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Samsung is not the first company to discover that battery life can be a combustible issue.
三星(Samsung)不是第一家发现电池寿命可能是个烫手问题的企业。
Fiery power packs have haunted businesses as diverse as Dell and Boeing in recent years.
近年来，电池过热问题困扰过从戴尔(Dell)到波音(Boeing)等各类企业。
The latter’s Dreamliner fleet was even grounded in 2013 after the aeroplane’s batteries demonstrated unfortunate incendiary tendencies.
2013年，波音的梦想客机(Dreamliner)机型甚至还因电池不幸出现易燃倾向而遭到禁飞。
The Korean electronics company now has its very own fully fledged battery flame-out to navigate.
这家韩国电子公司眼下要应对自己的一场由电池导致的全面危机。
It has just been forced to halt production of its much-hyped Galaxy Note 7 smartphone after the device was blamed for setting fire to at least one house, a car and a number of alarming incidents where Galaxy Note 7s started smoking on planes when in flight.
三星刚刚被迫停止生产其被大肆宣传的Galaxy Note 7智能手机，此前这款手机因造成至少一套房屋和一辆车起火、以及造成一系列在飞行中的飞机上冒烟的令人惊慌的事件而受到指责。
It is not the first time Samsung has tried to deal with the problem.
这不是三星第一次试图处理这个问题。
The company recalled 2.5m of the devices just five weeks ago after reports of battery fires.
仅5周前，在出现多起电池起火的报告后，三星召回了250万部Galaxy Note 7。
But it then claimed to have fixed the problem and encouraged customers to swap their dodgy phones for new ones.
但之后三星声称已经解决了这个问题，并鼓励消费者将问题手机置换为新机。
Now that fix appears to have come unstuck, it had no option but to dump the whole line.
现在，所谓的解决看来是失败了，三星别无选择，只能放弃整条产品线。
That, despite the heavy cost, is the safest option.
尽管这样做的代价非常高昂，这是最安全的选项。
Defective products — especially when they are potentially dangerous — can take a disproportionate toll on a company’s reputation.
有缺陷的产品——尤其是当这些缺陷构成潜在危险的时候——可能会对企业声誉带来特别沉重的打击。
Demonstrating a firm disinclination to risk your customer’s wellbeing is the way to limit reputational damage, as well as the inevitable consumer lawsuits.
展现不愿把客户的福祉置于险地的坚决态度，是减少声誉损失以及不可避免的消费者诉讼的方法。
The classic example that is often cited is Johnson & Johnson, which faced potential disaster in the early 1980s when a malicious attacker poisoned batches of the consumer analgesic, Tylenol.
人们经常提及的经典案例是强生(Johnson & Johnson)。上世纪80年代初，该公司曾面临一场潜在的灾难。当时，一位恶意攻击者在多批次的非处方止痛药泰诺(Tylenol)中下了毒。
The company responded by swiftly pulling all Tylenol products from retailers’ shelves across the country.
对此，该公司的回应方式是迅速将全国各地零售商货架上的所有泰诺产品下架。
It then repackaged the products, which included the tamper-resistant packaging that is now common.
接着，该公司将这些产品重新包装，采用了如今常见的可防止私自替换内容物的包装。
Its quick reaction prevented both the need for federal intervention and a public outcry.
该公司快速的反应，既消除了联邦政府干预的必要性，也阻止了舆论的强烈谴责。
Having failed to resolve the problem with its cutting-edge lithium ion battery, Samsung is right to cut its losses.
在未能解决其尖端锂离子电池中存在的问题之后，三星采取止损的办法是对的。
Unlike past phones which had removable power packs, the Note 7’s integrated design means that repeated modifications would be cumbersome and costly.
与过去电池可拆卸的手机不同，Note 7电池与机身一体的设计意味着，反复修改将不仅拖沓而且成本巨大。
Even a fix would not repair the damage to the Note 7 name.
而且，即使修复了问题，也无法修复Note 7品牌受到的损害。
The company does not want customers to start asking shop assistants: Which one is the exploding phone?
该公司肯定不希望看到客户开始问导购：哪一款手机是那个会爆炸的？
Recalls are painful, but are survivable by large companies that are not dependent on a single product line.
召回是十分痛苦的，但是对于不依赖于单一产品线的大企业来说，是可以挺过去的。
Both Toyota and Merck have suffered financial losses as a result of massive product recalls.
丰田(Toyota)和默克(Merck)都曾因大规模产品召回而遭遇财务上的损失。
Still, long-term trends suggest that both companies’ reputations and stock prices bounced back.
然而，长期趋势显示，两家企业的声誉和股价都反弹回来了。
Samsung is at least well insulated from any financial fallout. The company is sitting on a cash pile of some $59bn.
三星至少不用担心召回导致任何重大财务影响——该公司目前仍坐拥大约590亿美元现金。
Samsung should remember how it started out in the mobile business, which took off in the 1990s after its chairman Lee Kun-hee demonstrated his zero tolerance approach to faulty handsets.
三星应该记住它在手机业务上是如何发家的。该公司手机业务在上世纪90年代的起飞，是由于此前其董事长李健熙(Lee Kun-hee)显示了对问题手机零容忍的处理方式。
He piled up 150,000 defective phones outside a factory and had them publicly incinerated.
他在一家工厂外堆积了15万部有问题的手机，并将它们公开付之一炬。
A re-run with the Note 7 would do Mr Lee’s successors little harm.
在Note 7上再次使出这一招，从长远来看对三星将没有什么坏处。
