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纳斯达克CEO:我们必须面对残酷现实

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    When Robert Greifeld, 57, became Nasdaq’s chief in 2003, it ran one equity market in the U.S. Today, it owns and operates 26 markets globally for trading stocks, bonds, derivatives, and commodities; its technology runs 70 markets on six continents. Greifeld’s aggressive expansion has been necessary to keep Nasdaq OMX relevant in an industry being heavily disrupted by infotech and globalization. He talked recently with Fortune about high-frequency trading, U.S. competitiveness in capital markets, and more. Edited excerpts:

    Fortune: There’s been a lot of controversy about high frequency trading, especially since Michael Lewis’s book Flash Boys was published. Bottom line, Lewis says the market is rigged. Is he right?

    Robert Greifeld: He’s completely wrong. He spoke to very few people in the industry—it was remarkable how few people he spoke to. I characterize it as a drive-by. It was not a serious piece of work. The markets are working better than they ever have. Can they be improved? Of course they can. We work on that every day. But it’s important to note that the cost to transact in our market has declined by 90% over the last 20 years. That’s pretty impressive.

    Individual investors read the book or hear about it, and they’re a little scared. What’s the most important thing for them to know about this topic?

    The thing they should know is that our markets function incredibly well. They’re very deep and very liquid, and if an investor wants to buy or sell at the price they see on their screen, they have a unique opportunity to do that in a most rapid fashion. Contrary to what you might think, retail participation in the market has been on the increase since 2012 and that increase has continued into 2014. So you see increased engagement from retail investors in the markets.

    America’s economic success was in part due to having capital markets that were arguably the world’s best at allocating capital to its best use. Do we still have that edge?

    Beyond a doubt. In certain ways, our lead in capital markets has extended. Since 2012, we’ve had 80 companies from outside the U.S. come to the U.S. marketplace [to list]. Just this year, we had a number of high-profile wins. We had JD.com come to us from China and Markit come from the U.K. to list here. So we feel very good about the state of our capital markets.

    It’s interesting how, with the data available, you can see the transaction costs in our market relative to other markets, developed and developing, and we lead. That’s a good thing.

    Four years ago, we heard predictions that increased regulation, Dodd-Frank in particular, would discourage companies from doing IPOs and listing in the U.S., and that the advantage was going to shift. What has happened since then?

    What you have to focus on is the Jobs Act. That was the first bipartisan deregulatory action that I’ve seen in the past decade. The Jobs Act has had a tremendous impact on the IPO market in the U.S., in particular with biotech companies. It shows that informed government action can really make a difference in commercial endeavors.

    A recent Businessweek article detailed a cyberattack on Nasdaq in 2010. What was your reaction to the article?

    2003年,当现年57岁的罗伯特•格雷菲尔德出任纳斯达克公司(Nasdaq)CEO时,它只在美国经营一个股票市场。如今,该公司已在全球拥有并经营26个市场,交易品种覆盖股票、债券、衍生品和大宗商品;其技术为六大洲的70个交易市场提供支持。在这个被信息科技和全球化严重颠覆的行业中,格雷•菲尔德的激进扩张已经成为保持纳斯达克OMX集团(Nasdaq OMX)立于不败之地的关键。最近,格雷菲尔德与《财富》杂志(Fortune)探讨了高频交易、美国在全球资本市场的竞争力等话题。以下为经过编辑的采访节选:

    《财富》:高频交易已经引发了很多争议,尤其是在迈克尔•刘易斯的新著《快闪小子》(Flash Boys)出版之后。归根结底,刘易斯认为,市场被非法操纵了。他说得对吗?

    罗伯特•格雷菲尔德:他完全错了。他所采访的只是这个行业的少数从业者,少到有点奇怪。我觉得他就像是走马观花。这不是一部严肃的作品。当前市场的运行比以往任何时候都好。它们还可以继续改善吗?当然可以。我们每天都在为此努力。务必要指出的是,我们的市场交易成本在过去20年中已经降低了90%。这是非常了不起的。

    读过或听说过这本书的个人投资者会有点担心。对于这个话题,他们需要知道的最重要的一点是什么?

    他们应当明白,我们的市场运行得非常好。市场深度和流动性都很好,如果一位投资者想以屏幕上看到的价格买入或卖出,他们能以最快速的方式获得这个独一无二的机会。可能与你想象的正好相反,2012年以来,散户的市场参与度一直在上升,进入2014年之后,这一趋势仍在持续。因此,你看到了市场中有越来越多的散户参与。

    过去美国经济的成功部分得益于这个国家拥有堪称全球资本配置效率最优的资本市场。如今美国还有这一优势吗?

    毫无疑问。从某些方面而言,美国在全球资本市场的领先优势还进一步扩大了。2012年以来,有80家海外公司赴美上市。单单是今年,我们就吸引了不少备受关注的IPO交易。比如,来自中国的京东商城(JD.com)和英国的Markit公司均选择在这里上市。我们对当前的美国资本市场很有信心。

    有意思的是,通过现有的数据,人们可以比照美国市场和其他市场的交易成本,而美国显然处于领先地位。这是一件好事。

    4年前我们听到,有人预言美国监管升级[特别是推行《多德-弗兰克法案》(Dodd-Frank)之后]会吓跑许多本来打算赴美IPO的公司,美国的优势将丧失。后来发生了什么事情?

    大家必须要关注的是《创业企业融资法案》(Jobs Act)。这是过去十年我看到的第一部放松管制的两党法案。《创业企业融资法案》对于美国IPO市场影响巨大,特别是生物科技类公司。它显示了明智的政府行动确实能推动商业发展。

    最近《彭博商业周刊》(Businessweek)有一篇文章详细报道了2010年纳斯达克遭到的一次网络入侵。您怎么看这篇文章?


    There was information in that story that we were not aware of. The fact that [the attack] was fundamentally state-sponsored was a surprise. We always suspected that could be it because the level of attack was not something that two guys in their basement could do. But to see that we were targeted by a sovereign nation [Russia] is something that will take your breath away for a second. We’re accustomed to competing with other commercial enterprises, but to realize that you have a sovereign nation coming after your systems is an eye-opener.

    I was somewhat surprised in that we had been engaged with the government since 2010. That engagement was with myself, some board members, and members of management. So we obviously, for whatever reason, were not told the full story.

    Part of my reaction also is that it did happen in 2010, and so much has happened since then with cyber-security issues. It’s probably equivalent to dog years in terms of how we’ve progressed in the past four years. Any commercial endeavor is in a different state of preparedness and awareness than they were in 2010.

    What have you done to increase security in the four years since?

    I do want to compliment the government because they have helped us through the last four years, and it’s been, I think, a good relationship for them.

    We had to come at it in three ways. First, our staffing has changed dramatically with respect to the number of people dedicated to cyber-security, and the experience level of those people has increased dramatically. Second, the vendor community has come up with a number of different and interesting products that are remarkably more effective than [what] existed back in 2010. We’ve been an active consumer of that. Third, operationally you just have that as a core part of your procedures. You’re basically cleansing your systems on a regular basis, so we do that.

    The dominant point is that you can never rest. You can never get to a state of saying, “Okay, we are now protected.” The threat factors change on a regular and constant basis, so it’s definitely something that causes anxiety, and you’ve got to use that and funnel that anxiety in a positive way.

    You started in the business of technology and capital markets 35 years ago, and I suspect you could not have imagined how it would change. What lessons do you draw from your career?

    Plus I was an English major before I went to grad school. So you have to be agile because you really do not know what’s going to happen. As you get further along in your career, you get better at anticipating the change in the world, but you’re still not precise. The dominant skill is to say, “Okay, I’m going to take the world as it comes. I always want to see reality for reality.” People have their preexisting notions or biases in terms of what the world should look like. We always have to confront brutal reality. That could be a reality we like because it’s what we thought, but it could easily be, and most times is, a different reality than we perceived, and we have to be agile about responding to that.

    这篇文章提供的一些信息是我们以前不知道的。(那次入侵)基本上是政府主导,让人意外。我们有过这样的怀疑,因为那种级别的入侵不是两三个人在自己的地下室里就能发动的。但要说我们的网络被一个主权国家(俄罗斯)入侵了,还是会让人一时惊呆。我们习惯了与其他商业企业竞争,但绝对想不到会有一个主权国家侵入我们的网络。

    让我有些惊讶的是,2010年以来我们一直与政府积极接触,包括我自己、一些董事会成员和管理层。因此,我们显然是被刻意隐瞒了一些东西,不管是出于什么原因。

    我的另一个反应是2010年确实出现了网络安全问题,自那以后也时常发生。过去4年,我们在网络安全方面取得了长足的进步。如今的商业计划,无论是从准备状态和意识角度,都已不同于2010年。

    过去4年,你们采取了什么措施来加强网络安全?

    我确实要表扬一下美国政府,他们帮助我们安然度过了过去4年。我想,这4年对于他们而言也是一段良好的关系。

    我们从三个角度来加强网络安全。首先,我们的员工结构发生了巨大变化,专职于网络安全的员工数量显著增多,其经验水平也大幅提高。第二,网络安全服务供应商们提供了众多不同的有意思的产品,其有效性远远超过2010年时的产品。我们是这些产品的积极用户。第三,从经营上说,网络安全成为我们的一项核心流程。我们会定期清理系统。

    最主要的一点是,永远都不能停歇。永远都不能说:“好,现在我们高枕无忧了。”威胁因素定期且持续地发生变化,总是会有什么让人担心,但必须要习惯这一点,将担心转化为正能量。

    当您在35年前进入科技和资本市场领域时,有没有想象到会有怎样的变化。您从职业生涯中学到了什么?

    上研究生前,我学的是英语专业。因此,我必须要保持灵敏,因为真的不知道会发生什么。随着职业经验的增长,人们能更好地预测变化,但还是不能做到非常准确。最重要的一点是要学会对自己说:“好的,不管怎样,我都会接受这个世界。我希望总能看到事实。”对于这个世界应该是什么样子,人们总是会有成见或偏见。但我们不得不面对残酷的现实。当现实如我们所想,它可能会让我们欣喜,但很可能大多数时候,事实与我们所认为的不一样,我们必须灵活应对。(财富中文网)

    译者:早稻米

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