劍橋雅思閱讀原文翻譯UK companies need more effective boards of directors

劍橋雅思12 Test8 Passage3閱讀原文翻譯

段落A

After a number of serious failures of governance(that is,how they are managed at the highest level),companies in Britain,as well as elsewhere,should consider radical changes to their directors’roles.It is clear that the role of a board director today is not an easy one.Following the 2008 financial meltdown,which resulted in a deeper and more prolonged period of economic downturn than anyone expected,the search for explanations in the many post-mortems of the crisis has meant blame has been spread far and wide.Governments,regulators,central banks and auditors have all been in the frame.The role of bank directors and management and their widely publicised failures have been extensively picked over and examined in reports,inquiries and commentaries.

在經歷了一系列嚴重的管理失誤（也就是說，在公司的最高管理層面上）之后，英國-以及其他各處-的公司應當考慮對其管理者們的職業(yè)角色采取一些徹底的變革了。很顯然，一位公司董事的角色在今天是很不好扮演的。2008年的金融危機造成了一段比任何人預期得還要深入和更加持久的經濟低迷時期，在那之后，人們在對這場金融災難所進行的許多事后分析中尋找真正的解釋，這也就意味著譴責的對象分布得既遠且廣，隨處都是。政府、監(jiān)管機構、中央銀行和審計師們都在被譴責的范圍之內。銀行經理及其管理行為所扮演的角色和他們廣為公眾所關注的失職在各種各樣的報道、問詢和評論中都受到了廣泛的挑剔和檢視。

段落B

The knock-on effect of this scrutiny has been to make the governance of companies in general an issue of intense public debate and has significantly increased the pressures on,and the responsibilities of,directors.At the simplest and most practical level,the time involved in fulfilling the demands of a board directorship has increased significantly,calling into question the effectiveness of the classic model of corporate governance by part-time,independent non-executive directors.Where once a board schedule may have consisted of between eight and ten meetings a year,in many companies the number of events requiring board input and decisions has dramatically risen.Furthermore,the amount of reading and preparation required for each meeting is increasing.Agendas can become overloaded and this can mean the time for constructive debate must necessarily be restricted in favour of getting through the business.

這場檢視的連鎖效應也使得整體上的公司監(jiān)管行為成了大眾熱烈討論的問題，并極大地增加了管理者們的壓力和責任。在最簡單也最實用的層面上，需要花在完成董事會職位職責上所需的時間有了大幅度的增長，從而引起人們質疑先前那種由兼職的、獨立非執(zhí)行董事們來進行企業(yè)管理的傳統(tǒng)模式是否真的有效，過去的董事會議程曾經也許只包含每年八到十次的會議，而當前在許多公司里，需要董事會參與探討和決策的事件數(shù)量顯著上升。此外，要參與每次會議所需完成的閱讀和準備量也在增加。日程有可能排得過滿，而這則意味著進行建設性辯論的時間不得不受到限制而讓位于處理預設議程條目。

段落C

Often,board business is devolved to committees in order to cope with the workload,which may be more efficient but can mean that the board as a whole is less involved in fully addressing some of the most important issues.It is not uncommon for the audit committee meeting to last longer than the main board meeting itself.Process may take the place of discussion and be at the expense of real collaboration,so that boxes are ticked rather than issues tackled.

董事會事務通常都移交給公司各執(zhí)行委員會處理以應對大額的工作量，這么做也許確實更有效率，但也會意味著董事會作為整體而言在充分處理一些最重要的事務方面參與度不夠。一場審計委員會議開得比主要董事會議本身更久也不是什么稀奇的事。推動會議流程有可能會代替了討論協(xié)商，而這么做的代價就是犧牲了真正的協(xié)同合作，結果只是在一項項議程上標注了表示進行過的記號而不是真正處理解決了問題。

段落D

A radical solution,which may work for some very large companies whose businesses are extensive and complex,is the professional board,whose members would work up to three or four days a week,supported by their own dedicated staff and advisers.There are obvious risks to this and it would be important to establish clear guidelines for such a board to ensure that it did not step on the toes of management by becoming too engaged in the day-to-day running of the company.Problems of recruitment,remuneration and independence could also arise and this structure would not be appropriate for all companies.However,more professional and better-informed boards would have been particularly appropriate for banks where the executives had access to information that part-time non-executive directors lacked,leaving the latter unable to comprehend or anticipate the 2008 crash.

有這么一個激進的解決辦法也許能對一些非常大型的、生意拓展得極其廣泛而復雜的公司起作用，那就是組建一個專業(yè)董事會，其成員可以每周最多工作三或四天，由其自身的專職員工和顧問提供支持輔助。這么做有其顯而易見的風險，一定要面向這樣一個董事會建立清晰的指導原則，以確保它不會太過攙和到公司的日常運營事務之中去指手畫腳，從而觸犯了公司的真正經營管理。如果采用這個辦法，則可能還要面臨招聘、薪酬和獨立性等相關問題，且這個結構未必適用于所有公司。不過，更加專業(yè)和對相關領域資訊了解更多的董事會成員對于銀行機構來說將會是格外合適的，因為在這些機構里，執(zhí)行者們可以獲得兼職的非執(zhí)行者們所缺乏的信息資源，后者正是由于不了解這些信息而導致無法去充分理解或提前預見到2008年那場經濟動蕩。

段落E

One of the main criticisms of boards and their directors is that they do not focus sufficiently on longer-term matters of strategy,sustainability and governance,but instead concentrate too much on short-term financial metrics.Regulatory requirements and the structure of the market encourage this behaviour.The tyranny of quarterly reporting can distort board decision-making,as directors have to’make the numbers’every four months to meet the insatiable appetite of the market for more data.This serves to encourage the trading methodology of a certain kind of investor who moves in and out of a stock without engaging in constructive dialogue with the company about strategy or performance,and is simply seeking a short-term financial gain.This effect has been made worse by the changing profile of investors due to the globalisation of capital and the increasing use of automated trading systems.Corporate culture adapts and management teams are largely incentivized to meet financial goals.

人們對董事會及其經理們的主要批評之一在于：他們沒有將足夠的注意力放在諸如企業(yè)戰(zhàn)略、可持續(xù)發(fā)展和經營管理這樣的更長遠性目標上，而是相反地過度關注了短期財務指標。各項規(guī)章要求和市場結構鼓勵了這種行為。季度報告好看與否凌駕于一切之上，這有可能會扭曲了董事會的決策行為，因為經理們不得不每四個月就“刷新一次數(shù)字”以應對市場對于更多數(shù)據(jù)的永不滿足的胃口。這種做法助長了某一類投資者的交易方法，他們隨時進出股市，從不與公司就策略或業(yè)績表現(xiàn)進行任何有建設性的對話，僅僅只謀求短期的財政贏利。由于資本的全球化和自動交易系統(tǒng)使用頻率的上升，投資者成員正在發(fā)生著變化，從而使得這種短視局面變得更為嚴重。企業(yè)文化不得不做出調整適應，管理團隊也在很大程度上被激勵去達成這種財政目標。

段落F

Compensation for chief executives has become a combat zone where pitched battles between investors,management and board members are fought,often behind closed doors but increasingly frequently in the full glare of press attention.Many would argue that this is in the interest of transparency and good governance as shareholders use their muscle in the area of pay to pressure boards to remove underperforming chief executives.Their powers to vote down executive remuneration policies increased when binding votes came into force.The chair of the remuneration committee can be an exposed and lonely role,as Alison Carnwath,chair of Barclays Bank’s remuneration committee,found when she had to resign,having been roundly criticised for trying to defend the enormous bonus to be paid to the chief executive;the irony being that she was widely understood to have spoken out against it in the privacy of the committee.

首席執(zhí)行官們的薪酬也成了一個戰(zhàn)區(qū)，投資者、管理層和董事會成員在這里激戰(zhàn)連連，過去通常都是在關著的門后悄悄進行，但現(xiàn)在卻越來越頻繁地暴露在媒體的聚光燈之下。很多人會認為這對透明性和良好的企業(yè)經管有好處，因為股東們會利用他們在薪酬領域里的強壯肌肉（即話語權優(yōu)勢）來對董事會施壓，要求他們換掉那些業(yè)績不佳的首席執(zhí)行官們。當有約束力投票的做法開始執(zhí)行時，股東們投票削減執(zhí)行官薪酬待遇的權力變得更大了。薪酬委員會主席的職位可以是全無遮蔽保護而又孤獨的.Barcdays銀行的薪酬委員會主席Alison Carnwath就有此體會，她因為試圖去為需要付給首席執(zhí)行官的巨額津貼做辯護而飽受指摘，最終不得不辭職；諷刺的是，大家都知道在委員會內部私下交流的時候，她對這種高額薪酬是持反對態(tài)度的。

段落G

The financial crisis stimulated a debate about the role and purpose of the company and a heightened awareness of corporate ethics.Trust in the corporation has been eroded and academics such as Michael Sandel,in his thoughtful and bestselling book What Money Can’t Buy,are questioning the morality of capitalism and the market economy.Boards of companies in all sectors will need to widen their perspective to encompass these issues and this may involve a realignment of corporate goals.We live in challenging times.

2008年的金融危機激起了人們對公司角色和目標的廣泛辯論和對企業(yè)操守道德的更高關注。對公司企業(yè)的公眾信任度由此受到了損害，而一些學者，例如Michael Sandel在他充滿思考的暢銷書《錢買不到什么》里所做的那樣，正在質疑資本主義和市場經濟的道德準則。公司所有部門的董事會都將需要拓寬視野以全面思考這些問題，這也許會牽扯到企業(yè)目標的整改。我們生活在一個充滿挑戰(zhàn)的年代。

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