Bartleby
巴托比
Who is the most important person in your company?
谁是你公司里最重要的人？
Just thinking about this question can be a useful exercise
只是想想这个问题就是一次有益的训练
Questions are usually more interesting than answers. If you had to identify the most important person in your organisation, there is an obvious answer, a trite-and-untrue answer and a wrong-but-useful answer.
问题通常比答案更有趣。如果要问你公司里谁最重要，会有一个显而易见的答案、一个老套且不真实的答案，和一个是错误但有用的答案。
- trite （言语、想法等）老生常谈的；陈腐的；老一套的（拓展学习：小词详解 | trite）
- untrue 不真实的、假的、无事实根据的；不忠实的、不忠诚的
The obvious answer is “the chief executive”. No cheese is bigger, no dog is more top. The most important decisions about the long-term direction of a company lie with the CEO; the hardest calls land on their desk; and the biggest pay cheques head their way. A board of directors might control their fate but no one wields more power. That is especially true of a startup: up to a certain point in its history, founders are the company.
显而易见的答案是“首席执行官”。这个头衔到顶了，公司里没有比这号人物更大的领导了。事关公司长期发展方向的最重要决策要由他们做出，最艰难的抉择摆在他们的案头，最高的薪水也是发到他们手里。董事会可能掌控着他们的命运，但没有人比他们的权力更大。对于创业公司来说尤其如此：在一家公司的前期阶段，创始人就是公司。
- a big cheese 大人物、要员
- top dog （尤指竞争中的）夺魁者、优胜者 （拓展学习：熟词僻义 | dog 能带来怎样的困扰？）
- 拓展学习：熟词僻义 | land 是落入什么样的境地？
- 拓展学习：熟词僻义 | founder 有风险，创业需谨慎
The trite answer to the same question is “the customer”. This is the kind of thing someone delivering a TED talk would say, after a suitably meaningful pause. It is the kind of thing that people in the audience would nod wisely at. An analysis of earnings-call transcripts of S&P 500 firms by Nandil Bhatia and Stephan Meier of Columbia Business School finds that executives talk about customers ten times more than they do about employees.
同样是这个问题，老套的回答是“客户”。TED演讲者会在一个恰到好处的、意味深长的停顿后吐出这个词。观众也会会意地点点头。哥伦比亚商学院的南迪尔·巴蒂亚（Nandil Bhatia） 和史蒂芬·迈耶（Stephan Meier）分析了标准普尔500成分股公司的财报电话会议记录，发现高管们谈及客户的次数是谈及员工的十倍。
