邁克爾·布隆伯格重掌彭博

For those who know former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, it’s hard to view his move to reclaim the reins of his business empire, publicly unveiled late yesterday, as anything but inevitable.

最近，紐約前任市長邁克爾o布隆伯格對外宣稱將重掌其商業帝國。對於瞭解布隆伯格的人來說，他的迴歸是必然的。

Even when he had a big city to run, the billionaire remained intimately involved in the affairs of his privately owned data-and-media powerhouse, as Fortune’scoverage of Bloomberg LP last year made clear.

《財富》（Fortune）雜誌去年對彭博（Bloomberg LP）公司的報道明確顯示，即便他在擔任紐約市市長時，這位億萬富翁也一直在密切地參與管理彭博的各種事務。彭博是布隆伯格私人持有的數據與新聞媒體集團。

On several occasions, the then-mayor showed up at Bloomberg headquarters after hours for business meetings—including a presentation on a redesign of Bloomberg’s website held during a blizzard. He monitored the company from his Bloomberg terminal at City Hall. And he received weekly briefings from Dan Doctoroff, his handpicked CEO.

在多個場合中，時任紐約市長的布隆伯格會在下班後出現在彭博公司總部，參加公司的業務會議，其中包括彭博網站新設計展示的會議，而且當時正值暴風雪天氣。他還從位於紐約市政大樓的彭博終端跟進公司事務。布隆伯格欽點的首席執行官董德融每週都會向他彙報公司情況。

So despite years of public declarations by both Bloomberg and Doctoroff that it would never happen, it hardly comes as a shock that Mike (as he is known at Bloomberg LP) is reassuming command of his business at the end of 2014, just under a year after leaving office. His previous plan had been to devote the majority of his time to his extensive philanthropic activities.

因此，儘管布隆伯格和董德融多年來一直對外宣稱布隆伯格不會重回公司，但當布隆伯格（彭博員工親切地稱他爲邁克）將於2014年年底重掌公司的消息傳出時，外界對此並不感到驚訝，而這離他離任市長一職還不到一年。他此前的計劃是將大部分時間用於開展廣泛的慈善事業。

The odd man out, of course, is Doctoroff, 56, the former deputy mayor who has been running Bloomberg LP since 2008. That wasn’t an easy task. Even while Mike—who owns more than 80% of the business—was at City Hall, he loomed over everything at Bloomberg LP. “People live there in the shadow of Mike,” former HR chief Melinda Wolfe told Fortune last year. “There’s a constant questioning: What would Mike do?”

56歲的董德融便理所當然地成爲了出局之人，這位前任紐約副市長自2008年便一直掌管彭博。這並不是件容易的事。即便在擔任市長期間，布隆伯格（持有彭博超過80%的股份）一直在彭博幕後關注着公司的大小事務。彭博前任人力資源總監梅琳達o伍爾夫去年對《財富》雜誌稱：“員工時刻能感受到布隆伯格在公司的影子。遇到問題時，人們總是會問：要是邁克會怎麼做？”

That reality—along with the presence of powerful sacred cows inside the company, such as news chief Matt Winkler and terminal boss Tom Secunda—created a management nightmare for Doctoroff. He labored to change Bloomberg’s eccentric, Mike-shaped culture, starting new businesses and reining in costs in the face of changing times and slowing terminal sales.

此外，公司還有大佬級人物的存在，例如新聞業務負責人馬特o溫科勒和終端業務掌門湯姆o瑟昆達。這一切對董德融而言無異於一場管理噩夢。董德融一直在努力地改變彭博古怪的、由布隆伯格建立起來的企業文化，並在時代不斷變化和終端業務銷售放緩的情況下創建新業務、控制成本。

Bloomberg remains highly profitable and kept growing, with revenues expected to reach $9 billion for 2014. But with Mike back on the premises—and constitutionally unable to play the role of second banana—the situation quickly became untenable.

彭博的盈利能力依然強勁，而且處於上升狀態，其2014年營收有望達到90億美元。但是隨着布隆伯格的迴歸，並且鑑於他不可能在公司裏屈居他人之下，這一局面很快發生了變化。

“Mike is kind of like God at the company,” Doctoroff explained on Wednesday, sitting with Bloomberg at a New York coffee shop, to Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times. “He created the universe. He issued the Ten Commandments and then he disappeared. And then he came back. You have to understand that when God comes back, things are going to be different. When God reappeared, people defer.” (Through a spokesman, Bloomberg and Doctoroff both declined interviews.)

最近，董德融在紐約一間咖啡館（在座的還有布隆伯格）向《紐約時報》（New York Times）記者安德魯o羅斯o索金解釋道：“邁克在公司就像上帝一樣。他創建了宇宙，發佈了十誡，然後消失了。現在又回來了。人們有必要意識到，一旦上帝迴歸，事情就會發生變化。當上帝重新出現時，人們就會變得言聽計從。”（布隆伯格和董德融通過發言人拒絕了《財富》雜誌的採訪。）

So what does this reappearance mean for the business—and the world?

因此布隆伯格重返彭博對於該公司和世界意味着什麼呢？

Bloomberg LP’s lavish profits are driven by subscriptions to its financial-data terminals—the count is now 321,000—which cost $21,000 a year apiece. But its operations also include a huge news service, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and a TV financial-news operation—all big money-losers.

彭博豐厚的利潤得益於其金融數據終端業務。該業務的用戶數量目前達到了32.1萬，每位用戶年費爲2.1萬美元。彭博的業務還包括一個龐大的新聞服務部門、彭博《商業週刊》（BusinessWeek）以及電視金融新聞業務，但這些業務都處於嚴重虧損中。

Doctoroff had moved to diversify the company, starting new businesses and installing traditional corporate management systems and controls. Yesterday, Bloomberg told the Times he didn’t expect to shift direction. “The plan that we have is the plan we should execute,” he said.

董德融此前實施了業務多元化戰略，創辦了新的業務並推行了傳統的企業管理制度和管控。昨天，布隆伯格對《紐約時報》表示，他並不打算改變這一發展方向。他說：“我們現有的計劃就是我們應該執行的計劃。”

But it’s hard to imagine that the new boss (same as the old boss) reclaimed his post simply to stay the course. In his previous incarnation as CEO, Bloomberg focused almost single-mindedly on increasing the number of terminals sold, trusted his gut, hated meetings, never laid anyone off, and didn’t worry about spending.

但是人們很難想象新掌門（與他自己之前擔任該職務時一樣）在接任後會純粹地沿着這條道路繼續走下去。在他此前擔任首席執行官時，布隆伯格幾乎只專注於提升終端銷售業績，憑直覺做事，討厭會議，從來不裁員而且對於開支也不在乎。

Mike, who now occupies a fifth-floor desk at the company’s lavish Lexington Avenue headquarters, has returned to a business three times the size of the one he last ran in 2001, with 16,000 employees. It’s hard to manage exactly the same way, and Bloomberg faces fresh challenges to its lucrative terminal franchise.

布隆伯格目前的辦公室位於公司來剋星頓大街豪華總部的五樓。他迴歸後所掌管的業務是其在2001年卸任時公司規模的3倍，並擁有1.6萬名員工。用同樣的方式進行管理是很困難的，而且布隆伯格在其利潤豐厚的終端業務方面也面臨着新挑戰。

But, at 72, his management approach—and passions—seem unlikely to change. As mayor, he launched a string of crusades. Upon leaving office, he declared his intention to focus on philanthropy—Forbes places his wealth at $33 billion—as a way to continue his public-policy activism, which includes supporting gun-control and anti-smoking efforts.

然而，儘管已是72歲高齡，但他的管理方式和熱情似乎不大可能會發生變化。在擔任紐約市長的時候，他曾推出了一系列改革舉措。在離任市長職務時，他宣佈打算把主要精力放在慈善事業上（《福布斯》雜誌估計他擁有330億美元的資產），作爲延續其公共政策行動主義的一種方式，其中包括支持槍支管制和反對吸菸的努力。

Now that he’s again running Bloomberg LP, with an array of powerful platforms at his disposal, expect Mike Bloomberg to remain an unconventional CEO, focused far more on amplifying his voice and boosting his influence than on the mundane business of making money.

既然他已重新執掌彭博公司，而且擁有一系列強大的平臺供其支配，人們預計邁克爾o布隆伯格仍將是一位不同尋常的首席執行官。對於他來說，壯大聲勢和提升影響力也許遠比賺錢這種世俗的事重要得多。