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星巴克新任华裔女董事史宗玮一席谈

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年仅29岁的她如何跻身星巴克董事会?

 史宗玮为什么加入星巴克董事会

    咖啡连锁公司星巴克(Starbucks)12月14日宣布史宗玮加入公司董事会。此举不仅为星巴克董事会增加了一位年轻人,还增加了一位社交媒体专家。史宗玮现年29岁,是旧金山Hearsay Social公司的共同创始人兼CEO。这家公司研发的SaaS系统可以帮助企业管理社交媒体平台。

    早些时候,我与史宗玮进行了一番交谈,以下是经过编辑的谈话内容:

    《财富》:你为什么加入星巴克董事会?

    史宗玮:我很早以前就是星巴克的超级粉丝,因此,他们找上我的时候,我感到非常兴奋,不仅因为星巴克是个受人钦佩的品牌,还因为它在社交媒体方面进行了大量投资。我之所以接受邀请,是因为两年前我们成立Hearsay Social公司,希望根据我们所认定的商业新趋势来开创企业软件行业的新时代,而这次的董事会任命是对这个梦想的一种认可。

    听起来有点像是你希望这个董事会席位能为提升Hearsay公司在公关层面的影响力,是这样吗?

    不,并不是这个原因。我只是想说,这是我首次被任命为上市公司董事,这是对Hearsay公司所做工作重要性的一个认可。这次任命可能会在公关层面给Hearsay公司带来好处,也可能不会,但我在作决定的时候并没有考虑这些。

    Facebook的谢莉尔•桑德伯格打算在明年退出星巴克董事会。你是否认为自己是董事会在“社交媒体”领域的接班人?

    我个人是谢莉尔的超级粉丝,以前曾在谷歌与她共事过。但我不认为自己是她的接班人。

    众所周知,初创公司的CEO没有太多空闲时间。你是否担心这个董事会席位会让你忙不过来?

    这个问题我曾考虑了很久。随着时间的推移,我越来越善于说“不”,但这次机会来临的时候,我知道自己无法拒绝。创建Hearsay Social公司之后,再也没有出现过让我这么兴奋的机会了。

    你有意接受其他上市公司的董事会席位吗?

    这个一般很难说,但我确实认为,上市公司董事会需要吸纳更多的女性和年轻人。

    你有没有担心Hearsay Social公司现在将难以再从星巴克的竞争对手那里拉到生意?

    我还没认真考虑过这个问题。显然,以后只要星巴克董事会的工作牵涉到Hearsay Social公司,我都得回避。我相信,其他所有的世界级公司都会尊重这种隔离原则。

    你现在是不是得到了某种特权,可以喝到免费的咖啡?

    没人告诉我有这种事。

    译者:千牛絮

    Coffee chain Starbucks (SBUX) today announced the addition of Clara Shih to its board of directors, in a move that adds both youth and social media know-how. Shih is the 29 year-old co-founder and CEO of Hearsay Social, a San Francisco-based developer of an SaaS dashboard that helps companies manage their social media platforms.

    I spoke with Shih earlier today, and what follows is an edited transcript of our conversation:

    Fortune: Why are you joining the Starbucks board?

    Shih:I've been a huge fan of Starbucks for a long time and when they approached me I was thrilled not only because it's such an admired brand, but also because of how much it has invested in social media. I said yes because two years ago we started Hearsay Social to establish a new era of enterprise software around what we believed was a new business imperative, and this board appointment is a validation of that dream.

    That sort of sounds like you're hoping this board seat will be a PR boon for Hearsay. Accurate?

    No, that's not why I'm doing it. I just mean that this is my first public board appointment, and it is a validation of the importance of the type of work Hearsay is doing. There may or may not be PR benefits to Hearsay, but they weren't part of my decision-making process.

    Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg plans to step down from the Starbucks board next year. Do you view yourself as the designated "social media" replacement?

    I'm a huge fan of Sheryl's personally and worked with her in the past at Google (GOOG), but I don't see myself as her replacement.

    Start-up CEOs aren't known for having much free time. Did you have any concerns that the board seat would become a time burden?

    It is something I've thought a lot about. I've gotten better over time at saying 'no' to things, but when this opportunity came up I knew it was one I couldn't turn down. Not since starting Hearsay Social have I felt this excited about an opportunity.

    Are you interested in taking other public board seats?

    It's hard to say in a general sense, except that I do think there need to be more women and young people on public boards.

    Any worries that Hearsay Social might now have trouble getting business from a Starbucks competitor?

    It hasn't really crossed my mind. Obviously I'll have to recuse myself on any Starbucks board business that involves Hearsay Social, and I assume any other world-class organization would respect that separation.

    Do you get some sort of special card now that gives you free coffee?

    Not that anyone's told me about yet.

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