全球各地有许多企业总想模仿苹果公司(Apple Inc.)──这家全球最成功的消费电子产品巨擘。但他们最后很可能会失败。为了效法已故的苹果公司共同创办人乔布斯(Steve Jobs)，有数以千计的CEO与其它高阶主管们都在读──或者已经读过──Walter Isaacson的《乔布斯传》。但他们也可能会失败。没有一家公司会像苹果一样，也不会再有像乔布斯一样的CEO了。
根据 McKinsey & Co.发表一篇名为《最佳实践的风险：你想模仿苹果公司吗？》(The Perils of Best Practice: Should You Emulate Apple?)的分析报告指出，尽管可能对于公司业务带来惨痛的代价，也无法阻挡那些想要成为苹果与乔布斯的崇拜者们不断地尝试、失败、再尝试。这份报告的作者们认为，苹果公司压倒性的成功及在该领域持续主导的地位已经导致业界一种盲目的崇拜，使得许多竞争对手以及在其它经济产业的公司们争相追逐一种成为 市场主导的乌托邦世界，甚至使自己逐渐脱离原有的产业现实。作者更进一步指出：
“经理人们积极地想从实际上是一家如此卓越的公司中归纳出普世观点，而将自己公司的业务置于策略或营运错误的风险中。然而，就算不断地面对大部份公司都无法达到预期结果的事实，甚至有些公司还付出惨痛的代价，但这种想要模仿的欲望仍比其理智更强烈。例如，寻求策略与步骤一致的标准可能导致‘羊群效应’，随着时间的推移，使模仿的厂商利润逐渐减少。”
虽然McKinsey公司的分析报告以苹果公司作为企业最想模仿的完美案例，但其前提实际在于强调最佳实践的概念，以及企业、研究人员和顾问如何提升管理作业臻于至善。透过学习和寻求复制他人(或公司)的经历，可能让公司高阶主管避开一些陷阱，从而建立成功的企业。不过，这种想法忽略了一个重要的前提──就 算经营着同样的业务领域，能为一家公司及其主管带来成功的模式，并不见得适用于其它人或企业。
“无论是开发新产品或执行高效率的供应链， 经验证有效的策略似乎常常都得从头开始，”McKinsey的报告强调，“不过，将真正卓越的公司成功经验转化为更普遍的案例时，处处都充满着危机。观察家和管理学家们常受到明星企业的光环所蒙蔽，经常在未深入探究其取得成功的时空背景或分析其成就的真正本质前，就先将这些公司所做的一切都视为最佳实践。”
本文授权编译自EBN Online，版权所有，谢绝转载
本文下一页：苹果的成功无法复制
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当然，谁都想象苹果和乔布斯一样的成功。但先看看这家公司最近的财报数字本身就已经相当不凡了。截至今年九月，该公司的营收将从2011年时的1,080亿美元成长至2012年预估约有1,560亿美元，比两年前的650亿美元增加一倍以上。净利也将从2011年的每股27.68美元大幅成长到2012年约44.27美元。苹果堪称为世界上最赚钱的公司。这也反映在该公司目前6,580亿美元的市值，比任何一家公开上市 的企业更多，也比Google (2,380亿美元)、微软(2,600亿美元)、HP ($360亿美元)、思科($1,010亿美元)和戴尔($180亿美元)等公司全部的资本加总起来更多。
为什么其它企业不 能模仿这样一家成功的模范公司，在自己的领域同样达到登峰造极呢？对此，我有两个答案。首先，尽管在乔布斯一年多前去世后，坊间有40几种书籍以及无数的文章记载该公司的一切，但很少有人真正知道苹果成功背后的秘密武器。其次，就算真的取得了苹果如何成功的秘诀，也无法直接复制其成功经验。还有太多外来因素必须刚好能有效结合，包括适切的经营环境、具吸引力的商品、创新的精神，以及和谐的管理团队等。
针对上述的问题，McKinsey公司的研究报告还有更好的解答。这份研究报告的作者群Marla Capozzi、Ari Kellen与Sven Smit认为，虽然从主导企学习其“最佳实践”，甚至试图模仿，这一切看来都没有问题，但由于狭隘地着重于创造另一家成功企业，而未密切关注如何落实于自 家公司以及考虑自家公司的特质，最后终将招致悲剧发生。
他们得出的结论是：“我们并不是说公司不应该模仿苹果或其它真正了不起的企业。许多公司都可以从苹果在设计上的成就、品牌的忠诚度和零售业经营等种种方面得到更多启示。相反地，我们的分析在于提醒并建议高层管理人员必须对于他们所要仿效的公司采取一种更清晰的洞察力，并了解自己想从学习中取得的回报与成果。”
我 个人得到的结论是这样的：你的公司并不是苹果，你公司的CEO也不是乔布斯或库克(Tim Cook)，那么也就没有什么能像苹果一样取得如今成就的方法。虽然你可以借鉴该公司最佳实践的方法，但所学到的知识也不适用于你(公司)目前的处境。再者，有任何人真的能保证他们知道苹果真正的最佳实践方法吗？何不为你的企业创造一种专属经验与成功的独特模式！
编译：Susan Hong
本文授权编译自EBN Online，版权所有，谢绝转载
参考英文原文：Trying to Be Like Apple Can Harm Your Business，by Bolaji Ojo, Editor in Chief
相关阅读：
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• 调查：用户吐槽对iPhone 5失望的N种理由
• 苹果iPhone 5热潮席卷全球，果粉排长龙抢购Przesmc
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Trying to Be Like Apple Can Harm Your Business
Bolaji Ojo
Many businesses worldwide are trying to emulate Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most successful consumer electronics company. They will most likely fail. Thousands of CEOs and other senior executives will read -- or have already read -- Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs in an effort to be more like the late Apple co-founder. They'll probably fail, too. No company is like Apple, and no CEO will ever be like Jobs.
It won't stop the Apple and Jobs wannabes from trying, failing, and trying again with -- sorry to say -- devastating consequences for their businesses, according to a new report titled "The Perils of Best Practice: Should You Emulate Apple?" from McKinsey & Co. The authors argued in the paper that Apple's overwhelming success and its continued dominance of its segments has resulted in a cult following that's led competitors and many companies in other economic industries to pursue a utopian world of market domination while disengaging themselves from the realities of their industry segments. They said further:
Managers tempted to distill universal insights from what are in fact exceptional companies put their own businesses at risk for strategic or operational missteps. Yet the desire to emulate is often stronger than mere rationality, even in the face of repeated evidence that most companies won't achieve the anticipated outcomes and that some will suffer a hard fall. Research by our colleagues, for instance, has shown that lockstep benchmarking may lead to "herding" effects that, over time, diminish emulators' margins.
While the McKinsey report used Apple as the perfect example of a company that businesses would like to emulate, its central premise is focused actually on the concept of best-practices and how enterprises, researchers, and consultants have elevated this to the apex of management operations. By learning about and seeking to replicate what others have done -- so the concept goes -- executives can avoid pitfalls and build successful enterprises. This idea omits one critical caveat, though, and that is the reality that what worked for one company and corporate executive may not work for others, even if they operate in the same business segment.
"Tried-and-true approaches often seem preferable to starting from scratch, whether for developing new products or running efficient supply chains," noted the McKinsey report. "However, perils abound when truly exceptional companies morph into ever more ubiquitous examples. Observers and management theorists alike, blinded by star power, eventually assume that everything these companies do should be regarded as best practice -- often without examining the context in which they derive their success or without parsing the true nature of their accomplishments."
Of course, it's hard not to want to be like Apple or as crazily successful as Jobs. First, the company's more recent financial results and capitalization are simply extraordinary. Its sales for fiscal 2012 ending September is forecast to jump to $156 billion from $108 billion in fiscal 2011 and more than double the $65 billion it reported only two years ago. Net profits, too, are seen surging to $44.27 per share this fiscal year, from $27.68 in fiscal 2011. At its current net income run rate, Apple is probably the world's most profitable company. This is reflected in the company's market valuation, which now stands at about $658 billion, greater than that of any other publicly traded enterprise and more than the combined capitalization of Google ($238 billion), Microsoft ($260 billion), Hewlett-Packard ($36 billion), Cisco ($101 billion), and Dell ($18 billion).
Why shouldn't other enterprises strive to emulate such an exemplary company to similarly climb to the top of their industry segments? I have two answers. First, few people know the secret sauce behind Apple's success, despite the more than 40 books and thousands of articles that have been written about the company since Jobs died one year ago. Second, just having Apple's formula is not enough to recreate its success elsewhere. Too many other factors must come together nicely, including the right business environment, attractive products, innovative spirit, and coordinated management.
A better answer to the question above came from the McKinsey study. The authors Marla Capozzi, Ari Kellen, and Sven Smit argued that while it is alright to learn best-practices from leading companies and even attempt to emulate them, narrowly focusing on creating another enterprise's success without paying close attention to how these would be applicable considering your company's peculiar characteristics could be disastrous.
They concluded as follows:
We don't mean to say that companies should never emulate Apple or other truly exceptional businesses. Many companies can draw new insights from Apple's achievements in design, brand loyalty, and retailing, to name a few things. Rather, our analysis is a cautionary tale suggesting that executives take a clear-eyed view of the companies they want to emulate, as well as the returns and outcomes they expect from doing so.
My personal conclusion is this: Your company is not Apple, and your CEO is not Steve Jobs or Tim Cook. There are no ways to emulate Apple to be as successful as the company is today, and while you can learn from its best-practices, some of the knowledge gained won't be applicable to your situation. Plus, can anybody really vouch that they know Apple's true best-practices? Find a way to create an experience and success that is unique for your enterprise.
责编：Quentin
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