首页 -> 2007年第3期

并非真的需要

作者：尹玉生／译

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　　其实爱美的人，只是与自己谈恋爱罢了。
　　不论多高大的伟人，他的背影里都缺少光明。
　　里卡多·塞姆勒是巴西著名企业家和畅销企管书作家。在他的著作《标新立异的人》一书中，塞姆勒讲述了他在塞氏企业集团管理实践中总结出来的一条经验：
　　我们专门召开了一次会议，会议的主题是：究竟应不应该购买总金额达到5万美元的一批文件柜。在此之前，已经有多个部门屡次提出了购买文件柜的申请。他们在焦急中等待了几个月，但一直没能得到满足。他们将希望寄托在这次会议上。
　　然而，会议的最终决定使得他们的愿望彻底化成了泡影。会议决定：一个文件柜也不买。取而代之的是，公司停止运营半天，开始了首度一年两次的清理工作，要求将所有的文件柜进行彻底的清理和归拢。我们对各部门的要求很简单：检查每一份文件夹，对于过期的、没用的文档，哪怕仅仅是一张小纸片，也要坚决清理掉。
　　我是整个集团中拥有文件柜最多的人之一，我拥有四个大型的文件柜，还向有关部门提交了再增加两个大型文件柜的申请。在清理过程中，我惊讶地发现，我居然完全腾空了一个文件柜！其他人的情况也是如此。最后整个集团居然腾出了数十个文件柜，我们全部拍卖掉了这些多余的文件柜。在此后的很长时间里，再也没有一个部门和个人提出购买文件柜的申请。
　　这件事情，让我认识到，有时候，我们迫切想要的东西，其实并非我们真正需要的东西。因此，我们必须要将需要和想要区分开来。
　　（王宝华摘 图/李卫）
　　Ricardo Semler is the famous writer and enterpriser in Brazil.In his book “Maverick”, Ricardo Semler tells of a lesson he learned working at Semco:
　　“We were in yet another meeting... when we came to the purchase of $50,000 worth of file cabinets. Several departments had been waiting months for the cabinets and in desperation had decided to pool their Requests. They hoped the meeting can meet their needs.
　　“However, they were disappointed. We didn't buy a single new file cabinet that day. Instead, we decided to stop the company for half a day and hold the First Biannual Semco File Inspection and Clean-out. Our instructions were simple: We told everyone to look inside every overdue or trashy file folder and purge every nonessential piece of paper.
　　“I was one of Semco's biggest file hogs, with four large cabinets and a request for two more. After our cleanup, I trimmed down to a single cabinet, and that was pretty much how it went throughout the company.The cleanup went so well that when everyone had finished, Semco auctioned off dozens of unneeded file cabinets. A long time after this clean-out, no department or no one had ever requested for cabinets again.
　　 “I know from this experience that sometimes what we think we need isn't what we really need. So, we should learn to distinguish between needs and wants.”