipment was mostly secondhand and constantly broke down.

Speaker 0

出了问题时,哈里森会开车在全县转悠,走访当地修理厂,询问修理工能否修好出故障的设备。

When something went wrong, Harrison would drive around the county visiting local garages and asking mechanics if they could fix whatever had failed.

Speaker 0

他们的员工之前都没有在这样的工厂工作过,因为加拿大从未存在过这样的工厂。

None of their employees had worked in a plant like this before because no plant like this had ever existed in Canada.

Speaker 0

他们一边学习如何操作设备,一边从当地农民那里采购土豆、招聘和培训员工、寻找客户,并且要在几乎没有交通基础设施的小镇上,想办法将冷冻产品运送到数千英里之外,所有这些都必须在资金耗尽前完成。

They were learning how to operate the thing while simultaneously securing potatoes from local farmers, hiring and training staff, finding customers, and figuring out how to ship frozen products thousands of miles from a town with almost no transportation infrastructure, all at the same time and all before their cash ran out.

Speaker 0

哈里森在生产线上来回走动,向员工借钱用于差旅费用,这并不罕见。

It was also not uncommon to see Harrison going up and down the production line, borrowing travel money from employees.

Speaker 0

从一个人那里借2美元,从另一个人那里借5美元。

$2 from one person, 5 from another.

Speaker 0

他总是会还钱。

He always paid it back.

Speaker 0

但这就是这个全球帝国早期的真实面貌。

But that's what the early days of this global empire actually looked like.

Speaker 0

一个男人在生产线上来回走动,向他的工厂工人借钱加油,以便去进行下一次销售拜访。

A man walking up and down the production line, borrowing gas money from his factory workers so he can drive to his next sales call.

Speaker 0

第一年的销售额总计为153,000美元。

The first year, sales totaled a $153,000.

Speaker 0

但出乎意料的是,竟然还有微薄的利润。

And against all odds, a tiny profit.

Speaker 0

简直小得可笑,只有1800美元。

Almost comically tiny, dollars 1,800.

Speaker 0

但那是盈利,不是亏损。

But it was in the black ink, not the red.

Speaker 0

这标志着连续盈利年的开端,至今从未中断。

It was the beginning of successive profitable years that have lasted without interruption to this day.

Speaker 0

哈里森从第一天起就决定将所有收入再投资。

Harrison decided from the very first day to reinvest everything.

Speaker 0

我们把赚到的每一分钱,”他说,“还有能借到的每一分钱,都投了回去。

We invested every nickel we made, he said, and every nickel we could borrow.

Speaker 0

没有分红,没有抽走任何资金,每年所有收入都重新投入生产。

There were no dividends, no money off the table, and all of it was plowed back in every year.

Speaker 0

一位早期员工捕捉到了这一切的发展方向。

An early employee captured where all this was heading.

Speaker 0

哈里森会说,他要成为世界上最大的薯条生产商。

Harrison would say he was going to be the largest French fry producer in the world.

Speaker 0

我过去常常翻白眼。

I used to roll my eyes.

Speaker 0

我当时觉得这不可能,因为美国人规模太大了,但他有着无比专注的目标感。

I didn't think it was possible because the Americans were so big, but he had great single mindedness of purpose.

Speaker 0

他戴上了眼罩,径直朝着那个方向前进。

He put the blinders on, and he was headed right that way.

Speaker 0

让人们追随他的,不仅仅是他的远见。

What made people follow him wasn't just the vision.

Speaker 0

而是哈里森本人。

It was Harrison himself.

Speaker 0

哈里森·麦凯恩有一种如同伟大演员般的气场。

Harrison McCain had a presence in the way that a great actor has a presence.

Speaker 0

一位高管说,如果你把20个从未见过面的人关在一个房间里,而哈里森是其中之一,那么一小时内,大家就会一致认为他是那个该带大家离开房间的人。

One executive said, if you put 20 people in a room who'd never met each other before and Harrison was one of them, within an hour, there would be a consensus that he was the leader to show them out of the room.

Speaker 0

他坚信笑声是人与人之间最短的距离,他的女儿吉莉安说,父亲拥有一种她称之为‘快乐基因’的特质。

He was convinced that laughter was the shortest distance between two people, and his daughter Jillian said her father possessed what she called a happy gene.

Speaker 0

他做任何事都充满热情。

He did everything with enthusiasm.

Speaker 0

他工作时充满热情。

He worked with enthusiasm.

Speaker 0

他吃饭时充满热情。

He ate with enthusiasm.

Speaker 0

他聚会时充满热情。

He partied with enthusiasm.

Speaker 0

一位密友说,他甚至走路时都充满热情。

A close friend said he even walked down the street with enthusiasm.

Speaker 0

这种能量将人们吸引到他的周围,并让他们久久不愿离开。

That energy was what pulled people into his orbit and kept them there.

Speaker 0

而接下来要面对的一切,他将需要全部的这份热情。

And he was going to need every bit of it for what came next.

Speaker 0

哈里森从来不会满足于只有一个计划。

There was never any question of Harrison being content with just one plan.

Speaker 0

他志在称霸,不仅仅是加拿大,而是整个世界。

He was in it to dominate, not just Canada, but the world.

Speaker 0

他说,每年都会孤注一掷,年复一年。

You bet the bundle every year, year after year, he said.

Speaker 0

如果你有一次错了,你就出局了。

If you're wrong once, you're out.

Speaker 0

我们不断竭尽全力推动业务,借尽可能多的钱,不断建设、借贷、再建设。

We kept pushing the business as hard as we could, borrowing all we could, building and borrowing and building.

Speaker 0

我们每一次交易都在赌上一切。

We were risking it all on deal after deal.

Speaker 0

大多数人谈论商业时,仿佛那是他们为了达成目标而不得不忍受的事。

Most people talk about business as if it's something they endure to get a result.

Speaker 0

哈里森谈论商业时,却像在谈一场恋爱。

Harrison talked about it like he was in love.

Speaker 0

当被问及是什么驱使他时,他说,游戏就在于行动。

When asked what drove him, he said, the game is action.

Speaker 0

发生什么事了?

What's going on?

Speaker 0

总会有新东西出现。

There's something new all the time.

Speaker 0

收购公司、建工厂、雇人、激励员工、策划广告方案、买卖大宗商品、借钱、解决诉讼。

Buying companies, building factories, hiring guys, motivating people, seeing advertising programs, taking positions on commodities, borrowing money, settling lawsuits.

Speaker 0

我的意思是,如果你的对手觉得解决诉讼也是乐趣的一部分,那你可就处于严重劣势了。

I mean, if you're competing against a guy who thinks that settling lawsuits is part of the fun, you're at a serious disadvantage.

Speaker 0

但在他们征服世界之前,必须先赢得厨房里的战斗。

But before they could conquer the world, they had to win in the kitchen.

Speaker 0

他们真正的最大竞争对手并不是另一家公司。

Their real biggest competition wasn't another company.

Speaker 0

而是一颗新鲜的土豆。

It was a fresh potato.

Speaker 0

餐厅老板以提供新鲜农产品为荣。

Restaurant owners took pride in serving fresh produce.

Speaker 0

他们确信顾客不会接受冷冻替代品。

They were certain that their customers wouldn't accept a frozen substitute.

Speaker 0

至少在表面上,价格对比显得极其不利。

And at least on the surface, the price comparison looked brutal.

Speaker 0

生土豆每公斤成本约为一美分半。

Raw potatoes cost about a penny and a half per kilogram.

Speaker 0

麦凯恩的冷冻薯条售价为9美分。

McCain's frozen fries cost 9¢.

Speaker 0

但哈里森从凯西·欧文斯那里学到要比较同类事物,因此麦凯恩兄弟制定了一个推销方案,并通过反复演练不断打磨。

But Harrison had learned from Casey Irving to compare apples with apples, so the McCains developed a pitch, and they honed it through relentless repetition.

Speaker 0

以下是他们的说法。

Here's how it went.

Speaker 0

他们会走进餐厅,请厨师当着他们的面去皮、切块并烹煮新鲜土豆。

They'd walk into a restaurant and ask the chef to peel, cut, and cook fresh potatoes right in front of them.

Speaker 0

然后他们会称量原材料,加上烹饪用油,并计算出每份的真正成本,包括人工费用。

Then they'd weigh the raw material, factor in the cooking oil, and calculate a true cost per serving, including the labor.

Speaker 0

接着,他们会准备冷冻薯条,并邀请厨师同时品尝两者。

Next, they'd prepare frozen fries and invite the chef to taste them side by side.

Speaker 0

当考虑到浪费、准备时间、人工和工资时,冷冻薯条实际上更便宜,而且品质全年稳定,不像新鲜土豆那样在储存数月后会变质。

When you accounted for waste, prep, time, and wages, frozen fries were actually cheaper, and the quality was consistent year round, unlike fresh potatoes, which degraded after months in storage.

Speaker 0

这是一次出色的销售演示,因为它不争辩,而是用事实展示。

It was a beautiful piece of selling because it didn't argue, it demonstrated.

Speaker 0

厨师自己做了计算,得出了哈里森的结论。

The chef did the math himself and arrived at Harrison's conclusion.

Speaker 0

他们从本地开始,挨家挨户敲门推销。

They started locally, knocking on every door they could find.

Speaker 0

用哈里森的话说,我们从一家餐厅到另一家餐厅,从一家咖啡馆到另一家咖啡馆,从一家酒店到另一家酒店,大部分时候都被赶了出来。

In Harrison's words, we went from restaurant to restaurant, from cafe to cafe, and hotel to hotel being thrown out mostly.

Speaker 0

为了省钱,他们住在便宜的汽车旅馆。

To save money, they stayed in cheap motels.

Speaker 0

到了晚上,他们的衣服上满是炸油的气味。

By evening, their clothes reeked of frying oil.

Speaker 0

干洗是不可能的,因为太贵了,所以他们把西装挂在旅馆窗外,让它们整晚通风。

Dry cleaning was out of the question because it was too expensive, so they hung their suits out the motel windows to air them overnight.

Speaker 0

即使在拼命奔波时,哈里森也从未在诚信上妥协。

Even while scrambling, Harrison never cut a corner on integrity.

Speaker 0

这里有一个故事,能告诉你他是个怎样的人。

Here's one story that tells you who he was.

Speaker 0

一位麦凯恩食品的市场员工听说可口可乐计划在美国市场已成功推出的五种柑橘类果汁混合饮料。

A McCain Foods marketing employee heard through the grapevine that Coca Cola was planning to introduce a mixture of five citrus juices that had already succeeded in The US market.

Speaker 0

于是他在可口可乐之前抢先在加拿大注册了‘Five Alive’商标。

So he registered the trademark five alive in Canada before Coca Cola could.

Speaker 0

几个月后,可口可乐的总裁联系麦凯恩食品,想购买这个商标。

Several months later, the president of Coca Cola contacted McCain Foods to purchase it.

Speaker 0

当这个问题提给哈里森时,他的回应立刻就来了。

When the issue was raised with Harrison, his response was immediate.

Speaker 0

卖给他们一美元。

Sell it to them for $1.

Speaker 0

我们不是该死的骗子。

We are not goddamn crooks.

Speaker 0

这不符合我们的经商方式。

This is not the way for us to do business.

Speaker 0

他把同样的直觉用在了识人上。

He brought the same instinct to reading people.

Speaker 0

他声称判断一个人并不难。

He claimed it was not a big job to size people up.

Speaker 0

如果你听一个人说话一两个小时,或者和他们相处一两天,你就能大致了解他们的性格、价值观、前瞻性以及习惯。

If you listen to somebody talk for about an hour or two or spend a day or two with them, you've got a pretty good idea of what makes them tick and what their values are and how far they look ahead and what their habits are.

Speaker 0

他并不总是对的,但他对自己出错时有一条准则。

He wasn't always right, but he had a rule for when he was wrong.

Speaker 0

他告诉他的侄子:雇错人没什么可羞愧的。

He told his nephew, there is no shame in hiring the wrong person.

Speaker 0

然而,留下他却是耻辱的。

There is, however, shame in keeping him.

Speaker 0

哈里森的下一步是走向全球,但他并没有从最大的市场开始。

Harrison's next move was to go global, but he didn't start with the biggest market.

Speaker 0

他选择了最空白的市场。

He started with the emptiest one.

Speaker 0

为了至少在现阶段避免激烈竞争,他完全跳过了美国。

Wanting to avoid heavy competition, at least for now, he skipped The United States entirely.

Speaker 0

美国的冷冻食品公司规模庞大、根基稳固,正在争夺货架空间。

American frozen food companies were big, established, and competing for shelf space.

Speaker 0

英国则恰恰相反。

Britain was the opposite.

Speaker 0

英国人几个世纪以来一直吃土豆,但没人卖冷冻薯条。

The British had been eating potatoes for centuries, but nobody was serving them frozen fries.

Speaker 0

他们最初是从弗洛伦斯维尔发货的。

They started by shipping products from Florenceville.

Speaker 0

一位本地雇员走访了英国的餐厅,设法进入厨房,让厨师们亲自品尝产品。

A local hire traveled to British restaurants, talked his way into kitchens, and let the chefs taste the product for themselves.

Speaker 0

到1965年,销售额已突破一百万。

By 1965, sales had topped 1,000,000.

Speaker 0

英国人开始以为麦凯恩食品是一家英国公司。

Brits started assuming McCain Foods was a British company.

Speaker 0

然后在1967年的一个夜晚,收音机里突然播出了紧急报道。

Then one night in 1967, a flash report came over the radio.

Speaker 0

英镑大幅贬值。

The British pound had been devalued massively.

Speaker 0

一瞬间,从加拿大运来的每一批货物对英国买家来说都变得昂贵得多。

In an instant, every shipment from Canada became far more expensive for British buyers.

Speaker 0

哈里森多年苦心经营的生意突然失去了竞争力。

The business Harrison had spent years building now was suddenly uncompetitive.

Speaker 0

新闻公布时,他恰好正在英国。

He happened to be in England when the news broke.

Speaker 0

他的反应非常迅速。

His response was immediate.

Speaker 0

我们在这里建一家工厂。

We'll build a plant here.

Speaker 0

否则,你不得不放弃业务,因为你将失去竞争力。

Otherwise, you'd have to give up the business because you'd be noncompetitive.

Speaker 0

见鬼去吧。

To hell with that.

Speaker 0

我们要建一家工厂。

We're building a plant.

Speaker 0

这家工厂于1969年开业,成为北美以外最大的冷冻薯条工厂。

The plant opened in 1969 and became the largest frozen french fry plant outside of North America.

Speaker 0

但比工厂本身更重要的,是它所体现的原则。

But what mattered more than the plant itself was principle it revealed.

Speaker 0

一场危机迫使他们做出了承诺,而这一承诺最终成了他们所能做出的最好决定。

A crisis had forced a commitment that turned out to be the best decision they could have made.

展开剩余字幕(还有 269 条)
Speaker 0

有了英国的工厂,他们不再依赖跨大西洋的航运。

With a British plant, they no longer depended on transatlantic shipping.

Speaker 0

他们可以从本地基地服务整个欧洲。

They could serve the whole of Europe from a local base.

Speaker 0

哈里森后来用他自己的话解释了这一策略。

Harrison later explained the playbook in his own words.

Speaker 0

我们总是通过从现有业务发货,先在外国市场建立一个桥头堡。

We always established a beachhead in a foreign country by shipping product in from an existing operation.

Speaker 0

即使暂时不赚钱,我们也要建立这个桥头堡,扩大销量,直到有足够的订单量来支持建厂。

Even if it doesn't make any money, we're going to establish that beachhead and build volume until we have sufficient load to justify a factory.

Speaker 0

这种逻辑非常巧妙,因为每一步都为下一步提供资金,并限制了下行风险。

The logic was elegant because every step funded the next and limited downside.

Speaker 0

先出口,成本低、投入少。

Export first, which was low cost and low commitment.

Speaker 0

雇佣本地销售人员。

Hire local salespeople.

Speaker 0

如果市场得到验证,那时才建造或收购工厂。

If the market proved out, then and only then build or buy a plant.

Speaker 0

如果失败了,你也没损失多少。

And if it didn't work, you hadn't lost much.

Speaker 0

但如果成功了,你就有了一个新基地,可以发起下一轮攻势。

But if it did, you had a new base to launch the next push.

Speaker 0

英国成为进入荷兰和比利时的基地。

Britain became the base for Holland and Belgium.

Speaker 0

荷兰成为进入法国的基地。

Holland became the base for France.

Speaker 0

法国成为进入意大利的基地。

France became the base for Italy.

Speaker 0

每个国家都是一个前进阵地,弹药是冷冻土豆,阵地是货架空间。

Each country was a staging ground for The ammunition was frozen potatoes, and the territory was shelf space.

Speaker 0

但这一策略完全基于军事逻辑。

But the strategy was pure military logic.

Speaker 0

当哈里森准备进军欧洲时,他聘请了一名男子来领军,并给了他明确的指令。

When Harrison was ready to take Europe, he hired a man to lead the charge and gave him his marching orders.

Speaker 0

那个人对这些指令记得清清楚楚。

The man remembered them exactly.

Speaker 0

他直视着我的眼睛说:我想我该告诉你你的任务是什么。

He looked me in the eyes and said, I guess I should tell you what your mandate is.

Speaker 0

你的任务是在欧洲主导冷冻薯条业务。

Your mandate is to dominate the frozen french fry business in Europe.

Speaker 0

这太符合哈里森的风格了。

That was so typical of Harrison.

Speaker 0

这是我收到过的唯一指示。

It was the only instruction I ever got.

Speaker 0

这是通过建议进行管理的方式,哈里森从K那里学来的风格。

That was management by suggestion, the style Harrison had learned from K.

Speaker 0

C。

C.

Speaker 0

告诉别人去哪里,然后让他们自己想办法到达。

Tell someone where to go and let them figure out how to get there.

Speaker 0

但在主导市场之前,先得进行考察。

Before any domination, though, there was scouting.

Speaker 0

麦凯恩公司没有委员会,也没有高薪顾问做的研究。

There was no committees at McCain, no studies from high paid consultants.

Speaker 0

直接去看看,回来告诉我你发现了什么。

Just go have a look, come back, and tell me what you found.

Speaker 0

那人花了六周时间,走遍了荷兰、比利时、法国、德国、丹麦和瑞典。

The man spent six weeks weeks walking around Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.

Speaker 0

他回国后推荐了荷兰。

He came home and recommended The Netherlands.

Speaker 0

荷兰位于欧洲最佳马铃薯产区的中心,介于德国和法国之间,可以服务这两个庞大的市场。

It sat in the heart of Europe's best potato country between Germany and France, two enormous markets that it could serve.

Speaker 0

他还敦促哈里森不要再把欧洲看作一个个独立的国家,而应将其视为一个统一的市场。

He also urged Harrison to stop thinking about Europe as collection of separate countries and start treating it as one single market.

Speaker 0

现在听起来显而易见,但在二十世纪七十年代初,这还是一个激进的想法。

That sounds obvious now, but in the early nineteen seventies, this was a radical idea.

Speaker 0

麦凯恩家族听从了这个建议,并严格执行。

The McCains listened and followed it to the letter.

Speaker 0

几年内,他们的客户就遍布德国、法国、意大利、奥地利和丹麦。

Within a few years, they had clients across Germany, France, Italy, Austria, and Denmark.

Speaker 0

每次都是同样的操作模式。

It was the same playbook every time.

Speaker 0

先出口,再雇佣本地人来验证市场。

Export first and hire locals to prove the market.

Speaker 0

只有当数据合理时,才建造或收购工厂。

Build or buy a factory only if the numbers made sense.

Speaker 0

接着出现了一个考验哈里森品牌直觉的问题。

Then came a question that tested Harrison's instincts on branding.

Speaker 0

麦凯恩在德国应该使用自己的品牌,还是创建一个听起来像德国本土的品牌?

Should McCain sell under its own name in Germany or create a German sounding brand?

Speaker 0

他团队之间的争论一直持续到深夜。

The debate amongst his team lasted into the night.

Speaker 0

大多数人希望使用一个本地化的名字。

The majority wanted a local name.

Speaker 0

哈里森坐在一旁,几乎一言不发,任由其他人争论。

Harrison sat back and said almost nothing while everyone else argued.

Speaker 0

终于,在晚上八点左右,他结束了讨论。

Finally, around 08:00 in the evening, he ended it.

Speaker 0

孩子们,这是一场很棒的讨论。

Boys, that was a great conversation.

Speaker 0

很棒。

Great.

Speaker 0

大家提出了很多意见。

Lots of input.

Speaker 0

现在,我们来决定怎么做。

Now here's what we're going to do.

Speaker 0

我们就叫它麦凯恩吧。

We're gonna call it McCain.

Speaker 0

我们就叫它麦凯恩吧。

We're gonna call it McCain.

Speaker 0

现在咱们去吃饭吧。

Now let's go and eat.

Speaker 0

这是个正确的决定。

It was the right call.

Speaker 0

如果你每个国家都改名字,每次都要从零开始。

If you change your name for every country, you start from zero every time.

Speaker 0

如果你保持同一个名字,每个进入的市场都会为同一个全球品牌增添分量,这个名字本身就会成为桥头堡。

If you keep the name and every market you enter adds weight to the same global brand, the name itself becomes part of the beachhead.

Speaker 0

在你到达之前,它就已经为你做好了工作。

It does the work for you before you even arrive.

Speaker 0

哈里森的弟弟华莱士负责澳大利亚。

Harrison's brother Wallace took Australia.

Speaker 0

1968年,他们开始从弗洛伦斯维尔发货薯条,沿用了在英国和欧洲行之有效的相同流程。

In 1968, they started shipping fries from Florenceville following the same sequence that had worked in Britain and Europe.

Speaker 0

但澳大利亚几乎立即打破了这一模式。

But Australia broke the playbook almost immediately.

Speaker 0

冷藏芯片无法将冷冻产品运输数千英里仍保持可销售状态。

Refrigerator chips couldn't move frozen products thousands of miles in a sellable condition.

Speaker 0

箱子运抵时已严重损坏。

The boxes arrived badly damaged.

Speaker 0

他们扩张模式中低风险的初步步骤——先出口测试再投入——在这个距离下完全行不通。

The low risk first step of their expansion model, export and test before you commit, simply didn't work at this distance.

Speaker 0

因此,华莱士不得不直接跳到本地生产,这意味着在市场尚未充分测试前就购买了一家工厂。

So Wallace had to skip straight to local production, which meant buying a plant before the market had been properly tested.

Speaker 0

他找到了一家,但这家工厂各方面都不对劲。

He found one and everything about it was wrong.

Speaker 0

没有仓储空间,屋顶漏水,工厂几乎无法运转。

There was no storage, the roof leaked, and the factory barely operated.

Speaker 0

所以他放弃了它,从零开始重建。

So he scrapped it and started building from scratch.

Speaker 0

然后事情开始出错。

Then things started to go wrong.

Speaker 0

建筑公司在施工中途破产,工会也变得敌对。

The construction firm went bankrupt mid build, and the unions turned hostile.

Speaker 0

最终成本是他们原先估算的两倍。

The final cost was double what they had estimated.

Speaker 0

如果麦凯恩有外部股东在背后施压,他们可能早就放弃项目了。

If McCain had outside shareholders breathing down their neck, they probably would have pulled the plug.

Speaker 0

但哈里森和华莱士并不对任何人负责,所以他们坚持了下来。

But Harrison and Wallace weren't answering to outsiders, so they pushed through.

Speaker 0

接着,澳大利亚迫使他们再次打破原有模式。

Then Australia forced a second break from the formula.

Speaker 0

在英国和欧洲,仅靠薯条就已足够,但战后移民彻底改变了澳大利亚人的饮食结构。

In Britain and Europe, french fries alone had been enough, but postwar immigration had transformed Australia's diet.

Speaker 0

数百万人从南欧、东南亚及其他地区迁入,带来了与土豆完全无关的饮食文化。

Millions of people arrived from Southern Europe, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere had introduced cuisines that had nothing to do with potatoes.

Speaker 0

单靠薯条无法维持远在世界另一端的子公司,因此他们开始多元化经营。

Fries alone couldn't sustain a subsidiary on the other side of the world, so they diversified.

Speaker 0

麦凯恩澳大利亚公司进入了冷冻蔬菜领域,随后拓展到冷冻披萨,再后来是冷冻即食餐。

McCain Australia moved into frozen vegetables, then frozen pizzas, then frozen prepared dinners.

Speaker 0

由于在这些新领域中毫无品牌认知度,哈里森将每一分利润都重新投入市场营销和广告,争分夺秒地建立消费者忠诚度,赶在竞争对手察觉之前抢占市场。

And because they had zero brand recognition in these new categories, Harrison plowed every dollar of profit straight back into marketing and advertising, racing to build loyalty before competitors noticed what was happening.

Speaker 0

麦凯恩不仅在澳大利亚生存了下来。

McCain didn't just survive Australia.

Speaker 0

它还成为多个货架上主导的冷冻食品品牌,而不仅仅是薯条货架。

It became the dominant frozen food brand across multiple aisles, not just the french fry aisle.

Speaker 0

到二十世纪八十年代初,麦凯恩食品公司已不再是那个挣扎求存的加拿大初创企业。

By the early nineteen eighties, McCain Foods was no longer a scrappy Canadian startup.

Speaker 0

1985年,其销售额突破了10亿美元,并在八个国家设有工厂,生产冷冻薯条、蔬菜、甜点、披萨、果汁和烤箱餐。

Sales topped over $1,000,000,000 in 1985, and they had plants in eight countries producing frozen fries, vegetables, desserts, pizzas, juices, and oven meals.

Speaker 0

他们现在有了足够的财力,可以进入任何新市场而不必孤注一掷,但地球上最大的市场却几乎尚未触及。

They had the financial muscle now to enter any new market without betting the farm, but the biggest market on earth was still barely touched.

Speaker 0

1981年1月,哈里森坐下来写了一份战略备忘录。

In January 1981, Harrison sat down and wrote a strategy memo.

Speaker 0

他逐个国家地评估了公司的现状。

He took stock of the company country by country.

Speaker 0

美国只占了一句话。

The United States got one sentence.

Speaker 0

我认为我们应该在美国寻找另一家盈利的食品公司,出最高价收购,并将其纳入我们的业务。

I think we should try to find another food company in The US that is profitable, pay the top price, and move it into our business.

Speaker 0

这句话花了十六年才得以执行。

That sentence would take sixteen years to be executed.

Speaker 0

他们等待着合适的时机,而耐心通常不是人们与哈里森·麦凯恩联系在一起的品质。

They waited for the right opportunity, and patience was not a quality anyone normally associated with Harrison McCain.

Speaker 0

但他明白,他将面临一种前所未有的竞争方式。

But he understood that he'd be competing in a way that he never did before.

Speaker 0

在其他所有地方,麦凯恩都一直在创造市场。

Everywhere else, McCain had been creating markets.

Speaker 0

这套策略之所以有效,是因为没有现成的竞争者需要对抗。

The playbook worked because there was no established competition to fight.

Speaker 0

美国则恰恰相反。

America was the opposite.

Speaker 0

美国是原始快餐连锁店和大型资金雄厚的冷冻食品公司的发源地,这些公司已经经营了几十年。

It was home to the original fast food chains and to large, well funded frozen food companies that had been in business for decades.

Speaker 0

这是哈里森第一次要为别人已经占据的地盘而战,而这些公司绝不会轻易让步。

For the first time, Harrison would be fighting for ground somebody else already had, and those companies were not going to roll over.

Speaker 0

他对进入外国市场有一个说法:喝当地的酒,意思是研究当地情况、聘用本地人才,在提出行动方案前先观察和倾听。

He had a phrase for entering foreign markets, drink the local wine, which means studying local conditions, hiring local talent, observing and listening before you prescribe an act.

Speaker 0

这套方法在所有地方都取得了惊人的成功。

And it worked brilliantly everywhere.

Speaker 0

但这里有个问题。

But there was a problem.

Speaker 0

美国不是一个单一市场。

The United States wasn't one market.

Speaker 0

它是由多个区域市场组成的,每个市场都有自己的口味、分销网络和根深蒂固的参与者。

It was a collection of regional markets, each with its own taste, its own distribution networks, and its own entrenched players.

Speaker 0

这将是一场阵地战。

This would be trench warfare.

Speaker 0

他们从小处着手,从靠近家乡的地方开始。

They started small and close to home.

Speaker 0

1975年,他们在缅因州购买了一家工厂,次年又买了另一家。

In 1975, they bought a plant in Maine, then another the following year.

Speaker 0

这两家工厂都在距离弗洛伦斯维尔驾车可达的范围内。

Both were within driving distance of Florenceville.

Speaker 0

美国的主要生产商都在西部,因此麦凯恩可以占领东北部,向超市连锁店销售自有品牌产品,并享受更低的运输成本。

The big American producers were all out West, so McCain could take the Northeast, sell private label to supermarket chains, and benefit from lower shipping costs.

Speaker 0

到1981年,美国的销售额几乎翻了一番,达到2700万。

By 1981, American sales had nearly doubled to 27,000,000.

Speaker 0

听起来还不错,但一看比例就不一样了。

That sounds decent until you look at the ratio.

Speaker 0

还不到全球销售额的4%。

It was less than 4% of global sales.

Speaker 0

八年之后,美国市场仍仅占全球收入的17%。

Eight years later, The US still accounted for just 17% of global revenue.

Speaker 0

哈里森知道,如果没有在美国真正站稳脚跟,他不可能成为全球最大的冷冻薯条生产商。

Harrison knew that he could not be the largest frozen french fry producer in the world without a real foothold in America.

Speaker 0

那个市场中最大的单一客户是麦当劳。

The biggest single door in that market was McDonald's.

Speaker 0

他仔细研究了他们的采购方式。

He studied their buying practices carefully.

Speaker 0

麦当劳的采购人员让供应商之间在质量和价格上相互竞争。

McDonald's purchasing agents pitted one supplier against another on quality and price.

Speaker 0

他们要求的设备和规格远远超出了普通客户的需求。

They insisted on special equipment and specifications far beyond what any ordinary client would demand.

Speaker 0

他们无疑是世界上要求最苛刻的买家。

They were, by a wide margin, the most exacting buyer in the world.

Speaker 0

但哈里森发现了一件事,让这个目标值得去追求。

But Harrison discovered something that made the prize worth chasing.

Speaker 0

一旦麦当劳选中了你,他们往往会保持忠诚。

Once McDonald's took you on, they tended to stay loyal.

Speaker 0

这段关系是否能维持,取决于你自己。

Relationship was yours to lose.

Speaker 0

然而,进入麦当劳几乎没能成功,而这完全是哈里森自己的错。

Getting in, however, almost didn't happen, and it was Harrison's own fault.

Speaker 0

两兄弟一起拜访了一位麦当劳的高级采购人员。

Both brothers visited a senior McDonald's buyer.

Speaker 0

麦当劳对此表现出足够兴趣,邀请他们参观弗洛伦斯维尔工厂。

McDonald's was interested enough to ask for a tour of the Florenceville plant.

Speaker 0

哈里森的回应显得有点过于自大了。

Harrison's response had a bit too much chutzpah.

Speaker 0

他对那人说:‘告诉我们你们想要什么,我们就能生产出来。’

He told the man, tell us what you want, and we will produce it.

Speaker 0

我们懂得如何制作薯条,不需要你们来参观我们的工厂。

We know how to make french fries, and we don't need you guys to tour our plant.

Speaker 0

这场对话就此结束。

That was the end of the conversation.

Speaker 0

而要恢复关系却花了多年时间。

And it would take years to recover.

Speaker 0

这是一个罕见的、源于傲慢的错误。

It was a rare mistake born of pride.

Speaker 0

正是这种大胆精神,曾让他在22岁时赢得了一份制药工作,也曾让他成功说服银行家和政客为一座养牛场工厂提供资金,如今却把行业内最重要的那扇门重重关上。

The same boldness that had won him a pharmaceutical job at 22 that had talked bankers and politicians into funding a cow pasture factory had slammed shut the most important door in the industry.

Speaker 0

哈里森走进去时,仿佛麦当劳只是另一家地区性杂货店,但事实并非如此,他们也不是那样的公司。

Harrison had walked in as if McDonald's were another regional grocery chain, and they weren't, and they didn't it.

Speaker 0

后来,其他高管花了多年耐心而富有外交技巧的努力才重建了这段关系,尤其是已经赢得英国麦当劳业务的英国团队。

It took years of patient diplomatic work by other executives to rebuild that relationship, particularly the British team who had already won the McDonald's account in The UK.

Speaker 0

但慢慢地,信任得到了修复。

But slowly, trust was repaired.

Speaker 0

麦凯恩证明了自己能够满足他们的规格要求,一旦门打开,就再也没有关上。

McCain proved it could meet their specifications, and once the door opened, it stayed open.

Speaker 0

麦凯恩成为麦当劳全球最大的薯条生产商,最终为超过60个国家的餐厅供货。

McCain became the largest producer of fries for McDonald's worldwide, eventually supplying restaurants in over 60 countries.

Speaker 0

哈里森用一句话几乎毁掉的这段关系,成为了公司全球餐饮业务的支柱。

The relationship that Harrison nearly destroyed with a single sentence became the backbone of the company's global food service business.

Speaker 0

就连赢得麦当劳的订单也没能突破美国零售市场。

Even the McDonald's win didn't crack the American retail market.

Speaker 0

供应餐厅属于餐饮服务。

Supplying restaurants was food service.

Speaker 0

消费者在超市货架上挑选冷冻薯条的食品货架,仍由美国本土企业主导。

The grocery aisle where consumers picked frozen fries off the shelf was still dominated by American incumbents.

Speaker 0

因此,哈里森还需要再下一盘棋。

So Harrison needed one more play.

Speaker 0

1997年3月,就在那封战略备忘录写下十六年后,他终于采取了行动。

In March 1997, sixteen years after that one sentence strategy memo, he finally pulled the trigger.

Speaker 0

麦凯恩食品以5亿美元的价格从亨氏公司收购了Ore-Ida的餐饮服务部门,一夜之间,麦凯恩跃居美国冷冻开胃食品销量第二。

McCain Foods bought Ore-Ida's foodservice division from HJ Heinz for $500,000,000 Overnight, McCain vaulted to number two in frozen appetizer sales in America.

Speaker 0

他们收购了遍布全国的九家工厂和数千名员工。

They acquired nine plants and thousands of employees spread across the country.

Speaker 0

但问题来了。

But there was a problem.

Speaker 0

当时,麦凯恩在美国的销售额为3.25亿美元,而Ore-Ida的销售额为5.5亿美元。

McCain's American sales at the time were $325,000,000 Ore-Ida's were 550,000,000.

Speaker 0

他们试图消化一个比自己还大的业务。

They were trying to digest a business larger than themselves.

Speaker 0

一位高管直言不讳。

A senior executive was blunt.

Speaker 0

这次合并几乎是一场灾难。

The merger was almost a catastrophe.

Speaker 0

当时爆发了一场文化冲突。

There was a culture war.

Speaker 0

于是哈里森带领一群奥雷-伊达的经理前往弗洛维尔,带他们参观了整个运营流程,向他们介绍了公司及其未来发展方向。

So Harrison brought a group of Ore-Ida managers to Florenceville and walked them through the operation, told them about the company and where it was going.

Speaker 0

奥雷-伊达的员工对高管们亲力亲为的态度感到惊讶——这些高管熟悉生产线的每一个细节,而不仅仅是财务报表。

The Ore Ida people were surprised by the roll up your sleeves attitude by senior executives who knew the details of the production line, not just the p and l.

Speaker 0

参加这次访问的大多数经理,十年后仍然在公司任职。

Most of the managers who made that trip were still with the company a decade later.

Speaker 0

一年内,整合工作基本完成。

Within a year, the integration was largely complete.

Speaker 0

5亿美元的投资在三年内就收回了。

$500,000,000 investment was repaid in about '3.

Speaker 0

哈里森在1981年备忘录中写下的那个梦想——找到一家美国公司并支付最高价格——终于实现了。

The Dream Harrison had written into that 1981 memo, a single sentence about finding an American company and paying top price had come to pass.

Speaker 0

他们证明了自己并不固守某一种固定模式,而是能够灵活应对机遇。

They showed they were not wed to any one playbook, and they could adapt to the opportunity.

Speaker 0

到2007年麦凯恩公司成立五十周年时,数据已经说明了一切。

By McCain's fiftieth anniversary in 2007, the numbers told the story.

Speaker 0

年收入60亿美元,六大洲拥有57家工厂,美国终于开始尽到自己的责任。

$6,000,000,000 in annual revenue, 57 factories across six continents, and The United States, at last, was pulling its weight.

Speaker 0

当美国公司真正合二为一时,哈里森已经七十多岁了。

By the time America was one, Harrison was in his seventies.

Speaker 0

他已为此奋斗了四十多年。

He'd been building for more than four decades.

Speaker 0

他一直想写一本关于创业的书,但始终没有付诸行动。

He'd always wanted to write a book about entrepreneurship, but he never got around to it.

Speaker 0

但在这段历程中,他形成了一套指导他走过每一个阶段的经营原则。

But over the course of this story, he developed a set of operating principles that carried him through every chapter.

Speaker 0

第一,能避免竞争就尽量避免。

Number one, avoid competition when you can.

Speaker 0

他发现加拿大没有冷冻薯条生产商,于是建立了一家。

He saw that Canada had no frozen fry producer and built one.

Speaker 0

他发现英国没有冷冻薯条,于是将它们运过去。

He saw that Britain had no frozen fries and shipped them over.

Speaker 0

他早在别人将欧洲视为单一市场之前,就意识到了这一点。

He saw that Europe was a single market before anyone treated it that way.

Speaker 0

每一次重大决策都始于发现空白,而非追逐现有的机会。

Every major move started by noticing an absence, not by chasing an existing opportunity.

Speaker 0

第二,先验证,再投入。

Two, prove it before you bet it.

Speaker 0

前沿阵地的策略建立在分阶段承担风险的基础上。

The beachhead playbook was one built on graduated risk.

Speaker 0

先出口,再雇佣本地员工。

Export first, hire locals.

Speaker 0

只有在数据证明可行后,才建造工厂。

Build a plant only after the numbers justified it.

Speaker 0

每一步都为下一步提供资金。

Each step funded the next.

Speaker 0

哈里森很有胆识,但从不鲁莽。

Harrison was bold, but he was never reckless.

Speaker 0

他从不把速度与赌博混为一谈。

He didn't confuse speed with gambling.

Speaker 0

第三, everywhere 使用同一个名字。

Three, use one name everywhere.

Speaker 0

全球品牌具有叠加效应。

A global brand compounds.

Speaker 0

你进入的每一个新市场都会为同一个名字增添分量。

Every new market you enter adds weight to the same name.

Speaker 0

这一洞察在晚上8点的会议室里,用一句话表达出来,最终成为公司历史上最重要的决策之一。

That insight delivered in a single sentence at 08:00 at night in a conference room turned out to be one of the most important decisions in the company's history.

Speaker 0

第四,将所有收益再投资。

Four, reinvest everything.

Speaker 0

我们把赚到的每一分钱,以及能借到的每一分钱,都进行了再投资。

We reinvested every nickel we made and every nickel we could borrow.

Speaker 0

没有分红,没有套现。

There was no dividends, no money off the table.

Speaker 0

数十年来,年复一年,这种自律将一座牧场工厂转变为价值160亿美元的帝国。

Year after year for decades, that discipline is what turned a cow pasture factory into a $16,000,000,000 empire.

Speaker 0

五、当市场要求时,调整策略。

Five, adapt the playbook when the market demands it.

Speaker 0

澳大利亚迫使我们多元化。

Australia forced diversification.

Speaker 0

美国市场要求我们进行大规模收购。

America required a massive acquisition.

Speaker 0

哈里森坚持目标不变,但改变了方法。

Harrison held the goal fixed and changed the method.

Speaker 0

构建持久公司的那些人,不忠于他们的计划,而是忠于他们的使命。

The people who build lasting companies aren't loyal to their plans, they're loyal to their purpose.

Speaker 0

六、像守护整个企业一样守护你的诚信。

Six, guard your integrity like it's the whole business.

Speaker 0

当一名市场员工盗用了可口可乐的商标时,哈里森以1美元的价格把它买了回来。

When a marketing employee swiped a trademark from Coca Cola, Harrison sold it back for $1.

Speaker 0

我们可不是该死的骗子,他说。

We are not goddamn crooks, he said.

Speaker 0

我们怎么能靠这个赚钱呢?

How could we make money on that?

Speaker 0

他根本就没考虑过。

He didn't even consider it.

Speaker 0

这些想法听起来很简单,因为它们本来就是,但知道它们和几十年如一日地践行它们是两回事。

These ideas sound simple because they are, but knowing them isn't the same as doing them every single day for decades.

Speaker 0

哈里森一生的最后一章最能揭示他究竟是怎样的人。

And the last chapter of Harrison's life reveals the most about who he was.

Speaker 0

哈里森·麦凯遵守市场的规则,但唯独在佛罗伦斯维尔这个小镇上是个例外。

Harrison McCain lived by the rules of the market, except when it came to a small town of Florenceville.

Speaker 0

当所有人都说该把公司总部迁往多伦多时,他却坚持留在那里。

He kept the company headquarters there when everyone said to move to Toronto.

Speaker 0

他坚持要求将数据中心和土豆技术中心也建在那里。

He insisted that the data center and the potato technology center be built there too.

Speaker 0

一位记者曾问他为什么留下来。

A journalist once asked him why he stayed.

Speaker 0

他的回答是:因为我喜欢这里。

His answer, because I like it.

Speaker 0

记者继续追问,那你为什么非要留在这里?

The journalist pushed, but why do you stay here?

Speaker 0

是因为风景吗?

Is it the scenery?

Speaker 0

哈里森重复道:我就喜欢这儿。

Harrison repeated, I like it here.

Speaker 0

接着他指出,麦凯恩家族自19世纪20年代起就在这里了。

And then he pointed out that the McCains had been there since the eighteen twenties.

Speaker 0

这场对话就此结束。

That was the end of the conversation.

Speaker 0

他真心喜欢农民和农业。

He genuinely liked farmers and farming.

Speaker 0

员工们讲述过他习惯在乡间道路上停车,观看作物种植或收割的故事。

Employees told stories of his habit of stopping his car on country roads to watch a crop being planted or harvested.

Speaker 0

他会下车,与工人交谈,称赞他们干得好,并向他们表示感谢。

He'd get out, talk to the workers, tell them what a great job they were doing, and thank them.

Speaker 0

对哈里森来说,马铃薯农民是社会的中坚力量。

Potato farmers to Harrison were the salt of the earth.

Speaker 0

马铃薯种植才是真正的经济,是能种植、培育、加工和销售的真实产品,这种产品在金融市场或政府中都无法复制。

Potato farming was real economics, a real product you could plant, grow, process, and sell, something that couldn't be duplicated in the financial markets or in government.

Speaker 0

他的儿子马克讲述说,哈里森开车经过佛罗伦斯维尔时,指着那些刚翻新、刷了新漆、车库里停着新车的房子,感到非常满足。

His son, Mark, tells of the satisfaction Harrison got from driving around Florenceville, pointing at newly repaired houses with fresh paint and a new car in the driveway.

Speaker 0

在麦凯恩食品公司成立之前,他会说佛罗伦斯维尔周围的房屋都歪歪斜斜。

Before McCain Foods, he would say the houses around Florenceville were leaning.

Speaker 0

现在不会了。

No more.

Speaker 0

人们现在都有了工作。

People had jobs now.

Speaker 0

人们都有了收入。

People had income.

Speaker 0

这对他来说意味着一切。

That's what it meant to him.

Speaker 0

不是那几十亿,也不是遍布六大洲的工厂。

It wasn't the billions, not the factories on six continents.

Speaker 0

而是那些开始得到修缮的房屋。

It was the houses that started getting repaired.

Speaker 0

哈里森·麦凯恩于2004年去世,享年77岁。

Harrison McCain died in 2004 at the age of 77.

Speaker 0

他和华莱士一起共同创建了二十世纪最伟大的企业之一,但他们也是兄弟。

He and Wallace had built one of the greatest businesses of the twentieth century together, but they were also brothers.

Speaker 0

没有任何一个家族在建造如此庞大的事业时能不留下伤痕。

And no family that builds something this large gets through it without scars.

Speaker 0

简而言之,他们在继承问题上产生了分歧。

The short version is they disagreed over succession.

Speaker 0

哈里森希望公司由职业经理人接管。

Harrison wanted professional management to run the company after they were gone.

Speaker 0

华莱士则希望由他的儿子迈克尔来掌管。

Wallace wanted his son, Michael, in charge.

Speaker 0

1992年10月,华莱士未与哈里森商量,就公开宣布迈克尔将领导麦凯恩食品在美国的业务。

In October 1992, without consulting Harrison, Wallace publicly announced that Michael would lead McCain Foods' US operation.

Speaker 0

这一举动破坏了他们之间的某种东西,且从未完全修复。

The move broke something between them that never fully repaired.

Speaker 0

这场争端最终诉诸法庭和仲裁者。

The dispute went to the court and to arbitrators.

Speaker 0

哈里森最终赢得了治理权的胜利,但兄弟俩付出的代价远不止金钱。

Harrison eventually won the governance battle, but the cost to the brothers was well beyond money.

Speaker 0

与哈里森共事过的人用‘充满活力’、‘坚定’、‘鼓舞人心’、‘热情’和‘富有魅力’来形容他,但也说他固执己见,有时不讲道理。

People who worked with Harrison used words like energy, determined, inspiring, enthusiastic, and charismatic, but they also said headstrong and at times unreasonable.

Speaker 0

他像许多异类一样,以一种留下深刻印记的方式坚持不懈。

He, like many outliers, could be relentless in a way that left marks.

Speaker 0

当人们被要求描述哈里森时,从未有人提到过自我怀疑。

One thing people never said when they were asked to describe Harrison was self doubt.

Speaker 0

这正是他非凡之处。

That's what made him extraordinary.

Speaker 0

但这也是他难以相处的原因。

It's also what made him difficult.

Speaker 0

那种将一片牧场打造成价值160亿美元公司的力量,在面对阻力时并不会软化,无论这种阻力来自竞争对手、政府,还是他自己的兄弟。

The same force that built a $16,000,000,000 company from a cow pasture was not a force that softened when it met resistance, whether that resistance came from a competitor, a government, or his own brother.

Speaker 0

你无法选择这种能量以哪种形式显现。

You don't get to choose which version of that energy shows up.

Speaker 0

你要么拥有全部,要么一无所有。

You get all of it or none.

Speaker 0

他去世后,一位记者观察到,只要哈里森生活在弗洛伦斯维尔,公司的灵魂就依然在那里。

After his death, a journalist observed that as long as Harrison lived in Florenceville, the company's soul lived there too.

Speaker 0

但他离开后,情况发生了变化。

But things changed after he was gone.

Speaker 0

许多新事物和重要事务开始迁往多伦多。

Much of what was new and significant started moving to Toronto.

Speaker 0

哈里森对此不会感到高兴。

Harrison would not have been happy about that.

Speaker 0

但在他的个人文件中,他的传记作者发现了一张未注明日期的便条,是哈里森写给自己的。

But somewhere in his personal papers, his biographer found an undated note Harrison had written to himself.

Speaker 0

他给这张便条命名为《企业家的特质》,这是他最接近于完成那本一直想写的书的一次。

He headed it Characteristics of an Entrepreneur, and it was the closest he ever came to the book that he always wanted to write.

Speaker 0

我现在读给你听。

I'll read it to you now.

Speaker 0

企业家让自己始终处于卓越的边缘,因为他害怕平庸。

The entrepreneur keeps himself operating on the threshold of excellence because he fears mediocrity.

Speaker 0

企业家学会了挖掘事实。

The entrepreneur has learned to dig for facts.

Speaker 0

第一个解释没有包含所有事实。

The first explanation given does not include all the facts.

Speaker 0

一旦找到了事实,所需采取的行动就明确了。

Once the facts are found, the necessary action is clear.

Speaker 0

企业家凭借经验与知识的调整,具备一种第六感,能判断什么会成功、什么不会。

The entrepreneur has a sixth sense of what will work and what will not work by adjusting experience and knowledge.

Speaker 0

企业家顽强地抓住每一个实现目标的机会。

The entrepreneur tenaciously grasps every opportunity to meet goals.

Speaker 0

企业家知道必须授权责任,但从不放弃对细节的掌握。

The entrepreneur knows that he must delegate responsibility, but he never sacrifices his knowledge of the details.

Speaker 0

企业家与管理者之间的主要区别在于态度。

The main difference between the entrepreneur and the manager is attitude.

Speaker 0

自从我第一次读到这句话,它就一直萦绕在我心头。

That last line has sat with me since I first read it.

Speaker 0

这与教育、资本甚至人脉都无关。

It's not about education or capital or even connections.

Speaker 0

这关乎态度。

It's about attitude.

Speaker 0

他从一片牛 pasture 建立起来的公司,如今在六大洲都设有工厂。

The company he built from a cow pasture now has factories on six continents.

Speaker 0

它的产品销往160多个国家,每小时处理超过100万磅的土豆制品。

It sells in over a 160 countries, processes over 1,000,000 pounds of potato products every single hour.

Speaker 0

如果你驾车经过新不伦瑞克省的弗洛伦斯维尔,你仍会看到一块标牌,上面写着:弗洛伦斯维尔——世界薯条之都。

And if you drive through Florenceville, New Brunswick, you'll still see the sign that says Florenceville, French fry capital of the world.

Speaker 0

当哈里森被问及成功的秘诀时,他一贯的回答是:这根本没什么秘诀。

When Harrison was asked for the secret of his success, his stock answer was that it was no secret at all.

Speaker 0

时机对了,地点对了,运气好而已。

Right time, right place, good luck.

Speaker 0

但当被进一步追问时,他补充了更多。

But when pressed, he said more.

Speaker 0

在我看来,成功的首要条件是目标的专注。

The first requirement to be successful, in my opinion, is a single mindedness of purpose.

Speaker 0

我认为,那些教授想要在自己领域取得巨大成功的学生的教授们,并没有足够强烈地向他们强调这一点:你明白吗?

And I don't think the professors that teach kids who want to be a great success in their field point it out to them with enough vigor and say, do you understand?

Speaker 0

你必须做出牺牲。

You have to sacrifice.

Speaker 0

你必须做出艰难的选择,并说:他妈的。

You have to make difficult choices and say, goddamn it.

Speaker 0

我说过我要做到。

I said I was going to do it.

Speaker 0

我一定要做到,哪怕拼上性命,你也一定会赢。

I'm going to do it, and I'm going to do it if it kills me, and you'll win.

Speaker 0

你会击败那个没有这种专注目标的人。

You'll beat up the other guy who doesn't have that single mindedness of purpose.

Speaker 0

那么,是什么促成了麦凯恩的成功?

So what contributed to McCain's success?

Speaker 0

当然,那是时机对了、地点对了,也有一点好运的成分。

Sure, it was the right time, right place, and there was an element of good luck.

Speaker 0

但最主要的是,他有着一心一意的目标。

But mostly, it was single mindedness of purpose.

Speaker 0

本集内容基于唐纳德·塞博斯所著的《哈里森·麦凯恩:一心一意的目标》一书。

This episode was based on the book, Harrison McCain, Single-minded Purpose by Donald Sebois.

Speaker 0

如果这个故事引起了你的共鸣,这本书里还有许多我无法在单集中容纳的细节和故事,非常值得你花时间阅读。

If this story resonated with you, the book is full of details and stories I couldn't fit into a single episode, and it's well worth your time.

Speaker 0

感谢你与我一起聆听和学习。

Thank you for listening and learning with me.

Speaker 0

下次见。

I'll see you next time.

关于 Bayt 播客

Bayt 提供中文+原文双语音频和字幕,帮助你打破语言障碍,轻松听懂全球优质播客。

继续浏览更多播客