1924 John H. Patterson.Pioneer in Industrial Welfare
Successful investors gravitate toward successful businesses. And by "successful businesses," I don't mean the typical "provides good returns" companies that most investors target, but those that truly stand out due to their innovative people and practices. These businesses are often mavericks and icons, recognized globally as industry leaders. But their real power lies beyond sound investment value—they provide us with opportunities to learn from them. This learning is profound; we not only understand what drives these companies but also the minds of their founders or managers and what differentiates them from competitors. This knowledge often gives us an edge when selecting future investment opportunities, teaching us more about investing than traditional quantitative methodologies taught in most schools.
成功的投资者往往被成功的企业所吸引。而当我说“成功的企业”时，我指的并不是那些普通的“提供良好回报”的公司，而是那些因其创新的人员和实践而真正脱颖而出的企业。这些企业通常是行业先锋和偶像，享有全球声誉。然而，这些企业的真正力量不仅仅在于稳健的投资价值——它们还为我们提供了学习的机会。这种学习是深刻的；我们不仅了解这些企业的运作方式，还了解其创始人或管理者的思想以及他们与竞争对手的不同之处。这种知识通常会在我们选择未来投资机会时带来优势，比大多数学校仍然教授的传统量化方法更能教会我们投资之道。
“If finance were—when finance is properly taught, it should be taught from cases where the investment decision is easy. And the one I always cite is the early history of National Cash Register Company, and that was created by a fanatic who bought all the patents, and had the best salesforce, and the best production plants. He was a very intelligent man and passionately dedicated to the cash register business. And of course, the cash register business was a godsend to retailing when cash registers were invented. So that was the pharmaceuticals of a former age. If you read an early annual report prepared by Patterson, who was CEO of National Cash Register, an idiot could see that this was a talented fanatic. The investment decision was easy. If I were teaching finance, I would collect a hundred cases like that. And that’s the way I would teach the students.” – Charlie Munger
“如果金融学能够——或者说当金融学被正确教授时，它应该通过那些投资决策显而易见的案例进行教学。而我总是举例早期的国家现金出纳机公司（National Cash Register Company）的历史，这家公司由一个狂热分子创建，他买下了所有的专利，拥有最好的销售团队和最好的生产工厂。他是一个非常聪明的人，对现金出纳机业务充满激情。当然，现金出纳机的发明对于零售业来说是天赐之物。所以，在那个时代，这就相当于今天的制药行业。如果你阅读过帕特森（Patterson，国家现金出纳机公司的CEO）准备的早期年报，任何人都会看到这是一个才华横溢的狂热分子。投资决策很简单。如果我教金融学，我会收集一百个类似的案例来教学生。”——查理·芒格
Given Charlie Munger’s success in the world of investing, his advice is worth heeding. Rather than relying on quantitative tools like spreadsheet modeling, beta calculations, or discounted cash flow analysis, Munger takes a more holistic approach, focusing on the key elements that will shape a business's future prospects. This approach is also shared by Warren Buffett, who famously remarked, "The only way we know how to make money is to try and evaluate businesses."
鉴于查理·芒格在投资界的成功，他的建议值得重视。与其依赖于电子表格建模、贝塔值计算或折现现金流分析等量化工具，芒格更注重整体方法，聚焦于将塑造企业未来前景的关键要素。这种方法也得到了沃伦·巴菲特的认同，他曾著名地表示：“我们唯一知道如何赚钱的方法就是尝试评估企业。”
The business traits that consistently emerge as critical factors for a company's success have stood the test of time. From the titans of industry like Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Henry Ford, and John H. Patterson, to modern-day icons like Jim Sinegal of Costco, Arthur Blank of Home Depot, or Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia, much of it has to do with people, human nature, and the process of innovation. None of these have changed much over time.
那些始终被视为企业成功关键因素的商业特质经受了时间的考验。从范德比尔特（Vanderbilt）、洛克菲勒（Rockefeller）、亨利·福特（Henry Ford）和约翰·H·帕特森（John H. Patterson）等工业巨头，到现代的吉姆·西尼格尔（Jim Sinegal，Costco）、亚瑟·布兰克（Arthur Blank，Home Depot）或伊冯·乔伊纳德（Yvon Chouinard，Patagonia）等偶像，这些成功要素很大程度上都与人性和创新过程有关。而这些因素在时间的长河中几乎未曾改变。
John H. Patterson’s story is a fascinating tale of entrepreneurial success. At the age of just twenty-five, he started selling coal as a side business while managing a toll booth on a canal. Through his commitment to giving customers more than they expected and always keeping his promises, he quickly learned how to stand out in a commodity business. Within a year, he had become a successful coal merchant.
约翰·H·帕特森的故事是一段引人入胜的创业成功传奇。在他年仅25岁时，他在管理一条运河收费站的工作之余开始兼职卖煤。通过致力于为客户提供超出预期的服务并始终兑现承诺，他迅速学会了如何在商品化业务中脱颖而出。一年之内，他已成为一名成功的煤炭商人。
As Patterson's success continued, he began acquiring additional assets, including a store, coal mines, and railways. However, despite his efforts, the store struggled to turn a profit. He eventually discovered that his clerks, incentivized to win customer favor and maximize orders, were consistently undercharging. To address the issue, he promptly fired the three clerks and installed two cash registers in their place. This change proved so successful that Patterson and his brother backed a new stock placement by the cash register’s maker, the National Manufacturing Company. A year later, after the company reported a loss, he sold off most of his stock.
随着帕特森的成功不断扩大，他开始收购更多资产，包括一家商店、煤矿和铁路。然而，尽管他付出了许多努力，这家商店却始终难以盈利。他最终发现，受到争取客户好感和最大化订单的激励，他的店员经常少收费用。为了解决这一问题，他果断解雇了三名店员，并用两台现金出纳机取而代之。这一改变非常成功，以至于帕特森和他的兄弟支持了现金出纳机制造商——国家制造公司的一次新股发行。一年后，当该公司报告亏损时，他出售了大部分股票。
WE bought two registers among the first ones that were made. These were without cash- drawers and only gave an indication of the amount of the sale and punctured holes corresponding to the number of indications in a strip of paper which moved at each operation of the key. But this limited protection was sufficient to prove their value. their value. At the end of one year the store showed a profit of over $12,000 with no increase of business.
我们购买了最早制造的两台收银机。这些收银机没有现金抽屉，只能显示销售金额，并在每次按键操作时在一条纸带上打孔，孔的数量与显示的数量相对应。但这种有限的保护足以证明它们的价值。一年后，商店在没有增加业务的情况下显示出超过 12,000 美元的利润。
When Patterson later stumbled upon a store manager whose business thrived in his absence due to a few National Manufacturing cash registers, he realized the transformative potential of these machines for American business. Determined to seize the opportunity, he offered $6,500 to buy the company, a deal the owner accepted. The following day, Patterson tried to back out by offering $500 to annul the contract, but the owner declined. This moment marked the beginning of Patterson's nearly forty-year leadership over the National Cash Register Company.
当帕特森后来偶然发现一家商店经理，因为使用了几台国家制造公司的现金出纳机，业务在他不在时依然运转良好时，他领悟到这些机器对美国商业的变革潜力。他决心买下这家公司，并提出6500美元的报价，卖方接受了。第二天，帕特森试图反悔，愿意支付500美元取消合同，但卖方拒绝了。这一事件种下了帕特森统治国家现金出纳机公司近四十年的种子。
“I have in my files an early National Cash Register Company report in which Patterson described his methods and objectives. And a well-educated orangutan could see that buying into partnership with Patterson in those early days, given his notions about the cash register business, was a total 100% cinch.” – Charlie Munger
“我在档案中有一份国家现金出纳机公司早期的报告，其中帕特森描述了他的工作方法和目标。即使是一只受过良好教育的猩猩也能看出，在帕特森提出这些关于现金出纳机业务的理念时，与他合作绝对是100%的稳当之选。”——查理·芒格
Although nearly a century has passed since John H. Patterson passed away, the business principles he advocated remain as relevant today as they were in his time. Below, I’ve shared some of my favorite excerpts from Andrew Crowther’s excellent book, John H. Patterson: Pioneer in Industrial Welfare. Additionally, thanks to Jessie Rancourt’s detective work, you’ll also find extracts from the 1906 Annual Report that Charlie Munger referred to in a speech given at the USC Business School in 1994.
尽管约翰·H·帕特森去世已近一个世纪，但他提倡的商业原则在今天依然和当年一样适用。以下是我从安德鲁·克劳瑟（Andrew Crowther）优秀的著作《约翰·H·帕特森：工业福利的先锋》（John H. Patterson: Pioneer in Industrial Welfare）中摘录的一些我最喜欢的内容。此外，多亏了杰西·兰考特（Jessie Rancourt）的调查工作，您还可以看到1906年年度报告中的一些节选，这也是查理·芒格在1994年南加州大学商学院演讲中提到的内容。
Hire Right
选对人
“We get the best class of people to come with us. Mr. Rockefeller, of the Standard Oil Company, says that success depends upon the selection of the right people.”
“我们吸引了最优秀的人才加入我们。标准石油公司（Standard Oil Company）的洛克菲勒先生说，成功取决于挑选正确的人。”
Tone from the Top
以身作则
“A boss whom the workers can see daily toiling away harder than any of them is certainly the one who will get the most work from his men.”
“一个每天辛勤工作、比任何员工都努力的老板，必然会从他的员工那里获得最大的努力。”
“Business is founded on confidence; success on co-operation.”
“商业建立在信任之上；成功依赖于合作。”
Volume
重视规模
"Charge a profit, a reasonable profit, but always a profit on every sale. Then make your real money by volume of business."
“每次销售都要赚取利润，合理的利润，但始终要有利润。然后通过业务量来赚取真正的钱。”
“Everybody knows that profit is the difference between expenses and receipts, and yet fully one half of the business men make more effort to cut down expenses than to increase their receipts.”
“每个人都知道利润是收入与支出的差额，但有一半以上的商人更努力地削减支出，而不是增加收入。”
Exceed Customer Expectations
超越客户预期
“Patterson said that no one had a right to expect business unless he satisfied customers. Every customer got what he paid for and a little more.”
“帕特森说，除非能满足客户的需求，否则没有人有权期待业务。每位客户都能得到他付出价值的东西，甚至更多。”
“The smallest complaint was a personal affair for John Patterson and he settled each complaint to the absolute satisfaction of the customer and regardless of expense.”
“最小的投诉对约翰·帕特森来说都是个人事务，他会不惜任何代价，以绝对满足客户为目标解决每一项投诉。”
"Every business which works for the betterment of humanity should be eagerly pressing forward and not waiting to be shoved forward. There are those who say that successful selling depends upon knowing what the public is asking for and then giving it to them. I do not agree with this viewpoint. I do not think that real success is attained by following in the wake of the public. My idea of successful business is this: Fill not only every known want of your customers but also have in ready reserve that which you calculate they are going to need next year or the year after.”
“每一个致力于人类福祉的企业都应积极向前推进，而不是等待被推动。有些人认为，成功的销售取决于了解公众需求并满足这些需求。我不同意这种观点。我不认为真正的成功是跟随公众的步伐实现的。我的成功商业理念是这样的：不仅要满足客户所有已知的需求，还要准备好你预估他们在明年或后年可能需要的东西。”
WE have reached the point where we do not make our money off the profit of a single sale; we depend upon large sales to make money. We do not believe any company could manufacture Cash Registers and sell them as cheaply as we do, unless it was as thoroughly equipped with improved machinery, and unless its sales amounted to as many a month as ours.
我们已经到了这样一个地步，我们不再依靠单笔销售的利润来赚钱；我们依靠大量销售来赚钱。我们不相信任何公司能够像我们一样便宜地制造和销售收银机，除非它配备了完善的改进设备，并且其月销售量与我们一样多。
“We had to educate our first customers; we have to educate our present-day customers; and our thought has always been to keep just so far ahead that education of the buyer will always be necessary. Thus the market will be peculiarly our own our customers will feel that we are their natural teachers and leaders.”
“我们必须教育我们的第一批客户；我们也必须教育现有客户；我们的想法始终是保持适度领先，这样客户的教育总是必要的。因此，这个市场将是我们独有的，我们的客户会觉得我们是他们的天然导师和领导者。”
Loyal & Repeat Customers
忠诚与回头客
“The first sale of any device is to be considered only as a first lesson to the consumer. The big sales are always in the future.”
“任何设备的第一次销售都应被视为对消费者的第一堂课。真正的大宗销售总是在未来。”
Appearances
外表
“The offices had to be clean. Mr. Patterson was about as neat a man as ever lived and everything about him had to be likewise. He thought that no man could do accurate work amidst disorder.”
“办公室必须干净。帕特森先生是世上最整洁的人之一，他周围的一切也必须如此。他认为，在混乱的环境中，没有人能做好精确的工作。”
“It was Mr. Patterson’s nature to prescribe for his business and for those about him in every detail. He wanted all his salesmen and executives to be well dressed. In later years, when money was freer, he had a way of rounding up the men in the offices and sending them to New York "to get the hayseed off them." He would send men with orders to tailors for several suits of clothing; he bought travelling bags and neckties by the dozen. If a man were not shaved he would present him with a razor.”
“帕特森先生的本性是对他的事业和他周围的人事无巨细地进行安排。他希望他所有的销售员和高管都穿着得体。在后来，当资金比较充裕时，他会把办公室里的人召集起来，送到纽约去‘洗掉他们身上的乡土气息’。他会派人带着订单去找裁缝做几套衣服；他一打一打地买旅行包和领带。如果有人没刮胡子，他就会送他一把剃须刀。”
“Do not hide your office on a side street or upstairs where no one can get at it. Have it where it will be easy to get at; fix up good window displays that will attract attention; have competent men to show machines to those who come in, and you will sell more machines in your office than you have ever before, and not only make your rent, but a handsome profit besides. ‘Light and cleanliness are the two great essentials to selling. A dark store is never as profitable as a light one. People are attracted by light. Many a store can be made light by knocking a few more holes in the wall. No one has yet failed in business because he spent too much money in lighting his store’”
“不要把你的办公室藏在一条小街上或楼上，让人找不到。把它设在容易找到的地方；布置好能吸引顾客的橱窗展示；安排能干的人向来访者展示机器，这样你在办公室里就能比以往任何时候都卖出更多的机器，不仅能支付租金，还能获得丰厚的利润。‘光线和清洁是销售的两大要素。黑暗的商店永远不如明亮的商店赚钱。人们会被光线吸引。很多商店可以通过在墙上多开几个洞来变得明亮。没有人因为在商店照明上花太多钱而导致生意失败’。”
Open-minded
思想开放
“It was possible to show him that he was wrong and he would reverse himself in an instant. For John Patterson, curiously enough, never had any pride of opinion; he was for some idea not because it was his but because it was right; show him that the idea was wrong and he was for the new right just as energetically as he had been for the old right!”
“可以向他证明他是错的，他会立刻改变自己的想法。说来也奇怪，约翰·帕特森从不固执己见；他支持某个想法不是因为它属于他，而是因为它正确；只要向他证明这个想法是错误的，他就会像之前积极支持旧的正确一样，积极支持新的正确！”
Humility & Frugality
谦逊与节俭
“Whenever business was booming and the sales people were congratulating themselves on how good they were, Patterson had a habit of drawing a wiggly line which by convention was known to be a snake and then lettering under it: "When the sun shines, look out for the adder."
“每当生意兴隆，销售人员都在祝贺自己做得有多好时，帕特森就习惯画一条弯弯曲曲的线，这条线按惯例被认为是蛇，然后在下面写上字：“阳光明媚时，要小心毒蛇。”
“In the later years of his life, Mr. Patterson had a personal income of about half a million dollars. He could as easily have had double that income but he preferred to have the money stay in his institution. He made no investments of any kind. He had a modest house overlooking Dayton and a small camp in the Adirondacks. He bought a great tract of land with the idea in view of selling home sites to those who worked with him and of providing a natural park where the people of the city might get fresh air. Eventually he gave the tract to the city. He probably spent less money on himself than any rich man in the country. The remainder of his income he gave away and most of it he gave away personally with the sole idea of making better citizens, or, as he liked to put it, ‘making better business.’”
“在他晚年，帕特森先生的个人收入约为五十万美元。他本可以轻易地拥有双倍的收入，但他更愿意把钱留在他的机构里。他没有任何投资。他在俯瞰代顿的地方有一栋简朴的房子，在阿迪朗达克山脉有一个小营地。他买了一大片土地，目的是把宅基地卖给和他一起工作的人，并提供一个天然公园，让城市居民可以呼吸新鲜空气。最终，他把这片土地捐赠给了城市。他花在自己身上的钱可能比美国任何一个富人都少。他把剩余的收入都捐了出去，其中大部分是他亲自捐赠的，唯一的想法是培养更好的公民，或者像他喜欢说的那样，‘创造更好的商业’。”
Incentives and Uncapped Earnings
激励和不封顶的收入
“It is not human nature to work as hard when an income is assured as when the income depends solely on the effort exerted. It was not a new idea to put men on commission. It was a new idea to put them on commission in order that they could earn more. Patterson started in at once to help them to earn more.”
“当收入有保障时，人们的工作努力程度不如当收入完全取决于自身努力时那么高，这是人之常情。让员工拿佣金并不是一个新想法。但让他们拿佣金以便他们能赚更多钱，这是一个新想法。帕特森立即开始帮助他们赚更多钱。”
“The N. C. R. agents thought that if they made too much money Mr. Patterson would immediately cut their commissions. They could not understand any other course, and there was no reason why they should understand any other course. It was one of Mr. Patterson's hardest tasks at this time to convince the sales force that the N. C. R. interest was in having the largest possible number of cash registers sold and that the company could not make any money unless the agents did.”
“N. C. R. 的代理商们认为，如果他们赚了太多钱，帕特森先生会立即削减他们的佣金。他们无法理解其他做法，也没有理由去理解其他做法。帕特森先生当时最艰巨的任务之一是说服销售团队，N. C. R. 的利益在于尽可能多地销售收银机，并且只有代理商赚到钱，公司才能赚钱。”
“If you can sell a million dollars in a week, we'll hire a brass band to take your commission to you. We can't make any money unless you do." Mr. Patterson's actions in refusing to cut commissions were severely condemned by many men in business.”
“如果你一周能卖出一百万美元，我们会雇佣一支铜管乐队把你的佣金送给你。除非你们这样做，否则我们赚不到钱。”帕特森先生拒绝削减佣金的做法受到了许多商界人士的严厉谴责。
“The profit-sharing plan has been many years in the making and is still in the experimental stage. Mr. Patterson approached wages never with the thought of how little he could pay, but first to see how much he could pay, and then to find what he could give in addition to the wages.”
“利润分享计划已经酝酿多年，目前仍处于试验阶段。帕特森先生对待工资的态度从来不是考虑他可以支付多低的工资，而是首先考虑他可以支付多高的工资，然后再考虑他可以在工资之外提供什么。”
“The plan was put into operation for the first time in 1917 and in its final form it operates in this fashion. (The executives under the plan do not receive salaries quite as large as they might receive in other companies of similar size. Their fortunes depend upon the fortunes of the company, but the workingmen have their shares over and above the highest going wages.) The profit-sharing plan provides that, after deducting from the year's profits a sum equal to 6 per cent interest on the money invested, the remainder is divided equally between the company and the employees. The half that goes to the company is used for buying additional land, buildings, machinery, inventions, and similar expenditures necessary in an expanding business. The company takes all the risk; the employees take none; but every increase of efficiency or elimination of waste on the part of an employee is reflected in the amount of the profits in which he shares.”
“该计划于 1917 年首次投入运营，其最终形式是这样运作的。（根据该计划，高管们获得的薪水不如他们在其他类似规模的公司中可能获得的薪水那么高。他们的财富取决于公司的财富，但工人们除了最高的现行工资外，还有自己的份额。）利润分享计划规定，从年度利润中扣除相当于投资金额 6% 利息的金额后，剩余部分由公司和员工平分。归公司的那一半用于购买额外的土地、建筑物、机器、发明以及扩张业务所需的类似支出。公司承担所有风险；员工不承担任何风险；但员工效率的每一次提高或浪费的每一次消除都会反映在他所分享的利润金额中。”
“Three distributions of the profits are made to the employees each year..”
“每年向员工进行三次利润分配。”
“One half of the employees' share, or 25 per cent of the total profits, is given to the managing employees, including executives, department heads, and their assistants, of which there are approximately 600. The remaining 25 per cent is divided between all other employees in the office and factory, with the exception of those who have been employed less than thirty days.”
“员工份额的一半，即总利润的 25%，分配给管理层员工，包括高管、部门主管及其助理，约有 600 人。剩余的 25% 分配给办公室和工厂的所有其他员工，但不包括受雇不满三十天的员工。”
“This dividing of employees into groups is done on the theory that those who contribute the most to the making of the profits are entitled to the largest share in them.”
“将员工分成不同群体是基于这样一种理论：对创造利润贡献最大的人有权获得其中最大的份额。”
“Under this plan, not only do all employees, from the general manager to the messenger boy, have the incentive to do their best in their positions and thereby earn more profits, but the employees in the B, C, and D groups have the added incentive to advance into a higher group.”
“根据这项计划，不仅所有员工，从总经理到信差，都有动力在自己的岗位上做到最好，从而赚取更多利润，而且 B、C 和 D 组的员工还有额外的动力晋升到更高的组别。”
Quality
质量
“Our Test Department carefully examines the materials used to make National Cash Registers. We believe that nothing is too good for the merchants in all parts of the world who use these machines. Each register is rigidly inspected several times as it is built.”
“我们的测试部门仔细检查用于制造国家收银机的材料。我们相信，对于世界各地使用这些机器的商家来说，再好的东西也不为过。每台收银机在制造过程中都要经过几次严格的检验。”
OUR constant aim is, first, to get the best machines; second, to sell the greatest number of them, and, third, to have them made and sold at the least possible cost. This we have always done in every branch of our Making, Selling and Recording Departments. We have not believed that good enough was equal to the best, and we have endeavored in every way to get the best material, have it made in the best way and sold by the best salesmen.
我们的一贯目标是，首先，获得最好的机器；其次，销售最多的机器；第三，以最低的成本制造和销售机器。我们在制造、销售和记录部门的每个分支中始终如此。我们不相信“足够好”就等于“最好”，并且我们一直努力以各种方式获得最好的材料，以最佳方式制造，并由最好的销售人员销售。
Tough Times
艰难时期
“We can drop with business or we can build a bridge and go across. Let's build a bridge." His way of building a bridge was to intensify every sales effort. Patterson did not draw in for a panic. He put on extra effort, and each panic marked a substantial advance by the N. C. R. The company really grew up in the Panic of 1893.”
“我们可以随着生意一起下滑，或者我们可以架起一座桥梁并跨越过去。让我们架起一座桥梁。”他架桥的方式是加强每一次的销售努力。帕特森并没有在恐慌中退缩。他付出了额外的努力，每一次恐慌都标志着 N. C. R. 的一次重大进步。公司真正成长于 1893 年的恐慌时期。
“Mr. Patterson met that depression as he had met every other depression- -by drawing up a new sales plan, by holding conventions all over the country, by extending his advertising (Mr. Patterson always enlarged his advertising when business was bad for it was then, as he said, it was most needed), and by putting on sales pressure from every direction.”
“帕特森先生应对那次经济萧条，就像他应对其他每一次经济萧条一样——制定新的销售计划，在全国各地举办大会，扩大广告宣传（帕特森先生总是在生意不好的时候扩大广告宣传，因为正如他所说，那时是最需要的），并从各个方向施加销售压力。”
“Patterson believed that cutting down expenses to make ends meet was the surest possible way to prevent them from meeting. He held that cutting down expenses cut down initiative and energy. If his bank account became anaemic, he went right out after the fresh blood of new business. He doubled his volume in the depression following the Panic of 1893. John Patterson was always at his finest when in trouble. He fairly revelled in it.”
“帕特森认为，削减开支以维持收支平衡是阻止收支平衡的最可靠方法。他认为，削减开支会扼杀积极性和活力。如果他的银行账户变得拮据，他就会立即去寻求新业务的新鲜血液。在 1893 年恐慌之后的经济萧条时期，他的业务量翻了一番。约翰·帕特森总是在遇到麻烦时表现得最为出色。他简直乐在其中。”
Innovation & Continuous Improvement
创新与持续改进
“[Patterson implemented] the policy of never considering the product as finished and which was to resolve into a definite policy a few years later when he formally established the inventions department, which became so famous.”
“[帕特森实施了]一项政策，即永不认为产品是完美的，这项政策在几年后演变成一项明确的政策，当时他正式成立了后来非常著名的发明部。”
We maintain four Inventions Departments, and these departments are constantly improving our present line; also inventing new types of registers. We take out ten times as many new patents in a year as we have old ones expire.
我们设有四个发明部门，这些部门不断改进我们现有的产品线；同时发明新型登记器。我们每年申请的新专利数量是旧专利到期数量的十倍。
“Patterson said to his people and repeated thousands of times afterward: "Send in the complaints. They are our schoolbooks from which we learn what is needed and how to remedy the difficulty. We propose so to improve the quality of our registers as to make them look as finished as a watch."
“帕特森对他的员工说过，并在之后重复了数千次：“把投诉送上来。它们是我们的教科书，我们从中学习需要什么以及如何补救困难。我们计划改进收银机的质量，使其看起来像手表一样精致。”
“Every idea that seemed to have merit was tested. It was axiomatic that everything being done by Patterson’s company was to the end of preparing to do it better.”
“每一个看似有价值的想法都会进行测试。帕特森公司所做的一切都是为了更好地做好准备，这是不言而喻的。”
WE have, in other words, instead of one brain of a superintendent looking for faults, improvements and betterments, 4000 brains and 8000 eyes constantly on the qui vive for mistakes, errors, betterments and improvements.
换句话说，我们不是只有一个总监的大脑在寻找错误、改进和改善，而是有 4000 个大脑和 8000 只眼睛时刻警惕错误、失误、改进和改善。
“With the new building came the formal establishment of one of the fundamentals of the success of the company and an idea which Mr. Patterson was the first to work out the Inventions Department. Previously Mr. Patterson had himself been the department.”
“随着新建筑的落成，公司正式建立了一个成功的根本要素，也是帕特森先生第一个提出的想法——发明部。此前，帕特森先生自己就是这个部门。”
“Patterson had it firmly fixed in mind that the product must ever be improved, and gradually this became an integral part of the business.”
“帕特森牢记在心的是，产品必须不断改进，这逐渐成为企业不可或缺的一部分。”
“We shall continue to experiment and give all ideas scientific, thorough, and practical tests before putting the same on machines. No expense or trouble will be spared to fully try all ideas advanced to us by our representatives, or to try and overcome any fault that may be discovered in the present machine.”
“我们将继续进行实验，并在将所有想法应用于机器之前对其进行科学、彻底和实际的测试。我们将不遗余力地充分尝试我们的代表提出的所有想法，或努力克服在现有机器中可能发现的任何缺陷。”
“The business that is satisfied with itself, with its product, with its sales, which looks upon itself as having accomplished its purpose is dead. The actual burial may be postponed; but it is dead because it is not going forward. To my mind, nothing can ever be good enough.”
“对自身、产品和销售感到满意的企业，认为自己已经完成了目标的企业，已经死了。实际的埋葬可能会推迟；但它已经死了，因为它没有前进。在我看来，没有什么会足够好。”
ONE of the mottoes on the walls of our building is that "good enough is the enemy of the best." In every department we make every effort to have everything done in the best possible way.
我们大楼墙上的座右铭之一是“差不多就是最好的敌人。”在每个部门，我们都尽力以最佳方式完成所有工作。
“I am always dissatisfied; I preach dissatisfaction. I can always see where something might be better; and therefore our business is never at rest and I never want it to be. The throbbing heart of business is the intense desire to do better. When that desire ceases, the heart stops.”
“我总是感到不满意；我宣扬不满意。我总是能看到哪里可以做得更好；因此，我们的业务永不停歇，我永远不希望它停歇。企业跳动的心脏是渴望做得更好的强烈愿望。当这种愿望消失时，心脏就停止了跳动。”
“Patterson was afraid of contentment. He was afraid of people around him becoming content. He refused to believe in perfection other than as a goal far off that could never be reached. He would seldom praise a good piece of work and if he did he would join an exhortation with the praise, as: "That's fine, now do better.”
“帕特森害怕满足。他害怕他周围的人变得满足。他拒绝相信完美，只将其视为一个永远无法企及的遥远目标。他很少称赞一项出色的工作，如果他称赞了，他会在称赞的同时加上一句劝勉，例如：“做得不错，现在可以做得更好。”
“Much of the growth of this business is due to the constant improvement of our product. For thirty-six years every effort has been made to make National Cash Registers meet the needs of merchants in all parts of the world. We are never satisfied, but are always trying to improve.”
“这项业务的大部分增长归功于我们产品的不断改进。三十六年来，我们一直努力使国家收银机满足世界各地商家的需求。我们从不满足，但始终在努力改进。”
Filling a need
满足需求
“Patterson went into the making of cash registers only because he thought every merchant would eventually have to use one. Thereafter he worked on the theory not of supplying what the buyer wanted for the buyers then did not want cash registers; he worked on the theory of supplying what the buyer could use to the best possible advantage once he had been taught the need.”
“帕特森投身于收银机的制造，只是因为他认为每个商人最终都必须使用一台。此后，他的工作理论不是提供买家想要的东西——因为当时的买家并不想要收银机；他的工作理论是，一旦教会了买家这种需求，就提供买家可以最大限度地利用的东西。”
Advertising & Social Proof
广告与社会认同
“Advertising differed from any which up to that time had been seen, in that every piece held a reason why the purchase of a register would make money for the purchaser. It was educational advertising. He borrowed from the patent-medicine people the wrinkle of attaching testimonials of satisfied users.”
“广告与当时为止所见过的任何广告都不同，因为每一则广告都包含了一个购买收银机将为购买者赚钱的理由。这是教育性广告。他借鉴了专利药商的做法，附上了满意用户的推荐信。”
WE have a list of over 1,000,000 names of retail storekeepers in the United States and Canada and a list of 603,172 merchants in foreign countries to whom we send regularly our advertising matter. We have been making up this list for twenty years, and it is the most perfect list of retail storekeepers, we believe, that any com- pany has. It is hard to estimate the value of this list alone.
我们拥有超过 1,000,000 个美国和加拿大零售店主的名单，以及 603,172 个外国商家的名单，我们定期向他们发送广告材料。我们已经制作这个名单二十年了，我们相信这是任何公司拥有的最完美的零售店主名单。仅仅估计这个名单的价值是很困难的。
"‘We know nothing about advertising,' said Mr. Patterson,’ but we want to learn. ‘Some day we will have a big business. Good advertising will get it for us. Visit the agents. Secure all the ideas from them that you can. Find out their needs. Those men are in the field and they know what is needed.’ John H. Patterson never pretended to know anything about advertising, but as a matter of fact he was probably the first man in any business other than the patent medicine to make advertising an integral part of his business.”
“‘我们对广告一窍不通，’帕特森先生说，‘但我们想学习。总有一天我们会拥有一项大生意。好的广告会为我们带来这项生意。去拜访代理商。尽可能多地从他们那里获得想法。找出他们的需求。那些人在实地工作，他们知道需要什么。’约翰·H·帕特森从不假装自己懂广告，但事实上，他可能是除专利药之外的任何行业中第一个将广告作为其业务不可或缺的一部分的人。”
Word of Mouth
口碑
“From the beginning Mr. Patterson insisted that no advertising could equal the word-of-mouth advertising of the satisfied user.”
“从一开始，帕特森先生就坚持认为，任何广告都比不上满意用户的口碑宣传。”
“Patterson recognized that the best salesmen were contented customers and so he made it a primary principle that any man who bought must not only be satisfied with the purchase but must be kept satisfied by being instructed not only how to use his machine, but also how to make money out of it. Considering his ideals, any other course was impossible to him.”
“帕特森认识到，最好的销售员是满意的顾客，因此他将其作为一项基本原则，即任何购买者不仅要对购买感到满意，而且要通过接受指导（不仅是如何使用他的机器，还要如何用它赚钱）来保持满意。考虑到他的理想，任何其他做法对他来说都是不可能的。”
WE have always treated our customers, after they have been sold, in such a way as to make them our best advertisement.
我们总是以一种方式对待我们的客户，在他们购买后，使他们成为我们最好的广告。
Low Prices
低价
“The object of The N. C. R. Co. is to stop the open cash drawer - to sell at lowest prices and benefit the billion. National Cash Registers are the lowest-priced machinery sold in the world.”
“N. C. R. 公司的目标是阻止敞开的钱箱——以最低的价格销售，造福大众。国家收银机是世界上售价最低的机器。”
Reinvestment & Retained Earnings
再投资与留存收益
“From the very beginning Patterson regarded a profit not at all as a personal perquisite but as something to put back into the business to make it bigger and better. He put back the profits with supreme confidence. He was always willing to go down with the ship.”
“从一开始，帕特森就完全不把利润视为个人特权，而是视为用于回馈企业，使其更大更好的东西。他以极大的信心将利润投入回去。他总是愿意与公司共存亡。”
THAVE been identified with the Company for twenty years. For many years the holder of common stock drew nothing in dividends from the business. It was only in recent years that we declared any dividends, and in no year have we declared more than 3 per cent., and that was only done one year. During the other years we have de- clared only 2 per cent. on the common stock. This has enabled us to keep our money in the business; it has enabled us to keep ahead of the demands of the trade by the best inventions, and has also enabled us to have the most improved machinery in the making of our machines; and all of this, of course, has enabled us to sell our registers at reasonable prices.
我已经在公司工作了二十年。多年来，普通股持有人没有从业务中获得任何股息。直到最近几年我们才宣布任何股息，而且没有一年宣布超过 3%，而且那也只是在一年中宣布的。在其他年份，我们只宣布普通股的股息为 2%。这使我们能够将资金留在业务中；使我们能够通过最好的发明领先于行业需求，并且还使我们能够拥有最先进的机器来制造我们的设备；当然，所有这些都使我们能够以合理的价格出售我们的产品。
Obliquity
迂回战略
“One of the reasons for Patteron’s success was that from the very first he had objectives larger than his business—he never worked for money as money. He did not believe in sharp shooting for profits. He wanted his money to come as an incident to service. One finds that men do not create success—whatever the definition of the moment may be—unless they believe in themselves and in what they are doing.”
“帕特森成功的原因之一是他从一开始就拥有比他的业务更大的目标——他从不为钱而工作。他不相信为了利润而投机取巧。他希望他的钱来自于服务。人们发现，除非他们相信自己和自己所做的事情，否则就无法创造成功——无论当下的定义是什么。”
Good Profits
良好的利润
“Mr. Patterson insisted then, and it is now everywhere considered a sound sales policy, that a sale should not be made to any one who could not make money out of what he bought. His messages all went to show the merchant's need of a register and not the N. C. R.s need of a sale. There is a distinction here which is not yet universally grasped.”
“帕特森先生当时坚持认为，现在这已被普遍认为是健全的销售策略，即不应该向任何无法从他购买的东西中赚钱的人进行销售。他的所有信息都旨在展示商家对收银机的需求，而不是 N. C. R. 对销售的需求。这里有一个尚未被普遍理解的区别。”
ITS phenomenal growth is largely due to the fact that our salesmen know that for every dollar we get for our machine we do the purchaser $10 worth of good. Our machines will last a lifetime, but we make so many inventions that it pays our customers to almost give away their old machines in exchange and buy new ones.
其非凡的增长主要归功于我们的销售人员知道，我们的每台机器为客户带来的价值是我们获得的每一美元的十倍。我们的机器可以使用一辈子，但我们发明了如此多的新产品，以至于我们的客户几乎要把他们的旧机器送人，然后再买新机器。
Transparency
透明度
“Mr. Patterson wanted to be constantly in touch with all of the agents. He thought that a business should not have secrets but that what one agent knew was good for every other agent to know. He believed that the progress of business depends upon the interchange of information among those in business.”
“帕特森先生希望与所有代理商保持联系。他认为企业不应该有秘密，一个代理商知道的东西对其他每个代理商都有好处。他认为，商业的进步取决于企业内部的信息交流。”
Internal Competition
内部竞争
“Mr. Patterson not only put into The N. C. R. (a bulletin to salesmen) the records made during the month by each salesman and as much of their methods as they would write in to him, but also he began to go around among the agencies himself and to publish in the paper the most interesting experiences that he encountered.”
“帕特森先生不仅在《N. C. R.》（一份面向销售员的公告）中刊登了每位销售员当月取得的业绩记录以及他们写给他的尽可能多的方法，而且他还开始亲自走访各代理机构，并在报纸上发表他遇到的最有趣的经历。”
“A man who made a good record had his picture printed in The N. C. R. with an account of what he had done - Patterson did this partly to reward the man and partly to challenge all the other men to go and do likewise.”
“业绩出色的人的照片会刊登在《N. C. R.》上，并附有关于他所做事情的描述——帕特森这样做一部分是为了奖励这个人，一部分是为了激励所有其他人也这样做。”
“The men who sold their full quotas were designated members of the Hundred Point Club and invited to Dayton for the annual convention. The man who first got his quota in the year was the president of the club, the second man was the vice-president, and the third was the secretary, and the fourth was the treasurer. Thus evolved a unique organization of best salesmen, and each year since its inception the club conventions have been growing in importance until they now are the event of the Dayton year.”
“完成全部配额的人被指定为“百分俱乐部”的成员，并应邀前往代顿参加年度大会。当年第一个完成配额的人是俱乐部主席，第二个人是副主席，第三个人是秘书，第四个人是财务主管。就这样，一个由最佳销售员组成的独特组织应运而生，自成立以来，俱乐部大会的重要性逐年增加，直到现在已成为代顿年度的盛事。”
Guaranteed Territories - Sharing Ideas
保证区域 - 分享想法
“We bring all of you people together and we ask one person and another person to get up and talk and then we ask for criticisms and suggestions. “Now, why do we do that? We couldn’t do that if we didn’t have guaranteed territories. You people wouldn’t be here to teach others to go into your territory and sell goods in your territory and get all the benefit of what you know. You would keep everything to yourselves. Guaranteed territory prevents all that and therefore you are able to come here and help each other.”
“我们把你们所有人聚集在一起，我们请这个人或那个人站起来发言，然后我们征求批评和建议。“现在，我们为什么要这样做？如果我们没有保证区域，我们就无法做到这一点。你们不会在这里教别人进入你们的区域并在你们的区域销售商品，并获得你们所知道的一切好处。你们会把一切都留给自己。保证区域可以防止这一切，因此你们能够来到这里互相帮助。”
Value Employees
重视员工
“The success of this company has been due to the enthusiasm we have been able to inspire in it, by persevering, by coaxing, by forcing, by recognising merit, by publishing good things done, by offering prizes. To be successful you must not only have ability but you must treat your men so that they will have confidence in you and in the company."
“这家公司的成功归功于我们能够激发的热情，通过坚持不懈、劝说、强迫、认可优点、公布好事、提供奖励。要成功，你不仅要有能力，还必须善待你的员工，让他们对你和公司有信心。”
WE endeavor to cultivate an extraordinary spirit among all of our employes, especially the Officers of the Company, in the Selling, Recording and Making Forces. As our organization becomes more perfect, the ability and loyalty of the men become more apparent and their pride in the Company's success becomes greater.
我们努力在所有员工中培养一种非凡的精神，特别是在公司的销售、记录和制造部门的管理人员中。随着我们的组织变得更加完善，员工的能力和忠诚度变得更加明显，他们对公司成功的自豪感也变得更强。
“Patterson began the idea of the modern factory; a place in which human beings might work in the greatest comfort, with entire self-respect and with the highest efficiency. The old idea was that a factory was just a place to work and that the employees were ‘hands.’"
“帕特森开创了现代工厂的理念；一个人类可以在最舒适的环境中工作，拥有完全的自尊和最高的效率的地方。旧的观念是，工厂只是一个工作场所，员工只是‘劳动力’。”
"Labour is suspicious- and has a right to be. Generally speaking, it is not fairly treated and it has not been given either its rightful share in industry or its proportion of income. The idea has been to get everything that is to be had out of a man, keep him down, regulate his wages by the smallest amount he will take and not by what he is worth, and when he is worn out, to throw him off like an old shoe.”
“劳工是多疑的——而且有理由多疑。总的来说，他们没有得到公平的待遇，也没有获得他们在工业中应有的份额或收入比例。过去的观念是从一个人身上榨取一切可以得到的东西，压制他，根据他愿意接受的最低金额而不是他的价值来定他的工资，当他精疲力竭时，就像扔掉一只旧鞋一样把他扔掉。”
“Enthusiasm is the biggest asset in business. It is the one thing that you have to work eternally to keep up. The N. C. R. was built by the enthusiasm of the organization both in the shops and in the field.”
“热情是企业中最大的资产。这是你必须永远努力保持的一件事。N. C. R. 是通过组织在车间和现场的热情建立起来的。”
“I have found that a man lacks enthusiasm when:
“我发现，当一个人缺乏热情时：
He has not an appreciation of the work in hand.
他对手头的工作没有足够的理解。
He is out of sympathy with what you are doing.
他对你所做的事情并不认同。
He lacks knowledge of the business and the motives of the officers.
他缺乏对业务以及管理层动机的了解。
He is not in harmony with his surroundings.
他与周围环境格格不入。
He does not realise his obligations.
他并没有意识到自己的责任。
“Treat people well and they will treat you well. They will not instantly respond but they will in the long run. Be square with them.”
“善待他人，他们也会善待你。他们不会立即回应，但从长远来看会的。要公平对待他们。”
"Do not try to take any advantage and do not try to get the last cent's worth of energy out of them. They will give you their best if they think you are giving them your best; they will not work the better for being forced.”
“不要试图占任何便宜，也不要试图从他们身上榨取最后一分钱的精力。如果他们认为你付出了最好的，他们就会付出最好的；强迫他们不会让他们工作得更好。”
"It pays to do good; it pays to help them to help themselves in every moral and physical way and also to give them every possible opportunity for advancing to higher positions and more money.”
“做好事是有回报的；以各种道德和物质方式帮助他们自助是有回报的，也要给他们一切可能的机会来晋升到更高的职位和赚更多的钱。”
“We take the attitude that if anything more can be done not reasonably done, but if it can be done at all for the improvement of comfort or safety, we will do it.”
“我们的态度是，如果有什么可以做的——不是合理地做，而是如果可以做任何事情来改善舒适度或安全性，我们就会去做。”
“I am so thoroughly convinced that it pays that I would recommend changes to keep labour happy no matter what might be the immediate effect upon our business, for it is only the ultimate effect that counts.”
“我深信这是一件值得做的事情，以至于我会建议做出改变，让员工感到满意，不管这对我们的业务立即产生什么影响，因为最终效果才是最重要的。”
“Probably no individual ever did as much as Mr. Patterson toward providing for the pleasure and recreation of those who worked with him.”
“可能没有任何人像帕特森先生那样为与他一起工作的人提供如此多的娱乐和休闲。”
100年前的Google。
“Every plan of the N. C. R. was designed to estimate men by their results and then to pay them by their results. Whenever possible he liked to overpay.”
“N. C. R. 的每一项计划都旨在根据员工的成果来评估他们，然后根据成果支付报酬。他在可能的情况下，总喜欢支付超出标准的薪酬。”
“The more we do for our employees, the better work they can do.”
“我们为员工做得越多，他们就能做得越好。”
“We found that people do the best work when they are best cared for. Nothing is more important to workers than good food. Three dining rooms are operated for our employees. Warm, substantial, well-cooked meals are furnished at cost, and often less than cost.”
“我们发现，当员工受到最好的照顾时，他们能做出最好的工作。对员工来说，没有什么比优质食物更重要。我们为员工运营了三个餐厅，提供温暖、丰盛、精心烹制的餐点，仅以成本价甚至低于成本价供应。”
“Mr. Patterson's policy of trying always to have the N. C. R. do more for those who work for it wholeheartedly than any other company had ever thought of doing for its people. For that was Mr. Patterson's way with men.”
“帕特森先生的政策是始终让 N. C. R. 为那些全心全意为其工作的员工做得更多，超出任何其他公司曾经想过为其员工做的事情。这就是帕特森先生对待员工的方式。”
“For a factory was to Mr. Patterson not an assorted lot of bricks and mortar surrounding an assorted lot of iron and steel contrivances. A factory to him was a collection of human beings.”
“在帕特森先生看来，工厂不是一堆砖瓦和钢铁设备的组合，而是一群人的集合。”
“During the critical years when the N. C. R. was building, a fair portion of the citizens of Dayton and all the politicians did everything in their power to block any movement which might benefit the N. C. R. Mr. Patterson was regarded as a menace. For who had ever heard of treating employees the way he treated them, or paying higher wages than it was necessary to pay? And why have so much nonsense about buildings and landscape gardening? Why not run a factory instead of a show?”
“在 N. C. R. 发展关键时期，代顿市的相当一部分市民和所有的政治家竭尽全力阻止任何可能有利于 N. C. R. 的行动。帕特森先生被视为一种威胁。因为从未有人听说过以他那样的方式对待员工，或者支付比必要工资更高的薪酬。又何必在建筑和景观园艺上搞这么多‘花架子’？为什么不单纯地运行工厂，而要搞成一场表演？”
“Mr. Patterson believed that clubs promoted social and business intercourse, understanding, and cooperation. He inspired the organisation of the Dayton Woman's Club and largely financed the purchase of its fine clubhouse. In the factory he organised the Advance and Progress Club for executives, in addition to the Woman's Century Club for women employees, and the N. C. R. Women's Club for the women of N. C. R. employees' families. The Old Barn Club was the personal property of Mr. Patterson, but he turned it over to public use in order to provide country club advantages.”
“帕特森先生相信俱乐部能够促进社交和商业交流、理解和合作。他发起组织了代顿女子俱乐部，并在很大程度上资助了其精美会所的购买。在工厂内，他为高管组织了‘进步俱乐部’，还为女性员工设立了‘世纪俱乐部’，并为 N. C. R. 员工家属中的女性设立了‘N. C. R. 女子俱乐部’。‘老谷仓俱乐部’原是帕特森先生的私人财产，但他将其转为公共用途，以提供乡村俱乐部的便利。”
“Workers are entitled to decent and comfortable surroundings at their work. Good working conditions keep workers healthy and happy and add to their self-respect. No employer can afford to provide work places that injure the efficiency of employees. When workers are contented they do more and better work."
“员工有权在体面舒适的环境中工作。良好的工作条件能让员工保持健康和愉悦，并提升他们的自尊。没有雇主能承担提供损害员工效率的工作场所的代价。当员工感到满意时，他们会做得更多，做得更好。”
Incentives
激励措施
“Keeping workmen is not altogether a matter of wages, but the wages are of the highest importance. I have always believed in paying men well, but paying them on results. Every job that can be so arranged is on the piece-work basis; we encourage the making of the highest possible wages.”
“留住工人并不完全是薪资的问题，但薪资却是最重要的因素。我一直相信，要给工人高薪，但要根据成果付薪。每一份可以这样安排的工作都采取计件制，我们鼓励工人赚取尽可能高的工资。”
DURING the last two years, two-fifths of the preferred stock of the Company has been held by Officers of the Company, Heads of Departments and members of the Selling Force.
在过去两年中，公司优先股的五分之二由公司高管、部门主管和销售团队成员持有。
Staff Turnover
员工流动率
“Our labour turnover is trivial when compared with most concerns of our size.”
“与我们规模相当的大多数公司相比，我们的员工流失率微乎其微。”
Promote from Within
从内部晋升
“Patterson’s ventures in hiring stars were all failures and the men who really helped him make the company were all men who had come up through the ranks.”
“帕特森尝试聘用明星员工的计划全部失败，真正帮助他建立公司的人，都是从基层成长起来的员工。”
Walk the Floors
走在地板上
“Mr. Patterson moved his desk out among the machinery and at once he began in his characteristic way to work through the men toward the product. He began to call meetings of the foremen and job foremen.”
“帕特森先生将他的办公桌搬到机器之间，立即以他特有的方式通过工人直接了解产品。他开始召集领班和工头开会。”
“When the business was smaller I used to travel about through the shops a great deal, knowing everyone, and taking pains to ask them if they had anything to suggest. Then I had them in meetings and I called for suggestions.”
“当业务规模较小时，我经常走访车间，与每个人都熟悉，并不厌其烦地询问他们是否有任何建议。然后，我在会议中让他们提出意见。”
“Patterson for the first time really saw what the agents were doing, he had never before inspected the front-line trenches. He had stayed at headquarters. But after that trip no executive of the company was ever permitted long to remain at headquarters; they were supposed to be out on the road holding conventions of salesmen and finding out why registers were being sold or why they were not being sold.”
“帕特森第一次真正看到代理人做了什么，他此前从未视察过前线。他一直待在总部。但那次视察之后，公司任何一位高管都不允许长时间留在总部；他们被要求外出与销售员开会，了解现金收银机为何卖得好或为何卖得不好。”
Harness Technology
安全带技术
“Much of the work in this factory is done with the aid of machinery. Improved machinery has enabled us to do many things more quickly and better than they were done in the past. It enables us to pay high wages and still sell our cash registers at such low prices. Machinery makes men dear, their products cheap.”
“这家工厂的大部分工作都借助机器完成。改良的机械使我们能够比过去更快更好地完成许多工作。它使我们能够支付高工资，同时仍以低价出售我们的收银机。机器使劳动力昂贵，但使产品廉价。”
Training
教学
"Teaching is my hobby and we provide the means to find knowledge. The employees have to go to some trouble to stop learning. It takes many forms and directions."
“教学是我的爱好，我们提供获取知识的途径。员工若想停止学习，反而需要费些功夫。学习以多种形式和方向展开。”
"Then began the idea of holding night classes so that the employees could learn how to get better jobs for themselves. The whole atmosphere gradually became one of teaching and as such it continued--with the N. C. R. as a university and with every executive and employee, from Mr. Patterson down, as students."
“于是，我们开始举办夜校班，让员工学习如何为自己争取更好的岗位。整个氛围逐渐变成了一种教学环境，并一直延续下来——将NCR视为一所大学，从帕特森先生到每位高管和员工，人人都是学生。”
OUR Salesmen and Agents are instructed not only to benefit prospective purchasers by educating them on the merits of our machine, but to help in many other ways. We teach Sales- men how to dress the store window, how to arrange the store fixtures and how to hold a school of clerks and receive suggestions for the benefit of the business.
我们的销售人员和代理不仅被指示通过向潜在购买者介绍我们机器的优点来使他们受益，还要在许多其他方面提供帮助。我们教销售人员如何布置店面橱窗，如何安排店内装置，以及如何举办店员培训班并接收有利于业务的建议。
"When Building No. 3 was finished, part of it was turned into a large schoolroom - an unheard-of idea at the time. Many manufacturers inquired whether Mr. Patterson was running a business or a school. His invariable reply was: ‘Business is only teaching.’"
“当3号楼建成后，其中一部分被改造成了一间大型教室——在当时这是闻所未闻的想法。许多制造商询问帕特森先生究竟是在经营企业还是办学校。他的标准回答是：‘商业就是教学。’”
Ideas
想法
"Out of the plan to hold forth rewards for thinking came the suggestion system for the factory force, the profit-sharing plan for both the factory and office, and the famous Hundred Point Club for the salesmen. The suggestion system was another of Mr. Patterson's new ideas."
“从奖励思考的计划中衍生出了工厂员工的建议制度、针对工厂和办公室的利润分享计划，以及著名的销售员百分俱乐部。建议制度是帕特森先生的又一个新理念。”
"I was depending solely for ideas upon myself and upon the comparatively few men about me, and I had no means of knowing who were the bright lads scattered throughout the organisation. That is, I was not only throwing away the brains of about five thousand people, which should have been concentrated in making business better."
“我过去只依靠自己和身边为数不多的人提供想法，我无法得知分散在整个组织中的聪明人才。换句话说，我浪费了约五千名员工的智慧，而这些智慧本该集中起来改善业务。”
"The suggestion system which has grown and grown until in one year some 3,200 suggestions were submitted."
“建议制度不断发展壮大，到一年中竟收到约3200条建议。”
"We decided that a complaint was truly a suggestion leading to an improvement, and therefore to-day both complaints and suggestions are on the same basis. We placed all over the factory suggestion boxes in which any member of the organisation might place his idea and we gave one dollar apiece for suggestions or complaints."
“我们认为投诉实际上是促成改进的建议，因此现在投诉和建议被放在同等重要的位置。我们在工厂各处设置了建议箱，任何组织成员都可以将自己的想法放入其中，我们会为每条建议或投诉支付一美元。”
"Instead of paying for a suggestion we found that greater enthusiasm was aroused and more suggestions offered by making a contest. We have two contests in each year, one ending June 30th and the other December 31st. Twelve hundred dollars is offered in 128 prizes; the best suggestion adopted receives $100, the next $75, the next $50, the next $30, the next three $25 each, the next six $20 each, the next thirty-five $10 each."
“我们发现，与其直接支付建议费用，举办竞赛会激发更大的热情，并产生更多建议。每年举办两次竞赛，分别在6月30日和12月31日结束。我们提供1200美元分成128个奖项：最佳采纳建议奖金为100美元，接着是75美元、50美元、30美元，接下来的三个为每项25美元，再接下来的六项为每项20美元，接下来的35项为每项10美元。”
MUCH of our success is due to our system of suggestions, which places a premium on new ideas, whether advanced by the heads of departments or by employes occupying the humblest positions in our business.
我们成功的很大一部分归功于我们的建议系统，该系统重视新想法，无论是由部门负责人提出的，还是由在我们业务中担任最低职位的员工提出的。
"We ask [employees] for help from them on all divisions of the business."
“我们向员工寻求他们在公司各个部门的帮助。”
"Most of the mechanical improvements in the cash register of today are due to suggestions from employees."
“如今现金收银机的大多数机械改进都归功于员工的建议。”
"Take a typical six months. The number of suggestions received was 3,536; the number of suggestions adopted was 1,315 or 37.2 per cent scattered among 58% employees. Of these 128 received prizes."
“以典型的六个月为例，我们收到的建议共有3536条，其中被采纳的有1315条，占37.2%，覆盖了58%的员工。这其中有128人获得了奖励。”
"The suggestions cover the entire mechanical and selling operation of our business, and although I regard the financial gain as highly important, I do not think that it is anything like as important as that other gain which we cannot measure in money - the bringing of men with ideas to top positions in our organisation."
“这些建议涵盖了我们业务的整个机械操作和销售运营。尽管我认为经济收益非常重要，但它远不如另一个无法用金钱衡量的收益重要——让有想法的人晋升到公司高层职位。”
"With ideas it is different. It may very well be that the chap with the most active mind and who will do the most to promote the business will not necessarily be the most expert with his hands. Indeed, the best idea men are not commonly the most expert workmen. I have found that the very active brain does not as a rule seem to go with the super-skilled hand."
“在创意方面则不同。最具活跃思维、对业务促进作用最大的人，未必是动手能力最强的员工。事实上，最优秀的创意者通常不是最精通手艺的工人。我发现，极其活跃的头脑通常不与超高的动手能力共存。”
"The employee is encouraged to observe, think, and suggest, and that alone makes a better man of him. He knows that if he gets into the limelight through his suggestions he is going to get a better job."
“我们鼓励员工观察、思考和提出建议，这一过程本身就能让他们变得更优秀。他们知道，如果通过建议脱颖而出，就能获得更好的岗位。”
"Practically every one of our present factory executives and foremen reached his position through making suggestions."
“实际上，我们现有的每一位工厂高管和领班都是通过提出建议而晋升到现有职位的。”
Local Focus
本地化
“It was Patterson’s constant aim to have as leaders for the various organisations natives of the respective countries, and eliminate everything American from the organisations that could in any way be objected to by the natives. Mr. Patterson was thoroughly international and felt at home in whichever country he has happened to visit. He respected and complied with the customs of each country and always impressed upon the leaders of the organisations that they should adapt our business and business methods as much as possible to local conditions.”
“帕特森始终致力于让各个组织的领导者由所在国的本地人担任，并消除组织中所有可能引起本地人反感的美国元素。帕特森先生具有完全的国际化视野，无论到访哪个国家，他都能感到宾至如归。他尊重并遵守每个国家的习俗，同时不断向各组织的领导者强调，应该尽可能使我们的业务和经营方法适应当地条件。”
Delegation
授权
“Mr. Patterson [had the] new idea of deliberate delegation of duties; the old idea of business was that the executive should delegate to others only that for which he could not find time himself. The new idea of Mr. Patterson's was that an executive should do only what he could not delegate—that the chief business of an executive was to think and to plan. Hence his motto: ‘Never do anything if you can get someone else to do it.’”
“帕特森先生提出了一种有意分权的新理念；传统的商业理念认为，管理者只应将自己没有时间完成的事务委托给他人。而帕特森的新理念是，管理者只应该做自己无法委托的事情——管理者的主要职责是思考和规划。因此，他的座右铭是：‘能让别人做的事，自己绝不动手。’”
“That business is best which requires the least attention from the head. The pyramid plan of organisation is used at this factory. Everyone has certain duties and responsibilities. This permits the management to give a part of their time to planning for the future.”
“最好的业务是那些对领导者关注要求最低的业务。我们工厂采用金字塔式的组织结构，每个人都有特定的职责和责任。这使得管理层能够腾出部分时间用于规划未来。”
“Mr. Patterson was a strong believer in giving authority and placing responsibility on the officers and employees of the company, and by placing confidence in them he made them self-relying.”
“帕特森先生坚信应该赋予公司管理者和员工权力并明确他们的责任，通过对他们的信任，他培养了他们的自立能力。”
Emergent Effects
涌现效应
“When a few men try to carry the entire load the business suffers. It does not progress as it should. When everyone shoulders his part of the responsibility it is much easier to go ahead. Great tasks can only be accomplished by the assistance of all parts of an organisation.”
“当少数人试图承担全部工作时，业务会受到影响，无法按预期发展。当每个人都承担起自己的一部分责任时，前进会容易得多。伟大的任务只能通过组织各个部分的共同协作来完成。”
WE endeavor to cultivate an extraordinary spirit among all of our employes, especially the Officers of the Company, in the Selling, Recording and Making Forces.
我们努力在所有员工中培养一种非凡的精神，特别是在公司销售、记录和制造部门的管理人员中。
Fanatic
狂热
“Mr. Patterson would not tolerate the sort of man who amasses a fortune, calls himself successful, and retires to bask in the light of past performance. When something was finished, Mr. Patterson crossed it off his chart and went on with the next thing. And when he died his chart was fuller of things to do than at any time before in his life.”
“帕特森先生无法容忍那种积累了财富、自称成功并退休以沉浸在过去成就的光环中的人。当完成一项工作时，帕特森先生会在他的图表上将其划掉，然后继续进行下一项工作。当他去世时，他的图表上待办事项比他一生中任何时候都多。”
“It is to be remembered that he started late that he was past forty before he took on the N. C. R. He fought, and he worked night and day against odds almost impossible to realise. Often, had he admitted to himself the possibility of being bankrupt, he would have been bankrupt. Not recognising failure, he could not fail. He expected obstacles and it did not make much difference what kind of obstacles at the moment stood in his way he had accustomed himself to dealing with all kinds.”
“应该记住的是，他起步较晚，在他接手 N. C. R. 时已经四十多岁了。他日夜奋战，对抗几乎不可能实现的困难。很多时候，如果他承认自己有可能破产，他就会破产。由于不承认失败，他就不会失败。他预料到会有障碍，而且无论此刻挡在他面前的是什么样的障碍，都没有太大关系，他已经习惯了处理各种各样的障碍。”
“Every day Patterson made notes of the things that he should not have done during that day and resolved not to do them again.”
“帕特森每天都会记下他当天不应该做的事情，并决心不再做这些事情。”
TEN things the management of the Company keeps always before it-five things to increase and five things to decrease.
公司管理层时刻谨记的十项原则——要增加的五项与要减少的五项：
FIVE THINGS TO INCREASE:
要增加的五项：
1 New Inventions.
新发明
2 Sales.
销售额
3 Profits.
利润
4 Cash on Hand.
手头现金
5 Accuracy of what we think, say and do; i. e., the good we do.
我们所思、所言、所行的准确性，也即我们所做的善行
FIVE THINGS TO DECREASE:
要减少的五项：
1 Opposition to our methods.
对我们方法的抵制
2 Unlawful competition against us.
对我们进行的非法竞争
3 Unnecessary expenses.
不必要的开支
4 Cost of production.
生产成本
5 Inaccuracy of what we think, say and do; i. e., the evil we do.
我们所思、所言、所行的错误，也即我们所做的恶行
“Men do not do big things in dilettante fashion—they put their whole selves in their work, making all else subordinate.”
“人们不会以业余的方式做大事——他们会将自己的全部投入到工作中，使其他一切都处于次要地位。”
Keep it Simple
保持简单
“The great company was brought about—step by step and by methods which, although they sound pretentious in generalisation, were exquisitely simple.”
“这家伟大的公司是通过一步一步的方法建立起来的，这些方法虽然在概括时听起来很自命不凡，但实际上却非常简单。”
Humility
谦逊
“Patterson had no conception of leisure. Patterson detested the "idle rich"; whenever he heard of a man building a palace or spending some great sum on a necklace, he usually drew a chart to show how much good that man missed doing by not devoting the money to education or to the saving of babies. He never bought an expensive painting in his life; he was not opposed to purchases in the interest of the public, but he spoke bitterly of those who would pay a quarter of a million for a canvas to hang in their own homes where only they and their friends could have the benefit.”
“帕特森没有休闲的概念。帕特森憎恶‘游手好闲的富人’；每当他听说有人建造宫殿或花巨款购买项链时，他通常会画一张图表，以显示那个人如果不把钱用于教育或拯救婴儿，会错失多少好事。他一生中从未买过昂贵的画作；他不反对为了公众利益而购买，但他痛斥那些花二十五万美元买一块画布挂在自己家里，只有他们和他们的朋友才能从中受益的人。”
“Patterson considered himself only a trustee of what he earned, and his expenditures had to be governed by the laws he made for his trusteeship. He expressed his whole theory of the use of money and of the function of the large corporation in pyramid form and it explains intimately how he shaped his life.”
“帕特森认为自己只是他所赚取财富的受托人，他的支出必须受他为受托人制定的法律的约束。他以金字塔的形式表达了他关于金钱使用和大型公司职能的全部理论，并深刻地解释了他如何塑造自己的人生。”
“Mr. Patterson gives to deserving but unfortunate employees and to others. He keeps only enough for his board and clothes and necessaries for himself and children. He has no outside investments except Hills and Dales which the people enjoy with him. On his last trip he can take nothing with him, as shrouds have no pockets.”
“帕特森先生捐赠给值得帮助但不幸的员工和其他人。他只保留足够的钱供自己和孩子的生活和必需品开销。他没有任何外部投资，除了人们和他一起享用的 Hills and Dales。在他最后一次旅行中，他什么也带不走，因为裹尸布没有口袋。”
“Patterson believed in the equality of effort, not of remuneration. A workman earning twenty-five dollars a week for good work stood just as high with him as an executive drawing fifty thousand dollars a year. When he found the office girls were holding themselves above the factory girls because they could wear better clothing while at work he put all the girls in the organization into white aprons.”
“帕特森相信努力的平等，而不是报酬的平等。一个每周靠出色工作赚取二十五美元的工人，在他心目中的地位与一个年薪五万美元的高管一样高。当他发现办公室的女孩因为工作时可以穿更好的衣服而自视比工厂的女孩高时，他让组织中的所有女孩都穿上了白色围裙。”
Multi-Disciplinary & Learning
多学科与学习
“It must be remembered that Mr. Patterson was an almost uncannily skilled adapter rather than an originator; the line between adapting and originating is hard to draw for he got suggestions from quarters where no other human being would have found them and then turned them in such fashion that no one else would have recognised the suggestion.”
“必须记住，帕特森先生与其说是一个创造者，不如说是一个有着不可思议的熟练技巧的适应者；适应和创造之间的界限很难划分，因为他从其他人根本找不到的地方获得了建议，然后以一种其他人根本无法识别这些建议的方式来运用它们。”
适应=自我更新。
“Patterson read or had read for him every business publication; if he found good ideas in a book or magazine article, he bought hundreds of copies and sent them to his executives. He was always learning and he expected everyone about him to be learning.”
“帕特森阅读或让人为他阅读每一份商业出版物；如果他在一本书或杂志文章中发现了好点子，他会买数百份并寄给他的高管。他一直在学习，他希望他周围的每个人都在学习。”
Summary
总结
In his annual Berkshire letter, Buffett emphasizes that he and Charlie prioritize picking wonderful businesses over selecting stocks. This approach, which involves identifying the characteristics of exceptional businesses, buying them, and holding them for the long term, has been key to Berkshire Hathaway's success.
巴菲特在他的伯克希尔年度信中强调，他和查理优先选择优秀的企业，而不是选择股票。这种方法包括识别卓越企业的特征，购买它们并长期持有，一直是伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司成功的关键。
John H Patterson, a visionary leader, implemented several innovative strategies that propelled National Cash Register to become one of the most successful companies of its time. As Charlie Munger put it, Patterson "surfed" a technology evolution while delivering customers far more in value than their cost. Patterson's focus on empowering workers, promoting reciprocation, selling based on value-add, sharing profits, striving for continuous improvements, and soliciting ideas from front-line employees helped create an exceptional business that continues to inspire successful companies today.
约翰·H·帕特森是一位富有远见的领导者，他实施了几项创新战略，推动国家收银机公司成为其时代最成功的公司之一。正如查理·芒格所说，帕特森“驾驭”了一场技术革命，同时为客户提供的价值远远超过了他们的成本。帕特森专注于赋予工人权力、促进互惠、基于增值进行销售、分享利润、努力持续改进以及征求一线员工的意见，这帮助创建了一家卓越的企业，至今仍在激励着成功的公司。
These principles are based on fundamental truths: customers reward outstanding service, employees want to feel valued and incentivized, innovation comes from trial and error, sharing information adds value, hard work leads to results, and mistakes are opportunities for learning. Ultimately, customers want to be delighted. Keep these principles in mind when evaluating a business, as they have been proven to work time and time again. The fact they form the foundation of Charlie Munger’s recommended study into the investment process, suggests they can add value to each of us.
这些原则基于基本真理：客户会奖励出色的服务，员工希望感到自己受到重视和激励，创新来自反复试验，分享信息会增加价值，努力工作会带来成果，错误是学习的机会。最终，客户希望感到高兴。在评估一项业务时，请牢记这些原则，因为它们已经一次又一次地被证明是有效的。它们构成了查理·芒格推荐的投资过程研究的基础这一事实表明，它们可以为我们每个人增加价值。
Article Comments Update
热门标签
Related Articles
1906-06 John H. Patterson.Report To The Stockholders Of The National Cash Register Company
REPORT TO THE STOCKHOLDERS OF THE NATIONAL CASH REGISTER COMPANY BY JOHN H. PATTERSON, PRESIDENT JUNE 1906 Our plant as it will appear after our new buildings, marked M and N, will be finished (Buildings lettered in order of time erected—First ...2024-11-01 Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript
Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) Q3 2024 Earnings Conference Call November 1, 2024 9:30 AM ET 埃克森美孚公司 (纽约证券交易所:XOM) 2024 年第三季度收益电话会议 2024 年 11 月 1 日 美国东部时间上午 9:30 Company Participants 公司参与者 Jim Chapman - Treasurer, and Vice President of Investor ...2024-08-02 Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript
Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call August 2, 2024 8:30 AM ET 埃克森美孚公司 (纽约证券交易所：XOM) 2024 年第二季度财报电话会议 2024 年 8 月 2 日 上午 8:30（东部时间） Company Participants 公司参与者 Jim Chapman - VP of IR 吉姆·查普曼 - 投资者关系副总裁 Darren Woods - ...2024-02-27 The Progressive Corporation (PGR) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 27, 2024 9:30 AM ET Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) 2023 年第四季度收益电话会议 美国东部时间 2024 年 2 月 27 日上午 9:30 Company Participants 公司参与者 Douglas Constantine - Director of ...2025-01-15 JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) Q4 2024 Earnings Conference Call January 15, 2025 8:30 AM ET JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) 2024 年第四季度收益电话会议 2025 年 1 月 15 日 上午 8:30 ET Company Participants 公司参与者 Jeremy Barnum - CFO Jeremy Barnum - 首席财务官 Jamie Dimon ...