利益為先 Salesforce與微軟化敵為友
Marc Benioff, the voluble CEO of Salesforce, has never been shy about taking potshots at Microsoft. To wit: at TechCrunch Disrupt in September he called the company a"complete disaster" and said the only way to save it was to bring back Bill Gates as CEO, at least for long enough to give him time to push the "reset button."
Salesforce公司首席執行官馬克o貝尼奧夫一向十分健談、語出驚人，抨擊起微軟公司（Microsoft）來從來不會不好意思。這不：在去年九月舉行的TechCrunch Disrupt大會上他就曾經把微軟稱為“徹頭徹尾的災難”，還説拯救它的唯一辦法就是把比爾o蓋茨請回來做首席執行官，而且至少要給他足夠長的時間，讓他能按下“重啟鍵”。Oh, what a difference a few months -- and a new Microsoft CEO -- can make.
噢，才花了幾個月時間——再加上一位新官上任的微軟首席執行官——一切就全變樣了。On Thursday Benioff was busy giving the warmest of corporate embraces to Satya Nadella, Microsoft's new CEO, as the two companies signed a broad strategic partnership. "I am absolutely thrilled to be partnering with Satya," Benioff said during a teleconference with reporters and analysts. "I couldn't be happier with how things have gone." Benioff also took to Twitter, where he posted smiling photos of him and Nadella side-by-side looking like BFFs.
上週四，這兩家公司簽署了廣泛的戰略合作伙伴協議。就在簽約儀式上，貝尼奧夫充滿熱情地忙着向微軟新任首席執行官薩蒂亞o納德拉示好。貝尼奧夫在與記者和分析師開電話會議時説：“能與薩蒂亞合作我真是太激動了。迄今為止，一切進展順利，讓我深感欣慰。” 貝尼奧夫也喜歡玩Twitter，還特地發了與納德拉的各種合影。照片上兩人並肩而立、面帶微笑，活像一對一輩子的老朋友。
Nadella returned the affection. "It's a pleasure working with you and your team," he said during the call. "I couldn't be more pleased that we are partnering across many areas of our business."
納德拉也積極迴應了這股熱乎勁。他在這個會議上稱：“能與您及您的團隊合作十分愉快。我們能在多個業務領域達成合作讓我十分高興。”The details of the deal will be important to the enterprise customers of both companies. The companies laid out some of them in a press release, and more specifics are sure to emerge in coming days.
雙方合作的細節對這兩家公司的企業客户來説至關重要。在新聞發佈會上，兩家公司公佈了一些合作事項，更具體的細節肯定會在近日披露。Perhaps more important, the deal is the latest indication that while Nadella is not Gates, he has indeed pushed the reset button at Microsoft (MSFT). Nadella announced the partnership with Salesforce just 36 hours after speaking at an industry conference where, as my colleague Adam Lashinsky noted, he distinguished himself for his candor. Laying out Microsoft challenges, and it's strengths, forthrightly, is just one of the many ways in which Nadella is breaking with the past in both style and substance. For some in the industry, including the also voluble CEO of Box, Aaron Levie, the change couldn't have come too soon.
可能更重要的在於，這一最新合作表明，儘管納德拉不是蓋茨，但他確實已經按下了微軟的重啟鍵。納德拉在一個行業會議上發表講話後僅過了36小時就宣佈與Salesforce建立合作關係。我的同事亞當o拉辛斯基指出，就在這個會議上，納德拉以坦率的態度贏得了眾人的矚目。無論在形式上，還是在實質上，納德拉都通過很多方式與過去劃清了界限，而直言不諱地坦承微軟面臨的挑戰及其優勢只是其中的一種方式。而對業內有些人來説，包括同樣健談的Box公司首席執行官亞倫o李維，這種改變還不會很快實現。Of course, Nadella is not the only one embracing pragmatism. Benioff too seems increasingly willing to bury the hatchet with perennial foes. In June, it cut a deal with arch-enemy Oracle.
當然，並不是只有納德拉才採取實用主義的做法。貝尼奧夫也似乎一天比一天更願意和多年的宿敵停戰和解。6月份，Salesforce就將與自己的勁敵甲骨文公司（Oracle）達成合作協議。Pragmatism can pay off. Salesforce shares (CRM) were up nearly 2% in after hours trading following the announcement of it's Microsoft alliance.
實用主義肯定能帶來回報。在宣佈與微軟達成合作僅數小時後，Salesforce的股價就上升了近2%。（財富中文網）
