熱點人物關注：零售業巨頭沃爾瑪CEO杜克

For a folksy southerner from rural Georgia who spent his childhood eating food grown on the family farm and buying clothes on rare trips to a five-and-dime store, Mike Duke has accumulated an eclectic array of retailing achievements.

沃爾瑪CEO邁克•杜克(Mike Duke)是個隨和的南方人，來自佐治亞州的農村，在他的童年裏，吃的是自家農場種出的食物，很久纔去廉價商店買一次衣服。而今天他已經在零售業取得了許多成就。

Since the start of last year alone, Walmart’s chief executive has won Michelle Obama’s endorsement for the company’s healthy eating initiatives; overcome union opposition to win a foothold in Africa; outlasted Bo Xilai, who tormented Walmart in China; and seen off a huge lawsuit over sex discrimination against its US staff.

單從去年年初算起，杜克就已經取得了一系列成績。他贏得了美國第一夫人米歇爾•奧巴馬(Michelle Obama)對沃爾瑪提倡的健康飲食計劃的支持；他克服了工會的反對，堅持在非洲建起立足點；挺到了薄熙來（給沃爾瑪中國公司找過麻煩）政治生命的終結；還了結了一宗有關沃爾瑪對美國員工存在性別歧視的大額訴訟。

But in the past week all that has been forgotten. Mr Duke, a craggy 62-year old with a gap-toothed smile, faces devastating allegations that senior Walmart executives hushed up a campaign of bribery to secure construction permits in Mexico. The allegations are the biggest test of a 40-year career for the plain but affable boy from the warehouses, who rose through the nuts-and-bolts ranks of Walmart’s logistics division.

然而在最近一段時間，這些成績都被忘記了。杜克現在正面臨毀滅性的指控：沃爾瑪爲了在墨西哥獲得建設許可證而大舉行賄，但該公司高管卻掩人耳目。對於樸素而平易近人的杜克來說，這些指控是他40年職業生涯中最嚴峻的考驗。現年62歲的杜克面容粗獷，微笑時經常露出牙齒的縫隙，他最早從倉儲工作幹起，在沃爾瑪物流部門擔任過多個職位。

With federal investigations running alongside an independent probe by the Walmart board, it remains to be seen whether the sleuths will prove any wrongdoing entangling Mr Duke, a faithful churchgoer who let it be known this week that he was “fully supportive” of the board probe.

聯邦調查與沃爾瑪董事會發起的獨立調查同時進行，調查人員是否會證實任何牽涉到杜克本人的不當行爲尚不得而知。虔誠、常去教會的杜克明確表示，“完全支持”董事會展開的調查。

But even for a company used to the barbs of critics who say it pays stingy wages, bullies suppliers and steamrollers mom-and-pop stores, the allegations are a potent challenge to an evangelical business culture forged in the poverty of backwoods Arkansas by its founder Sam Walton.

儘管沃爾瑪已經習慣了各種苛刻的批評，如薪資吝嗇、欺壓供應商、排擠社區小店，但對於沃爾瑪創始人山姆•沃爾頓(Sam Walton)在阿肯色州(Arkansas)貧窮落後地區建立起的福音式商業文化，上述指控仍然有可能構成巨大的挑戰。

His doctrine combines down-home style with ruthless penny-pinching and a zeal for logistical efficiency: it enabled Walmart to conquer America from its isolated home town, Bentonville. But the bigger it gets and the harder it pushes for new customers in places where business and politics work differently, the more the limitations begin to show.

他的經營原則將純樸的風格，與每分錢成本都精打細算、對物流效率的熱衷相結合，這使得沃爾瑪能夠走出總部所在的偏遠城市本頓維爾(Bentonville)，征服了美國市場。隨着沃爾瑪的規模越來越大，這家公司也越來越積極地進入新市場爭奪消費者，但在這些新市場，商業和政治的運作方式和美國並不相同，因而越來越多的侷限也陸續顯現出來。

Mr Duke embodies that culture – but as head of the world’s biggest public company, with sales of $444bn last year, he arguably has too much of the insularity that is its weakness and not enough of the down-home charm that is its strength.

杜克就是這種文化的化身。沃爾瑪去年銷售額達4440億美元，是全球上市公司中最高的。杜克作爲這樣一家企業的負責人，他身上可以說表現出了太多的偏狹性，而淳樸風格卻稍嫌不足，前者正是沃爾瑪的劣勢，後者纔是沃爾瑪的優勢。

Jimmy Wright, who worked for Mr Duke aFTer he joined Walmart in 1995, says: “Mike is a nice guy first and foremost. Likeable and not arrogant. He treats people with respect and rarely will mutter an off-colour word.” Yet while “Mr Sam” oozed star quality, many people say Mr Duke lacks charisma. He clearly tries, but in speeches the delivery of his passion lines can be tinny and laughter lines can fall flat.

吉米•賴特(Jimmy Wright)在1995年加入沃爾瑪後曾與杜克共事，他說：“邁克首先是一個徹徹底底的好人，親和也並不高傲。他對人很尊重，極少言辭無禮。”不過“山姆先生”散發着明星氣質，許多人卻形容杜克缺乏魅力。杜克顯然在努力表現出魅力，但他在講話中表達激情的句子有些單調枯燥，笑點也並不好笑。

What he has in spades, however, is discipline. Mike Cockrell, an ex-Walmarter who worked with Mr Duke, most recently as chief merchandising officer in India, says: “He’s the only person I know that never looked at his watch and always sat with his back to clock, but five minutes before the meeting was supposed to be over he’d say: ‘Let’s wrap up. What you got?’ ”

然而他無疑有很強的紀律性。曾在沃爾瑪與杜克共事的邁克•考克雷爾(Mike Cockrell)表示：“在我認識的人中，他是唯一不用看錶，背對着時鐘，卻能在會議預定結束前五分鐘說‘開始總結會議成果’的人。”考克雷爾在沃爾瑪的最後一個職位是印度區首席商品官。

He also has organisational nous and an ability to fix stuff, honed by a Georgia Tech engineering degree that he got before joining a regional department store – a choice that was inspired by his high-school physics teacher’s advice that service industries were the future.

杜克也擁有組織頭腦和解決問題的能力，這得益於他從佐治亞理工學院(Georgia Tech)獲得的工科學歷。畢業後他進入了一家地區性百貨商店，杜克作出了這樣的職業選擇是受到高中物理老師的啓發，這位老師說過，未來屬於服務業。

“You’ve got to give him a lot of credit for making difficult decisions,” says Mr Cockrell. “He tries to consider the human component and emotional side of decisions. But . . . that doesn’t cloud his judgment.”

考克雷爾說：“他作出了許多艱難的決定，這值得稱讚。他會努力考慮決策中人性和感情的因素，但是……那不會干擾他的判斷。”

As chief executive since 2009, he has reversed disastrous moves that diluted Walmart’s focus on price and narrowed its product range, alienating low-income US shoppers. Last autumn he ended a run of nine consecutive quarters of falling sales.

杜克從2009年起擔任沃爾瑪CEO，他取消了淡化對價格的關注、減少產品品類、疏遠美國低收入消費者等一系列災難性策略。去年秋天，他還結束了銷售額一連九個季度的下滑。

In China last year he oversaw the departure of Walmart’s country head after the Chongqing authorities, run by the now purged Bo Xilai, said it had mislabelled ordinary pork as organic – another sign that all was not well beyond US shores.

去年在他任上，沃爾瑪中國區總裁辭職。在此之前，重慶市官方稱沃爾瑪將普通豬肉錯標爲綠色豬肉，當時重慶市由現在已經失勢的薄熙來主掌。這起事件又一次顯示，在美國本土以外沃爾瑪並不是一帆風順。

He was also on Walmart’s senior executive team when Tom Coughlin, a vice-chairman, was convicted for embezzlement in 2006.

2006年沃爾瑪副董事長湯姆•庫格林(Tom Coughlin)被判貪污罪名成立，當時杜克也身處沃爾瑪高管團隊。

When Mr Duke became head of Walmart’s international division in 2005, one of his first acts was to close down its lossmaking German business, where Walmart’s cultural clumsiness was exemplified by decisions to stock baseball bats that German shoppers didn’t want.

2005年，杜克成爲沃爾瑪國際部負責人時，他最先作出的舉動之一就是關閉虧損的德國業務。沃爾瑪德國分部決定採購德國消費者不想買的棒球棒，沃爾瑪在文化方面的遲鈍，此事件中可見一斑。

If Mexico reveals a few bad apples that need to be thrown out, or a systemic rot that needs to be cleared up, Mr Duke sounds like the man to do it. But he could be compromised. The New York Times, which made the allegations, said the bribery was happening before he took charge of the international business but continued while he was there, and that a preliminary internal probe was shut down on his watch in 2006.

如果墨西哥行賄事件暴露出沃爾瑪內部有幾顆壞蘋果必須丟掉，或者暴露出公司內部存在系統性問題必須根除，那麼杜克似乎能夠挑起這副擔子。但他本人也可能會受到牽連。向公衆抖出這件事的《紐約時報》(New York Times)稱，賄賂行爲在杜克接手國際業務之前就已存在，但在他任內仍一直持續，而一項初步展開的內部調查卻在他任內在2006年終止。

While many pundits have said bribery is a fact of life in a lot of markets in which Walmart operates, others say they would be astonished if anyone at a business that is so visible – and subject to puritanical US anti-graft laws – could expect to keep it under wraps.

儘管許多專家表示，在沃爾瑪經營的許多市場，賄賂是現實中存在的現象。但還有一些人則指出，在一家如此受人關注、並且受到極爲苛刻的美國反腐敗法律約束的企業，有人居然以爲能夠瞞天過海，十分令人驚訝。

Nelson Lichtenstein, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of a book on Walmart, says the company offers “a highly structured moral order” for its employees. But it also nurtures a cowboy bravado that says “get it done today, we don’t care how you do it”, an attitude he links to the Sundown Rule created by Mr Walton.

加州大學聖塔芭芭拉分校(University of California, Santa Barbara)教授尼爾森•李奇登斯坦(Nelson Lichtenstein)寫了一本關於沃爾瑪的書，他說這家公司給員工提出了“很有條理的道德要求”，但它同時也培育着一種牛仔的勇敢精神，“今天就搞定，我們不管你怎麼辦到”。李奇登斯坦將這種態度的形成歸結於沃爾頓確立的“日落原則”(Sundown Rule)。

Despite Mr Duke’s victories, critics say he has kept an outmoded business model ticking over when he should have responded more boldly to the growth of ecommerce and convenience-store shopping.

儘管杜克取得了許多成功，批評人士還是認爲，他本來應該對電子商務和便利店銷售模式的發展採取更果敢的對策，結果他卻讓一種過時的商業模式維持運轉。

“He has brought to Walmart a continuity, but not a personal imprint,” says Walter Loeb, a retail consultant. “He’s administrating the company but he has not moved the needle very much.”

“他向沃爾瑪賦予了延續性，卻並沒留下個人印記，”零售業諮詢師沃爾特•洛布(Walter Loeb)說道。“他是在管理公司，但他卻並沒有作出什麼創新。”

Any talk of new shops and shopping habits will go out of the window if serious wrongdoing is found. If Mr Duke emerges unscathed, he will probably be given his final task as a fix-it man. But it is the last task the warehouse whizz from the farm would have wanted.

如果被發現存在重大過錯，那麼再怎麼談論開設新店或者消費者的購物習慣也只是空話。如果杜克不會受到牽連，那麼搞定這件事或許會是他的最後一項任務。這位出身農場的倉儲專家，恐怕並不想要這樣的任務。

The writer is the FT’s US retail correspondent。

作者是英國《金融時報》美國零售業記者