要不要把哲學家請進企業董事會
From a distance, it does not seem as if philosophy and business would have anything to say to one another. Businesses are concerned with meeting strict targets under time pressure, maximising revenue and outwitting competitors. Philosophy is concerned with the largest and most impractical questions about the meaning of life; it sets itself no targets and has no practical outcomes.
乍一看，哲學和企業似乎全無關係。企業關心的是，如何在規定的時間內實現一些明確的目標、實現收入最大化、以及以計謀打敗競爭對手。哲學關心的則是一些與生活意義有關的宏大而絲毫不切實際的問題；它不爲自己設定任何目標，也不會產生任何現實結果。But in reality, business and philosophy have a huge amount to say to one another. Beneath their interest in profits, businesses are forced to engage with nothing less than the question of how to satisfy their customers, a subject full of contradictions and complexities. For its part, philosophy has spent most of its long history investigating the ingredients of a good life, what Aristotle called eudaimonia, a Greek word translated as “flourishing” or “fulfilment”. In their different ways, philosophy and business have to work out what satisfies people – and therefore how they tick.
但事實上，企業和哲學有很大的關係。企業爲追求利潤而不得不考慮的那個問題，正是如何讓客戶感到滿意——這是一個充滿矛盾而又複雜無比的主題。而在其悠久歷史的大部分時間裏，哲學研究的恰恰就是幸福生活的各項要素，即亞里士多德(Aristotle)所說的“eudaimonia”——這是一個希臘語單詞，翻譯過來就是“德性的繁榮”(flourishing)或“生命的圓滿”(fulfilment)。哲學和企業都要以各自不同的方式來搞清楚人的滿足感從何而來，因而也都必須搞清楚人爲什麼而活。Most businesses – outside a tiny crooked minority – have to be committed to promoting the flourishing of their customers. Their long-term survival depends on it. Perhaps they are selling people hand-dryers or household insurance but, ultimately, their livelihoods depend on the accuracy with which they have discerned the true needs of those they have set out to serve: profit is the reward for working out those of your clients ahead of anyone else.
大多數企業（使用不正當手段競爭的極少數企業除外）必須致力於促進客戶的“繁榮”。企業能否長期生存也取決於此。它們銷售的東西或許是幹手器或家庭保險，但從本質來看，它們能否生存取決於能否準確把握客戶的真實需求，而利潤則是對它們最先搞清楚客戶真實需求的獎賞。
In order to work through the psychology of their clients, businesses commonly rely on market research, carried out for them in focus groups and interviews. But they do not typically step back and properly think about human nature from a 2,000-year cultural perspective, and their analyses of their customers suffer as a result.
爲把握客戶心理，企業通常會依賴通過焦點小組和採訪進行的市場研究。但企業通常不會退後一步，從人類兩千年文明的角度對人性進行恰當的思考，因此它們對客戶的分析並不準確。An ordinary business would ask: “How do I improve my margins in the ski business?” But a philosopher would ask: “Where is the need to ski routed in the human soul?” Eventually the philosopher would find a way back to the balance sheet, but the starting point would be higher and broader, and the results often more interesting. With a proper philosophical perspective on the needs of customers, businesses can start to see new market opportunities, rather than being left to fiddle with margins, wages and logistics.
通常而言，一家企業會問：“我如何才能提高滑雪業務的利潤率？”但一位哲學家會問：“滑雪的需求根植於人性中的哪個部分？”哲學家最終還會回到資產負債表上，但他們的分析起點會更高、更宏大，分析結果通常也會更有趣。從一個恰當的哲學角度看待客戶需求，企業可以發現新的市場機遇，而不會僅僅糾結於利潤率、薪資和物流管理。Asked to analyse a business, a philosopher would typically start by asking what its deep purpose was: that is, what its eudaimonic promise to its customers was made up of. Then he or she would look at how well the company was living up to the promise, before suggesting new products, services or brand messages that would align it more closely with its implicit promises.
在被要求對一家企業進行分析時，一位哲學家通常首先會問：企業的深層次目標是什麼？也就是說，企業關於提高客戶滿足感的承諾包含哪些部分。接下來，這位哲學家會研究這家企業在多大程度上履行了這項承諾，然後纔會從如何更緊密地貼合企業對客戶的隱含承諾出發，就應該推出何種新產品或新服務、如何改變品牌形象向企業提出建議。Imagine an ambitious luxurious hotel trying to stay afloat in a competitive market. The hotel would tend to imagine it knew what it needed to do for its customers; the struggle would be all about delivery. However, what tends to be rushed is the definition of what exactly a good night in a hotel is. Where do the sheets and the minibar fit into this? What is the role of the soap and room service? What if one went back to the drawing board to address the question of what a hotel is?
假設有一家志向遠大的豪華酒店正在努力在一個競爭激烈的市場中生存。酒店往往會認爲自己知道需要爲其客戶做什麼，難題只在於如何做到。然而，人們往往未能仔細思索的一個問題是，完美酒店之夜究竟該如何定義。被單和迷你酒吧冰箱在完美酒店之夜中扮演何種角色？肥皂和房間服務又扮演何種角色？如果迴歸原點、重新思考酒店的本質是什麼，我們會有何發現？There are many problems that can destroy a night in a hotel. Here are some of those that tend not to be thought about (they are too philosophical). One might feel anxious, or confused. One might be lonely. One might have an argument with one’s partner. One might feel disconnected from the culture of the country all around. Typically, hotels do not think these sort of problems belong to them. They limit their focus to the soap and the bed. In other words, they are forgetting the full range of implicit promises they have made to their customers: you will be happy with us.
有許多問題可能毀掉一個完美酒店之夜。以下是人們往往想不到的部分問題（因爲這些問題太哲學化了）：有的客人或許會感到焦慮或迷惑；有的或許會感到孤獨；有的或許剛剛與伴侶發生爭吵；還有的或許會覺得與周圍的文化格格不入。通常而言，酒店不認爲這類問題跟自己有什麼關係。它們將關注的重點侷限於爲客人準備怎樣的肥皂和牀。換言之，它們忘記了自己對顧客做出的那項隱含的宏大承諾：你在這裏會感到幸福。A hotel that took fulfilment very seriously might be led to develop a whole range of new services and products. Hotels, like so many businesses, are only at the dawn of understanding their customers’ real needs because they operate with too narrow a definition of happiness.
一家非常重視客戶滿足感的酒店或許會從這一點出發，開發一系列新服務和新產品。與衆多企業一樣，酒店仍剛剛開始理解客戶的真正需求，因爲它們對幸福的定義過於狹窄。Similar issues bedevil financial services. Take wealth management. On the surface, this is a business that promises customers a certain return a year on their portfolios.
類似的問題也困擾着金融服務業。以財富管理企業爲例，表面看來，這種企業對客戶的承諾是，讓他們的投資組合每年獲得一定的投資收益。But the deeper implicit promise is: “You will live well with money around us.” However, very few firms tackle the implications beneath this grand claim, rendering them intensely vulnerable to competition and downturns in their financial performance. A wealth management firm under philosophical guidance would not stop looking after money in the standard ways, but it would also be asking how money can properly contribute to clients’ happiness. How well are the clients’ children relating to money? How has money affected the clients’ friendships? What is the point of philanthropy? What has been the meaning of their lives? As with the example of the hotel, these are questions that implicitly fall under the remit of a particular business but that business is not looking at them squarely and imaginatively.
但財富管理企業更深層次的隱含承諾是：“把錢交給我們，你會生活得很幸福。”然而，很少有公司把這種豪言壯語當回事，這讓他們在面對競爭和財務業績下降時很容易受到衝擊。一家受到哲學理念指引的財富管理公司不僅會繼續按照常規方式管理客戶的財富，而且還會思考如何才能適當地利用金錢增進客戶的福祉。客戶的孩子們在金錢方面是否感到滿意？金錢對客戶的友誼有什麼影響？慈善活動的意義是什麼？客戶們一直以來生活的意義是什麼？與酒店的例子一樣，這些問題無疑在特定企業需要思考的範疇之內，但企業沒有拿出創意來直面這些問題。Letting the odd philosopher into a business is not an indulgence. It would help management think more deeply about what a business should properly be trying to do with the customer’s life in order to improve it. There is (fortunately) no enduring conflict between understanding the psyche and making some money.
把古怪的哲學家請進企業中並無不當。這樣做將有助於管理層更深入地思考一家企業應如何適當地改善客戶的生活。（幸運地是，）理解客戶心理與賺錢從長遠來看並不衝突。
