亞馬遜是怎么把第二總部這項工作搞砸的
Lucinda Shen
2019-06-19
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當2017年亞馬遜宣布計劃修建第二總部時，美國的市長和州長各個爭先恐后，試圖給這家數(shù)十億美元的科技巨頭留下深刻印象。
堪薩斯城的市長在亞馬遜買了1000件商品，阿拉巴馬州的伯明翰市則在市內(nèi)四處擺放巨大的亞馬遜箱子。新澤西、紐約和弗吉尼亞等州均表示可以免稅或撥款。它們都覺得這個投資50億美元、預(yù)計可以創(chuàng)造5萬個就業(yè)機會的項目對自己的選民來說是件好事。
但國際貨幣基金組織的前首席經(jīng)濟學家、目前在芝加哥大學布斯商學院擔任金融學教授的拉古拉姆·拉詹認為，亞馬遜在與民眾溝通方面做的不夠，因而未能將首選方案付諸實施。
亞馬遜的注意力一直集中在跟政界高層人士對話上，對于有可能成為第二總部落腳地的紐約皇后區(qū)長島市，卻出現(xiàn)了和當?shù)厣鐓^(qū)溝通不足的情況。
上周二，拉詹在紐約市召開的《財富》CEO Initiative大會上說：“市長和州長都（對亞馬遜第二總部）迫不及待……長島市和皇后區(qū)卻說：‘不好意思，我們不感興趣。’他們?yōu)槭裁凑f不？首先一點是亞馬遜在宣布此事前從未和當?shù)厣鐓^(qū)進行過詳細溝通。對于社區(qū)，亞馬遜應(yīng)該這樣說：‘你們擔心這些事，我們會這么解決，我們還為你們社區(qū)做了這些規(guī)劃?！?/p>
2018年年底，亞馬遜表示已經(jīng)為第二總部預(yù)選了兩個位置，即長島市和弗吉尼亞州阿靈頓。但接下來，這家總部設(shè)在西雅圖的電子商務(wù)企業(yè)一直沒有怎么向公眾披露相關(guān)進展。觀察人士則不斷表示，一家如此有影響力的大型科技公司的到來，或者說它對第二總部所在地的最終選擇有可能推動當?shù)氐奈飪r和房租上升。
拉詹指出，如果向當?shù)鼐用癖ＷC他們不會因為房租和物價上漲而“背井離鄉(xiāng)”，同時在發(fā)表聲明前跟當?shù)厣鐓^(qū)講清楚潛在益處，亞馬遜就會做的更成功。而“這些對話都沒有出現(xiàn)?！?/p>
對拉詹來說，亞馬遜和長島市未能進行溝通是一種大趨勢的表現(xiàn)之一，而這種大趨勢已經(jīng)威脅到了資本主義的現(xiàn)狀，那就是權(quán)力過于集中。隨著科技革命席卷全球，一些行業(yè)和城市的工作開始變得過時，而面對自己的獨特挑戰(zhàn)，當?shù)厝藨?yīng)該擁有決定權(quán)，而非聯(lián)邦政府。
拉詹發(fā)現(xiàn)這種趨勢的跡象比比皆是。他說：“英國脫歐到底是為什么？就是為了奪回控制權(quán)——讓此前交給布魯塞爾的權(quán)力回到倫敦?！保ㄘ敻恢形木W(wǎng)） 譯者：Charlie 審校：夏林 |
When Amazon announced plans to build HQ2 back in 2017, mayors and state governors clambered over each other in a bid to impress the multi-billion dollar tech giant.
Kansas City’s mayor bought 1,000 products from Amazon, while Birmingham scattered giant Amazon boxes throughout the city. States including New Jersey, New York, and Virginia meanwhile offered tax or cash incentives all under the assumption that the project, which is expected to add 50,000 jobs to the communities with $5 billion in investments, would be a boon to their constituents.
But communicating with those constituents is where Amazon fell short and failed to land its first choice, says Former IMF Chief Economist and current Professor of Finance at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Raghuram Rajan.
Amazon had focused on talking with higher level politicians, and not enough on addressing one of the communities that would eventually house HQ2: Long Island City in Queens New York.
“Every mayor and every governor was killing for (HQ2)…and yet Long Island City and Queens said ‘Sorry, we’re not interested,’” he said last Tuesday during The Fortune CEO Initiative conference in New York City. “Why did they say no? The first thing was that Amazon never talked to the community in detail before announcing it. They should have said: ‘Here are your worries, here’s how we deal with them, and here’s our plan for the community.”
In late 2018, Amazon revealed that it had chosen two locations for HQ2: Long Island City and Arlington, Va. But the Seattle-based e-commerce firm kept the process relatively mum to the public. That didn’t prevent onlookers from observing that the entry of such an affluent tech giant could drive up prices and rents in the city where it eventually decides to lay down a second set of roots.
Amazon would have achieved better success had it assured existing residents that they would not be displaced due to rising rents and prices, and opened up about potential benefits to the local community prior to the announcement, he said. “These are the conversations that didn’t happen,” Rajan said.
To Rajan, the failed negotiations between Amazon and Long Island City is part of a larger trend that threatens the current state of capitalism: An over centralization of power. As a tech revolution sweeps through the world, making jobs in some industries and cities obsolete, localities should be given the reins in deciding how to deal with their unique challenges—not the federal government.
And the former IMF Chief Economist sees signs of this trend everywhere.
“What is Brexit about? It’s about taking back control—from London it had migrated to Brussels,” he said. |
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