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Governing partnerships
管理合伙人制
Electing the boss
选举新老板
Deloitte prepares to vote for a new CEO
德勤准备选举新任CEO
EVER since the inception of the corporation, the “principal-agent” problem has bedevilled shareholders. The partnership structure that prevails at consulting, accounting and law firms is supposedly free of the risk of executives acting in their own interest at the owners'expense. As the businesses belong to the employees, the incentives of managers and proprietors should be aligned. But leaders there must pay greater heed to the views of their worker-shareholders than do corporate bosses, who need only answer to boards selected by proxy votes that are rarely contested, and can simply issue orders to staff.
自公司成立以来，“委托代理”问题一直困扰着股东们。这种合伙制结构在咨询公司、会计师事务所和法律公司当中非常盛行，它被认为能够避免这样一种风险，即高管用所有者的资金从事跟自己利益相关的活动。虽然公司业务是由雇员经手，但是管理者的目标应该与企业所有者的利益一致。但领导人必须更加注意他们的同时也生为公司股东的员工们的意见，而不是公司老板们，因为他们只需要向精选出来并很少提出质疑的董事会回答问题、只需要简单地命令员工就行了。
This distinction is never more apparent than when the head of a partnership steps down. They will be dusting off the ballot boxes at Deloitte, the biggest of the “Big Four” global accounting firms. On August 15th Joe Echevarria, the boss of the American arm, said he would be leaving the firm. Rather than summon an executive-search agency to do some discreet recruiting, Deloitte will hold a leadership election.
然而当其中一位合伙人下台时，这样的差别对待就更加明显了。他们将准备在德勤重新使用投票选举。8月15日，德勤美国CEO乔埃切瓦里，说他要离开公司。此次，德勤决定举行领导人选举而不是通过猎头谨慎招聘来产生新任CEO。
The firm does not disclose the mechanics of the process. But most partnerships form a nomination committee on their executive boards to assess candidates on both their visions for the firm and how much support they command from peers. After a series of informal consultations with fellow partners, the committee delicately advises likely losers to bow out gracefully. If these “soundings” yield a clear-cut heir apparent, the firm may proceed straight to a coronation vote where the new leader is rubber-stamped.
虽然德勤没有披露选举过程中的机制，但大多数采用合伙制的企业都会在董事会形成一个提名委员会，通过对公司未来的计划以及同行支持率等指标来评估候选人。在与合作伙伴进行一系列非正式磋商之后，委员会委婉地建议可能的失败者退出竞选。如果这些“声音”能够产生一个明确的候选人，那么公司可以不再进行评估和审核，而直接授权这位候选人。
If there are a few strong contenders, the process starts to resemble a political campaign. Candidates often write manifestos outlining their plans, and occasionally address the electorate at annual partners'meetings. Behind the scenes, horse-trading abounds, as the candidates promise juicy posts to influential partners who can deliver a block of support from colleagues. Each partner usually gets one vote, regardless of their equity stake.
如果竞选中出现了多个强有力的竞争者，这个竞选过程就开始变得像一个政治运动。候选人经常写下竞选宣言提出他们的计划，偶尔也会在每年的合作人会议上强调选举事宜。但是在幕后，交易比比皆是，因为候选人会向具有影响力的能带来同事支持的合伙人承诺以丰厚的回报。每个合伙人无论股权多少都只能投一票。
The race to succeed Mr Echevarria is likely to be hotly contested. Under his stewardship since 2011, Deloitte has grown impressively. In the first two years of his term, revenues at its American arm rose from $11.9 billion to $13.9 billion. The other members of the Big Four—EY, PwC and KPMG—sold their consulting arms after the Enron scandal and have since had to rebuild them from scratch. Deloitte stayed in consulting and Mr Echevarria has pushed that side of the business.
想要从埃切瓦里先生手里拿下接力棒也不是件容易的事。自2011以来，在他的领导下，德勤的业绩是非常惊人的。在他任期的前两年，其所在的美国分部收入从119亿美元上升到139亿美元。而四大的其他成员，安永、普华永道和毕马威，现在不得不重新建立他们在安然事件中出售的咨询分支。德勤仍然保持着咨询业务，这也是埃切瓦里先生努力的方向。
Since consulting's profit margins are fatter than for auditing, Mr Echevarria's strategy has surely inflated partners'paypackets. But it carries a greater risk of conflicts of interest, given the temptation for accounting firms to cut their clients slack on audits and compliance work in order to retain lucrative consulting business. On August 18th New York's regulators fined PwC $25m for watering down a report on sanctions-busting transactions with Iran at a Japanese bank; they punished Deloitte for a similar violation last year. The leaders of the Big Four have customarily come from the auditing side. If Deloitte's partners vote for a consultant, it will leave little doubt that the firm's roots in bean counting are being left further behind.
由于咨询的利润率比审计要高，埃切瓦里先生的策略肯定已经让合伙人的荷包膨胀了许多。但同时，考虑到如果要保持咨询业务的丰厚利润，它就需要削减审计和合规业务的客户，因此德勤也面临着更大的利益冲突的风险。8月18日，纽约监管机构因为普华永道淡化了日本银行违反制裁伊朗禁令的报告而对其处以2500万美元的罚款；他们在去年也对德勤类似的违规行为做出了惩罚。四大的领导人通常来自审计方。如果德勤合伙人投票给咨询顾问，那它就是毫无疑问地向外界表示，该公司的审计业务会落得更远。
