剑桥雅思阅读原文翻译UK companies need more effective boards of directors

剑桥雅思12 Test8 Passage3阅读原文翻译

段落A

After a number of serious failures of governance(that is,how they are managed at the highest level),companies in Britain,as well as elsewhere,should consider radical changes to their directors’roles.It is clear that the role of a board director today is not an easy one.Following the 2008 financial meltdown,which resulted in a deeper and more prolonged period of economic downturn than anyone expected,the search for explanations in the many post-mortems of the crisis has meant blame has been spread far and wide.Governments,regulators,central banks and auditors have all been in the frame.The role of bank directors and management and their widely publicised failures have been extensively picked over and examined in reports,inquiries and commentaries.

在经历了一系列严重的管理失误（也就是说，在公司的最高管理层面上）之后，英国-以及其他各处-的公司应当考虑对其管理者们的职业角色采取一些彻底的变革了。很显然，一位公司董事的角色在今天是很不好扮演的。2008年的金融危机造成了一段比任何人预期得还要深入和更加持久的经济低迷时期，在那之后，人们在对这场金融灾难所进行的许多事后分析中寻找真正的解释，这也就意味着谴责的对象分布得既远且广，随处都是。政府、监管机构、中央银行和审计师们都在被谴责的范围之内。银行经理及其管理行为所扮演的角色和他们广为公众所关注的失职在各种各样的报道、问询和评论中都受到了广泛的挑剔和检视。

段落B

The knock-on effect of this scrutiny has been to make the governance of companies in general an issue of intense public debate and has significantly increased the pressures on,and the responsibilities of,directors.At the simplest and most practical level,the time involved in fulfilling the demands of a board directorship has increased significantly,calling into question the effectiveness of the classic model of corporate governance by part-time,independent non-executive directors.Where once a board schedule may have consisted of between eight and ten meetings a year,in many companies the number of events requiring board input and decisions has dramatically risen.Furthermore,the amount of reading and preparation required for each meeting is increasing.Agendas can become overloaded and this can mean the time for constructive debate must necessarily be restricted in favour of getting through the business.

这场检视的连锁效应也使得整体上的公司监管行为成了大众热烈讨论的问题，并极大地增加了管理者们的压力和责任。在最简单也最实用的层面上，需要花在完成董事会职位职责上所需的时间有了大幅度的增长，从而引起人们质疑先前那种由兼职的、独立非执行董事们来进行企业管理的传统模式是否真的有效，过去的董事会议程曾经也许只包含每年八到十次的会议，而当前在许多公司里，需要董事会参与探讨和决策的事件数量显著上升。此外，要参与每次会议所需完成的阅读和准备量也在增加。日程有可能排得过满，而这则意味着进行建设性辩论的时间不得不受到限制而让位于处理预设议程条目。

段落C

Often,board business is devolved to committees in order to cope with the workload,which may be more efficient but can mean that the board as a whole is less involved in fully addressing some of the most important issues.It is not uncommon for the audit committee meeting to last longer than the main board meeting itself.Process may take the place of discussion and be at the expense of real collaboration,so that boxes are ticked rather than issues tackled.

董事会事务通常都移交给公司各执行委员会处理以应对大额的工作量，这么做也许确实更有效率，但也会意味着董事会作为整体而言在充分处理一些最重要的事务方面参与度不够。一场审计委员会议开得比主要董事会议本身更久也不是什么稀奇的事。推动会议流程有可能会代替了讨论协商，而这么做的代价就是牺牲了真正的协同合作，结果只是在一项项议程上标注了表示进行过的记号而不是真正处理解决了问题。

段落D

A radical solution,which may work for some very large companies whose businesses are extensive and complex,is the professional board,whose members would work up to three or four days a week,supported by their own dedicated staff and advisers.There are obvious risks to this and it would be important to establish clear guidelines for such a board to ensure that it did not step on the toes of management by becoming too engaged in the day-to-day running of the company.Problems of recruitment,remuneration and independence could also arise and this structure would not be appropriate for all companies.However,more professional and better-informed boards would have been particularly appropriate for banks where the executives had access to information that part-time non-executive directors lacked,leaving the latter unable to comprehend or anticipate the 2008 crash.

有这么一个激进的解决办法也许能对一些非常大型的、生意拓展得极其广泛而复杂的公司起作用，那就是组建一个专业董事会，其成员可以每周最多工作三或四天，由其自身的专职员工和顾问提供支持辅助。这么做有其显而易见的风险，一定要面向这样一个董事会建立清晰的指导原则，以确保它不会太过搀和到公司的日常运营事务之中去指手画脚，从而触犯了公司的真正经营管理。如果采用这个办法，则可能还要面临招聘、薪酬和独立性等相关问题，且这个结构未必适用于所有公司。不过，更加专业和对相关领域资讯了解更多的董事会成员对于银行机构来说将会是格外合适的，因为在这些机构里，执行者们可以获得兼职的非执行者们所缺乏的信息资源，后者正是由于不了解这些信息而导致无法去充分理解或提前预见到2008年那场经济动荡。

段落E

One of the main criticisms of boards and their directors is that they do not focus sufficiently on longer-term matters of strategy,sustainability and governance,but instead concentrate too much on short-term financial metrics.Regulatory requirements and the structure of the market encourage this behaviour.The tyranny of quarterly reporting can distort board decision-making,as directors have to’make the numbers’every four months to meet the insatiable appetite of the market for more data.This serves to encourage the trading methodology of a certain kind of investor who moves in and out of a stock without engaging in constructive dialogue with the company about strategy or performance,and is simply seeking a short-term financial gain.This effect has been made worse by the changing profile of investors due to the globalisation of capital and the increasing use of automated trading systems.Corporate culture adapts and management teams are largely incentivized to meet financial goals.

人们对董事会及其经理们的主要批评之一在于：他们没有将足够的注意力放在诸如企业战略、可持续发展和经营管理这样的更长远性目标上，而是相反地过度关注了短期财务指标。各项规章要求和市场结构鼓励了这种行为。季度报告好看与否凌驾于一切之上，这有可能会扭曲了董事会的决策行为，因为经理们不得不每四个月就“刷新一次数字”以应对市场对于更多数据的永不满足的胃口。这种做法助长了某一类投资者的交易方法，他们随时进出股市，从不与公司就策略或业绩表现进行任何有建设性的对话，仅仅只谋求短期的财政赢利。由于资本的全球化和自动交易系统使用频率的上升，投资者成员正在发生着变化，从而使得这种短视局面变得更为严重。企业文化不得不做出调整适应，管理团队也在很大程度上被激励去达成这种财政目标。

段落F

Compensation for chief executives has become a combat zone where pitched battles between investors,management and board members are fought,often behind closed doors but increasingly frequently in the full glare of press attention.Many would argue that this is in the interest of transparency and good governance as shareholders use their muscle in the area of pay to pressure boards to remove underperforming chief executives.Their powers to vote down executive remuneration policies increased when binding votes came into force.The chair of the remuneration committee can be an exposed and lonely role,as Alison Carnwath,chair of Barclays Bank’s remuneration committee,found when she had to resign,having been roundly criticised for trying to defend the enormous bonus to be paid to the chief executive;the irony being that she was widely understood to have spoken out against it in the privacy of the committee.

首席执行官们的薪酬也成了一个战区，投资者、管理层和董事会成员在这里激战连连，过去通常都是在关着的门后悄悄进行，但现在却越来越频繁地暴露在媒体的聚光灯之下。很多人会认为这对透明性和良好的企业经管有好处，因为股东们会利用他们在薪酬领域里的强壮肌肉（即话语权优势）来对董事会施压，要求他们换掉那些业绩不佳的首席执行官们。当有约束力投票的做法开始执行时，股东们投票削减执行官薪酬待遇的权力变得更大了。薪酬委员会主席的职位可以是全无遮蔽保护而又孤独的.Barcdays银行的薪酬委员会主席Alison Carnwath就有此体会，她因为试图去为需要付给首席执行官的巨额津贴做辩护而饱受指摘，最终不得不辞职；讽刺的是，大家都知道在委员会内部私下交流的时候，她对这种高额薪酬是持反对态度的。

段落G

The financial crisis stimulated a debate about the role and purpose of the company and a heightened awareness of corporate ethics.Trust in the corporation has been eroded and academics such as Michael Sandel,in his thoughtful and bestselling book What Money Can’t Buy,are questioning the morality of capitalism and the market economy.Boards of companies in all sectors will need to widen their perspective to encompass these issues and this may involve a realignment of corporate goals.We live in challenging times.

2008年的金融危机激起了人们对公司角色和目标的广泛辩论和对企业操守道德的更高关注。对公司企业的公众信任度由此受到了损害，而一些学者，例如Michael Sandel在他充满思考的畅销书《钱买不到什么》里所做的那样，正在质疑资本主义和市场经济的道德准则。公司所有部门的董事会都将需要拓宽视野以全面思考这些问题，这也许会牵扯到企业目标的整改。我们生活在一个充满挑战的年代。