上周歐洲隧道(Eurotunnel)舉行股東大會，解散了公司董事會。該大會與其說是一場年度股東大會，還不如說是一場群眾集會。數千名股東對董事們冷嘲熱諷，一邊有節奏地呼喊著他們的英雄尼古拉•米蓋(Nicolas Miguet)的名字，這個泄露股票信息并犯有欺詐罪的記者領導了這場股東反叛。

Last week's gathering of Eurotunnel shareholders, which threw out the company's board, was more of a mass rally than an annual meeting. Thousands of shareholders jeered the directors and chanted the name of their hero Nicolas Miguet - the share-tipping journalist and convicted fraudster who led their revolt.

《回聲報》(Les Echos)的一名記者把這場年會比作一次革命性庭審�！痘芈晥蟆肥恰督鹑跁r報》的法國姐妹報。另一名記者將此事稱為“資本主義的4月21日”，那是在借用2002年4月21日發生的事件：當日極右國民陣線領袖讓-瑪麗•勒龐(Jean-Marie Le Pen)在總統大選第一輪總統選舉中得票僅次于雅克•希拉克(Jacques Chirac)，震驚了法國和全世界。

One journalist from Les Echos, the Financial Times's French sister paper, likened the annual meeting to a revolutionary tribunal. Another called the occasion "capitalism's April 21", a reference to the day in 2002 when Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the extreme-right National Front, shocked France and the world by coming second to Jacques Chirac in the first round of the presidential election.

觀察家指出，米蓋先生的策略太像一場選舉運動了�！斑@有點像一場秘密運動，力求通過政治運動方式，而不是商業運動方式，由窮人推翻富人、以弱勝強，”一位公司治理專家對《金融時報》的記者表示。

Observers noted how much Mr Miguet's tactics resembled an electoral campaign. "It's a bit of an occult movement which seeks to pitch poor against rich, the weak against the strong in more of a political campaign way rather than a business one," a corporate governance specialist told the FT.

在法國，如此規模的小股東反叛是史無前例的，但在其他國家，發生過的投資者起義要多得多，包括股東把菲利普•沃茨(Philip Watts)趕下皇家荷蘭/殼牌(Royal Dutch/Shell)董事長的席位，以及43%的股東投票反對邁克爾•艾斯納(Michael Eisner)連任沃爾特迪斯尼(Walt Disney)的董事長。

Although a revolt on this scale by small shareholders was unprecedented in France, there have been many more investor uprisings in other countries, from the ousting of Sir Philip Watts as chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell to the vote by 43 per cent of shareholders against the reappointment of Michael Eisner as head of Walt Disney.

一年多前，我應邀為一群新任公司董事講講有關新聞界的工作方式。其中一位董事問，為什么他非得向媒體講話。我當時承認，一些最成功的公司領導人從不那樣做。吉姆•柯林斯(Jim Collins)在其暢銷商業著作《從優秀到卓越》中介紹了一些最杰出的首席執行官，其中大多數人都不接受采訪。

A little over a year ago, I was invited to talk to a group of newly appointed company directors about the workings of the press. One of the directors asked why he should ever speak to the media. I conceded that some of the most successful corporate leaders never did. Most of the outstanding chief executives profiled in Good to Great, Jim Collins's best-selling business book, did not give interviews.

如果現在讓我來回答那位董事的問題，我會說，在這個股東積極維權的時代里，不說話也許是失策的。投資人對菲利普爵士的怨氣，很大一部分是由于他沒有親自出面，對殼牌宣布削減石油和天然氣儲量一事做出解釋。首席執行官必須像所有總統或首相那樣，警惕公眾對他們態度的改變，并隨時準備應付這種變化。

Were I to answer the director's question now, I would say that not speaking is probably inadvisable in this age of shareholder activism. Much of the investor fury against Sir Philip resulted from his failure to appear in person to explain Shell's reduction in its declared oil and gas reserves. Chief executives need to be as alert to the changing attitudes towards them, and as ready to address them, as any president or prime minister.

甚至在“歐洲隧道”股東反叛事件之前，我就一直在考慮公司生活與政治生活之間日益增加的相似點，那是受到我朋友黛博拉•邁丁森(Deborah Mattinson)寄給我的一篇論文的啟發。她是Opinion Leader Research的聯合創始人。這篇論文由她與該研究公司的董事格雷姆•特雷納(Graeme Trayner)合撰，并已在上月市場研究協會(Market Research Society)的年會上發布。該論文認為，正如政治家越來越多地被要求表現得像經理人：用業績目標來衡量他們是否成功，因此，商業人士也越來越必須表現得像政治家。

I had been pondering the growing similarity between corporate and political life even before the Eurotunnel revolt, prompted by a paper my friend Deborah Mattinson, co-founder of Opinion Leader Research, sent me. The paper, which she wrote with Graeme Trayner, a director of the research company, and delivered at the annual conference of the Market Research Society last month, argued that just as politicians were increasingly required to behave like business managers - measuring their success against performance targets - so business people increasingly had to behave like politicians.

該論文稱，政治家已經感到，每隔4、5年向投票人說明政策是不夠的。他們必須不斷競選，以贏得公眾支持。比爾•克林頓(Bill Clinton)的顧問迪克•莫里斯(Dick Morris)說，政客必須天天贏得“多數票”。

The paper argued that politicians felt it was no longer sufficient to present their case to voters every four or five years. They had to campaign constantly to win support for their policies. Dick Morris, an adviser to Bill Clinton, said politicians had to win a "daily majority".

“持之以恒地競選已完全成為當代政治領域的準則，而且與英國新工黨的崛起，以及美國的克林頓政府和小布什政府的政治手段特別有關聯，”該論文表示。

"The permanent campaign has now become very much the norm in contemporary politics and is particularly associated with the emergence of New Labour in the UK and the political approaches of the Clinton and Bush II administrations in the US," the paper said.

商界領袖也發現自己要不間斷地競選，例如目前因薪酬問題而遭到抨擊的葛蘭素史克(GlaxoSmithKline)首席執行官讓-皮埃爾•加尼耶(Jean-Pierre Garnier)。同政治家一樣，企業領導人也在一個受到普遍懷疑和猜忌的環境中運作。而且同政治家一樣，他們也面對一群日益不滿、苛刻的選民。政治家的選民是投票人，商界領袖的選民則由消費者、維權活動組織和股東組成。

Business leaders - such as Jean-Pierre Garnier, the GlaxoSmithKline chief, under fire over his pay - were finding themselves permanently campaigning, too. Like politicians, corporate leaders operated in an environment of popular scepticism and mistrust. Also like politicians, they faced an increasingly dissatisfied and demanding electorate. The politicians' electorate was the voters; the business leaders' was made up of consumers, campaigning organisations and shareholders.

該論文把政界與企業董事會做了比較，但這種比較有多少根據呢？盡管常被引用的首席執行官平均任期（4年）與許多民主制國家的選舉周期相一致，但在最近幾個月里，首席執行官們已發現，他們的地位甚至還沒有政治人物的牢靠。

How valid is the paper's comparison between politics and the boardroom? Although the oft-cited tenure of the average chief executive - four years - matches the electoral cycle of many democracies, chief executives in recent months have found they are even less secure than politicians.

菲利普爵士和霍林格國際(Hollinger International)董事長布萊克勛爵(Lord Black)已被趕下臺，被罷黜的速度比任何政客都要快。不受歡迎的政客通常能把自己的位子保到下一次選舉，除非是極其少見的情況，如加州州長格雷•戴維斯(Gray Davis)在去年一次罷免選舉后下臺。

Sir Philip and Lord Black, the head of Hollinger International, have been thrown out more quickly than any politician would have been. Unpopular politicians usually keep their jobs until the next election, except in rare cases such as Gray Davis, California's governor, who was dismissed after a recall election last year.

從另一個角度看，企業領袖在以下方面的任務要簡單些：他們可以更直接地與批評者對話。盡管該論文認為，企業領導人面臨的挑戰來自活動人士、消費者和股東，但只有股東才能對首席執行官施加真正的影響。

On the other hand, the corporate leaders have an easier task in one respect: they can talk to their detractors more directly. Although the paper sees the challenge to business leaders as coming from activists, consumers and shareholders, it is only shareholders who exercise real power over chief executives.

消費者已經對企業造成了打擊：歐洲的購物者拒絕接受轉基因食品，重創了孟山都(Monsanto)。針對殼牌的Brent Spar石油平臺及尼日利亞業務，活動人士給該公司惹了許多麻煩，而且在承包商工廠問題上令耐克(Nike)非常尷尬。但在有關血汗工廠的維權活動上，耐克幾乎沒有遭受任何經濟損失。而一些人認為，殼牌花了太多時間來讓活動人士對它滿意，結果冷落了投資者。

Consumers have hurt companies: European shoppers' refusal to countenance genetically modified food did huge damage to Monsanto. Campaigners caused Shell problems over its Brent Spar oil platform and its Nigerian operations, and embarrassed Nike over its contractors' factories. But Nike suffered little financial harm over the sweatshop campaign. And some argue that Shell spent so much time trying to make itself acceptable to campaigners that it ignored investors.

首席執行官們過去總是說，他們的首要任務是對股東負責，并以此作為每件事的理由，包括關閉工廠、安排自己的薪酬和股票期權，因為他們確信，股東一般不會采取行動來控制他們�，F在不同了。這次就是小投資者打擊了歐洲隧道董事會。在大多數公司里，掌握大多數投票權的是大型養老基金、保險基金和投資基金。要找到這些基金并與之對話很容易。

Chief executives used to justify everything, from factory closures to their pay and share options, by saying their principal responsibility was to shareholders - secure in the knowledge that shareholders would do little to control them. That has changed. It was the small shareholders who did the damage at Eurotunnel. In most companies it is the large pension, insurance and investment funds that hold most of the votes. They are easy enough to find and talk to.

在被免職之前，布萊克勛爵曾這樣談及股東：“他們拿我沒辦法。”其他人不太可能再犯同樣的錯誤了。對首席執行官來說，等開年度股東大會時再露面不是個好主意，他們有必要像政治家討好選民那樣，堅持不懈地討好股東。

Before he was deposed, Lord Black said of his shareholders: "They can't do much about me." Others are unlikely to make the same mistake. But it is not a good idea to wait for the annual meeting. Chief executives need to court their shareholders as assiduously as politicians court voters.

作者電子郵件：michael.skapinker@ft.com。

譯者/李裕