每一個成功的工商企業(yè)都是建立在一些卓越的意識之上的，即懂得審時度勢，抓住機遇，承擔責任，并不乏幽默感。但這一切都沒有比對市場了解的能力更為重要。高級管理人員的一個非常重要的本事是能很自然地設身處地的為客戶著想，并從他們那里獲得真知灼見。他們利用這種能力來指導技術(shù)、產(chǎn)品和售后服務，乃至公司戰(zhàn)略計劃的各個方面。比爾 蓋茨之類的成功者就曾把這種本事帶進他們各自創(chuàng)立的企業(yè)中。沒有這種能力，他們的事業(yè)或許只是曇花一現(xiàn)，至少沒有像今天這樣成功。但是許多高層經(jīng)理，特別是工業(yè)公司的高層經(jīng)理，把與顧客接觸看成是銷售和市場營銷人員的事。即便他們確實也認為市場是公司的重心，但隨著公司的發(fā)展，他們中在多數(shù)人也只與消費者保持十分有限的接觸而已。他們判斷和把握市場，依賴于下屬送來的報告，即二手、三手的材料。

　　參考譯文

　　1) Every successful business is built on superior senses—of timing opportunity responsibility and not infrequently humor.2) None however is more critical than the ability to sense the market.3) A senior executive’s instinctive capacity to empathize with and gain insights from customers is the single most important skill he or she can use to direct technologies product and service offerings indeed all elements of a company’s strategic posture.4) People like Bill Gates brought this ability to the enterprises they founded.5) Without it their ventures might have been short-lived or at least far less successful.6) But many top-level managers particularly those at industrial companies consider customer contact the bailiwick of sales and marketing staff.7) And even if they do believe that market focus is a priority most retain only limited contact with consumers as their organizations grow relying instead on subordinates’ reports—second –or-third-hand informati0n—to define and sense the market for them.