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When TransferWise, an online money transfer service, moved to new headquarters in London recently, it installed a sauna in its offices.
前不久，网络汇款服务TransferWise将总部搬到了伦敦，还在新总部的办公室里装了一间桑拿浴室。
This is the sort of extravagance that leads to much scoffing about tech start-ups, caricatured as preferring to invest in ping pong tables before turning a profit.
正是这类奢侈之举，令高科技初创企业受到不少嘲笑，说它们比起盈利，更喜欢把钱投在乒乓球桌上。
But the sauna is more than a sign of excess. TransferWise’s founders are Estonian. Much of its operations are based in the Baltic country. During a recent conversation with Taavet Hinrikus, its co-founder, I was struck by how animated he became when describing the corporate culture he is trying to nurture.
但这间桑拿浴室不止象征着挥霍过度。TransferWise的创始人是爱沙尼亚人，该公司的许多业务都位于这个波罗的海国家。最近我与其联合创始人塔韦特•欣里克斯(Taavet Hinrikus)进行了一次访谈，当他描述起自己正努力培养的企业文化时，整个人所呈现的活力令我印象深刻。
He wants his staff to believe they are part of “a revolution” rather than simply the workforce. He wants to foster respect in the office. “No drama means good karma,” he says. To instil these values, he sends all new recruits — from London or New York — to spend their first week in Tallinn, Estonia, where they take a crash course on the company’s history and values.
他希望自己的员工相信他们是“一场革命”的一部分，而不只是劳动力。他希望在办公室中培养尊重感。欣里克斯说：“没冲突的环境才是好环境”。为了灌输这些价值观，他将所有新员工（来自伦敦或纽约）都送到爱沙尼亚首都塔林去度过入职第一周。在那儿他们将接受有关公司历史和价值观的速成培训。
Creating a defined culture at a start-up matters, particularly for tech companies. Venture capital investment allows them to hire rapidly. But with such fast growth, newcomers at these organisations can find it difficult to assimilate, fail to understand the work culture, which can lead to staff pulling in different directions.
对于初创公司，尤其对于高科技初创企业而言，创立明晰的文化非常重要。风险投资令他们可以迅速扩充队伍，可增速如此之快，令这些组织里的新人感到很难同化，无法理解工作文化，从而导致员工被扯向不同方向。
In Silicon Valley, there is a tendency to solve this problem through creating bumper-sticker mottos. During a visit to Facebook’s offices in Menlo Park, California a couple of years ago, I saw posters plastered across walls featuring mantras such as “Move fast and break things” and “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”
硅谷在解决这类问题时，倾向于创造一些车尾贴式的格言。几年前我在参观Facebook位于加利福尼亚州门洛帕克的办公室时，看到墙上贴满了海报，上面醒目地印着一些口号，比如“思维要新，行动要快”，还有“无畏方能前行”。
The intention was to encourage workers to innovate and work at speed. The slogans felt Orwellian to an outsider. But throughout Facebook’s enormous offices, desks were occupied by fast-typing young people. I couldn’t find anyone loitering around the ping pong tables.
它们的目的是鼓励员工创新，提高工作效率。在旁观者看来，这些标语让人感到奥威尔的意味。可是环视Facebook巨大的办公室，满眼皆是伏案快速敲键盘的年轻人。我没看到有人在乒乓球桌附近闲逛。
Other tech companies offer perks with cultural goals in mind. Songkick, the British gig listing start-up, gives new recruits a box set of The West Wing.
还有的高科技公司在提供额外福利时，也不忘企业文化目标。Songkick是英国一家音乐演出信息推送初创公司，该公司会给新员工发一套《白宫群英》(The West Wing)影碟。
Michelle You, Songkick’s co-founder, told me a few years ago that the US show represents an “idealised version of what we’d like to be like at Songkick. A place where people trust each other, are high performing, accountable, hold each other to high standards and are honest with each other.”
Songkick的联合创始人Michelle You几年前曾告诉我，这部美国电视剧代表了“我们所向往的Songkick的理想化版本，一个让员工们彼此信任、效率高、负责、互相都坚持高标准，并且互相都诚实以待的地方。”
Evernote, the productivity app group, is among a number of Silicon Valley companies that allow employees to take “unlimited holidays”. Phil Libin, chief executive, says that his employees initially reacted by taking less time off. This forced him to insist all workers take at least one week’s holiday, offering $1,000 for those who organised a trip that “expands their mind”. The policy is intended to cultivate a creative and happy workforce.
还有一些硅谷公司允许员工“无限休假”，效率应用公司印象笔记(Evernote)是其中之一。该公司首席执行官菲尔•利宾(Phil Libin)表示，他的员工最初的反应是，休更短时间的假。这迫使他坚持所有员工至少要休一周假，并对那些组织一次“开阔视野”旅行的员工提供1000美元。这项政策旨在培养出一支有创造力的、快乐的员工队伍。
The focus on culture yields results. According to a study by Glassdoor, the recruitment experts, entitled “Does company culture pay off?”, the share prices of public companies that were deemed good places to work and praised for their corporate values by employees, were found consistently to outperform the overall stock market.
对文化的注重带来了回报。招聘网站Glassdoor进行了一项名为“企业文化有回报吗？”的调查，发现那些被员工认为工作环境良好，且企业价值观得到称赞的上市公司，其股价表现一贯强于大盘。
Tech start-ups can stumble if they address culture too late. Many suffer from a “brogrammer” attitude that plagues digital start-ups dominated by young men.
高科技初创企业如果过晚处理企业文化问题，可能会在这上面栽跟头。在年轻男性占多数的数字初创公司弥漫着一种“程序员兄弟会”(brogrammer)态度，许多公司都受此拖累。
Last year, Uber, the taxi app group, apologised after one of its top male executives said he might hire private investigators to dig into the private life of a female blogger who was critical of the company. The incident appeared to justify previous criticisms of Uber’s attitudes to women.
去年优步(Uber)一位男性高管说他可能会雇佣私家侦探，深挖一位女博主的私人生活，这位女博主曾批评过该公司，随后这家打车应用公司为此事做出道歉。这起事件似乎印证了先前优步在对女性态度方面所受到的批评。
In the past, Uber chief Travis Kalanick had described the company as “boober,” because of its effect on his sex life. Given Uber needs to ensure women feel safe using the service, as well as making it an attractive place for women to work, these were terrible errors. Mr Kalanick has since said the company must become “open and vulnerable enough to show people the positive principles that are at the core of Uber’s culture”.
优步首席执行官特拉维斯•卡兰尼克(Travis Kalanick)曾形容这家公司为“妞步”，因为它造福了他的性生活。鉴于优步需要确保女性感到安全，才能让她们使用这项打车服务，以及吸引她们来优步工作，上面这些都是可怕的错误。卡兰尼克后来表示优步必须变得“足够开放和敏感，以向公众展示优步文化核心中的积极原则。”
Given the opportunities and pitfalls, it’s logical that entrepreneurs such as Mr Hinrikus spend time pondering their company culture. After all, how better to understand the roots and goals of a plucky Estonian start-up than conducting meetings in a sauna?
考虑到企业文化中的机遇和陷阱，欣里克斯等企业家花时间琢磨企业文化是合理的。毕竟，要了解一家勇敢的爱沙尼亚初创公司的根源和目标，还有什么比在桑拿浴室里开会更合适呢？
