要不要把哲学家请进企业董事会
From a distance, it does not seem as if philosophy and business would have anything to say to one another. Businesses are concerned with meeting strict targets under time pressure, maximising revenue and outwitting competitors. Philosophy is concerned with the largest and most impractical questions about the meaning of life; it sets itself no targets and has no practical outcomes.
乍一看，哲学和企业似乎全无关系。企业关心的是，如何在规定的时间内实现一些明确的目标、实现收入最大化、以及以计谋打败竞争对手。哲学关心的则是一些与生活意义有关的宏大而丝毫不切实际的问题；它不为自己设定任何目标，也不会产生任何现实结果。But in reality, business and philosophy have a huge amount to say to one another. Beneath their interest in profits, businesses are forced to engage with nothing less than the question of how to satisfy their customers, a subject full of contradictions and complexities. For its part, philosophy has spent most of its long history investigating the ingredients of a good life, what Aristotle called eudaimonia, a Greek word translated as “flourishing” or “fulfilment”. In their different ways, philosophy and business have to work out what satisfies people – and therefore how they tick.
但事实上，企业和哲学有很大的关系。企业为追求利润而不得不考虑的那个问题，正是如何让客户感到满意——这是一个充满矛盾而又复杂无比的主题。而在其悠久历史的大部分时间里，哲学研究的恰恰就是幸福生活的各项要素，即亚里士多德(Aristotle)所说的“eudaimonia”——这是一个希腊语单词，翻译过来就是“德性的繁荣”(flourishing)或“生命的圆满”(fulfilment)。哲学和企业都要以各自不同的方式来搞清楚人的满足感从何而来，因而也都必须搞清楚人为什么而活。Most businesses – outside a tiny crooked minority – have to be committed to promoting the flourishing of their customers. Their long-term survival depends on it. Perhaps they are selling people hand-dryers or household insurance but, ultimately, their livelihoods depend on the accuracy with which they have discerned the true needs of those they have set out to serve: profit is the reward for working out those of your clients ahead of anyone else.
大多数企业（使用不正当手段竞争的极少数企业除外）必须致力于促进客户的“繁荣”。企业能否长期生存也取决于此。它们销售的东西或许是干手器或家庭保险，但从本质来看，它们能否生存取决于能否准确把握客户的真实需求，而利润则是对它们最先搞清楚客户真实需求的奖赏。
In order to work through the psychology of their clients, businesses commonly rely on market research, carried out for them in focus groups and interviews. But they do not typically step back and properly think about human nature from a 2,000-year cultural perspective, and their analyses of their customers suffer as a result.
为把握客户心理，企业通常会依赖通过焦点小组和采访进行的市场研究。但企业通常不会退后一步，从人类两千年文明的角度对人性进行恰当的思考，因此它们对客户的分析并不准确。An ordinary business would ask: “How do I improve my margins in the ski business?” But a philosopher would ask: “Where is the need to ski routed in the human soul?” Eventually the philosopher would find a way back to the balance sheet, but the starting point would be higher and broader, and the results often more interesting. With a proper philosophical perspective on the needs of customers, businesses can start to see new market opportunities, rather than being left to fiddle with margins, wages and logistics.
通常而言，一家企业会问：“我如何才能提高滑雪业务的利润率？”但一位哲学家会问：“滑雪的需求根植于人性中的哪个部分？”哲学家最终还会回到资产负债表上，但他们的分析起点会更高、更宏大，分析结果通常也会更有趣。从一个恰当的哲学角度看待客户需求，企业可以发现新的市场机遇，而不会仅仅纠结于利润率、薪资和物流管理。Asked to analyse a business, a philosopher would typically start by asking what its deep purpose was: that is, what its eudaimonic promise to its customers was made up of. Then he or she would look at how well the company was living up to the promise, before suggesting new products, services or brand messages that would align it more closely with its implicit promises.
在被要求对一家企业进行分析时，一位哲学家通常首先会问：企业的深层次目标是什么？也就是说，企业关于提高客户满足感的承诺包含哪些部分。接下来，这位哲学家会研究这家企业在多大程度上履行了这项承诺，然后才会从如何更紧密地贴合企业对客户的隐含承诺出发，就应该推出何种新产品或新服务、如何改变品牌形象向企业提出建议。Imagine an ambitious luxurious hotel trying to stay afloat in a competitive market. The hotel would tend to imagine it knew what it needed to do for its customers; the struggle would be all about delivery. However, what tends to be rushed is the definition of what exactly a good night in a hotel is. Where do the sheets and the minibar fit into this? What is the role of the soap and room service? What if one went back to the drawing board to address the question of what a hotel is?
假设有一家志向远大的豪华酒店正在努力在一个竞争激烈的市场中生存。酒店往往会认为自己知道需要为其客户做什么，难题只在于如何做到。然而，人们往往未能仔细思索的一个问题是，完美酒店之夜究竟该如何定义。被单和迷你酒吧冰箱在完美酒店之夜中扮演何种角色？肥皂和房间服务又扮演何种角色？如果回归原点、重新思考酒店的本质是什么，我们会有何发现？There are many problems that can destroy a night in a hotel. Here are some of those that tend not to be thought about (they are too philosophical). One might feel anxious, or confused. One might be lonely. One might have an argument with one’s partner. One might feel disconnected from the culture of the country all around. Typically, hotels do not think these sort of problems belong to them. They limit their focus to the soap and the bed. In other words, they are forgetting the full range of implicit promises they have made to their customers: you will be happy with us.
有许多问题可能毁掉一个完美酒店之夜。以下是人们往往想不到的部分问题（因为这些问题太哲学化了）：有的客人或许会感到焦虑或迷惑；有的或许会感到孤独；有的或许刚刚与伴侣发生争吵；还有的或许会觉得与周围的文化格格不入。通常而言，酒店不认为这类问题跟自己有什么关系。它们将关注的重点局限于为客人准备怎样的肥皂和床。换言之，它们忘记了自己对顾客做出的那项隐含的宏大承诺：你在这里会感到幸福。A hotel that took fulfilment very seriously might be led to develop a whole range of new services and products. Hotels, like so many businesses, are only at the dawn of understanding their customers’ real needs because they operate with too narrow a definition of happiness.
一家非常重视客户满足感的酒店或许会从这一点出发，开发一系列新服务和新产品。与众多企业一样，酒店仍刚刚开始理解客户的真正需求，因为它们对幸福的定义过于狭窄。Similar issues bedevil financial services. Take wealth management. On the surface, this is a business that promises customers a certain return a year on their portfolios.
类似的问题也困扰着金融服务业。以财富管理企业为例，表面看来，这种企业对客户的承诺是，让他们的投资组合每年获得一定的投资收益。But the deeper implicit promise is: “You will live well with money around us.” However, very few firms tackle the implications beneath this grand claim, rendering them intensely vulnerable to competition and downturns in their financial performance. A wealth management firm under philosophical guidance would not stop looking after money in the standard ways, but it would also be asking how money can properly contribute to clients’ happiness. How well are the clients’ children relating to money? How has money affected the clients’ friendships? What is the point of philanthropy? What has been the meaning of their lives? As with the example of the hotel, these are questions that implicitly fall under the remit of a particular business but that business is not looking at them squarely and imaginatively.
但财富管理企业更深层次的隐含承诺是：“把钱交给我们，你会生活得很幸福。”然而，很少有公司把这种豪言壮语当回事，这让他们在面对竞争和财务业绩下降时很容易受到冲击。一家受到哲学理念指引的财富管理公司不仅会继续按照常规方式管理客户的财富，而且还会思考如何才能适当地利用金钱增进客户的福祉。客户的孩子们在金钱方面是否感到满意？金钱对客户的友谊有什么影响？慈善活动的意义是什么？客户们一直以来生活的意义是什么？与酒店的例子一样，这些问题无疑在特定企业需要思考的范畴之内，但企业没有拿出创意来直面这些问题。Letting the odd philosopher into a business is not an indulgence. It would help management think more deeply about what a business should properly be trying to do with the customer’s life in order to improve it. There is (fortunately) no enduring conflict between understanding the psyche and making some money.
把古怪的哲学家请进企业中并无不当。这样做将有助于管理层更深入地思考一家企业应如何适当地改善客户的生活。（幸运地是，）理解客户心理与赚钱从长远来看并不冲突。
