????輿論已經(jīng)一致認(rèn)為瑪麗?芭拉是通用汽車（General Motors）下一任首席執(zhí)行官的極佳選擇。不過她究竟能表現(xiàn)得有多么出色還取決于許多因素。一位著名的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力專家擔(dān)心通用汽車是否為芭拉時(shí)代的到來做好了準(zhǔn)備。

????諾爾?蒂奇是密歇根大學(xué)羅斯商學(xué)院（University of Michigan's Ross School of Business）的教授，一直密切關(guān)注汽車業(yè)。杰克?韋爾奇執(zhí)掌通用電氣（General Electric）期間，蒂奇曾經(jīng)負(fù)責(zé)管理通用電氣的克羅頓維爾（Crotonville）領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力培訓(xùn)中心，因此廣為人知。他曾撰寫以及合作撰寫過數(shù)本商業(yè)暢銷書，其中包括《把握命運(yùn)：通用電氣的成功奧秘》（Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will）、《領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力引擎》（The Leadership Engine）和《判斷力》（Judgment）。他的下一本著作將于明年八月出版，名為《繼承》（Succession）。他強(qiáng)烈贊同芭拉擔(dān)任首席執(zhí)行官。他說：“她是一位擁有極佳背景的優(yōu)秀領(lǐng)袖。不過，壞消息是（通用汽車）董事會(huì)和現(xiàn)任首席執(zhí)行官（丹?埃克森）可能把她推向了一個(gè)注定失敗的位置。”

????首先，蒂奇注意到通用汽車并未給予巴拉董事長(zhǎng)的職位，通用汽車的董事會(huì)將由過去18個(gè)月中的公司主管、前康明斯公司（Cummins）的首席執(zhí)行官西奧多?索爾索擔(dān)任。目前，拆分首席執(zhí)行官和董事長(zhǎng)的角色已經(jīng)成為了主流——標(biāo)普500指數(shù)（S&P 500）公司中，幾乎一半的公司都這么做，不過蒂奇不喜歡這樣。他說：“這幾乎起不到作用，大多數(shù)時(shí)候都會(huì)失敗。”因?yàn)樗赡軙?huì)導(dǎo)致新的矛盾誕生。

????其次，通用汽車還增添了一個(gè)新職位：總裁，將由首席財(cái)務(wù)官丹尼爾?阿曼恩擔(dān)任。蒂奇表示，這個(gè)舉動(dòng)表明，“通用正在上演一場(chǎng)《回到未來》的戲碼（電影中主角回到了過去，改變了可能發(fā)生在未來的事件——譯注），增加了阻礙發(fā)展的決策層。”20世紀(jì)80年代，總裁這個(gè)職位在美國(guó)公司中一度十分盛行，不過如今業(yè)已失寵。《財(cái)富》最近一期的全美十大最受尊敬的公司中，沒有一家公司設(shè)置了這個(gè)職位。

????蒂奇還注意到通用汽車將許多重要的職位賦予了其他首席執(zhí)行官的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者。阿曼恩是其中之一，還有馬克?羅伊斯，后者將擔(dān)任巴拉的現(xiàn)職，管理全球產(chǎn)品開發(fā)。蒂奇認(rèn)為，想要讓他們向一個(gè)贏取了他們所覬覦的職位的人匯報(bào)，恐怕很難。

????根據(jù)以上三點(diǎn)，蒂奇認(rèn)為可能會(huì)導(dǎo)致嚴(yán)重的后果：“這些都是重大的缺陷，可能致使通用汽車重蹈覆轍。”

????通用汽車發(fā)言人拒絕對(duì)蒂奇的觀點(diǎn)發(fā)表評(píng)論，他指出，芭拉目前尚未開始擔(dān)任首席執(zhí)行官——明年1月15日才會(huì)上任，而公司也愿意用實(shí)際行動(dòng)來證明質(zhì)疑者的錯(cuò)誤。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：嚴(yán)匡正

????The overwhelming consensus on Mary Barra is that she's an excellent choice to be General Motors' (GM) next CEO. But how well she performs will depend on many factors, and a famous leadership expert is concerned about how GM has prepared the company for the Barra era.

????Noel Tichy has watched the auto industry up close as a longtime professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. He's well known for having run General Electric's (GE) Crotonville leadership development center under Jack Welch, and he has written or co-written several business bestsellers, including Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will, The Leadership Engine, and Judgment. His next book, due out in August, is called Succession. He strongly endorses the choice of Barra as CEO -- "a hell of a good leader with a great background," he says. "The bad news is that the board and the CEO [Dan Akerson] have potentially set her up for failure."

????Tichy's first concern is that GM didn't give Barra the chairman's job; GM's board will be chaired by former Cummins CEO Theodore Solso, a GM director for the past 18 months. Splitting the CEO and chairman roles is becoming mainstream -- almost half the S&P 500 companies do it -- but Tichy doesn't like it. "It rarely works and most of the time fails," he says, because it introduces a potential new source of conflict.

????A second concern is that GM added a new job, president, which will be held by CFO Daniel Ammann. Tichy says that move is "back to the future at GM, adding layers that get in the way." Presidents were common among U.S. companies in the 1980s but have fallen out of favor; among America's 10 most admired companies in Fortune's latest ranking, for example, you won't find a single one.

????Tichy is concerned also that GM has given important jobs to the other CEO contenders. Ammann was one, as was Mark Reuss, who will move into Barra's current job running global product development. Tichy believes it just doesn't work to make them report to the person who got the job they were after.

????Combine those three factors, Tichy believes, and the effect could be significant: "These are serious flaws that can potentially set GM back to the good old days."

????A GM spokesman declined to comment on Tichy's views, noting that Barra isn't even CEO yet -- that happens Jan. 15 -- and says the company is content to let performance prove the doubters wrong.