Dealing with the downturn

应对衰退

Make love—and war

一半是伙伴，一半是对手

Aug 7th 2008 | SAN FRANCISCO
From TheEconomist print edition

Tough times are producing some surprising business bedfellows

时事艰难，昔日刀戈相向，今朝把手言欢

插图：彼得沙朗克

在公众场合，竞争者们通常不会给对手好脸看。但最龃龉的一对莫过于两家纽约的报纸：“纽约邮报”和“每日新闻”。“纽约邮报”批评“每日新闻”是“每日白日梦”。“每日新闻”则把自己的劲敌贬得一钱不值，两家报纸都很热衷这种互相诋毁。“每日新闻”用不堪入目的文字连篇累牍的刊载有关“纽约邮报”的老板Rupert Murdoch的传言，“纽约邮报”则以不那么礼貌的方式来报道“每日新闻”的所有者Mortimer Zuckerman。两家报纸还经常争论谁拥有更大发行量，吵的口沫横飞。

Yet behind the scenes executives from both papers are talking about working together in some areas, such as distribution, in an effort to slash costs. Nor are they the only rivals thinking the previously unthinkable. With the global economy on the rocks, businesses everywhere are desperately searching for ways to save money or boost revenue—even if they require collaboration with the enemy.

然而，在公众视线之外，两家报纸的总裁们却在讨论在报纸发行等方面进行合作，以削减成本。这种竞争者间的合作在以前是难以想象的，而他们并非是唯一的一对。当世界经济一路滑坡时，全球的企业都在拼命想法子去省钱或是增加收益——即便这需要你与敌人合作。

Arrangements in which firms compete vigorously with one another, while also co-operating in specific areas—known in management jargon as “co-opetition”—are not new. Carmakers have long collaborated on vehicle platforms, engines and so on to achieve economies of scale. And airlines have shared check-in, gate management and other facilities.

彼此间激烈竞争的公司同时在一些领域中展开合作，这种情况并不新鲜，它在经营管理的行话里叫做“合作竞争”。汽车厂商长期来一直在车辆底盘、发动机等部件上合作，以达成规模经济。航空公司则共用服务台、安检门和其他设施。

But given the dire state of both those industries there are likely to be more such deals. In July BMW, which makes the Mini, and Fiat, which produces the rival MiTo under its Alfa Romeo brand, said they were considering joint production of components and systems for their vehicles. “There has definitely been an uptick in co-opetition,” says Barry Nalebuff, a professor at Yale School of Management and the co-author of a book on the subject.

但是这些行业都不景气，所以类似的合作会越来越多。在七月，生产Mini的宝马和生产Mini的竞争车型MiTo的Fiat（其商标是Fiat持有的Alfa Romeo），放风说他们在考虑为双方的车型合作生产零部件及电子系统。“毫无疑问，合作竞争的数量有所上升。” Barry Nalebuff如是说。他是耶鲁管理学院的教授，还是一本探讨合作竞争的著作的共同作者。

Let’s be frenemies

既是敌人，也是朋友

Economic pressures have also brought New York’s feuding dailies to the negotiating table. Even in good times, the Post lost millions of dollars a year and the Daily News struggled to turn a modest profit. Now, with advertising migrating to the internet and the economy slowing, things look even bleaker. (On August 5th News Corporation, the Post’s parent, reported healthy profits for the last quarter of its fiscal year, but warned that next year’s growth would be “less robust”.)

迫于经济压力，这两家纷争不断的纽约报社坐到谈判桌前。即便在好年景，惨淡经营的“每日新闻”也只能勉强糊口，而“纽约邮报”一年则还要亏损几百万美元。而现在，广告大量流向网络，经济驶入慢车道，两家报纸的前景更为暗淡。（在8月5日，“纽约邮报”的母公司新闻集团报告了本财年上一季度的颇为可观的利润，但警告说明年的增长可能“缺乏动力”。）

While newspapers are already carrying fewer ads, parcel-delivery companies fret they may soon be carrying fewer packages. Faced with an ailing American economy, two such firms, DHL and UPS, are planning to collaborate in the express-delivery market there. Under the terms of a proposed ten-year deal, UPS, which has some excess capacity in its American air-freight network, would carry DHL’s packages on its planes inside America—and between the United States, Canada and Mexico—for a fee of up to $1 billion a year.

报纸上的广告已经缩水，快递公司则担心很快他们的业务量会遭同样命运。为应对萧条的美国经济，两家快递公司DHL和UPS，正计划在美国市场上展开合作。UPS在其美国空运网络中有一些多余运力。根据提议中的为期十年的合作计划，UPS将使用其往返于美国、加拿大和墨西哥三国间和美国国内的飞机来帮助运送DHL的包裹。DHL则将为此每年向UPS支付至多10亿美元的费用。

The impetus for the deal came from DHL. Its American express-delivery business is bleeding red ink. By working with UPS and restructuring its own ground-delivery network, the German-owned firm plans to slice its losses in America from a forecast $1.3 billion this year to $300m by 2011. As for UPS, it could do with the cash: its second-quarter operating profit shrank by 18%, to $1.45 billion, owing to rising fuel costs and the stagnant American economy.

这次合作是DHL发起的，此前它在美国的快递业务部门赤字累累，亏损严重。通过与UPS合作以及重组其地面物流网络，这家德国人控股的公司计划到2011年时将其在美国的亏损额从今年预计的13亿美元削减至3亿美元。UPS参加合作则是为了增加收益：受累于攀升的燃料成本和美国经济持续低迷，UPS二季度的经营利润减少了18%，为14.5亿美元。

Crafting co-opetition deals is a tricky business, not least because potential partners need to swallow their pride first. Firms also need to be very clear about what will and will not be covered by a deal. “You have to figure out exactly where you are co-operating and where you are competing, and not get your staff confused,” says Harold Sirkin of the Boston Consulting Group.

安排“合作竞争”是很讲究的一门学问，一个重要原因是潜在的合作伙伴必须先收起自己的傲慢。公司们还要特别明确哪些领域可以合作，哪些不可以。“你需要弄清楚你们什么时候是伙伴，什么时候是敌人，别把你的员工绕晕了。” 波士顿咨询集团的Harold Sirkin说。

Newspapers, for instance, tend to differentiate themselves by their editorial content and the quality of their advertising-sales operations. So editorial and advertising departments of rival papers must be kept separate if they are to retain their distinctive identities. But distribution, printing and back-office operations are easier to consolidate without blurring brands—which is why the Post and the Daily News are exploring such possibilities.

举例来说，报纸间的差异主要体现在社论和广告版面的销售情况上。因此相互竞争的报纸如果想坚持自己的特色，就必须保证社论和广告部门不受合作影响。印刷和后勤部门则可以加以合并：它们的合并对报纸的个性影响不大。基于此，“纽约邮报”和“每日新闻”正在探讨这类合作的可行性。

Clarity is also essential when it comes to persuading antitrust watchdogs that a link-up is benign. Sometimes even the whiff of co-opetition can cause other firms to cry foul—as Microsoft did a few months ago when it emerged that Yahoo!, an internet firm, was planning to outsource a chunk of its search-advertising business to Google, its main rival. Would-be partners must be able to show that it is in customers’ best interests for them to co-operate.

在向反垄断监管部门说明这种协作不会危及市场竞争时，透明性就显得格外重要。有时这边不过传言可能合作竞争，那边其他公司就已经大喊垄断犯规。比如，几个月前，当网络公司Yahoo!计划将自己的搜索广告业务的一大块外包给Google时，Google的主要竞争对手Microsoft就喊出了类似的抗议声。潜在的合作伙伴们必须证明他们的合作是为了替消费者着想。

UPS and DHL stress that their proposed deal just covers air freight; they will still compete in all the other bits of the express-parcel business, including ground collection and delivery. (They also point out that FedEx, another competitor, carries express packages by air for the US Postal Service.) “When this deal is finalised, nothing will change the fact that we are a rabid competitor of DHL,” says a UPS executive. DHL says it will bite back by using the savings from the UPS deal and from reconfiguring its ground network to offer a cheaper alternative to services from UPS and FedEx.

UPS和DHL强调说它们提议中的合作仅局限在空运领域；在快递业务的其他所有领域里，他们仍然是对手，比如在地面的包裹集中和分发上。（它们还指出另一位对手FedEx正为美国邮政服务公司空运快件。）“即便当合作敲定后，我们仍将全力与DHL竞争，”UPS的一位负责人如是表态。DHL则说，通过这次合作与地面物流网的重组，自己减少了成本，因而将提供更便宜的服务来抗衡UPS和FedEx，展开反击。

Frank Appel, the boss of Deutsche Post World Net, DHL’s parent, is confident that a deal with UPS can be reached before 2009. But it could be blocked by a legal challenge from unions which are furious that the firm is closing its air hub in Wilmington, Ohio, triggering thousands of lay-offs. Mr Appel says he needs to stanch DHL’s huge losses in its American express service now to prevent many more job losses in future.

DHL的母公司德国世界邮网的老板Frank Appel认为与UPS的合作有把握在2009年前达成。但是DHL计划关闭其设在俄亥俄州Wilmington的空运中心，这会导致数千人的裁员，激怒了工会。因而DHL与UPS的合作可能会受到工会在法律上的阻挠。Appel先生说他需要现在来减少DHL在其美国快递业务上的巨额亏损来避免未来削减更多的岗位。

As for the Post and the Daily News, it seems unlikely that any deal would encompass areas, such as advertising, that would worry trustbusters. And merging the editorial teams would be unthinkable—which means readers will still be able to enjoy the tabloids taking potshots at one another in print.

对“纽约邮报”和“每日新闻”来说，由于他们的合作不可能包括广告等领域，因而不大可能遭到反垄断人士的抗议。至于合并二者的社论团队则简直是天方夜谭，这就是说，读者们可以继续享受两份报纸上对彼此的谩骂。