自由市场经济并不能独霸创新

Hackers, pirates and swindlers, rather than visionary chief executives, should be the inspiration for business leaders. That is the view set out in The Misfit Economy by Alexa Clay and Kyra Maya Phillips.

商界领袖应该把黑客、海盗、骗子而非有远见的首席执行官当作自己的灵感之源。这是亚历克莎•克莱(Alexa Clay)与凯拉•马娅•菲利普斯(Kyra Maya Phillips)合著的《另类经济》(The Misfit Economy)一书所表达的观点。

The book’s principal contention is that “the free market economy does not possess a monopoly on innovation”. They suggest five key principles to help discover your “inner misfit”: hustling (“spotting an idea and going for it”); copying (which they describe as “collective innovation”); hacking (taking on the establishment and getting “to know a system intimately in order to more effectively take it apart”); provoking (sparking dialogue); and pivoting (enacting “dramatic change in the course of one’s life to pursue greater fulfilment and inspiration”).

该书主要的论点是，“自由市场经济对创新并不拥有独占权”。她们给出五个关键标准来帮你发现你“内在的另类”：打拼（“发现一个点子并努力实现它”）；抄袭（她们称之为“集体创新”）；破拆（挑战既得利益，设法“熟悉一个体系以便更有效地破拆它”）；挑衅（引发对话）；换活法（上演“人生旅程中的戏剧性变化，以追求更大的成就和灵感”）。

The authors state that “while many great innovation practices have been and will be distilled from the Googles, eBays and Toyotas of the world, our research has revealed that not only has underground innovation been overlooked as a significant driver of the economy but it also offers its own unique and valuable insights”.

两位作者写道：“虽然许多伟大的创新实践出自并且未来还将出自谷歌(Google)，eBay和丰田(Toyota)之类的世界级企业，但我们的研究揭示出，人们没有注意到地下创新是经济的重要推动力之一，另外地下创新还可向人们提供它特有的宝贵洞见。”

I am not so sure about this. Last year, the EU ruled that member states should include illegal activities, such as prostitution and drug dealing, in gross domestic product figures. That official data-crunchers count Crime Inc’s contribution to their economies goes some way to disproving the authors’ claims to be groundbreaking.

对此我不敢全然认同。去年，欧盟裁定，各成员国应将非法活动（如卖淫和毒品交易）纳入国内生产总值(GDP)数据。官方数据统计将“犯罪行业”的贡献计入经济中，这在一定程度上否定了两位作者所称的开创性。

The writers continue: “While other innovation-related books rightly chronicle the creativity and ingenuity of fast-moving start-ups, corporate strategy and visionary CEOs, this book goes outside the conventional scope to show a broader view of the world economy. Formal markets are only one part of the whole. We will make visible some portion of the rest.”

她们继续写道：“虽然其他有关创新的书籍正确地记录了快速成长的初创企业、公司战略以及富有远见的首席执行官的创造力和聪明才智，但本书跳出传统视野，展现了对世界经济更广泛的理解。正规市场只是整个市场的一部分。我们将展现其余部分的某些方面。”

There is extensive literature on what criminals can teach law-abiding entrepreneurs. Louis Ferrante’s Mob Rules: What the Mafia Can Teach the Legitimate Businessman is one example. Ryan Blair’s Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went from Gang Member to Multi¬millionaire Entrepreneur and I’ll Make You an Offer You Can’t Refuse: Insider Business Tips from a Former Mob Boss by Michael Franzese are others. Very few contend that big companies are well placed to be innovative. More often they are criticised for moving slowly and are crippled by bureaucracy.

市面上有大量关于守法企业家可从罪犯那里学到些什么的书籍。路易斯•费兰特(Louis Ferrante)的《大佬管理学》(Mob Rules: What the Mafia Can Teach the Legitimate Businessman)就是一例。另外还有瑞安•布莱尔(Ryan Blair)的《只要你能豁出去：全世界都会为你让路》(Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went from Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur)，以及米夏埃尔•弗兰泽塞(Michael Franzese)的《黑道商学院》(I’ll Make You an Offer You Can’t Refuse: Insider Business Tips from a Former Mob Boss)。很少有人认为大企业在创新方面具有优势。更常见的是，它们因行动迟缓而成为人们批评的对象，而且饱受官僚作风困扰。

Clay and Phillips cite two well-known business mavericks: Steve Jobs and Richard Branson. Yet the cult of the maverick entrepreneur is well established. Few books focus on the boring accountants who steward steady businesses — not just because they are dull to read. Disruption is, after all, the business buzzword of the day.

克莱与菲利普斯把商界两个知名的特立独行者当作例子，他们是史蒂夫•乔布斯(Steve Jobs)和理查德•布兰森(Richard Branson)。但人们对特立独行创业家的膜拜早已形成。很少有书会聚焦那些负责确保业务稳定的乏味会计师——不止是因为这类书读起来很枯燥。毕竟，颠覆才是当今的商界热词。

These are quibbles, however. The book gives well-drawn and interesting examples of innovators beyond the mainstream: the Saudi entrepreneur who works with Amish camel farmers to sell their milk; the UX, a clandestine group of French art rebels who broke into the Panthéon in Paris to restore a neglected 19th-century clock. On occasion the suggestions lapse into clichéd “thinking outside the box” territory, however.

不过，上面这些话属于吹毛求疵。该书给出了关于主流之外创新者的恰当而有趣的例子：与养骆驼的阿米什农户合作卖驼奶的沙特创业家；一个由法国叛逆艺术家组成的、名为UX的秘密组织，其成员闯入巴黎先贤祠(Panthéon)，修复了一座被人遗忘的19世纪座钟。然而，有时她们的建议落入了“跳出框框思考”的俗套。

There are intriguing asides, such as how when Occupy movement participants went back to work, they were struck by how hierarchical their workplaces were, though it is less clear if they did anything about it. But for those wanting a fresh perspective on business practices or working lives, this is a snappy introduction to a new way of thinking.

该书也包含一些耐人寻味的内容，例如描写当“占领运动”(Occupy movement)的参与者回来工作时，他们是多么吃惊于自己工作场所的等级森严——尽管读者不太清楚他们是否就此做了什么。不过，对那些想从全新视角观察商业实践或职场生活的人来说，这本书是通向一种新思维方式的快速入门。