本文音频及原文摘自杂志The Economist 2016年第31期，Business版块。

Telecoms

Ericsson’s boss, Hans Vestberg, departs and his firm’s troubles continue

Jul 30th 2016 | PARIS

【背景】7月25日，通信业巨头爱立信公司董事会宣布，卫翰思（Hans Vestberg）卸任公司总裁兼CEO和董事会成员职务，且立即生效。爱立信公司董事会在任命原CFO扬·弗里克哈默代理CEO一职的同时也宣布开始物色新的CEO人选。

“THE pace of technological change will only increase,” Hans Vestberg[1] told a group of visitors to Ericsson’s headquarters in Stockholm[斯德哥尔摩(瑞典首都)] a few months ago, adding that his company had to learn from “innovators”. Though Ericsson is a colossus[2], with two-fifths of the world’s mobile-phone traffic passing through its networks, he talked of needing a new business model to take on rising digital rivals—providers of software and database services, such as Google and Microsoft. His observations were shrewd[3], but someone else will have to find ways of putting them into practice. Mr Vestberg lost his job on July 25th.

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He ran the firm for six years but repeated efforts to cut costs failed. Ericsson’s revenues from selling and installing telecoms networks, its core business, face long-term decline. More bad news came this week when Standard & Poor’s, a rating agency, said it was worried about the firm’s earnings prospects[盈利前景]. Its two main competitors, Nokia (which has completed a merger with Alcatel[阿尔卡特], of France) and Huawei Technologies, of China, are far more efficient.

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More important, Mr Vestberg, who has spent his whole career at Ericsson, failed to produce a radical plan beyond building networks. Shareholders bemoaned[4] low investment in new areas. Since the price of infrastructure, its core business, is going down, Ericsson should invest more in software and services, or management systems for networks, says Rolv-Erik Spilling, a veteran of Nordic telecoms now involved in startups.

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Ericsson claims that close to half its sales come from services (though much comes from installing networks). It spends plenty on R&D[Research & Development]. But its innovations have brought too few benefits. The firm’s shares have flatlined[5] for most of a decade. Bengt Nordstrom, an analyst at Northstream, a telecoms consulting firm, blames cautious leadership by what he calls “general practitioner” bosses. Ericsson should now pick a leader more inspired by technical or digital matters, and thus better placed to meet competition from Google and other new rivals. The challenge for Mr Vestberg’s successor is not only to cut costs, but to find a new purpose. If Ericsson cannot, worries Mr Nordstrom, the company’s continued existence could soon come into question.

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[1]Hans Vestberg 爱立信总裁兼首席执行官卫翰思

[2]colossus [kə'lɒsəs]

a person or thing of great size, influence or ability 巨大的人（或物）；极具影响力（或能力）的人物；巨人

She has been described as the creative colossus of the literary world.

她被誉为文坛创作巨匠。

[3]shrewd [ʃruːd]

having or based on a clear understanding and good judgment of a situation, resulting in an advantage 明智的；精明的

He was shrewd enough not to take the job when there was the possibility of getting a better one a few months later.

他很聪明没有接受那份工作，因为几个月后他有可能会得到更好的工作。

[4]bemoan [bɪ'məʊn]

to complain about or express sadness 抱怨；悲叹

Researchers at universities are always bemoaning their lack of funds.

大学里的研究人员总是抱怨资金不足。

[5]flatline

1) to be at a low level and not increase 处于低水平的

Have widescreen TV prices finally flatlined?

宽屏电视的价钱最终低下来了么？

2) to stop being popular or successful 处于低谷的，没有起色的

Her acting career has flatlined.

她的演艺事业处于低谷。

[6]相关背景参考：http://t.cn/RttiMbw

研究卫翰思执掌爱立信六年间的经营表现，可以发现在其任内爱立信出现了三大战略失误：

其一，以不变应万变的守成者心态。

其二，转型方向判断失误。

其三，股东至上的短期行为。

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以上言论不代表本人立场。

原文摘自The economist，仅外语学习之用。

其中生词解释来源于Cambridge Dictionaries

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