Is Geely Capable of Managing Volvo
吉利能管好沃尔沃吗
The world isn’t kind to Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd. when it comes to assessing the Hangzhou-based auto upstart’s ability to acquire and manage Ford Motor Co.’s Volvo unit. While observers in China cheer Geely on, others overseas have generally cast doubt on its ability to manage the Swedish auto brand if its takeover succeeds
在评估浙江吉利控股集团(Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd.)收购和管理福特汽车(Ford Motor Co.)旗下沃尔沃(Volvo)子公司的能力时，全球都不看好这家总部位于杭州的年轻汽车企业。尽管中国观察家都为吉利打气鼓劲，但海外人士普遍对如果收购成功后它管理这个瑞典汽车品牌的能力表示怀疑。
Representative of that negative take on last week’s news that Geely had been picked by Ford to be the preferred bidder for Volvo is one comment from reader ’R Johnson,’ who responded to the report on the Ford move by The Wall Street Journal: ’Geely is a very small auto manufacturer in the world and too small to digest Volvo.’
对于上周吉利被福特选为沃尔沃首选竞标人的消息，一个具有代表性的负面评价来自读者“R Johnson”的评论。他对《华尔街日报》有关福特汽车举措的报导表现出的反应是，吉利是世界上一家非常小的汽车生产商，小到无法消化沃尔沃。
One comment from ’Meon’ on the Web site of Swedish business publication Dagens Industri says, ’Poor Volvo, this doesn’t look good at all.’
《瑞典工商业日报》(Dagens Industri)网站上一位名叫“Meon”的读者评论道，可怜的沃尔沃，这看上去一点也不妙。
The lack of confidence in Geely stems from its inexperience in running an international entity. It began selling cars in 2001, and it has focused its business mostly on China’s auto market, while exporting a small number of vehicles overseas, mostly to developing countries.
对吉利缺乏信心是因为它缺乏运营国际化企业的经验。它从2001年开始销售汽车，一直将业务重点放在了中国的汽车市场上，尽管也向海外出口了少量汽车，但大部分都出口到了发展中国家。
But the negative view also is the result in part of a lack of awareness of, among other things, the kind of new cars Geely has been developing since 2006 and a relatively talented management team that Geely’s founder and chairman, Li Shufu, has been able to put together, whose members include its product chief Frank Zhao, a former Chrysler senior engineer in Detroit.
但是，这种负面看法在某种程度上可能也是对吉利2006年以来开发的新车和吉利创始人兼董事长李书福构建的相对优秀的管理团队缺乏认识。管理团队的成员包括前克莱斯勒在底特律的高级工程师，现任产品总监的赵福全(Frank Zhao)。
Those down on Geely believe the Chinese auto maker, which they say is not even capable of lining up vehicle body panels flush when assembling cars, should not deserve to buy a storied auto maker like Volvo. They think Geely would run Volvo into the ground.
那些不看好吉利的人认为，这家中国汽车企业不应该购买沃尔沃这样的知名汽车制造商。他们说，吉利甚至不能安装好车身面板。在他们看来，吉利会将沃尔沃带入深渊。
In many cases, the naysayers are basing their judgment on Geely cars on the roads today, whose quality often leave a lot to be desired. It’s not unusual to see the bumpers on Geely cars barely hanging on after a few years of use.
在许多情况下，反对者都是将自己的判断建立在目前在道路上行驶的吉利轿车的基础之上，这些轿车的质量往往有很多不足之处。比如，吉利汽车的保险杠在使用几年后常常会出现不牢靠的情况。
It’s important to keep in mind that these cars represent a shadow of Geely’s past and the auto maker needs to be judged on the models that are just hitting showrooms.
重要的是要记住，这些车代表的是吉利过去的影子，应该根据这家汽车制造商最新陈列在展厅中的车型对其做出判断。
Naysayers also may not have met internationally trained Geely managers like Zhao. Nor have they likely met Peter Zhang, a financial controller from BP PLC whom Geely’s chairman Mr. Li hired in 2007 to lead the company’s pursuit of Volvo.
反对者可能没有同赵福全这样受过海外教育的经理打过交道。他们可能也没有见过李书福2007年从英国石油公司(BP PLC)聘请来领导对沃尔沃收购的财务负责人Peter Zhang。
They also have not likely been to Geely’s tech center in Taizhou.
他们可能也没有去过吉利在台州的技术中心。
There, inside one of several buildings on the tech campus, stylists sketch cars with a special digital pen on touch-sensitive drawing tablets while engineers put a new engine on a test bench to gauge its emissions and performance. Upstairs, a chemist, clad in a white lab coat, mixes ingredients in test tubes to develop a new ’new car’ fragrance for auto interiors. Geely technicians also routinely check the durability of door hinges and locks by putting a car door on a machine that opens and closes it automatically 24 hours a day.
在那里，在技术园的一栋建筑中，绘图师用一种特殊的数字笔在触摸屏上素描汽车，而工程师则把一部新引擎放到测试台上，了解其排放量和性能。楼上，身着白大褂的化学家正在试管中混合原料，开发一种新的汽车内饰香水。吉利的技术人员还会通过一台24小时自动开关车门的装置定期检查车门装置和车锁的耐用性。
’We didn’t do it before, but this is how we build good quality into vehicles,’ says Zhao, who spent nine years in Detroit teaching engineering at Wayne State University before joining Chrysler in 1997. He returned to China in 2004. He first joined Brilliance Automotive but jumped ship to Geely in 2006.
赵福全说，我们以前没有这样做过，但这是我们提高汽车质量的手段。赵福全曾在底特律的韦恩州立大学教过9年工程设计，1997年加入克莱斯勒。2004年他回到中国。他先是加入了华晨汽车(Brilliance Automotive)，但2006年跳槽到了吉利。
Zhao convinced Li to invest at least 8% of Geely’s revenue in product development. Toyota and its subsidiaries, by comparison, spend 5% of revenue on R&D. Since arriving at the tech center three years ago, Zhao has tripled the number of engineers to 1,200.
赵福全说服李书福至少将吉利8%的收入投资到产品开发上。相比之下，丰田汽车(Toyota)及其子公司将5%的收入投入到研发中。自3年前来到技术中心后，赵福全手下的工程师人数增加了两倍，达到了1,200人。
Geely has also attracted the attention of the private-equity world. In September, word came that a private equity fund managed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was investing about $250 million in Geely’s Hong Kong-listed arm to fund the Chinese auto maker’s growth ambitions.
吉利也吸引了私募股权界的关注。今年9月，有消息称高盛集团(Goldman Sachs Group Inc.)管理的一只私募股权基金向吉利的香港上市子公司投资了约2.5亿美元，资助这家中国汽车制造商的增长雄心。
Managers like Zhao and Zhang are a major reason Ford’s management, initially skeptical of Geely’s bid, now believes the Chinese company could successfully run Volvo and decided to negotiate exclusively with Geely over Volvo, according to people familiar with the situation.
据知情人士透露，福特汽车最初曾对吉利的竞标表示怀疑，但像赵福全和Peter Zhang这样的经理是福特管理层现在相信这家中国公司可以成功运营沃尔沃，并决定与吉利独家谈判出售沃尔沃事宜的主要原因。
Ford’s change of heart was also facilitated by John Thornton, a longtime Ford board member and former president of Goldman Sachs with extensive contacts in China, who learned of Geely’s interest in acquiring Volvo last year. With Ford management’s encouragement, Thornton started checking into Geely. In December last year, he met at Beijing’s Grand Hyatt hotel with Li and Zhang, who laid out Geely’s strategy. Thornton reported back that the bid should be taken seriously.
与中国联系密切的前高盛总裁、长期担任福特汽车董事的约翰•桑顿(John Thornton)也促使福特汽车改变了主意。他是去年了解到吉利有意收购沃尔沃的。与福特管理层的鼓励下，桑顿开始到吉利进行检查。去年12月，他在北京东方君悦大酒店会见了李书福和Peter Zhang，听取他们阐述了吉利的战略。桑顿汇报说，应该重视吉利的竞购。
责任编辑：sealion1986
