2023考研英語閱讀清白先生
Mr Clean
清白先生
Ian King wants to transform the way the world sthird-biggest defence company does business
伊安金想轉變世界第三大軍工公司的經營之道
ON JUNE 27th last year, just six weeks after MikeTurner, the chief executive of BAE Systems, hadbeen detained on arrival in America in connectionwith corruption allegations, Ian King wasannounced as his successor. Mr Turner andanother of the firm s directors were not held for long, and many felt that the Department ofJustice, which seized their laptops and BlackBerrys, had acted heavy-handedly. But theincident, which stemmed from a long-running investigation into claims that BAE hadlubricated the ?43 billion al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabiawith bribes to government officials and members of the royal family, was yet anotherembarrassment for the world s third-biggest defence company.
去年6月27日，就在英國BAE系統公司的首席執行官Mike Turner抵達美國即因牽涉腐敗案件而被拘留之后六周，伊安金被宣布接替他的職務。Turner先生和另一位公司主管并沒有被扣押太久，很多人認為，收繳了他們的手提電腦和黑莓手機的司法部出手過重。但這一事件使這個世界第三大軍工公司又一次陷入尷尬。這一事件源于一個長期調查，旨在證明BAE向沙特阿拉伯的政府官員和皇室成員行賄，以促成430億英鎊的al-Yamamah軍火交易。
In some ways Mr King s appointment was a surprise. Dick Olver, BAE s chairman since 2004,has been on a mission to restore the reputation of a firm that has all too often found itselfat the centre of corruption allegations. In 2007 he took the extraordinary step of asking aformer Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, to lead an independent inquiry into BAE s ethicalstandards. After he pushed Mr Turner into early retirement, it was assumed that Mr Olverwould make a clean break with the past by choosing an outsider to carry forward hiscrusade. Indeed, several Americans were considered for the job . So when Mr King, the only internal candidate, got the nod, somesuspected that the British government had used its golden share to veto the appointment ofa foreigner.
從某些方面來說，金先生的任命出人意料。2004年上任的BAE主席Dick Olver一直都肩負著重塑公司聲譽的使命，這個公司已過多地陷入腐敗案件的中心。2007年他走出了不同尋常的一步，他請來前最高法院首席法官 Woolf閣下展開對BAE道德標準的獨立調查。在他迫使Turner先生提前退休之后，人們認為Olver先生將與過去做出果斷的決裂，選擇一位局外人來推動他的改革運動。的確，曾有幾個美國人被考慮過擔任這項職務。所以，當金先生，這個唯一的國內候選人，獲得首肯的時候，有些人懷疑英國政府投出了它的 金票來否決一個外國人的任命。
BAE executives deny that happened, but the government must have been relieved that thecountry s dominant defence contractor would be run by someone it knew well. Mr Kingbegan his career in 1976 as a trainee accountant with Marconi, a defence-electronicssubsidiary of Arnold Weinstock s GEC, Britain s biggest industrial conglomerate. In the late1990s a wave of consolidation hit the defence industry on both sides of the Atlantic andMarconi Electronic Systems, as it had become, was taken over by British Aerospace to formBAE Systems.
BAE的執行官們否定了這種說法，但英國政府一定為這個國家最重要的軍工商由一個它了解的人來管理而感到放心。金先生于1976年在Marconi擔任會計實習生，從而開始了他的事業，這是Arnold Weinstock建立的英國最大的工業聯合企業GEC的軍防電子子公司。1990年代后期，合并浪潮席卷了大西洋兩岸的軍工業，Marconi成了 Marconi電子系統公司，并被英國航空航天公司兼并，成為BAE系統公司。
John Weston, the abrasive boss of British Aerospace asked Mr King, who had been financedirector at Marconi for several years, to handle strategy for the merged firm. A number ofoperational roles followed, which ultimately left Mr King running most of the business outsideAmerica. Mr King s background at Marconi may well have counted in his favour when it cameto appointing a new chief executive. British Aerospace, which did the first al-Yamamah dealin 1985, had a buccaneering culture very different from that of GEC, where, says Mr King,Lord Weinstock always demanded the highest standards of commercial behaviour.
粗暴的英國航空航天公司老板John Weston要求擔任Marconi財務主管多年的金先生來把握這個合并公司的戰略。后續的幾個運營管理角色接踵而來，最終讓金先生掌握了除美國以外的幾乎所有業務。到了任命新的首席執行官的時候，金先生在Marconi公司工作的背景也為他加分。英國航空航天公司在1985年做成第一單al- Yamamah生意，它海盜般的文化和GEC截然不同，金先生說，在GEC，Weinstock閣下一直都以最高的商業行為標準來要求他們。
After nearly a decade of steadily growing profits and armed with a strong balance-sheet, BAEis in many ways in good shape. But the next few years are likely to be more testing. With theexception of Saudi Arabia, where the firm has recently completed another multi-year deal tosell and maintain fighter aircraft, BAE s major customers are pulling in their horns. Spirallinggovernment debt in America and Britain means that wars of choice are no longeraffordable and the search is on for cuts in big procurement programmes. The reviewrecently undertaken by Robert Gates, America s defence secretary, resulted in thecancellation of part of the Future Combat Systems programme, a big army-modernisationproject for which BAE is a prominent contractor. In Britain, cuts to an already overstretcheddefence budget are only being postponed until after next year s election.
擁有強有力的資產負債表，且保持近十年的利潤穩步增長，從很多方面來說，BAE都狀況良好。但接下來的幾年可能會經受更多考驗。除了沙特阿拉伯BAE剛又跟它簽署了一項多年的銷售和維護戰斗機的協議之外，BAE的其他客戶都在縮減開支。螺旋上升的債務使得美國和英國無力承擔選擇之戰，對于大額采購項目縮減方案的搜索行動也開始啟動。美國國防部長Roberts Gates最近展開的調查，令美國取消了部分未來戰斗系統項目，這個龐大的軍隊現代化項目最主要的承包商就是BAE。在英國，對已經過于鋪張的國防預算的縮減計劃被推遲到明年大選之后。
Mr King appears unfazed. BAE is less dependent on big platform sales than it used to beand now sees itself as a provider of through-life support for complex systems, much likethe aero-engine industry. He also believes that BAE s strength in army equipment,particularly armoured and mine-resistant vehicles, stands it in good stead for what he callsthe current fight in places such as Afghanistan. It is all business as usual for anexperienced operator like Mr King. What is not, however, is the company s effort totransform the way in which it does business. BAE admits to no wrongdoing over al-Yamamah, which was primarily a deal between governments, it says, nor over any of theother deals that are still under scrutiny . But BAE has promisednot just to implement the 23 recommendations made by Lord Woolf in his report, but also toembed his ideas in its culture. To that end, Mr King has embarked on a huge trainingprogramme to inform all 97,000 BAE employees worldwide of their ethical responsibilities.
金先生似乎并不擔心。BAE已不再像過去那樣依賴大的平臺銷售，它現在更將自己看作是復雜系統的終身支持提供商，這很像航空引擎業。他還相信，BAE在軍隊設備方面的強項，尤其是裝甲車和防地雷車，讓它在發生在像阿富汗這樣地方的他稱之為當前戰斗之中，處于有利地位。對于金先生這樣一個經驗豐富的管理者來說，這只是日常生意。而不尋常的，是這個公司轉變經營方式的努力。BAE不承認在al-Yamamah中有任何過錯，他說，這主要是政府之間的生意，它在其他任何仍在接受調查的案件中也沒有過錯。但是，BAE承諾，它不僅將實施Woolf閣下在報告中提出的23項建議，而且還將把他的理念融入公司文化。為了實現這個目的，金先生已經著手開展一個龐大的培訓項目，向全球9萬7千名BAE員工宣講他們的道德責任。
1-800-MORAL-FIBRE
道德品質免費熱線
Mr King says he wants staff to be able to raise ethical issues in the same way they would anengineering problemsomething to be discussed openly. Earlier this year BAE sent a 64-pagecode of conduct to each of its workers, with detailed advice on how to behave in everysituation. With the booklet came a small card, to be carried at all times, with a list of toll-freenumbers for the firm s ethics helpline.
金先生表示，他希望員工能夠提出道德問題，就像他們提出工程技術問題一樣，是可以公開討論的事情。今年早些時候，BAE向它的每個工人發放了一本64頁的行為準則，列明了各種情況下應該如何應對的詳細建議。這個冊子里還夾著一張便于隨時攜帶的小卡片， 上面列有免費電話號碼，可以打給公司的道德幫助熱線。
It is easy to scoff at the idea of an arms firm preaching ethics, particularly one that is stillmaking money from deals concluded before its squeaky-clean rules were put in place. Nor isan industry veteran, such as Mr King, an obvious new broom. But he has all the fervour of atrue convert. You have to believe in it, he says. It s a journey you personally have tomake. Helpfully, a significant part of his own remuneration is, he says, linked to makingBAE a benchmark for responsible behaviour in the industry. Shareholders, he claims, aresupportive. They have accepted that it is better to lose business in some parts of the worldthan to expose BAE to reputational risk. As for the Saudis, Mr King says that they too nowwant to do things differently. And if a rival firm were to offer to do business with them in thetraditional way? Then the Saudis will have to make their choice, he says.
要嘲笑一個軍火商去鼓吹道德是很容易的，尤其是這個公司在實施它一塵不染的規定之前達成的那些交易還在掙錢的時候。一個身經百戰的業內老兵如金先生者也不是一個新官。但他擁有進行真正轉變的所有熱情。你必須相信它，他說，它是一條你必須親自踏上的旅途。有幫助的是，他說，把BAE塑造成業內負責任行為的標桿這一目標將與他自己酬勞的很大一部分相關聯。他表示，股東們很支持。他們情愿接受在世界某地失去業務，也不愿BAE承受聲譽風險。至于沙特人，金先生說，他們現在也想改變行事方法。那么如果一個競爭對手公司提出和他們用傳統的方式做生意呢?那么沙特人就必須做出他們的選擇， 他說。
Mr Clean
清白先生
Ian King wants to transform the way the world sthird-biggest defence company does business
伊安金想轉變世界第三大軍工公司的經營之道
ON JUNE 27th last year, just six weeks after MikeTurner, the chief executive of BAE Systems, hadbeen detained on arrival in America in connectionwith corruption allegations, Ian King wasannounced as his successor. Mr Turner andanother of the firm s directors were not held for long, and many felt that the Department ofJustice, which seized their laptops and BlackBerrys, had acted heavy-handedly. But theincident, which stemmed from a long-running investigation into claims that BAE hadlubricated the ?43 billion al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabiawith bribes to government officials and members of the royal family, was yet anotherembarrassment for the world s third-biggest defence company.
去年6月27日，就在英國BAE系統公司的首席執行官Mike Turner抵達美國即因牽涉腐敗案件而被拘留之后六周，伊安金被宣布接替他的職務。Turner先生和另一位公司主管并沒有被扣押太久，很多人認為，收繳了他們的手提電腦和黑莓手機的司法部出手過重。但這一事件使這個世界第三大軍工公司又一次陷入尷尬。這一事件源于一個長期調查，旨在證明BAE向沙特阿拉伯的政府官員和皇室成員行賄，以促成430億英鎊的al-Yamamah軍火交易。
In some ways Mr King s appointment was a surprise. Dick Olver, BAE s chairman since 2004,has been on a mission to restore the reputation of a firm that has all too often found itselfat the centre of corruption allegations. In 2007 he took the extraordinary step of asking aformer Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, to lead an independent inquiry into BAE s ethicalstandards. After he pushed Mr Turner into early retirement, it was assumed that Mr Olverwould make a clean break with the past by choosing an outsider to carry forward hiscrusade. Indeed, several Americans were considered for the job . So when Mr King, the only internal candidate, got the nod, somesuspected that the British government had used its golden share to veto the appointment ofa foreigner.
從某些方面來說，金先生的任命出人意料。2004年上任的BAE主席Dick Olver一直都肩負著重塑公司聲譽的使命，這個公司已過多地陷入腐敗案件的中心。2007年他走出了不同尋常的一步，他請來前最高法院首席法官 Woolf閣下展開對BAE道德標準的獨立調查。在他迫使Turner先生提前退休之后，人們認為Olver先生將與過去做出果斷的決裂，選擇一位局外人來推動他的改革運動。的確，曾有幾個美國人被考慮過擔任這項職務。所以，當金先生，這個唯一的國內候選人，獲得首肯的時候，有些人懷疑英國政府投出了它的 金票來否決一個外國人的任命。
BAE executives deny that happened, but the government must have been relieved that thecountry s dominant defence contractor would be run by someone it knew well. Mr Kingbegan his career in 1976 as a trainee accountant with Marconi, a defence-electronicssubsidiary of Arnold Weinstock s GEC, Britain s biggest industrial conglomerate. In the late1990s a wave of consolidation hit the defence industry on both sides of the Atlantic andMarconi Electronic Systems, as it had become, was taken over by British Aerospace to formBAE Systems.
BAE的執行官們否定了這種說法，但英國政府一定為這個國家最重要的軍工商由一個它了解的人來管理而感到放心。金先生于1976年在Marconi擔任會計實習生，從而開始了他的事業，這是Arnold Weinstock建立的英國最大的工業聯合企業GEC的軍防電子子公司。1990年代后期，合并浪潮席卷了大西洋兩岸的軍工業，Marconi成了 Marconi電子系統公司，并被英國航空航天公司兼并，成為BAE系統公司。
John Weston, the abrasive boss of British Aerospace asked Mr King, who had been financedirector at Marconi for several years, to handle strategy for the merged firm. A number ofoperational roles followed, which ultimately left Mr King running most of the business outsideAmerica. Mr King s background at Marconi may well have counted in his favour when it cameto appointing a new chief executive. British Aerospace, which did the first al-Yamamah dealin 1985, had a buccaneering culture very different from that of GEC, where, says Mr King,Lord Weinstock always demanded the highest standards of commercial behaviour.
粗暴的英國航空航天公司老板John Weston要求擔任Marconi財務主管多年的金先生來把握這個合并公司的戰略。后續的幾個運營管理角色接踵而來，最終讓金先生掌握了除美國以外的幾乎所有業務。到了任命新的首席執行官的時候，金先生在Marconi公司工作的背景也為他加分。英國航空航天公司在1985年做成第一單al- Yamamah生意，它海盜般的文化和GEC截然不同，金先生說，在GEC，Weinstock閣下一直都以最高的商業行為標準來要求他們。
After nearly a decade of steadily growing profits and armed with a strong balance-sheet, BAEis in many ways in good shape. But the next few years are likely to be more testing. With theexception of Saudi Arabia, where the firm has recently completed another multi-year deal tosell and maintain fighter aircraft, BAE s major customers are pulling in their horns. Spirallinggovernment debt in America and Britain means that wars of choice are no longeraffordable and the search is on for cuts in big procurement programmes. The reviewrecently undertaken by Robert Gates, America s defence secretary, resulted in thecancellation of part of the Future Combat Systems programme, a big army-modernisationproject for which BAE is a prominent contractor. In Britain, cuts to an already overstretcheddefence budget are only being postponed until after next year s election.
擁有強有力的資產負債表，且保持近十年的利潤穩步增長，從很多方面來說，BAE都狀況良好。但接下來的幾年可能會經受更多考驗。除了沙特阿拉伯BAE剛又跟它簽署了一項多年的銷售和維護戰斗機的協議之外，BAE的其他客戶都在縮減開支。螺旋上升的債務使得美國和英國無力承擔選擇之戰，對于大額采購項目縮減方案的搜索行動也開始啟動。美國國防部長Roberts Gates最近展開的調查，令美國取消了部分未來戰斗系統項目，這個龐大的軍隊現代化項目最主要的承包商就是BAE。在英國，對已經過于鋪張的國防預算的縮減計劃被推遲到明年大選之后。
Mr King appears unfazed. BAE is less dependent on big platform sales than it used to beand now sees itself as a provider of through-life support for complex systems, much likethe aero-engine industry. He also believes that BAE s strength in army equipment,particularly armoured and mine-resistant vehicles, stands it in good stead for what he callsthe current fight in places such as Afghanistan. It is all business as usual for anexperienced operator like Mr King. What is not, however, is the company s effort totransform the way in which it does business. BAE admits to no wrongdoing over al-Yamamah, which was primarily a deal between governments, it says, nor over any of theother deals that are still under scrutiny . But BAE has promisednot just to implement the 23 recommendations made by Lord Woolf in his report, but also toembed his ideas in its culture. To that end, Mr King has embarked on a huge trainingprogramme to inform all 97,000 BAE employees worldwide of their ethical responsibilities.
金先生似乎并不擔心。BAE已不再像過去那樣依賴大的平臺銷售，它現在更將自己看作是復雜系統的終身支持提供商，這很像航空引擎業。他還相信，BAE在軍隊設備方面的強項，尤其是裝甲車和防地雷車，讓它在發生在像阿富汗這樣地方的他稱之為當前戰斗之中，處于有利地位。對于金先生這樣一個經驗豐富的管理者來說，這只是日常生意。而不尋常的，是這個公司轉變經營方式的努力。BAE不承認在al-Yamamah中有任何過錯，他說，這主要是政府之間的生意，它在其他任何仍在接受調查的案件中也沒有過錯。但是，BAE承諾，它不僅將實施Woolf閣下在報告中提出的23項建議，而且還將把他的理念融入公司文化。為了實現這個目的，金先生已經著手開展一個龐大的培訓項目，向全球9萬7千名BAE員工宣講他們的道德責任。
1-800-MORAL-FIBRE
道德品質免費熱線
Mr King says he wants staff to be able to raise ethical issues in the same way they would anengineering problemsomething to be discussed openly. Earlier this year BAE sent a 64-pagecode of conduct to each of its workers, with detailed advice on how to behave in everysituation. With the booklet came a small card, to be carried at all times, with a list of toll-freenumbers for the firm s ethics helpline.
金先生表示，他希望員工能夠提出道德問題，就像他們提出工程技術問題一樣，是可以公開討論的事情。今年早些時候，BAE向它的每個工人發放了一本64頁的行為準則，列明了各種情況下應該如何應對的詳細建議。這個冊子里還夾著一張便于隨時攜帶的小卡片， 上面列有免費電話號碼，可以打給公司的道德幫助熱線。
It is easy to scoff at the idea of an arms firm preaching ethics, particularly one that is stillmaking money from deals concluded before its squeaky-clean rules were put in place. Nor isan industry veteran, such as Mr King, an obvious new broom. But he has all the fervour of atrue convert. You have to believe in it, he says. It s a journey you personally have tomake. Helpfully, a significant part of his own remuneration is, he says, linked to makingBAE a benchmark for responsible behaviour in the industry. Shareholders, he claims, aresupportive. They have accepted that it is better to lose business in some parts of the worldthan to expose BAE to reputational risk. As for the Saudis, Mr King says that they too nowwant to do things differently. And if a rival firm were to offer to do business with them in thetraditional way? Then the Saudis will have to make their choice, he says.
要嘲笑一個軍火商去鼓吹道德是很容易的，尤其是這個公司在實施它一塵不染的規定之前達成的那些交易還在掙錢的時候。一個身經百戰的業內老兵如金先生者也不是一個新官。但他擁有進行真正轉變的所有熱情。你必須相信它，他說，它是一條你必須親自踏上的旅途。有幫助的是，他說，把BAE塑造成業內負責任行為的標桿這一目標將與他自己酬勞的很大一部分相關聯。他表示，股東們很支持。他們情愿接受在世界某地失去業務，也不愿BAE承受聲譽風險。至于沙特人，金先生說，他們現在也想改變行事方法。那么如果一個競爭對手公司提出和他們用傳統的方式做生意呢?那么沙特人就必須做出他們的選擇， 他說。
