2023年12月1日发(作者：十五号飞船)

Lesson ten

How Market Leaders Keep their Edge

by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema

课文翻译 (Translation of the text)

领先市场的公司怎样保持竞争优势

We have identified three distinct value disciplines , so called because each

discipline produces a different kind of customer value .

我们归纳三种不同的价值类型，这么说是因为每种类型都提供一种不同的顾客价值观。

Choosing one discipline to master does not mean that a company abandons (放

棄)the other two , only that it picks a dimension of value(價值類型) on which to

stake its market reputation (声誉)over the long term .

选择一种价值类型去做并不意味着一家公司放弃了另外两种，这只意味着它选择了价值观的

一个方面，并以此建立自己长期的市场声誉。

The first value discipline we call operational excellence

第一种价值类型我们称之为运作卓越型。

Companies that pursue (追求)this are not primarily product or service

innovators(革新者), nor do they cultivate (培養)deep , one –to-one relationships

with customers .

追求这种价值的公司既不是产品和服务的革新者，也不培养和顾客一对一的密切关系。

Instead , operationally excellent companies provide middle-of –the-market

products at the best price with the least inconvenience(麻煩) . Their

proposition(主張) to customers is simple : low price or hassle –free (無麻煩

的)service , or both .

运作卓越型的公司以最优惠的价格、最大的便利给顾客提供中档产品。他们为顾客服务的宗

旨很简单：低价位或无麻烦的服务，或两者兼而有之。

The second value discipline we call product leadership .

第二种价值类型我们称之为产品领先型。

Its practitioners concentrate on offering products that push performance

boundaries

产品领先型公司倾全力提供性能最好的产品。

Their proposition to customers is an offer of the best product , period .

他们为顾客服务的宗旨是：提供最好的产品。

Moreover , product leaders do not build their positions with just one innovation

technology on the market .

“耐克”这个品牌的优越价值不仅仅体现在运动鞋袜上，而且体现在顾客从这个品牌中得到的

舒适感上。 顾客知道他们从“耐克”买的任何产品都代表市场上最抢手的款式和技术。

For these product leaders , competition is not about price or customer service

( though those can’t be ignored ) , it’s about product performance(性能) .

对于这些产品领先者来说，他们要竞争的不是产品价格或对顾客的服务（虽然这两条不能忽

视），而是产品的性能。

The third value discipline we have named customer intimacy(親密的).

第三种价值类型我们称之为亲密顾客型。

Its adherents (信念)focus on delivering not what the market wants but what

specific customers want .

这类公司着重提供的不是市场的需求，而是特定顾客群体需求。

Customer-intimate companies do not pursue one-time transactions(交易) ; they

cultivate relationships .

与顾客关系密切的公司追求的不是一次性的交易， 他们培养与顾客之间的关系。

They specialize in satisfying unique needs , which often only they recognize ,

through a close relationship with ---and intimate knowledge of ----the

customer .

他们满足顾客的特殊需求，而这些需求，只有靠他们和顾客建立密切关系，深入了解才能获

知。

Their proposition (宗旨)to the customer: We have the best solution for you , and

we provide all the support you need to achieve optimum(最適宜的) results , or

value , or both , from whatever products you buy .

他们为顾客服务的宗旨是：我们为你提供最佳解决办法，提供你所需的一切支持以达到你所

购买的任何产品的最佳效果或价值，或两者兼顾。

Long distance telephone carrier Cable& Wireless , , for example , practices

customer intimacy with a vengeance(極度) , achieving success in a highly

competitive market by consistently going the extra mile (額外的服務)for its

selectively chosen , small-business customers .

比如，长途电话公司Cable & Wireless彻底实行密切联系顾客的策略，通过始终如一地设

法为它所选定的生意规模小的客户提供额外 服务，从而在激烈竞争的市场中获得成功。

Winning through Cost

以价格取胜

Operationally excellent companies deliver a combination of quality , price , and

ease of purchase(購買便利) that no one else in their market can match .

他们不是产品或服务的革新者，也不发展与顾客一对一的密切关系。

They execute extraordinarily(額外) well , and their proposition to customers is

guaranteed（確保） low price or hassle –free(無麻煩) service , or both .

他们把公司经营得非常出色，他们对顾客的服务宗旨是确保低价位，或无麻烦的服务，或两

者兼有。

Price/Costco, the chain of warehouse club stores仓储式连锁商店，, doesn’t

provide a particularly rich selection of merchandise(商品)----only 3,500 items ,

vs. 50,000 or more in competing stores .

普莱斯／考斯托克是家仓储式连锁商店，它并不提 供有极大挑选余地的商品。同与之竞争

的商店中 5万种，或更多种的商品相比，它只提供3500种。

But as a customer, you don’t have to spend much time deliberating over（考慮）

what brand （商標）of coffee or home appliance to select .

但作为一名顾客，你没必要花太多的时间考虑选择哪种品牌的咖啡或家庭用具。

Price/Costco saves you that hassle by choosing for you .

普莱斯／考斯托克公司帮你做出选择从而省去你的麻烦。

Then company’s Consumer Reports mentality leads to rigorous(精確的)

evaluation of leading brands and shrewd (精明地)purchasing of just the one

brand in each category that represents the best value .

公司的“消费者反馈报告”对主要品牌做出精确的评估，使公司精明地购买每种商品

中代表最优价值的品牌。

To add excitement(刺激) to the shopping experience ----that is , to get the

customer to come again and again ----new items are constantly sprinkled into

the assortment(分類) to build anticipation(期望值) and a value-of-the –week

atmosphere .

为了增加顾客购物的兴奋感，也就是说为了让顾客经常光顾，商店不断地在已有的各式货品

中添加新品种来增加顾客的期望值，而且还营造了购买本周最有价值商品的氛围。

Behind the scenes (暗地裡), Price/ Costco follows an operating model in which it

buys larger quantities and negotiates better prices than competing stores .

普莱斯／考斯托克公司暗地里实施一种操作模式。 它大量进货，从而获得比

竞争对手更低的价格。

It carries only items that sell well . The company ‘s information systems track

product movement ---and move it does .

它只进好卖的商品。公司的信息系统跟踪记载商品的销售情况——这些商品确实流动。

These data drive stocking decisions that optimize優化 floor space usage .

这些数据引导进货决策，以便使地面空间的利用最优化。

The place hums .It runs like a well-oiled machine , and customers love it .

Winning with Great Products

以优质产品取胜

Companies pursuing product leadership continually push products into the

realm (領域)of the unknown , the untried , or the highly desirable (極且吸引力).

追求产品先领先地位的公司不断努力生产出别人未知的，未尝试过的，或极

具吸引人的产品。

Reaching that goal requires that they challenge themselves in three ways .

要想达到这个目标要求，他们必须在三个方面挑战自我。

First , they must be creative . More than anything else , being creative means

recognizing and embracing ideas that may originate anywhere ----inside the

company or out .

首先， 他们必须富有创造性。富有创造性最主要的是能认别并容纳来源不同的主意，无论

leapfrog （躍過）their own latest product or service .

第三点也是最重要的一点，他们必须坚持不懈地寻找超越自己最新产品和服务的途径。

If anyone is going to render their technology obsolete , 使他们的技术过时,they

prefer to do it themselves .

如果有人要使他们的技术过时，他们宁愿自己来做。

Product leaders do not stop for self-congratulation . They are too busy raising

the bar .

产品领先型公司不会满足于已取得的成绩，他们忙于追求更高的目标。

Johnson & Johnson meets all three of these challenges . It brings in new ideas ,

develops them quickly , and then looks for ways to improve them .

强生公司迎接所有这三种挑战。它引进新点子，迅速使其得以发展，再寻找

He got his tip by telephone from a J&J’s employee who worked for Janssen

Pharmaceutical (制藥公司), a Belgian drug subsidiary .

他是从强生公司的一位雇员的电话中得知这件事的。而这位雇员所工作的琼森制药公司是强

生公司在比利时的一家子公司。

Instead of dismissing the ophthalmologist as a mere thinkerer, these two

executives speedily bought the rights to the technology , assembled a

management team to oversee development , and built a state-of-the –art facility

in Florida to manufacture disposable contact lenses called Acuvue .

这两位负责人没有把这位眼科医生当成门外汉而拒绝考虑他的想法。相反，迅速买下技术专

利，调集了一支管理队伍监督进展状况，还在佛罗里达州建造了最先进的设备生产叫做

Acuvue的隐形眼镜。

By the summer of 1987 , Acuvue was ready for test-marketing .

到1987年的夏天，Acuvue准备试销。`

In less than a year , Vistakon rolled out the product across the U.S. with a high

–visibility and campaign .

在不到一年的时间里，卫康公司以显见 的广告运动在全美推广其产品。

Vistakon ---and its parent , J& J ---were willing to incur high manufacturing and

inventory costs before a single lens was sold .

head start over would –be rivals .

卫康公司的高速生产设备有助于强生公司领先于它的未来竞争对手六个月的时间。

Caught off guard , the competition never caught up .

其竞争对手在未加提防情况下遭受重击，因而永远无法赶超。

J&J, like other product leaders , works hard at developing open-mindedness to

new ideas .

和其他产品领先公司一样，强生公司努力虚心接受新的观点，

其他公司看作是市场计划中的小缺陷或对产品种类构成威胁的地方， 产品领先型公司看到

的则是机遇并迅速利用。

Companies excelling in product leadership do not plan for every possible

contingency , nor do they spend much time on detailed analysis .

以产品领先而著称的公司不为每一个可能发生的意外事件做计划，也不花太

多的时间做详细的分析。`

Their strength lies in reacting to situations as they occur . Fast reaction times

are an advantage when dealing with the unknown .

environment that they have created .

产品领先公司对保护他们所建造的企业环境拥有既得的利益。

To that end , they hire , recruit , and train employees in their own mold .

为了达到那个目的，他们以自己的模式雇用、招收、培训员工。

When it is time for Vistakon to hire new salespeople , for example , its managers

do not look for people experienced in selling contact lenses ; they look for

people who will fit in with j&J ‘s culture .

比如说，当卫康公司要聘用新销售员时，其经理所要聘用的不是有销售隐形眼镜经验的人，

而是将能适应强生公司文化的人。

That means their first question isn’t about a candidate’s related experience ; it’s

more likely to be , “ Could you work cooperatively in teams ?” or “ How open are

you to criticism ?”也就是说，他们所问的第一个问题不是关于应聘者的相关经验，

而很可能是：“你能与团队合作工作吗？”或者是“你能怎样虚心接受批评？”

Product leaders are their own fiercest competitors .

产品领先公司最激烈的竞争对手就是自己。

They no sooner cross a frontier than they are scouting the next .

他们刚刚跨越一个新领域就开始 探索下一个更新的领域。

They must be adept at rendering obsolete the products and services they have

created ,

他们必须善于使自己的产品和服务淘汰。

They realize that if they don’t develop a successor , another company will .

他们知道如果自己不开发更新换代的产品，其他公司也会这样做的

J& J , Nike , and other innovators are willing to take the long view of

profitability ,

一个通过与顾客建立密切关系而实现其价值的公司与顾客建立友邻一样的联 系。

Customer-intimate companies don’t deliver what the market wants but what a

specific customer wants .

顾客亲密型公司并不提供市场所需的，而是提供某特定的顾客所需的东西。

The customer-intimate company makes a business of knowing the people it sells

to and the products and services they need .

顾客亲密型公司认为了解其顾客以及顾客所需的产品和服务至关重要。

It continually tailors its products and services and does so at reasonable prices .

它不断地使其产品和服务迎合顾客要求，而且价格合理。

Its proposition is : “ We get you the best total solution .

它的服务宗旨是：“我们使你得到最佳解决方案。”

“ The customer –intimate company’s greatest asset is its customers’ loyalty .

顾客亲密型公司的最大的资产是其顾客对它的忠诚。

Customers don’t have to be resold through expensive advertising and

relationships .

他们追求的不是交易，而是培养与客户之间的关系。

They are adept at giving the customer more than he or she expects .

他们善于向顾客提供超出顾客自己所期望的东西。

By constantly upgrading offerings , customer-intimate companies stay ahead of

customers’ rising expectations

通过不断地提高其供应物品的质量，顾客亲密型公司总是超出顾客不断提高的期望值，

It is a subsidiary of Britain’s Cable& Wireless , and focused principally on

business clients .

作为英国Cable & Wireless公司的子公司，它重点发展与商业 客户的关系。

The company attributes its 20% annual growth rate in number of long-distance

customer minutes to its striving continuously to serve customers better than

bigger competitors .

公司把每年增长20％的长途话时，归因于自己比其他强大竞争对手 更加不懈地努力为顾客

服务。

Company executives knew long ago that their long-distance operation couldn’t

compete on price with the Big Three , At&T, MCI, and Sprint .

公司的董事们很久以前就知道他们的长途业务在价格上无法同AT&T、 MCI和

斯普林特三大公司抗衡。`

So they sought to differentiate themselves by providing the best customer

support in the industry , along with direct sales consultation that gives

salespeople intimate knowledge of what makes its customers successful .

所以他们向客户提供这一行业中最好的支持，并通过直接销售咨询，为销售人员提供能使顾

客获得成功的个人信息，这使他们与其他公司不同。

The result is that Cable &Wireless has turned itself from a mundane commodity

business (普通的)peddling long-distance service into a sophisticated

telemanager(老練的電信公司) a partner with its customers .

结果是Cable & Wireless通讯公司，这个曾经是小规模经营长途电话业

务的普通企业，发展成了一个老练的电信公司，一个与顾客合作的伙伴。

Cable& Wireless pins its success on choosing the customers it can serve best

---small to medium-size business with monthly billing of $500 to $15,000.

Cable & Wireless公司的成功归因于它选择了自己能够提供最佳服务的客户 群体——每

月电信费为500至15,000美元的中小型企业。

In such small businesses , Cable&Wireless ‘s 500U.S. salespeople , working out

of 36 regional offices , can act like telecommunications managers .

Cable & Wireless公司在36个地区办事处的500名美国销售员可以充当电信经理。

Corporations too small to hire their own telecom gurus(權威) value the advice

and expertise Cable & Wireless people can offer .

规模小的公司不足以雇用自己的电信权威，他们看着Cable & Wireless公司提

供的建议和专业知识。

The Key is to segment the market vertically . This enables the company to pitch

specific customers with specialized services that no other company can begin to

provide .

垂直分割市场至关重要。这样做可以使公司选定特定的客户群并提供给他们

其他公司无法提供的特殊服务

Example: One customer segment is the legal profession .

比如： 一个划分的客户群体是法律专业人士。

cable& Wireless is developing features and function that have tremendous

appeal to lawyers .

Cable & Wireless公司研究开发出对律师们有极大吸引力的具有独特功能的特色

服务。

Next Cable &Wireless fine-tunes(微調)its services to each customer.

其次，Cable & Wireless公司对每个顾客的服务进行微调。

The company wants customers to feel they’re getting the support of not just the

sales force but of the entire company .

公司要顾客感到 他们得到的支持不仅来自公司的销售人员而且来自整个公司

Top management empowers all employees who work with customers to make

sophisticated decisions .

高级管理层授权所 有与顾客打交道的员工以做出老练的决定。

现在50名地方经理手中都握着定价权`

The same thing goes for promotional(產品宣傳), advertising , and trade-show (展

銷會)money .

同样， 地方经理还有权调拨宣传产品费用、广告费以及展销会的费用。

Local managers allocate it as they see fit , preparing budgets and sending them

up the corporate ladder to keep supervisors informed .

地方经理把钱用在他们认为合适的地方，准备经费预算，并把一切开销通报上级主管部门。

All these practices help Cable & Wireless people build tight relationships with

customers .

所有这些措施帮助Cable & Wireless公司全体员工和顾客建立了密切关系，

The result is extremely high customer-retention rates : Cable & Wireless loses

only 2% of long-distance minutes billed each month , vs. an industry standard

of 3% to 5%.

其结果是极高的顾客回头率。Cable & Wireless公司每月只损失 2％长途话费，

而行业标准是3％至5％。

Despite the specialization required of market leaders , we regularly come across

managers who don’t buy the idea of having to narrow their operational focus .

“ What you’re saying about making hard choices doesn’t apply to us , “ They

say . “ We’re good at all three disciplines . “

尽管市场领先公司需要专门化经营，我们常遇上一些公司经理，他们不接受

必须缩小公司经营重点的观点。他们说：“你所说的要做出艰难的选择对于我们

不适用，我们对这三种类型都很擅长。”

Yet when we look at these managers’ businesses , we invariably find companies

that don’t excel but are merely mediocre in the three disciplines .

然而当我们观察这些经理的企业时，总是发现他们在这三方面做得并不出色，

只是一般化而已。

Sure , as the ante has risen in their markets , they’ve improved their cost

structure and become more aware of their customers .

无疑，随着市场风险越来越大，他们改进了成本结构，越来越 重视顾客，

They’ve added new products and line extensions over the years .

这些年来也增添了新产品，扩大了生产线。

They’ve kept up with rising parity levels to stay in the game .

为了不被竞争出局，他们 也保持商品趋于价格

但他们没能做到的是在任何一方面有所突破而达到新的高 度

They have not traveled past competence to reach excellence .

他们没能发挥过去的能力以达到优异的程度

To these managers we say that if you decide to play an average game , to dabble

in all areas , don’t expect to become a market leader .

。对于这些企业经理我们要说， 如果你决定玩一场平庸的游戏