唐纳德•E•沃什科维茨

    公司：派克汉尼汾

    《财富》500强排名：211

    沃什科维茨于1972年开始为派克汉尼汾工作。他的工作是在一家汽车修理厂为卡车更换出故障的软管。当时美国正处在经济衰退当中，因此，能在自己家乡的传动控制公司找到一份工作让刚刚工程学毕业的沃什科维茨非常高兴。他很快就获得了晋升：一年内，沃什科维茨便得到提拔，开发一系列热塑性产品，因为没有其他人想要那份工作。之后，他曾负责事业部，然后管理公司的全球液压部门。

    他对派克汉尼汾的每一份工作都充满热爱——其中包括他从2000年起接任的公司最高职位。沃什科维茨认为，他对公司业务与文化的严密控制对公司很有好处——他表示，自己曾多次见过“从外部聘用的人彻底毁灭了一家公司或一系列产品。”而且这对于员工士气同样很有帮助：“我们的员工看到，任何人都有机会登上顶峰。我为所有人树立了一个榜样。”

Donald E. Washkewicz

    Company: Parker-Hannifin

    Fortune 500 rank: 211

    Washkewicz started at Parker Hannifin back in 1972 in the grease pit, changing defective hoses on trucks. It was the middle of a recession, and the recent engineering graduate, a Cleveland boy, was happy just to have the job with the motion controls company in his hometown. He moved up quickly: One year in, Washkewicz was tapped to develop a line of thermoplastic products because no one else wanted the job. He went on to head the business division, then to manage the company's hydraulics group worldwide.

    He's never had a job at Parker he didn't like—including the top spot, which he took over in 2000. Washkewicz says his firm grip on Parker's business and culture have been good for the company—too many times, he says he has seen "outside hires come in and ruin a company or a product line." And it's good for morale: "Our employees see anyone can get to the top. It sets an example for everyone."

肯•鲍威尔

    公司：通用磨坊公司

    《财富》500强排名：169

    加州本地人鲍威尔于1979年加入通用磨坊公司，担任格兰诺拉麦片的销售助理。之后他曾担任过许多职位，其中包括：公司旗下酸奶及谷类食品公司Yoplait USA与Big G（包括Cheerios、Chex与Kix等品牌）的总裁。不过，鲍威尔职场的转折点是他被公司派往欧洲协助成立谷物联盟有限公司（Cereal Partners Worldwide，CPW）。这家公司是通用磨坊与雀巢公司（Nestle）的合营公司，目前在140个国家销售谷类食品。这段经历让鲍威尔对国际业务有了深入了解，并让他接触到其他公司的工作方式。1999年，他45岁时被任命为CPW公司CEO，开始执掌CWP，把它发展成了一家全球性的谷类食品公司。

    鲍威尔于2007年当选通用磨坊公司CEO的时候，他对这家公司已经有非常透彻的了解，包括公司的组织结构、人事、产品、客户与文化。这一点非常关键，但他在欧洲的经历以及他对于团队背景多样化的坚持同样至关重要：“（从头到尾在一家公司工作的）劣势是，你会存在盲区，因为你一直都在按照相同的方式工作。一旦在一家公司工作太长时间，你所面临的问题是‘到底需要做出哪些改变？’”

Ken Powell

    Company: General Mills

    Fortune 500 rank: 169

    A native Californian, Powell joined General Mills in 1979 as a marketing assistant on its granola account. Among his many roles since: president of the company's yogurt and cereal lines, Yoplait USA and Big G (Cheerios, Chex and Kix are among its brands). But the turning point for Powell came when he was sent to Europe to help launch Cereal Partners Worldwide, a joint venture with Nestle that now distributes cereal to 140 countries. The experience gave Powell insight into international business as well as the workings of another company. In 1999, when he was made CPW CEO, Powell assumed the reins to a global cereal company at 45.

    By the time Powell was elected CEO of General Mills in 2007, he really knew the company—the organization, its people, products, customers and culture. That was critical, but so was his time in Europe and his insistence on having a team with diverse backgrounds: "The downside [to being a lifer] is you have blind spots because you've always done it this way. The question becomes 'what really needs to be changed?' when you've been embedded in it so long."

道格•奥伯赫尔曼

    公司：卡特彼勒

    《财富》500强排名：42

    奥伯赫尔曼的父亲是约翰迪尔公司（John Deere）的一名销售员。他一直都很喜欢重型机械，所以，1975年，卡特彼勒公司给刚刚大学毕业的他提供一份信用分析员的工作时，他欣然接受。他从没想过自己会在这里工作一辈子，甚至成为公司的CEO（“我当时都不知道自己是否清楚CEO到底是干什么的，”他说），但每当有新的机遇出现时，他的眼界也会随之改变。奥伯赫尔曼曾被派往南美洲，这次任命恰逢拉丁美洲债务危机，他的任务是收回公司的设备；之后他又负责公司在日本的业务。他说：“面临挑战时，经验非常有用。对于业务上正在发生的事，你可以做到心领神会。而且，我对公司350位高层领导都有实质的了解——因为我的整个职业生涯都在这里度过。”他保证要带领卡特彼勒摆脱泡沫，不过：奥伯赫尔曼非常重视与同行在一起的时间，以确保自己按照必要的速度完成公司的改革。

Doug Oberhelman

    Company: Caterpillar

    Fortune 500 rank: 42

    Oberhelman, the son of a John Deere salesman, had always liked heavy equipment, so in 1975 when Caterpillar offered him a job as a credit analyst straight out of college, he took it. He never imagined he'd be there for life or ever become CEO ("I'm not sure I knew what a CEO was then," he says), but his outlook changed with each new interesting opportunity. Oberhelman was sent to South America, a stint that coincided with the Latin American debt crisis and involved re-possessing equipment; and later to run operations in Japan. "When things are challenging, experience is wildly helpful. You appreciate what's going on in the business. And I know virtually all of the top 350 leaders here—I have my entire career," he says. He makes sure to get out of the Caterpillar bubble, however: Oberhelman prioritizes time with peer CEOs to make sure he is pushing and changing the company as fast as he needs to be.

黛博拉•里德

    公司：塞莫拉能源公司

    《财富》500强排名：281

    1978年，刚从工程学院毕业的里德加入塞莫拉能源公司旗下的南加州煤气公司（SoCalGas）。当时，公司还没有哪怕一名女性高管。里德说：“我的目标是成为一名主管。”她的第一份工作任务是为客户的能效计划提供帮助。她在26岁的时候就实现了之前的目标，成为一名主管。之后，她一路扶摇直上，32岁时便成为公司最年轻的高管。期间，她曾负责从人力资源到工程等各个领域。“我曾在多个不同的职能领域工作，让我能够明白公司内部的各种联系，”她说道。“我曾与公司里的许多人共事，对于公司的人才以及如何利用这些人才，我也有很好的判断。”如果说长期在一家公司工作最大的挑战是什么，那就是“挖掘新的创意。”

Debra Reed

    Company: Sempra Energy

    Fortune 500 rank: 281

    When Reed joined Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), a subsidiary of Sempra, fresh out of engineering school in 1978, there were no female officers at the company. "My goal was to become a director," says Reed, whose first assignment was helping customers with energy efficiency programs. She was a director by 26, and she kept climbing up the company ranks, becoming the company's youngest ever officer at 32. Over the years, she managed areas from human resources to engineering. "I've worked in so many different functional areas that I can see the linkages across the company," she says. "And I've worked with so many people in our company that I have a good appreciation for the talent we have and the best ways to leverage it." The biggest challenge to being a lifer? "Mining new ideas."

小约翰•R.斯特安菲德

    公司：保德信金融集团

    《财富》500强排名：29

    斯特安菲德于2008年成为公司CEO。三十年前，他加入保德信金融集团，成为一名投资分析师。虽然他对于自己在这家金融巨头35年的工作经历引以为豪，但他对员工们可不会这么说：“我不希望在职业发展期被聘用的员工认为，职业初期加入公司的那些人比他们更受重视。”他补充道，那些成功的公司，包括保德信金融集团在内，都是既有内部培养的人才，也有外部聘用的精英。他表示，自己之所以一直在保德信工作纯属偶然，并非有意为之：“我评估自己职业的标准一直都是：我喜欢自己正在做的事情吗？我是否能从中学到什么？我喜欢、尊重我的同事吗？我已经在一家公司内从事了一系列不同的职业。而且，我发现在一个领域取得成功可以让你有信心去尝试其他领域。”

John R. Strangfeld, Jr.

    Company: Prudential Financial

    Fortune 500 rank: 29

    Strangfeld became CEO in 2008, three decades after he began his career with Prudential as an investment analyst. While he's proud of his 35 years with the financial giant, it's not a fact he touts to staff: "I don't want mid-career hires to think they are somehow less valued than those who join us earlier in their careers," he says, adding that successful companies—Prudential included— tend to have a mix of internally developed and externally hired talent. He says he became a lifer by accident rather than design: "Evaluating my career, my criteria have always been: Do I like what I am doing? Am I learning? Do I like and respect my colleagues? I feel I have had a series of careers under the umbrella of a single company. And, I find that success in one area can give you the confidence to try another."

塞缪尔•艾伦

    公司：约翰迪尔

    《财富》500强排名：85

    这家农用机械公司足足有176年的历史，但艾伦只是它第9位CEO，而且他也并不是第一位把一生都奉献给公司的领导人。37年前，艾伦在大学管理课上被公司选中，成为公司的工业工程师。艾伦几乎曾就职于约翰迪尔的每一个部门和每一个业务部——他认为自己在公司的成功和2009年被任命为CEO都应归功于经历的多样化。对于长期在一家公司工作，他的观点是：“你最后对公司会有更深刻的理解，也更清楚要想持续有好的表现需要付出什么。”另外一个优势：他与同事建立了贯穿整个职业生涯的关系。他们总是能给他提供诚恳公正的反馈，即使他已经贵为CEO。

Samuel Allen

    Company: John Deere

    Fortune 500 rank: 85

    Only the 9th CEO in the farm equipment company's 176-year history, Allen is hardly the first 'lifer' to lead John Deere. He joined the company 37 years ago as an industrial engineer after being recruited from his college management class. Allen has worked in every division and almost every business unit at Deere—a diversity of experience that he credits for his success at the company and promotion to CEO in 2009. "You end up having many more insights into the business and what it takes for sustained high performance," he says of being a lifer. Another plus: He's developed career-long relationships with colleagues who are comfortable giving him candid feedback, even though he is the CEO.

休•格兰特

    公司：孟山都公司

    《财富》500强排名：206

    这位休•格兰特可不是电影明星，而是一位拥有农业科学学位的格拉斯哥人。1981年，他偶然看到孟山都公司的招聘广告，从而迎来了人生的第一个转机。当时，这家种子公司正在招聘一名能够向苏格兰农民演示如何在麦田施用Roundup除草剂的员工，格兰特有幸被选中。他在孟山都获得迅速成长——之后的几年里，他曾负责过公司的营销、销售和技术业务，以及在四个大陆的业务部门。2000年，孟山都公司进行IPO期间，他成为公司COO，并于2003年成为公司CEO。格兰特表示，长期在一家公司工作对自己非常有益。虽然孟山都的文化始终注重人才培养，但这家公司已经发生了太多的变化，“让他感觉就像在许多家不同的公司工作过一样。”他表示，关键在于“愿意挑战现状。必须持之以恒地倾听、学习和改变。”

Hugh Grant

    Company: Monsanto

    Fortune 500 rank: 206

    The other Hugh Grant, a Glaswegian with an agricultural degree, got his first big break in 1981 when he came across a want ad for Monsanto. The seed company was looking for someone to show Scottish farmers how to apply Roundup to their barley fields, and 23-year-old Grant was their man. His role at Monsanto grew quickly from there -- in the years since, he led the company's marketing, sales, and technology operations and business units on four continents. He became COO in 2000, the time of Monsanto's IPO, and CEO in 2003. Grant says being a 'lifer' has been personally rewarding. While Monsanto's culture has remained consistently nurturing, the business has changed so much he "feels as if he's worked at a wide range of different companies." Key for lifers, he says, "is a willingness to challenge the status quo. Listening, learning and changing must be continuous."

乌苏拉•伯恩斯

    公司：施乐公司

    《财富》500强排名：131

    从暑期实习生到CEO，在施乐公司工作29年之后，伯恩斯于2009年成为《财富》500强（Fortune 500）公司首位黑人女性CEO。伯恩斯是一名接受过培训的机械工程师，她向其他同事证明，自己具有很强的学习能力，是一个坦率直言的人。她从基层崛起——曾负责产品开发、商业计划，还担任过一系列管理职位，这些让她在2000年施乐重组时进入公司核心。她与前任安妮•马尔卡希也建立了密切的工作关系，正是这种关系促成了近期商业历史上最平稳的、最周密的权力交接。马尔卡希钦点伯恩斯作为她的接班人，为了顺利完成一位施乐老兵向另一位施乐老兵的权力交接，两人采取了一种权利共享的安排。在去年的《财富》杂志最具影响力商界女性峰会（Most Powerful Woman Summit）上，伯恩斯表示：“我们有许多相同之处，这让我能轻松完成转变。我们在这家公司度过了一生。我们喜欢这里，我热爱这里的每一个人。”

Ursula Burns

    Company: Xerox

    Fortune 500 rank: 131

    From summer intern to CEO, Burns became the first black woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company in 2009, after 29 years at Xerox. A mechanical engineer by training, Burns, who proved herself a quick study and an outspoken colleague, blew through the ranks—taking on product development, business planning and a series of managerial roles that in 2000 put her at the center of Xerox's restructuring efforts. She also developed a close working relationship with her predecessor Anne Mulcahy, a relationship that led to what has been called one of the smoothest, most thoughtful successions in recent business history. Mulcahy hand-picked Burns and the two worked out a power-sharing arrangement that made for a gradual torch-passing, from one Xerox lifer 'to another. "We had a commonality that made my transition easy," Burns said at Fortune's Most Powerful Woman Summit last year. "We spent lives at this company. We loved it and loved the people in it."

罗睿兰

    公司：IBM

    《财富》500强排名：20

    IBM以其长期愿景和长期雇员而著称。罗睿兰也不例外：从西北大学（Northwestern）毕业、获得计算机科学学位和电力工程学学位后，她曾在通用汽车学院（General Motors Institute）工作过两年（大学奖学金的条件之一），之后才于1981年加入IBM，成为一名系统工程师。罗睿兰在工程领域的表现极为出色，而她在管理岗位上的晋升速度也非常迅速，她最为人津津乐道的是将IBM从一家技术公司转变成一家范围更广泛的商业解决方案公司。她带领IBM以35亿美元的价格收购了普华永道（PricewaterhouseCoopers）的咨询部门。不过，只要罗睿兰仍在IBM，她就不会害怕对它进行改革。实际上，她更担心的是一成不变：“千万不要对某些事物爱到无法放手的地步。每个人必须做出彻底改变，”在去年的《财富》杂志最具影响力商界女性峰会上，罗睿兰曾经这么说道。

Virginia (Ginni) Rometty

    Company: IBM

    Fortune 500 rank: 20

    IBM is a company known for long-term vision and long-term employees. Rometty is no exception: She came to Big Blue as a systems engineer in 1981 after graduating from Northwestern with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering at Northwestern and doing a two year stint at the General Motors Institute (a condition of her college scholarship). Though Rometty excelled at engineering, her rise to the managerial ranks was swift, and she is best known for her work transforming IBM from a technology company to a broader business solutions firm. She led IBM's skillful integration of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, a $3.5 billion acquisition. But as long as Rometty has been at Big Blue, she's not afraid to change it. In fact she's afraid not to: "Never love something so much that you can't let go of it," she said at Fortune's Most Powerful Woman Summit last year. "And you have to reinvent."

弗雷德里克•W•史密斯

    公司：联邦快递公司

    《财富》500强排名：63

    在《财富》500强公司奋斗终生的人群里，只有为数不多的人同时担任公司CEO兼创始人，史密斯便是其中之一。他在耶鲁大学（Yale）学期论文里勾画出了联邦快递的雏形（他周末的工作是一名持照飞行员），让史密斯名声在外。在越南服役两期后，他从姐姐那里借钱成立了公司。虽然这家快递公司并没能迅速出现起色——他曾一度不得不紧急前往拉斯维加斯，靠在赌桌上赢来的钱去拯救公司——至上世纪70年代末，史密斯的公司开始走上正轨，最终成长为这家价值480亿美元的公司。目前这家公司仍由他运营。对于他的继任者以及他会在什么时候停止工作，他一直三缄其口。

Frederick W. Smith

    Company: FedEx

    Fortune 500 rank: 63

    One in a handful of CEO founders on the Fortune 500 lifer list, Smith famously conceptualized FedEx in a college term paper at Yale (he worked as a charter pilot on the weekends). He founded the company in 1971 after two tours of duty in Vietnam, with money borrowed from his sisters. While the express delivery company didn't take off immediately—at one point, he resorted to saving the company with an emergency trip to Vegas and wiring money he made at Black Jack—by the late 1970s, Smith was on his way to building the $48 billion company he still runs today. Mum's the word on Smith's successor and when this lifer will call it quits.

丹尼尔•尼瑞

    公司：奥马哈互助保险公司

    《财富》500强排名：394

    尼瑞也算得上是奥马哈保险公司的终身老兵了。来自美国中西部的尼瑞在获得爱荷华大学（University of Iowa）精算学硕士学位后，于1975年加入奥马哈互助保险公司，不过他上世纪90年代曾短暂离开公司去纽约工作。他发现新公司与之前的公司完全相反——而且经营方式并不好——于是，在不到一年之后，他又回到了奥马哈，继续在老东家发展。

    尼瑞在这家保险公司已经从事过许多个岗位，他经常被要求做一些精算方面的杂活：他曾管理过团队销售和证券承销业务。他说：“对于这种安排，我总能以开放的心态去面对。虽然没有正规的主管人员培训，但公司有需要。”他认为：“在这里，大多数成功的领导人都将自己排在第三位，”这种态度恰好契合了公司的文化。他在2005年成为公司CEO。他认为对于公司而言，更重要的并不是下一位领导人是否曾一直在公司工作，而是他们对于公司而言是否是“合适的”人选。不过他补充说，一直在公司工作的人对公司制度上的了解有更多优势。“如果公司有伟大的文化，你知道如何将其保持下去；如果公司文化出现问题，你就能知道需要对哪些地方进行改变。”如果问到有什么劣势的话，我的回答是“你可能会变得有一点目光短浅。”（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

Daniel Neary

    Company: Mutual of Omaha

    Fortune 500 rank: 394

    Neary is an almost-lifer. The Midwesterner, who started at Mutual of Omaha in 1975 after collecting a Masters in Actuarial Science at the University of Iowa, left his company ever so briefly in the 1990s for a job in New York. He found this new gig to be a complete contrast—and not in a good way—to his old one, and in less than a year, he headed home to Omaha and resumed his rise through the ranks there.

    Neary had already worked in various capacities at the insurance company and he was often asked to take up odd jobs for an actuary: he managed group sales and underwriting operations for a time. "I was always open to them," he says. "There was no formal executive training, there was a need." This attitude—"the most successful leaders here think of themselves third", he says —fit well with Mutual's culture, and he became CEO in 2005. He says more important to companies than whether or not their next leader is a 'lifer' is whether they're the 'right' person for the company at the moment. But he adds lifers have an advantage in their institutional knowledge "If it's a great culture you know how to perpetuate it; if it's got problems, you know what thinks need to change." The drawbacks? "You can become a little myopic."