????有時(shí)候，正是那些微不足道的小事會(huì)讓你抓狂。

????2007年夏天，星巴克（Starbucks）深陷有史以來(lái)最糟糕的境地。

????當(dāng)時(shí)，公司創(chuàng)始人霍華德?舒爾茨7年前已從首席執(zhí)行官之位卸任，一心要效仿比爾?蓋茨做個(gè)甩手掌柜，只擔(dān)任董事長(zhǎng)一職。但是，他常常會(huì)從窗外戀戀不舍地凝視大門緊閉的會(huì)議室， “那感覺(jué)就像個(gè)局外人在往里看，”在他的新書《致力向前》（Onward）（與喬安妮?戈登合著）中，他這么寫道。

????如果在這些會(huì)議室里炮制出來(lái)的決策不會(huì)引發(fā)災(zāi)難，這種狀態(tài)可能還能忍受。但是，它們實(shí)在是為害不淺。舒爾茨回顧道，星巴克每日店內(nèi)人流量“像自由落體運(yùn)動(dòng)般”，下跌至該公司40年來(lái)所未見(jiàn)的低位。這個(gè)咖啡巨頭規(guī)模擴(kuò)張得太大以致力量攤薄，它開(kāi)店速度太快數(shù)量太多，像音樂(lè)行業(yè)一樣胡亂擴(kuò)張到美國(guó)國(guó)外，同時(shí)卻忽視了開(kāi)設(shè)在線業(yè)務(wù)，而這本來(lái)還能讓公司有辦法向其眾多批評(píng)者解釋其某些做法的初衷。

????2007年2月，舒爾茨寫下一則名聲在外的備忘錄，對(duì)“星巴克的商品化”大加抱怨，很快，它就在網(wǎng)上飛速傳播開(kāi)來(lái)。從這一刻起，公司一度高高在上的股價(jià)開(kāi)始下滑，到了該年年底，股價(jià)已跌去42%。

????而最后的導(dǎo)火線卻是一個(gè)微不足道的惱人細(xì)節(jié)：燒奶酪的氣味。

????舒爾茨寫道：“跟我相識(shí)多年的人知道，很少有什么能像這種氣味那樣讓我怒火中燒。我受不了它！”

????從一開(kāi)始，他就一直反對(duì)在店里賣早餐三明治的主意，三明治里的“蒙特里杰克燒干酪，莫薩里拉奶酪以及最讓人討厭的切達(dá)干酪”所散發(fā)的氣味徹底蓋過(guò)了咖啡飄香，這讓他真是痛恨不已。

????他寫道：“這些燒奶酪到底有何魔力？早餐三明治倒是成了我證明我們是如何節(jié)節(jié)敗退的絕佳例證！”

????然而，當(dāng)舒爾茨向星巴克全球產(chǎn)品主管直接下令——“撤掉三明治！”時(shí)，時(shí)任首席執(zhí)行官吉姆?唐納德卻在一小時(shí)后撤掉了這道指令。這種困局超過(guò)了星巴克所面臨的任何單個(gè)問(wèn)題，致使舒爾茨決意重返權(quán)位，擔(dān)當(dāng)積極實(shí)干的首席執(zhí)行官。2008年1月，他王者歸來(lái)。

????《致力向前》的副標(biāo)題是“星巴克如何不失靈魂、重獲生機(jī)”（ How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul）。該書大部分是對(duì)隨后所發(fā)生的情況的詳細(xì)記述。書中的細(xì)節(jié)連篇累牘，可能超出了多數(shù)讀者真正想了解的范圍。比如，寫到他在寫下“商品化”備忘錄時(shí)，舒爾茨不忘描寫當(dāng)時(shí)廚房窗外的天氣（下著雨），或者，他去與員工舉行重要會(huì)議時(shí)，衣著如何（“藍(lán)色牛仔褲和一件深灰色運(yùn)動(dòng)衫”）。

????但是，對(duì)任何想獲得真知灼見(jiàn)，了解如何讓一個(gè)被成功弄得信心爆棚結(jié)果卻一落千丈的巨頭扭轉(zhuǎn)頹勢(shì)的讀者，《致力向前》則是必讀之作。而這并不僅僅是因?yàn)槭鏍柎牡闹卫砹挤斤@然奏效了。（2010財(cái)年，星巴克公司的營(yíng)收創(chuàng)下紀(jì)錄，營(yíng)業(yè)收入增長(zhǎng)15%，每股收益猛增138%，2011年第一財(cái)季，這一紀(jì)錄又再被打破。）

????在本書的字里行間，舒爾茨以真誠(chéng)的，甚至可謂迎合討好的好好先生的形象出現(xiàn)，因此，當(dāng)他回顧焦慮，講訴奮斗歷程時(shí)，你會(huì)為他喝彩。但本書的真正價(jià)值在于，他愿意將自己的短處置于顯微鏡下，為自己公司的過(guò)失承擔(dān)責(zé)難，并能得出遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超越星巴克本身的有益見(jiàn)解。

????他若有所思地檢討道：“如果不加以審視，成功就會(huì)設(shè)法掩蓋種種小的失誤。我想，這就是很多公司最終失敗的原因所在。那往往不是由于來(lái)自市場(chǎng)的挑戰(zhàn)，而是來(lái)自公司內(nèi)部的問(wèn)題?！?/p>

????他從應(yīng)對(duì)眾多挑戰(zhàn)中學(xué)到的一個(gè)至關(guān)重要的教訓(xùn)，恰恰是很多人極易忽略的：“我們都對(duì)增長(zhǎng)耳熟能詳，但這并非戰(zhàn)略。它是戰(zhàn)術(shù)?！?/p>

????譯者：清遠(yuǎn)

????Sometimes, it's the little things that drive you crazy.

????In the summer of 2007, Starbucks (SBUX) was in the middle of its worst year ever.

????Having stepped aside as CEO 7 years earlier to become a Bill-Gates-like, hands-off chairman instead, founder Howard Schultz often peered wistfully through the windows of closed-door conference rooms, "feeling like an outsider looking in," he writes in his new book (with co-author Joanne Gordon), Onward.

????That would probably have been tolerable if the decisions cooked up in those conference rooms weren't so disastrous. But they were. Starbucks' day-to-day store traffic was "in free fall," Schultz recalls, tumbling to levels not seen in the company's 40-year history. The coffee leviathan had spread itself too thin, opening too many stores too fast, expanding willy-nilly into alien territory like the music business, and neglecting to build an online presence that could have given the company a way to explain some of its actions to its many critics.

????Starting in February 2007 -- when Schultz wrote an infamous memo complaining about the "commoditization of Starbucks," which promptly got spattered all over the Internet -- the company's once-stellar stock began to slide, losing 42% of its value by the end of the year.

????The last straw, however, was a small, irritating detail: The smell of burnt cheese.

????"People who have known me for years will tell you that few things had ever piqued my ire as much as that smell," Schultz writes. "I could not stand it."

????Having opposed the idea of selling breakfast sandwiches from the get-go, he hated the way "singed Monterey Jack, mozzarella, and, most offensively, cheddar" from the sandwiches overwhelmed the aroma of coffee.

????"Where was the magic in burnt cheese?," he writes, adding, "The breakfast sandwich became my quintessential example of how we were losing our way."

????Yet when Schultz issued a direct order to Starbucks' head of global products -- "Get the sandwiches out!" -- then-CEO Jim Donald countermanded it an hour later. The debacle, more than any other single problem Starbucks faced, made Schultz decide to step back into the role of active CEO. In January of 2008, he did.

????Most of Onward, which is subtitled How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul, is a play-by-play account of what happened next. There may be more detail here than most readers really want, as when Schultz describes the weather outside his kitchen window while he wrote the "commoditization" memo (rainy), or what he wore to an important meeting with employees ("blue jeans and a dark gray sweater").

????But for anyone looking for insights on how to turn around a troubled giant brought low by overconfidence in its own success, Onward is essential reading -- and not only because Schultz's recipe is clearly working. (The company reported record earnings for fiscal 2010, with earnings per share up 138% on a 15% gain in revenues, and then broke its own record in the first quarter of fiscal 2011.)

????Schultz comes across in these pages as a genuinely, even disarmingly, nice guy, so that, while he's recalling his angst and recounting his struggles, you find yourself cheering him on. But the real value here is in his willingness to put his own shortcomings under a microscope, shoulder much of the blame for his company's missteps, and draw conclusions that reach far beyond Starbucks.

????"If not checked, success has a way of covering up small failures," he muses. "This is why, I think, so many companies fail. Not because of challenges in the marketplace, but because of challenges on the inside."

????A crucial lesson he learned while tackling those challenges is one that's all too easy to lose sight of: "Growth, we now know all too well, is not a strategy. It is a tactic."