QA问答：世界上最大的商业秘密是什么？
What is the greatest business secret in the world?
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世界上最大的商业秘密是什么？
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What is the greatest business secret in the world?
世界上最大的商业秘密是什么？
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The biggest business secret isn't locked inside any subterranean vault nor guarded by dozen of armed guards. Probably, it isn't even written on paper. I'm talking about WD-40.
In 1953, in San Diego, California, a group of engineers from a small company called Rocket Chemical Company created a product meant to be used as an anticorrosive in the aerospace industry.
The name of the product refers to “Water Displacement” and the number 40 refers to the amount of tries they made until the formula worked. They must have been really good at what they were doing, because almost 70 years later the formula is still in use and hasn't been surpassed.
WD-40 first commercial use was to protect the exterior of the American missile, Atlas, from corrosion. (This rocket was built to deliver nuclear war-heads to intercontinental destinations and was later used to launch the Agena target vehicle, for the astronauts in the Gemini capsule to rendezvous and dock with.).
最大的商业机密既没有锁在任何地下保险库中，也没有由数十名武装警卫看守。可能，它甚至没有写在纸上，我说的就是 WD-40。
1953 年，在加利福尼亚州圣地亚哥，来自一家名为 Rocket Chemical Company 的小公司的一群工程师创造了一种产品，旨在用作航空航天工业的防腐剂。
产品名称指的是“Water Displacement”，数字 40 指的是他们在产品起作用之前所做的尝试次数。他们一定非常擅长他们所做的事情，因为将近 70 年后，这个产品仍在使用并且没有被超越。
WD-40 的第一个商业用途是保护美国导弹阿特拉斯的外部免受腐蚀。（这枚火箭是为了将核弹头运送到洲际目的地而建造的，后来被用来发射 Agena 目标运载工具，供双子座太空舱中的宇航员进行交会对接。）
From then on, the company grew exponentially, and the uses given to their product increased as well. Consumers rapidly discovered hundreds of new applications, some of them quite far away from the original intention.
The secret lies in the decision the company took. Contrary to usual, they decided not to patent their product. Doing so would have required that they submit the recipe. The patent would last only for a few years and after the expiration date, anyone could make and sell it without problems.
A secret so well kept that seven decades later no-one has been able to figure it out.
该产品效果非常好，一些员工很快就开始将一些罐头带回家供个人使用。直到几年后，公司的首席执行官才灵机一动，将液体装在气雾罐中并向公众出售。
从那时起，公司呈指数级增长，其产品的用途也随之增加。消费者迅速发现了数百种新应用，其中一些与初衷相去甚远。
秘密在于公司做出的决定。与往常相反，他们决定不为他们的产品申请专利。这样做需要他们提交配方。该专利只会持续几年，到期后，任何人都可以毫无问题地制造和销售它。
这个秘密保存得如此完好，以至于七十年后没有人能够弄清楚。
The biggest business secret in the world is locked behind this ENORMOUS vault:
Source: Coca-Cola Wiki
Zoom into the picture above … Notice anything particular in the middle of the massive steel door?
See the distinguishable shape of the Coca-Cola bottle?
This is Muhtar Kent, CEO of the Coca-Cola company back in 2011, when for the first time in history, the company revealed to the public the top secret vault where the priceless formula has been stored and protected since 1925.
This has been and continues to be the world’s greatest business secret of one of the most powerful brands on the globe.
世界上最大的商业秘密被锁在这个巨大的保险库后面：
资料来源：可口可乐维基
放大上面的图片……注意到巨大的钢门中间有什么特别之处吗？
看到可口可乐瓶子独特的形状了吗？
我是可口可乐公司的首席执行官穆泰康，他在 2011 年时，公司历史上第一次向公众披露了自 1925 年以来一直存储和保护无价配方的绝密保险库。
这一直是并将继续成为全球最强大品牌之一的世界最大商业秘密。
By 1980, IBM was the superpower of computing. Its position in the realm of mainfrx computers was unchallenged, with more than 80 percent market share and 340,000 employees worldwide. IBM was used to building and selling large, expensive machines to big customers.
By early 1980, IBM's management had suspected that the world of computing may soon shift to smaller microprocessor kits such as the Altair and Commodore. Seeing it more of a threat than a business proposition, they decided that they should get into the game as soon as possible, as a strategic move to counter the threat.
Rather than divert resources from its large assembly lines, and build a new smaller design and an operating system from scratch, it would be more economically prudent to outsource inexpensive off-the-shelf components and software to outsiders.
Although it could have built its own microprocessors for use in its “top-secret” which would later be known as the Personal Computer (PC) project, IBM decided to buy the microprocessors from Intel. Most importantly, IBM decided to license the operating system from Microsoft, rather than create their own operating system.
Microsoft, a fledgling software company started only three years earlier by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, was already riding on its own wave of success, having sold more than half a million copies of its BASIC software program, which had drawn the attention of some large computer companies, including IBM.
到 1980 年，IBM 已成为计算领域的超级大国。它在大型计算机领域的地位无人能及，拥有超过 80% 的市场份额和 340,000 名全球员工。IBM 习惯于为大客户制造和销售大型、昂贵的机器。
到 1980 年初，IBM 的管理层怀疑计算世界可能很快会转向更小的微处理器套件，例如 Altair 和 Commodore。与其说是商业提议，不如说这是一种威胁，他们决定尽快加入游戏，作为应对威胁的战略举措。
与其从其大型装配线上转移资源，并从头开始构建新的更小的设计和操作系统，不如将廉价的现成组件和软件外包给外部人员，这样做在经济上更为谨慎。
尽管它本可以构建自己的微处理器用于其“绝密”项目（后来被称为个人计算机 (PC) 项目），但 IBM 还是决定从英特尔购买微处理器。最重要的是，IBM 决定从微软获得操作系统许可，而不是创建自己的操作系统。
微软是一家由比尔盖茨和保罗艾伦创立仅三年的羽翼未丰的软件公司，已经乘着自己的成功浪潮，其 BASIC 软件程序已售出超过 50 万份，引起了一些大型公司注意的计算机公司，包括 IBM。
Microsoft took the challenge and bought an operating system from a Seattle computer company and hired its top software engineer, Tim Paterson. They changed the name to MS-DOS.
Microsoft gave IBM a fabulous deal—a low, one-time price that granted IBM the right to use Microsoft's operating system on as many machines as it could sell. This offered IBM an incentive to push MS-DOS, by selling it cheaply.
The deal was simple. IBM would pay Microsoft an undisclosed one-time fee (some place the figure at $430,000), but the key provision in the agreement was that it had a non-exclusive arrangement that allowed Microsoft to license the operating system to other computer manufacturers besides IBM.
1980 年 11 月，两位 IBM 官员找到微软，讨论他们计划制造的个人计算机。IBM 希望，由于微软从事的是为小型计算机构建软件的业务，因此它能够为他们计划中的个人计算机构建操作系统。
微软接受了挑战，从一家西雅图计算机公司购买了操作系统，并聘请了该公司的顶级软件工程师蒂姆·帕特森。他们将名称更改为 MS-DOS。
微软给了 IBM 一笔极好的交易——一个低廉的一次性价格，授予 IBM 在尽可能多的机器上使用微软操作系统的权利。这为 IBM 通过低价销售 MS-DOS 提供了动力。
交易很简单。IBM 将向微软支付一笔未公开的一次性费用（有人认为是 430,000 美元），但协议中的关键条款是它有一项非排他性安排，允许微软将操作系统许可给 IBM 以外的其他计算机制造商。
That deal would change the fortunes of Microsoft forever. The IBM Personal Computer hit the market for the first time in August 1981, and was an immediate success. Indirectly, it was also a Microsoft success. Other computer manufacturers also approached Microsoft with a view to license MS-DOS. These computer manufactures went on to ship hundreds of thousands of PCs with Microsoft MS-DOS bundled in them.
By 1985, Microsoft’s revenues had skyrocketed from $16 million in 1981 to $140 million, as other computer-makers like Tandy and Commodore also chose to partner with them. Later, they would be joined by new computer companies like Compaq, HP and others.
As they say, the rest is history.
In Conclusion:
The greatest business secret in the world is not a magic formula. The greatest business secret in the wold is the power to broker the best deal possible.
IBM 同意了这笔交易，部分原因是它卷入了数十年的反垄断调查和诉讼，部分原因是 IBM 迫于压力，要在一年内生产出他们的第一台个人电脑。
这笔交易将永远改变微软的命运。IBM 个人电脑于 1981 年 8 月首次投放市场，并立即获得成功。间接地，这也是微软的成功。其他计算机制造商也与微软接洽，希望获得 MS-DOS 的许可。这些计算机制造商继续运送数十万台捆绑了 Microsoft MS-DOS 的 PC。
到 1985 年，微软的收入从 1981 年的 1600 万美元飙升至 1.4 亿美元，因为 Tandy 和 Commodore 等其他计算机制造商也选择与他们合作。后来，康柏、惠普等新的计算机公司加入了他们的行列。
正如他们所说，剩下的就是历史了。
综上所述：
世界上最大的商业秘密不是神奇的公式。世界上最大的商业秘密是促成尽可能最好的交易的能力。
I went through a business bankruptcy in my 30’s. Then I pastored a church for ten years that did little to help financially.
I’d invested successfully from the good days of my business. So when I left the church I decided to start a financial consulting practice.
I had a plan that, at that time, was fairly unique. The veteran brokers told me I’d fail and early on I almost proved them right.
Nearly a year in, I was struggling to survive. I still believed in my vision but was running out of money. Plan A wasn’t working and I had no plan B.
I read a quote from Zig Ziglar, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
It resonated with me and became my business mantra. I shifted my focus from what I needed to what my clients most needed.
Instead of focusing on building my wealth I focused on building theirs.
我30多岁的时候经历过一次企业破产。后来，我在一个教堂做了十年牧师，但在经济上几乎没有帮上什么忙。
我当时有一个相当独特的计划。经验丰富的经纪人告诉我，我会失败，而在早期，我几乎证明了他们是正确的。
将近一年的时间里，我在为生存而挣扎。我仍然相信自己的愿景，但钱已经花光了。A 计划行不通，我也没有 B 计划。
我读过 Zig Ziglar 的一句话，“如果你愿意帮助足够多的人得到他们想要的东西，你可以拥有生活中你想要的一切。”
它引起了我的共鸣，并成为我的商业信条。我将注意力从我需要的东西转移到我的客户最需要的东西上。
我没有专注于积累自己的财富，而是专注于积累他们的财富。
I envisioned my business through a fresh lens and began building it around how best to help others get what they wanted.
My business started getting traction. I started getting new clients and building revenue. I got referrals and had friends ask me to help them. Clients became my friends and friends became my clients.
Sure my business struggled for the first few years but it consistently and exponentially grew. Today, 25 years later, I have a great business that provides a very comfortable income.
When friends ask me why I don’t retire I respond, “I can afford to but why would I want to? Every day, I do interesting things and talk with friends all day long. And get paid well.”
After all these years, I’m still helping friends get what they want and I’ve gotten more than I ever dreamed.
You can get in business and your career everything you want if you just help enough other people get what they want.
我没有考虑我想要的业务类型，而是考虑如果我是我的客户，我希望帮助我的业务类型。
我通过一个全新的视角来设想我的业务，并开始围绕如何最好地帮助他人获得他们想要的东西来构建它。
我的生意开始受到关注。我开始获得新客户并增加收入。我得到了推荐，有朋友请我帮助他们。客户成为我的朋友，朋友成为我的客户。
当然，我的业务在最初几年苦苦挣扎，但它始终如一地呈指数级增长。25 年后的今天，我拥有一家伟大的企业，能提供非常可观的收入。
当朋友问我为什么不退休时，我回答说：“我负担得起，但我为什么要退休？每天都在做有趣的事情，整天和朋友聊天。并获得丰厚的报酬。”
这么多年过去了，我仍在帮助朋友们得到他们想要的东西，而且我得到的比我梦想的要多。
如果你帮助足够多的人得到他们想要的东西，你就可以在商业和事业上得到你想要的一切。
A lot of great responses already.
But based on the trend of people to want corporations taxes higher and higher.
Apparently they don’t know there isn’t a single business in the U.S. that pays taxes with their own money. All tax money, plus the cost of accounting for same, gets passed on to the consumer, often at a grossly inflated amount.
For every one dollar in taxes the first company in the chain of manufacturing and distribution pays to Uncle Sam, the end consumer pays 5 to 7 dollars in hidden taxes at the check-out register.
Uncle Sam still only gets their one dollar, but it cost you 5 to 7 dollars.
The excess is filtered back down the chain of distribution and manufacturing as profits on the taxes.
Companies do naturally complain about the taxes they have to pay, because it is a royal pain to deal with them. But it is no skin off our nose, because we make a profit from them. Never a loss!
已经有很多很好的答案。
但基于人们希望公司有越来越好的趋势。
显然他们不知道在美国没有一家企业用自己的钱纳税。所有的税款，加上会计成本，都转嫁给了消费者，而且金额通常被严重夸大了。
对于制造和分销链中的第一家公司向山姆大叔支付的每一美元税款，最终消费者在结账登记处会支付 5 至 7 美元的隐性税款。
山姆大叔仍然只得到他们的一美元，但它花费了你 5 到 7 美元。
多余的部分作为税收利润被过滤回分销和制造链。
公司自然会抱怨他们必须支付的税收，因为处理这些税收是一种巨大的痛苦。但这不是小事，因为我们从中获利。从来没有损失过！
“My Hedge Fund's Secrets Are Even Bigger Secrets Than The Work I Did For The Government”. – Jim Simmons, Founder of Renaissance Technologies
Jim Simmons along with his colleagues founded the Renaissance Technologies in 1982. Since 1988, the Medallion fund as launched by Rentech generated average annual returns of 66% before charging any fees to investors. The returns racked up by the fund is 39% after fees, the best return in the history for 3 decades.
The trading strategies are kept very secret and confidential. It is the greatest money making machine in the world. What we the outside world knows is that Medallion fund has trading strategies deploying funds for short term across various asset classes. The amount of money deployed in the fund is capped at $ 10 billion.
All the employees before being signed upon has to sign Non-disclosure agreement with the company. And you won’t see them bragging about their profits in front of televisions. That is truly outstanding how they built such enormous empire.
“我对冲基金的秘密甚至比我为政府所做的工作还要大”。–Jim Simmons, Renaissance Technologies的创始人
Jim Simmons 和他的同事于 1982 年创立了 Renaissance Technologies。自 1988 年以来，Rentech 推出的 Medallion 基金在向投资者收取任何费用之前产生了 66% 的平均年回报率。该基金扣除费用后的回报率为 39%，是 3 年来历史上最好的回报率。
交易策略是非常机密的。它是世界上最大的赚钱机器。我们外界所知道的是，该基金拥有在各种资产类别中短期部署资金的交易策略。该基金部署的资金上限为 100 亿美元。
所有员工在签约前都必须与公司签订保密协议。而且您不会看到他们在电视机前吹嘘他们的利润。他们如何建立如此庞大的帝国，真是太了不起了。
I worked for 40 years in different business and took early retirement two years ago.
The greatest business secret I know is that the truth doesn’t sell. Employees don't really want to know what their bosses get up to. Customers don't really want to know how products are made and services provided. Suppliers don't really want to know what customers do with the materials and services they supply.
Nobody want to be reminded that it’s all about finding ways to disguise the fact that it’s all about money. If you don't believe that, watch what costs get cut first when things are going badly; training is always among them.
What does sell, financially or otherwise, is making people feel they’re in control of their destiny. What does sell is making people feel connected to other people and to what they do (« finding meaning »). What does sell is consistency between whatever’s being offered or defended and the target’s needs, especially their needs for control and connection.
For example, most people will protect their connections to other people rather than tell the truth. Or they would rather stick with a disastrous decision—ie. appear consistent—rather than change their minds.
The truth comes after the above in most people’s hierarchy of needs. If it happens to be useful in satisfying them, it will be used.
Companies don’t rank the truth as a top priority either. If they did, corporate visions and missions would laud its importance at every turn. Instead they refer to something vaguer called ‘transparency’, which I define as ‘not lying’.
我在不同的行业工作了 40 年，两年前提前退休。
我所知道的最大的商业秘密，真相是卖不出去的。员工并不真的想知道他们的老板在做什么。客户并不真的想知道产品是如何制造的以及服务是如何提供的。供应商并不真正想知道客户如何使用他们提供的材料和服务。
没有人愿意被提醒这一切都是为了寻找方法来掩饰这一切都与金钱有关的事实。如果您不相信这一点，请观察在情况不佳时首先削减哪些成本，培训总是在其中。
无论是在经济上还是在其他方面，真正的卖点是让人们觉得他们可以控制自己的命运。真正卖的是让人们感到与其他人和他们所做的事情有联系（“寻找意义”）。真正卖的是所提供或捍卫的任何东西与目标需求之间的一致性，尤其是他们对控制和联系的需求。
例如，大多数人会保护他们与他人的联系而不是说实话。或者他们宁愿坚持一个灾难性的决定——即表现一致——而不是改变他们的想法。
在大多数人的需求层次中，真相出现在上述之后。如果它恰好对满足他们有用，就会被使用。
公司也不会把真相作为首要任务。如果他们这样做了，公司的愿景和使命就会时时刻刻称赞它的重要性。相反，他们指的是一种更模糊的叫做“透明”的东西，我把它定义为“不撒谎”。
Well I checked quite a few of the other answers and I haven’t seen this yet, lots of good answers though.
Its not really a secret but it is one of the most important things that those in business should know:
Cash is King
What that means is that to an extent, your cash inflow is more important than your profitability - if you are making cash you can keep going, If you run out of cash you are in big trouble.
That wouldn’t impact you because you are profitable and growing? That is the biggest danger of all - rapid growth can lead to significant increases in the working capital required by the business so that despite your profitability you have a negative cashflow.
好吧，我检查了很多其他答案，但我还没有看到这个，不过有很多很好的答案。
这不是真正的秘密，但它是商界人士应该知道的最重要的事情之一：
现金为王
这意味着在某种程度上，你的现金流入比你的盈利能力更重要——如果你在赚钱，你可以继续前进，如果你用光了现金，你就有大麻烦了。
这不会影响你，因为你盈利并在增长？这是最大的危险——快速增长会导致企业所需的营运资金显着增加，因此尽管您有盈利能力，但您的现金流量仍为负数。
With this view you can contact suppliers/customers in advance and try to manage cashflwo crises.
Oh and just thought of one other thing that is probably a slight secret:
Any character type can be a leader - if you look across companies and time you find that the stereotypical views of leadership do not hold in the modern world. You can be an introvert, you can be kind, you can be honourable or the opposites - everyone can be a leader - you just need to choose to lead and answer the obvious question, why should people follow you?
因此，我会建议所有企业（除非它们大量产生现金）密切控制现金，至少每月产生非常详细的现金流，但如果现金紧张，可能每天产生一次。现金流应该尽可能准确。所有现金流出都表示在你希望付款的那一天，所有现金流入都表示在客户正常付款的那一天(不是到期日，因为你需要尽可能真实)。
通过这种观点，您可以提前联系供应商/客户并尝试管理现金流危机。
哦，我想到了另一件事，这可能是一个小秘密：
任何性格类型的人都可以成为领导者——如果你纵观公司和时间，你会发现关于领导力的刻板印象在现代世界中并不成立。你可以是一个内向的人，你可以是善良的，你可以是正直的，或者相反——每个人都可以是一个领导者——你只需要选择领导并回答一个显而易见的问题，为什么人们要跟随你？
Profits were plummeting and workers were being laid off. The once dominant company Kodak was facing an existential crisis. The digital camera had revolutionized photography and taken considerable market share from the traditional camera business, which was Kodak’s bread and butter. Kodak could not survive much longer. If the company’s executives had a time machine, they may have wanted to go back to the past and tell their predecessors about the need to invest in digital cameras. However, there would have been a sharp irony to this, since decades ago the company that had invented the first portable digital camera was… Kodak itself![1]
Steve Sasson was the engineer at Kodak that invented the first portable digital camera. According to Sasson, management’s reaction to his invention was “that’s cute — but don’t tell anyone about it.”[2] Kodak was not able to exploit this innovation in a meaningful way and eventually saw its competitors do so. Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012. The story of Kodak teaches us a major business secret: You can be disrupted by your own innovation.
利润直线下降，工人被解雇。曾经占主导地位的柯达公司正面临生存危机。数码相机彻底改变了摄影，并从传统相机业务中夺取了相当大的市场份额，而传统相机业务是柯达的生计。柯达活不了多久了。如果公司高管有时光机，他们可能想回到过去，告诉他们的前任需要投资数码相机。然而，这是一个尖锐的讽刺，因为几十年前发明第一台便携式数码相机的公司是……柯达本身！
Steve Sasson 是柯达公司的工程师，他发明了第一台便携式数码相机。根据 Sasson 的说法，管理层对他的发明的反应是“这很可爱——但不要告诉任何人。”柯达未能以有意义的方式利用这项创新，最终看到其竞争对手这样做了。柯达于2012年申请破产。柯达的故事告诉我们一个重大的商业秘密：你可以被自己的创新所颠覆。
What you do to make money is not your business. It is the operational aspect of your business which is only 25% of the total business.
9 out of 10 new businesses fail to achieve minimal financial viability within 18 months because the owners don’t actually know how to start, build or run a business. The one that does make it is just plain lucky.
You can have a significant positive impact on changing these numbers just by knowing before you begin.
你做什么赚钱不关你的事。它是你的业务的运营方面，只占总业务的25%。
10 家新企业中有 9 家未能在 18 个月内实现最低限度的财务可行性，因为所有者实际上不知道如何开始、建立或经营企业。做到这一点的人实在是太幸运了。
只要在开始之前了解这些数字，就可以对改变这些数字产生重大的积极影响。
There’s indeed a secret sauce for a successful business. That is why some people master the art of doing business while some don’t even after putting in long hours. Certain business tactics are universally applicable, which when adopted can provide better results.
Given below are the greatest business secrets in the world:
A degree doesn’t justify your success
Top education and diploma can help a lot in the early days, and sometimes after. But for a successful business, having a diplomatic degree as a prerequisite is no rule. One can have basic education and still be brilliant in doing business. Relevant skills are more important.
成功的企业确实有秘诀。这就是为什么有些人掌握了做生意的艺术，而有些人即使在长时间工作后也没有。某些商业策略是普遍适用的，采用这些策略可以提供更好的结果。
以下是世界上最大的商业秘密：
学位并不能证明你的成功
顶尖的教育和文凭在早期和之后有时会有很大帮助。但对于一个成功的企业来说，拥有外交学位作为先决条件并不是规则。一个人可以接受基础教育，但在经商方面仍然很出色。相关技能更重要。
For the people who are earlier in their careers, working for an organisation, his kind of mindset can be very rewarding. The goal of a leader should always be to serve others first, so to achieve their confidence, trust and respect. This is not a very big secret for many leaders out there though. Service not only offers the ultimate profit, but it is also the secret to perpetual motion.
Happy customers are the real wealth
When we think of business success, most of us think in terms of dollars and cents, statistics and figures. Yet all those measures of success are determined by the behaviour of customers and the employees who serve them. Even if a business has a few but happy customers, that keeps it going.
The 80-20 rule
The 80-20 rule states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the efforts. Focussing on that, finding the efforts that produce the biggest results, having productivity will help in contributing towards 20%.
领导力首先是为他人服务
对于那些在职业生涯早期为公司组织工作的人来说，他的这种心态可能会非常有益。领导者的目标应该始终是首先为他人服务，从而获得他们的信任、尊重。不过，对于许多领导者来说，这并不是什么大秘密。服务不仅是最终的利润，更是永动机的秘诀。
顾客满意才是真正的财富
当我们想到商业成功时，大多数人会想到美元、统计数据和数字。然而，所有这些衡量成功的标准都是由客户和为他们服务的员工的行为决定的。即使一家企业只有少数满意的客户，也能维持下去。
80-20规则
二八定律指出，80%的结果来自20%的努力。专注于此，找到产生最大结果的努力，拥有生产力将有助于贡献20%。