背景资料
本文是金卫东先生在中央统战部与全国工商联联合组织的清华大学NEED新时代企业家培训项目的结业报告，基于他的创业体会和对创新精神的认识思考，结合其不久前的一个演讲，在清华的严格要求下按时完成了这份报告。完成报告的过程是他又一次自我反省自我提升的过程，报告中文版还提前发给公司的管理骨干，报告英文版发给公司的海外合作伙伴征询意见，读后大家都非常肯定，促进了大家对企业家精神特别是其中创新精神的辩证理解，同步丰富了大家的管理思想，同时锻炼了两名参与翻译整理的博士生的英语能力，可谓一举多得!
报告格式规范，论证严谨，中英文严格对应，精益求精，把平凡的事做得非同凡响是金卫东先生的一贯风格。
一、引言
创新目前有被滥用的倾向，天南海北任何场景谁要不谈创新，谁就好像落伍。创新如同灵丹妙药，不管经营什么业务，不管遇到什么困难，千病一方都必须创新。但是创新绝不那么简单，盲目的创新就是死路一条。
创新的英文Innovation，in是不，no更是不，就是否定再否定，一再的否定，难道我们企业现在是一无是处吗?当然不是。企业每天的工作应该是在正常的轨道上继续发扬光大，而不是天天自我批判，如果天天自我批判，我们就不应该存在，特别是已经成功的企业，应该坚持走自己的道路，而不是盲目地自我否定。
二、企业家精神的特质
2.1 创新是企业家精神的灵魂
其实创新并不是企业家精神的全部，它只是企业家诸多精神特质的一项，当然这一项非常重要，是灵魂。企业家精神是什么?“企业家”这一概念由法国经济学家理查德·坎蒂隆(Richard Cantillon)在18世纪30年代首次提出，即：企业家使经济资源的效率由低转高;“企业家精神”则是企业家特殊技能(包括精神和技巧)的集合[1]。或者说，“企业家精神”指企业家组织建立和经营管理企业的综合才能的表述方式，它是一种重要而特殊的无形生产要素。创新之外还有哪些企业家精神呢?
2.2 冒险是企业家精神的天性
理查德·坎蒂隆(Richard Cantillon)和奈特(Frank Rnight)两位经济学家，将企业家精神与风险(risk)或不确定性(uncertainty)联系在一起。[1,2]没有甘冒风险和承担风险的魄力，就不可能成为企业家。企业创新风险是二进制的，要么成功，要么失败，只能对冲不能交易，企业家没有别的第三条道路。在美国3M公司有一个很有价值的口号：“为了发现王子，你必须和无数个青蛙接吻。”“接吻青蛙”常常意味着冒险与失败，但是“如果你不想犯错误，那么什么也别干”。同样，对1939年在美国硅谷成立的惠普、1946年在日本东京成立的索尼、 1976年在台湾成立的Acer、1984年分别在中国北京、青岛成立的联想和海尔等众多企业而言，虽然这些企业创始人的生长环境、成长背景和创业机缘各不相同，但无一例外都是在条件极不成熟和外部环境极不明晰的情况下，他们敢为人先，第一个跳出来吃螃蟹。
2.3 合作是企业家精神的精华
正如艾伯特·赫希曼所言：企业家在重大决策中实行集体行为而非个人行为。[3]尽管伟大的企业家表面上常常是一个人的表演(One-ManShow)，但真正的企业家其实是擅长合作的，而且这种合作精神需要扩展到企业的每个员工。企业家既不可能也没有必要成为一个超人(superman)，但企业家应努力成为蜘蛛人(spiderman)，要有非常强的“结网”能力和意识。西门子是一个例证，这家公司秉承员工为 “企业内部的企业家”的理念，开发员工的潜质。在这个过程中，经理人充当教练角色，让员工进行合作，并为其合理的目标定位实施引导，同时给予足够的施展空间，并及时予以鼓励。西门子公司因此获得令人羡慕的产品创新纪录和成长纪录。
2.4 敬业是企业家精神的动力
马克斯·韦伯在《新教伦理与资本主义精神》中写到：“这种需要人们不停地工作的事业，成为他们生活中不可或缺的组成部分。事实上，这是唯一可能的动机。但与此同时，从个人幸福的观点来看，它表述了这类生活是如此的不合理：在生活中，一个人为了他的事业才生存，而不是为了他的生存才经营事业。”[4]货币只是成功的标志之一，对事业的忠诚和责任，才是企业家的“顶峰体验”和不竭动力。
2.5 学习是企业家精神的关键
荀子曰：“学不可以已。”彼得·圣吉在其名著《第五项修炼》中说到：“真正的学习，涉及人之所以为人此一意义的核心。”[5] 学习与智商相辅相成，以系统思考的角度来看，从企业家到整个企业必须是持续学习、全员学习、团队学习和终生学习。日本企业的学习精神尤为可贵，他们向爱德华兹·戴明学习质量和品牌管理，向约琴夫·M·朱兰学习组织生产，向彼得·德鲁克学习市场营销及管理。同样，美国企业也在虚心学习，企业流程再造和扁平化组织，正是学习日本的团队精神结出的硕果。
2.6 执著是企业家精神的本色
英特尔总裁葛洛夫有句名言：“只有偏执狂才能生存。”[6]这意味着在遵循摩尔定律的信息时代，只有坚持不懈持续不断地创新，以夸父追日般的执著，咬定青山不放松，才可能稳操胜券。在发生经济危机时，资本家可以用脚投票，变卖股票退出企业，劳动者亦可以退出企业，然而企业家却是唯一不能退出企业的人。正所谓“锲而不舍，金石可镂;锲而舍之，朽木不折”。“在20世纪80年代诺基亚人涉足移动通讯，但到90年代初芬兰出现严重经济危机，诺基亚未能幸免遭到重创，公司股票市值缩水了50%。在此生死存亡关头，公司非但没有退却，反而毅然决定变卖其他产业，集中公司全部的资源专攻移动通讯。坚韧执著的诺基亚成功了，某一阶段诺基亚手机在世界市场占有率已达到35%。
2.7 诚信是企业家精神的基石
诚信是企业家的立身之本，企业家在修炼领导艺术的所有原则中，诚信是绝对不能妥协的原则。市场经济是法制经济，更是信用经济、诚信经济。没有诚信的商业社会，将充满极大的道德风险，显著抬高交易成本，造成社会资源的巨大浪费。其实，凡勃伦在其名著《企业论》中早就指出：有远见的企业家非常重视包括诚信在内的商誉。[7]诺贝尔经济学奖得主弗里德曼更是明确指出：“企业家只有一个责任，就是在符合游戏规则下，运用生产资源从事利润的活动。亦即须从事公开和自由的竞争，不能有欺瞒和诈欺。”[8]
三、创新的先决条件
论述创新我们就不得不提及一位古典经济学家，他是奥地利人，但是他成名成家在美国，很多奥地利经济学家都有非常深邃的思考，因此经济学界有一个奥地利学派，他就是奥地利学派的领军人物熊彼特。熊彼特第一次定义了创新：“创新就是创造性破坏creative destruction。”创新不是天才的闪烁，而是企业家艰苦工作的结果，创新是企业家活动的典型特征。“创新的实质是做不同的事情，而不是将现在已经做的事情做得更好。”[9] 也就是说创新不是进化不是evolution，而是革命是revolution。
既然创新如此重要，我们是不是要天天创新，全力以赴创新，每时每刻创新?我觉得不能，不仅企业发展顺利的时候不能，即使是企业发展遇到困难的时候，也不能盲目地自我否定。而且创新必须具有某些先决条件，为了能把这个充满教化色彩的话题阐释得更生动，我用印度教三尊主神的故事来论述什么是创新的先决条件。
3.1 创新需要破坏者进行创造性破坏
去过印度的人都知道印度教三尊主神，第一尊神叫湿婆，湿婆是个男人，是印度教三大主神中最重要的一尊神，到印度的寺庙，你会发现三大神中湿婆的寺庙最大。我们往往认为世界最早的宗教是佛教，可是佛教实际源于印度教，是印度教的一个简版，印度教特别难以理解，可以说是恒河沙数，博大精深。湿婆这尊印度教最重要的神是做什么的呢?是破坏者、是毁灭者，从这个寓意上说也可以说是个创新者。可是印度教三尊主神，湿婆不能单独存在，还得有另外两尊神才行，一尊是梵天-创造之神，不破不立，同样不立不破，没有创造哪有实体，没有存在谈何破坏?另一尊神是庇护者、保护者毗湿奴，如果没有毗湿奴，一旦我们冲动地破坏了什么，就没有机会再重新把它找回来。
3.2 创新需要创造者和保守者的平衡力量
如果在企业里你本身就是一个创造者，是一个能够发现自己错误又及时纠正的人，那么你就可以勇敢地做一个创新者;又或如果在企业里，你是一个大胆革新的人，而你的伙伴是创造者、庇护者，你也可以大胆地创新。遗憾的是我们往往只是一个角色，我们自己做了决策难以自我觉醒，即使做了错的决策也难以收回成命，既然是这样，你就必须在创新之前先培养公司的力量平衡，你的公司应该有创新者，也要有一些保守者，还应有一些让你的创新、鲁莽的行为得到及时纠正的人，如果这样，大家就可以放心地创新了。
3.3 创新需要失败带来的经验教训与谨慎
三尊主神之外我还有补充：毁灭者湿婆犯过大错误，他杀过自己的儿子，因为湿婆离家以后，他的妻子带着孩子在家里生活，几年以后，湿婆回家发现一个英俊的男人从家里走出来，他的嫉妒心一下子就上来了，一刀就把英俊的男人杀死了。他的妻子雪山女神从房间走出来以后大喊：“你为什么把我们的孩子杀死了?”他追悔莫及，于是他去找毗湿奴，对他说：“我犯了错误，把我的儿子杀了，怎么办?”毗湿奴说：“你一直向前走。当你看到第一个动物的时候，把它的头割下来，接到你孩子的头上，他就会复活。”于是他向前走，看到了一头小象，他就把象头割下来，接到了他的孩子头上，这就是印度教中另一尊重要的神叫象神伽内什(Ganesha)。[10]他的存在使得湿婆这个毁灭、破坏之神有所收敛。
四、结论
企业家大胆创新的前提条件是组织里要有创造者、有庇护者，最好还有个人失败的记忆，这样你才会创新创得更严谨，创新创得更有意义。
五、英文摘要——Abstract
At present, some enterprises overuse the concept of "innovation" hoping that it could be the solution of all problems. Therefore, this article proposes that blind innovation could bring greater risks and illustrated that some pre-conditions are needed for innovation: creators, patrons and experience of failure. The author first demonstrated the significance of innovation from theoretical and practical perspectives, pointing out that innovation was the soul of entrepreneurship, but entrepreneurship also included other six necessary aspects: adventure, cooperation, dedication, learning, perseverance and honesty. Then, based on Schumpeter's theory of creative destruction, the author puts forward four pre-requisites for enterprise management innovation: brave innovators; creators and patrons as two roles of the balance power; lessons and cautions obtained from innovator's failures. Finally, the author drew a conclusion: If there was an organization with creators and patrons, ideally, there was also a memory of personal failure; entrepreneurs could avoid blind innovation to carry out bold, rigorous and meaningful innovations.
《Innovation and it's pre-conditions》
Abstract
At present, some enterprises overuse the concept of "innovation" hoping that it could be the solution of all problems. Therefore, this article proposes that blind innovation could bring greater risks and illustrated that some pre-conditions are needed for innovation: creators, patrons and experience of failure. The author first demonstrated the significance of innovation from theoretical and practical perspectives, pointing out that innovation was the soul of entrepreneurship, but entrepreneurship also included other six necessary aspects: adventure, cooperation, dedication, learning, perseverance and honesty. Then, based on Schumpeter's theory of creative destruction, the author puts forward four pre-requisites for enterprise management innovation: brave innovators; creators and patrons as two roles of the balance power; lessons and cautions obtained from innovator's failures. Finally, the author drew a conclusion: If there was an organization with creators and patrons, ideally, there was also a memory of personal failure; entrepreneurs could avoid blind innovation to carry out bold, rigorous and meaningful innovations.
I Introduction
At present, Innovation tends to be abused. Anyone who doesn't talk about innovation in any scene is assumed to be behind the times. Innovation seems to have become a magic potion, and no matter what business you are in, no matter what difficulties you encounter, you have to innovate. But innovation is not so simple, blind innovation is a dead end.
In English word "Innovation", "In" is a negative prefix, and "NO" also represents negative, that is, "negate again and again". Are our enterprises good-for-nothing? Of course not. The daily work of enterprises should continue to carry forward on the normal track, instead of self-criticism every day. If we blindly criticize ourselves every day, we cannot be here as the elites and outstanding representatives of the industry. Rather than being self-denial blindly, successful enterprises should, even more, stick to their own path.
II The characteristics of entrepreneurship
2.1 Innovation, the soul of entrepreneurship
Innovation is not the whole of entrepreneurship, but only one of the characteristics of entrepreneurship, even though it is very important and is the soul of entrepreneurship. What is entrepreneurship? The concept of "entrepreneur" was first proposed by French economist Richard Cantillon in the 1830s, that is, "Entrepreneurs make the efficiency of economic resources from low to high. Entrepreneurship is the integration of the entrepreneur's special skills, including spirit and skill.[1] In other words, entrepreneurship refers to the embodiment of the comprehensive ability of entrepreneurs to establish and manage enterprises. It is an important and special intangible factor of production. What does entrepreneurship include besides innovation?
2.2 Adventure, the nature of entrepreneurship
Economists Richard Cantillon and Frank Knight linked entrepreneurship with risk or uncertainty in their books.[1,2] Without the courage to take risks, it is impossible to become an entrepreneur. The risk of innovation is binary, either success or failure, can only hedge rather than trade, there is no other third path for entrepreneurs. Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M) has a very valuable slogan "To find the prince, you must kiss a million frogs." "Kissing the frog" often implies risk and failure, but "if you don't want to make a mistake, then do nothing". Similarly, although the founders of many enterprises, such as HP, which was founded in Silicon Valley in 1939, Sony, which was founded in Tokyo in 1946, Acer, which was founded in Taiwan in 1976, Lenovo and Haier, which were founded in Beijing and Qingdao in 1984. These companies have different growth environments, backgrounds, and business opportunities, but all of them dare to be the first to jump out to eat crabs when the conditions are very immature, and the external environment is very unclear.
2.3 Cooperation, the essence of entrepreneurship
As Albert Hirschman said, entrepreneurs act collectively rather than individually in making important decisions.[3] While great entrepreneurs often appear to be one-man shows, real entrepreneurs are actually good cooperators, and that spirit of collaboration needs to affect every employee in the business. It is neither possible nor necessary for an entrepreneur to be a superman, but an entrepreneur should strive to be a spider-man, who has a very strong ability and consciousness to "spin a web". Siemens is an vivid example that develops the potential of its employees by treating them as "entrepreneurs within the company". In this process, the manager acts as a coach to promote the cooperation of employees, give guidance to their targets, provide enough display space and encourage them in time. As a result, Siemens has an enviable record of product innovation and growth.
2.4 Dedication, the motive power of entrepreneurship
In "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism", Max Weber wrote, “This occupation which required men to work constantly, became an indispensable part of their lives. In fact, it was the only possible motive. But at the same time, from the point of personal happiness, it expresses how irrational is the kind of life in which a man lives for his business and not manages for his survival.”[4] Currency is only one of the signs of success. Loyalty and responsibility to the career are the "peak experience" and inexhaustible driving force of entrepreneurs.
2.5 Learning, the key to entrepreneurship
Xunzi said, "learning has no end". "Real learning goes to the heart of what it means to be human" Peter Senge wrote in his masterpiece "The Fifth Discipline". [5] Learning and intelligence go hand in hand. From the perspective of systems thinking, we must be continuous learning, full-crew learning, team learning and lifetime learning from the entrepreneur to the whole enterprise. The learning spirit of Japanese companies is especially valuable. They learn quality and brand management from Edwards Deming, learn organizing production from Josef M. Juran, and learn marketing and management from Peter Drucker. In the same way, American companies are also learning from team spirit of Japan. The business process reengineering, and Flat organization are what they learned from Japan.
2.6 Perseverance, the true quality of entrepreneurship
Intel CEO Grove famously said that "only the paranoid survives." [6] This means that in the information age following Moore's law, only by persistent and continuous innovation, with the persistence of the sun, and the persistence of the green mountain, can the victory be guaranteed. In the event of an economic crisis, capitalists can vote with their feet, sell their shares and exit their enterprises, and workers can exit their enterprises, but entrepreneurs are the only ones who cannot. As the saying goes, "Constant dripping wears away the stone. Cheese instead, you can't chop deadwood ". Nokia got involved in mobile communications in the 1980s, but in the early 1990s there was a severe economic crisis in Finland, which hit Nokia hard and its stock market value fell by 50%. At this critical juncture, the company did not retreat, but decided to sell other industries, concentrating all the resources of the company to focus on mobile communications. The tenacious Nokia succeeded, and at one stage its mobile phone market share reached 35% of the world market.
2.7 Honesty, the cornerstone of entrepreneurship
Honesty is the foundation of an entrepreneur, and among all the principles of the entrepreneur's leadership, honesty is the principle that cannot be compromised. Market economy is legal economy, more of credit economy, and good faith economy. A commercial society without good faith will be full of great moral hazard, significantly raise transaction costs and cause a huge waste of social resources. In fact, Veblen has pointed out in his famous book "On the Enterprise" that far-sighted entrepreneurs attach great importance to goodwill, including integrity. [7] Friedman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, clearly pointed out: "Entrepreneurs have only one responsibility, that is, to use productive resources to engage in profitable activities in accordance with the rules of the game. That means open and free competition, without deception or fraud. [8]
III Pre-conditions of Innovation
When it comes to innovation, we have to mention a classical economist Schumpeter, a very famous Austrian economist. Many Austrian economists have very profound ideas, and there is an Austrian school of economics. Schumpeter is the leader of the Austrian school. He first defined innovation that "Innovation is the destruction of creativity." Innovation is not the flicker of genius, but the result of the hard work of entrepreneurs. Innovation is the typical characteristic of entrepreneurial activities. "Innovation is about doing something different, not doing something better that you already do."[9] In other words, innovation is not evolution, but revolution.
Since innovation is so important, should we innovate every day, with all our might and all the time? I think not. Not only when the enterprise's development is in good condition, but also when it’s in difficulty, we should not be blindly self-denial. Moreover, innovation must have certain pre-conditions. To illustrate this enlightened topic more vividly, I will discuss what the pre-conditions are with the story of the three Hindu deities.
3.1 Innovation needs destruction of creativity
Anyone who has been to India knows that there are three main deities in Hinduism. The first god is called Shiva. Shiva is a man, and he is the most important god among the three main deities in Hinduism. We tend to believe that the world's earliest religion is Buddhism, but Buddhism actually originated from Hinduism and is a simple version of Hinduism. Hinduism is particularly difficult to be understood, and it can be said that it is like the Ganges, extensive and profound. What is the most important god Shiva responsible for? He is a destroyer, but to a certain extent, is also an innovator. Among the three main deities of Hinduism, Shiva cannot exist alone. There must be two other deities. One god is Brahma, the god of the creator, “There can be no creation without destruction". Without creation, how could there be any entity? Without existence, how could it be destroyed? The other god is Vishnu, the patron. Without Vishnu, once we impulsively break something, we have no chance to get it back.
3.2 Innovation needs the power of balance from the creator and the patron
If you are a creator in the enterprise, a person who can find mistakes and correct them in time, you can be brave to be an innovator. If you're a venturesome innovator in a business, and your partner is the creator and the patron, you can go for it. Unfortunately, we tend to be individualistic. We make our own decisions and don't always feel self-conscious, and even when we make the wrong decisions, we don't always recall an order. In this case, you must cultivate the power of balance in your company before you innovate. There must be some conservatives to ensure that your innovation and recklessness are corrected in time so that people can innovate in confidence.
3.3 Innovation needs lessons and caution from failure
In addition to these three main deities, I will add one more. The destroyer Shiva made a big mistake that he killed his son. After Shiva left home, his wife lived with their children. A few years later, Shiva returned home and found a handsome man walking out of the house. His jealousy came up instantaneously and he killed the handsome guy. His wife, the snow mountain goddess, came out of the room and cried out, "Why did you kill our children?" He was so regretful that he went to Vishnu and asked him for help, "I have made a mistake in killing my son. What should I do?" Vishnu said, "Go straight on. When you see the first animal, cut off its head and attach it to your child's head, and he will resurrect from death." So Shiva went forward and saw a baby elephant. He cut off its head and put it on the neck of his child.[10] This was another revered Hindu god called Ganesha, and his existence makes up for the destruction and devastation of Visnu.
IV Conclusion
The precondition for entrepreneurial innovation is an organization with creators, patrons and, ideally, a memory of personal failure, so that you can innovate more rigor and innovate more meaningfully.
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