????麥肯齊?貝佐斯看起來(lái)似乎對(duì)《萬(wàn)有商店》（The Everything Store）作者布拉德?斯通在書(shū)中直言不諱地描繪出她丈夫的形象并不滿(mǎn)意。書(shū)一出版，她立即寫(xiě)了一封言辭激烈的評(píng)論【當(dāng)然是在亞馬遜網(wǎng)站（Amazon.com上）】，聲稱(chēng)該書(shū)“有傾向且誤導(dǎo)讀者”，過(guò)分關(guān)注員工之間的“緊張時(shí)刻”——她可能不想過(guò)于強(qiáng)硬地回?fù)?。?qiáng)調(diào)亞馬遜（Amazon）的這位CEO喜歡對(duì)下屬大發(fā)雷霆，實(shí)際上可能幫了他和他的公司。

????“炸藥包”不僅已經(jīng)是美國(guó)企業(yè)文化的固定構(gòu)成，也成為了很多科技行業(yè)最成功CEO的管理風(fēng)格核心，包括史蒂夫?喬布斯、比爾?蓋茨和拉里?埃里森。管理專(zhuān)家認(rèn)為，如果處置得當(dāng)，這種風(fēng)格甚至可能對(duì)員工和公司整體有益。

????斯通披露，亞馬遜員工用“發(fā)飆”來(lái)描述老板的暴脾氣。貝佐斯最喜歡說(shuō)的話(huà)是：“你為什么要?dú)У粑业纳?？”“如果我再?tīng)到這個(gè)說(shuō)法，我會(huì)殺了自己，”和“我們必須動(dòng)用一些人類(lèi)智慧來(lái)看這個(gè)問(wèn)題。”這些言語(yǔ)大炮固然有其不利面，可能疏遠(yuǎn)員工，最終導(dǎo)致他們跳槽，但也能幫助激發(fā)輝煌的成就。

????不過(guò)，也不總是這樣。20世紀(jì)下半葉的大部分時(shí)間里，謙遜禮讓是美國(guó)企業(yè)董事會(huì)的主流特質(zhì)。舉例來(lái)說(shuō)，20世紀(jì)80年代，福特汽車(chē)公司（Ford）和美國(guó)電話(huà)電報(bào)公司（AT&T）都聘請(qǐng)了質(zhì)量管理運(yùn)動(dòng)之父、已故的W?愛(ài)德華茲?戴明。他的信條是要提高效率，公司需要“驅(qū)散員工心中的恐懼”。那個(gè)年代，大公司的市場(chǎng)份額基本上已經(jīng)劃定，年復(fù)一年，旱澇保收，所謂看管CEO們基本上是主流，他們創(chuàng)造了一團(tuán)和氣的工作環(huán)境。

????但隨著技術(shù)變革不斷顛覆商業(yè)模式，有遠(yuǎn)見(jiàn)的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人開(kāi)始取而代之，發(fā)號(hào)施令。這些CEO們特別擅長(zhǎng)創(chuàng)新方式來(lái)改變世界，但伴隨這種創(chuàng)新的通常是許多個(gè)性缺點(diǎn)?？偛课挥谌A盛頓的咨詢(xún)公司Maccoby Group的總裁、《孤芳自賞的領(lǐng)袖們》（Narcissistic Leaders）一書(shū)的作者邁克?馬可比說(shuō)：“當(dāng)今許多最成功的商界領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人都具有全面的人格失調(diào)癥，特別是高科技公司，”斯坦福大學(xué)(Stanford University)商學(xué)院學(xué)生進(jìn)行的一項(xiàng)研究采用了馬可比制訂的一份問(wèn)卷，研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，科技公司CEO中10個(gè)有9個(gè)有自戀型人格失調(diào)癥，定義癥狀包括自我膨脹、缺乏同情心以及偶爾的“暴跳如雷”。這些領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人，馬可比表示，根本不知道如何能不失冷靜地應(yīng)對(duì)沮喪情緒。但自戀者通常會(huì)在建立親密關(guān)系方面存在問(wèn)題，他們適合管理公司。

????當(dāng)然，暴力領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人并不是什么徹頭徹尾的新事物。貝佐斯和他的同類(lèi)科技暴君們就像19世紀(jì)末最初將美國(guó)帶入工業(yè)革命的豪門(mén)強(qiáng)盜一樣。那一代人中一個(gè)往往被忽視的重要成員是亨利?J.?亨氏。

????出生于1844年的亨氏是與同名公司的創(chuàng)始人，亨氏如今也已成為番茄醬的代名詞，美國(guó)番茄醬這么多年來(lái)少有變化(這家公司最近被沃倫?巴菲特以280億美元收購(gòu))。但1876年，這家公司剛剛創(chuàng)立時(shí)，亨氏（H.J. Heinz Company）是當(dāng)時(shí)的高科技公司。就像貝佐斯和喬布斯，總是被稱(chēng)為“火暴脾氣之王”的亨氏也一樣一點(diǎn)就著，但同時(shí)也創(chuàng)意十足。

????As unhappy as McKenzie Bezos appeared to be with author Brad Stone's unflattering portrait of her husband in the new book The Everything Store -- immediately after its publication, she wrote a stinging review (on Amazon.com, of course) calling the book "lopsided and misleading" for focusing too much on "moments of tension" between staff members -- she might not want to push back too hard. By highlighting the Amazon (AMZN) CEO's propensity to berate his staff, Stone may actually be doing him and his company a favor.

????The temper tantrum has not only become a fixture in corporate America, but it has been central to the management style of many of technology's most successful CEOs -- namely Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Larry Ellison -- and management experts say when handled appropriately, this style can even be beneficial to employees and the company as a whole.

????As Stone reveals, Amazon employees have coined a term to capture the boss' outbursts -- "nutters." Among Bezos's favorites are: "Why are you ruining my life?" "If I hear that idea again, I'm doing to have to kill myself," and "We are going to have to supply some human intelligence to this problem." But while such verbal volleys do have their downside -- namely alienated employees who may jump ship -- they also can help spark spectacular achievements

????This has not always been the case. For most of the second half of the 20th century, a kinder, gentler ethos reigned in America's boardrooms. For example, in the 1980s, both Ford (F) and AT&T (T) hired the late W. Edwards Deming, the father of the quality management movement. His credo was that to increase efficiency, companies needed to "drive out fear" in workers. In an era when big companies could count on a given market share year after year, so-called caretaker CEOs, who created congenial workplaces, largely ruled.

????With technological change now constantly upending business models, however, visionary leaders are calling the shots instead. These CEOs are remarkably adept at devising ways to change the world, but along with this creativity often comes a host of personality tics. "Many of today's most successful business leaders have a full-blown personality disorder, particularly those in high-tech firms," says Michael Maccoby, president of Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm the Maccoby Group and author of Narcissistic Leaders. Research conducted by students at Stanford University's business school using a questionnaire developed by Maccoby suggests that as many as nine out of 10 tech CEOs suffer from narcissistic personality disorder, whose defining symptoms are an inflated sense of self, a lack of empathy, and occasional "rage attacks." These leaders, Macoby says, simply don't know how to cope with frustration without losing their cool. But while narcissists often have problems in intimate relationships, they are well suited to running companies.

????The volatile leader, of course, is not an entirely new breed. Bezos and his fellow tech titans are all throwbacks to the robber barons of the late 19th century -- the men who first brought America into the industrial age. One key and often overlooked member of that generation was Henry J. Heinz.

????Born in 1844, Heinz was the founder of the eponymous company now synonymous with ketchup, America's slow-moving national sauce (recently purchased by Warren Buffett for $28 billion). But when it was founded in 1876, the H.J. Heinz Company constituted the latest in high-tech. And like Bezos and Jobs, Heinz -- often called "the pickle king" -- was as prickly and creative as they come.