????大眾首席執(zhí)行官馬丁·文德恩已因柴油車(chē)排放作弊事件辭職。大眾的新任CEO或許可以從上一位被放在全世界聚光燈下審視的汽車(chē)公司負(fù)責(zé)人那里借鑒一二。

????她就是通用汽車(chē)CEO瑪麗·巴拉。為了結(jié)點(diǎn)火開(kāi)關(guān)缺陷引發(fā)的官司，這家底特律汽車(chē)制造商最近才向美國(guó)政府支付了9億美元，而這只是整個(gè)賠付的一部分；這個(gè)問(wèn)題已經(jīng)造成124人喪生，275人受傷，迫使通用汽車(chē)召回了近3000萬(wàn)輛汽車(chē)。

????這次召回開(kāi)始于2014年2月，當(dāng)時(shí)距巴拉獲得任命僅隔兩周。而在她上任前，2009年曾申請(qǐng)破產(chǎn)保護(hù)的通用汽車(chē)一直奮力擺脫困境，在此前15年里，這家公司已經(jīng)虧損了約180億美元。

????一上任，巴拉就不得不為本次召回事件四次到國(guó)會(huì)接受聽(tīng)證調(diào)查，通用汽車(chē)還為此設(shè)立了4億美元的受害者賠償基金。此外，前任美國(guó)檢察官安東·瓦盧卡斯提交的一份325頁(yè)的內(nèi)部報(bào)告也極具殺傷力。報(bào)告指出，通用汽車(chē)2001年就發(fā)現(xiàn)點(diǎn)火開(kāi)關(guān)有問(wèn)題，但由于奉行沉默是金的文化，以及公司內(nèi)部相互推諉，它一直沒(méi)有采取任何補(bǔ)救措施。通用汽車(chē)因安全問(wèn)題引發(fā)的召回還將持續(xù)，而涉及數(shù)百例人員傷亡的訴訟依舊在等待判決。

????然而，經(jīng)歷了這一切的巴拉已經(jīng)成功贏得了公眾的支持和理解，她應(yīng)對(duì)危機(jī)采取的各種措施飽受贊譽(yù)。那么，巴拉是怎么做到的呢？

????1. 她很誠(chéng)實(shí)

????在整個(gè)危機(jī)期間，巴拉一直不憚?dòng)跒辄c(diǎn)火開(kāi)關(guān)問(wèn)題道歉，盡管這些過(guò)錯(cuò)根本不能怪她。在國(guó)會(huì)聽(tīng)證會(huì)上，巴拉回答問(wèn)題時(shí)坦率真誠(chéng)，毫不回避或閃爍其辭，參議員們對(duì)此大加贊賞。加利福尼亞州共和黨參議員芭巴拉·博克瑟在一次聽(tīng)證會(huì)上說(shuō)：“愿上帝保佑你，你做的很好。”巴拉讓參議員們相信，她會(huì)把這次事件轉(zhuǎn)化為正能量。她還承諾：“在這些問(wèn)題得到解決前，我絕不歇事寧人?！?/p>

????2. 她致力于做出改變

????巴拉以行踐言。她開(kāi)除了對(duì)點(diǎn)火開(kāi)關(guān)問(wèn)題負(fù)主要責(zé)任的15個(gè)人，重新構(gòu)建了通用汽車(chē)的司法規(guī)程，并且開(kāi)展了“為安全進(jìn)言”的活動(dòng)，允許員工檢舉內(nèi)部問(wèn)題。她還利用這次危機(jī)來(lái)改變通用汽車(chē)過(guò)于尊重上級(jí)的文化。巴拉說(shuō)：“我不想置之不理，也不想敷衍搪塞，因?yàn)槲矣X(jué)得它暴露了公司的一些問(wèn)題，要予以改變和糾正，我們就得挑戰(zhàn)自己，這一點(diǎn)很關(guān)鍵?！彪m然改變公司文化需要時(shí)間，但借助這次危機(jī)，巴拉以一種不尋常的方式來(lái)激勵(lì)通用汽車(chē)的員工。她在一次公司大會(huì)上表示：“我絕不希望大家把這件事拋諸腦后。我希望這段痛苦經(jīng)歷永遠(yuǎn)留在我們的共同記憶之中?！边@番“非通用式”講話讓那些老員工很受觸動(dòng)。

????3. 她把注意力集中在利潤(rùn)上

????說(shuō)到底，公司業(yè)績(jī)才是衡量CEO優(yōu)劣的唯一標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。在重振通用汽車(chē)方面，巴拉做的極為出色。她把重點(diǎn)放在整合美國(guó)業(yè)務(wù)上，讓凱迪拉克脫離通用汽車(chē)，成為一個(gè)“獨(dú)立經(jīng)營(yíng)實(shí)體”；她還為趨于老化的沃倫技術(shù)中心投資約10億美元，以增強(qiáng)通用汽車(chē)的研發(fā)能力。結(jié)果如何呢？在7月份的最新業(yè)績(jī)發(fā)布會(huì)上，通用汽車(chē)公布的第二季度利潤(rùn)是上年同期的五倍，超過(guò)了分析師的預(yù)期。復(fù)蘇之路還很長(zhǎng)，但巴拉的工作可以為大眾新任CEO提供一個(gè)怎樣處理公司歷史性危機(jī)的藍(lán)本。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：Charlie

????校對(duì)：詹妮

????With news that Volkswagen AG CEO Martin Winterkorn has resigned after the company was found to have cheated on its diesel emissions tests, the next VW CEO could learn a thing or two from the last auto company leader to face worldwide scrutiny.

????That would be Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors, the Detroit-based automaker who recently handed over $900 million to the U.S. government as part of a settlement over defective ignition switches that sparked a recall of nearly 30 million cars, and had led to 124 deaths and 275 injuries.

????That recall started in February 2014, just two weeks after Barra was appointed to the company’s top post. Even before she began, GM was struggling to recover from its 2009 bankruptcy and around $18 billion in losses over the past 15 years.

????The GM recall, however, would drag Barra through four Congressional hearings, and cause the company to set up a $400 million victim-compensation fund. There was also the damning 325-page internal report released by former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas, which revealed that GM knew about the switch problem since 2001, but because of a culture of silence and blame games, led to no action to rectify the problem. The company would continue recalling its cars over other safety issues, and hundreds of personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits are still pending.

????But through it all, Barra has succeeded in winning the hearts and minds of the public, and earning tons of goodwill for her response to the crisis. What did she do?

????1. She was honest

????Throughout the crisis, Barra never shied from apologizing for the misdeeds, even if she was absolved from all wrongdoing. During her Congressional hearings, Senators heaped praise on Barra for her contrite, transparent answers. “God bless you, and you’re doing a good job,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) in one hearing. Barra also convinced Senators that this moment was one she would use for good. “I will not rest until these problems are resolved,” was another promise from Barra.

????2. She was committed to change

????Barra backed up her words with action. She fired 15 people who were at the heart of the fault, reorganized GM’s litigation practice and created the “Speaking Up for Safety” program that allowed employees to act as internal whistleblowers. She has also used this crisis to address GM’s internal culture of over-respecting higher-ups, saying: “I don’t want to set it aside and explain it away because I think it uncovered some things in the company that it’s critical we challenge ourselves to change and to fix.” While the culture change is taking time, she used this crisis to motivate GM staff members in an unusual way. “I never want to put this behind us. I want to put this painful experience permanently in our collective memories,” she said in one town hall meeting, a statement that struck long-time employees as very un-GM-like.

????3. She focused on the bottom line

????Ultimately, a CEO is only as good as his or her company’s balance sheet, and Barra has done immensely well in reviving GM’s fortunes. She focused on consolidating operations in the U.S., separated Cadillac from GM as a “separate business unit”, and invested around $1 billion in its aging Warren Technical Center to help improve the company’s R&D efforts. The results? In the last earnings call in July, GM reported that its second-quarter earnings were five times as large as a year ago, beating analysts’ expectations. The road back is still long, but Barra’s work can provide the incoming Volkswagen CEO a blueprint on how to address a historic crisis inside a company.