11-1 搜索成功

Search for Success

Wang Daqing: The whole world has witnessed1 tremendous changes in China’s information industry in recent years, and what role do you think Baidu has been playing in the internet market ever since its appearance four years ago?

Robin 1 Lee: I think the information retrieval2, or search engine in particular, is one of the very basic functions in the internet age. Since the internet is a network of information, people naturally would rely on search engine to find information. Actually this trend has become even more obvious as the amount of information available online gets larger and larger. Baidu has been Chinese search engine for four and a half years, I should say the only thing we do is Chinese searching, and we’ve been very focused. This is why Baidu becomes the largest Chinese search engine in the world. We have a large user base, and every day lots of people come to Baidu to do their search and find the information they want. I believe lots of people do think they rely on Baidu to find information.

Wang: Although Baidu has become the most powerful Chinese search engine over internet, the competition is becoming more and more fierce with many more companies coming into this field, including some giant corporations like Microsoft, Yahoo, and so on. What do you think is the greatest challenge confronting3 Baidu? And how are you going to deal with it?

Robin Lee: Grand competition is heating up, and large companies like, as you mentioned, Microsoft, Yahoo are getting into this field. But if you look at the history of search engine, starting from 1994, you will find that none of the successful search engine comes from big companies. On the contrary, they actually are all start ups. Search engine becomes successful not because search engine companies have a lot of money, it’s because they are innovative 24, and focused they only do search. That is why I’m confident Baidu can compete in this landscape even though more and more powerful companies are coming into play5. I believe as long as we focus on what we do we only do search we would be able to defend our position.

Wang: As Baidu keeps growing, you surely will need to recruit more people. What qualities do you appreciate most in an employee? And how do you evaluate their capabilities 3?

Robin Lee: Well, broadly speaking, there are two criteria 46 we care about. Number one is how well the person can work in or can appreciate our company culture. Baidu is very much like a start up company in Silicon 5 Valley, where people can communicate very openly and have flexible working hour, casual dressing 6, open-door policy. We encourage employees to innovate 7, to work hard. We need to make sure the potential employee can appreciate, or can work in this kind of environment. Number two is we do care about the person’s capability 8 of doing his or her work. We don’t care much about the candidate7’s degree, background, gender 9 or marital 10 status. The only thing we care is whether the candidate can do his or her job. These are the two criteria we look at.

Wang: You are quite successful both academically8 and commercially, yet what do you prefer to be thought of as, a top search engine specialist or a successful businessman? And why?

Robin Lee: Ideally both. If I have to put a label on myself, I should say I’m probably still an engineer. As an engineer my dream is to have as many people as possible use the program or the project I built. So Baidu is one way of realizing my dream. You know, every day tens of millions of people use Baidu to find information, and I feel passionate 11 about making a product like this, which can help many people benefit from the internet.

Wang: Nowadays many young people look on you as their role model, what suggestions or advice do you have for these young people who wish to become successful in the future?

Robin Lee: When I was young, I also thought a lot about these kinds of questions. And firstly I think the most important characteristic of a successful person is the ability to think independently. There are a lot of opportunities, but there are not many people who realize that the opportunity is there for him or her. So you have to have the ability to think independently what you can do best; what is the most suitable job for you. When you choose your career path, you need to keep this in mind. Maybe you are good at sales, maybe you are good at technology, maybe you are good at starting a new company, maybe you are good at working for a large company. You need to think independently to find out what you are good at. I think it’s the most important thing. Secondly 12, once you have figured out what you want to do and what you can do best, you should focus on it. Do not change your job every year, that is not a good practice. Do not change your focus either, you should realize that if you focus on something, you should be able to do it better than most other people.

注释：

1. witness [5witnis] vt.目击，注意到

2. retrieval [ri5tri:vEl] n. [计]检索

3.   confront [kEn5frQnt] vt. 迎面遇到，面临，遭遇

4. innovative [5inEuveitiv] a. 富有革新精神的

5. come into play 开始活动，开始运转，投入使用，起作用

6. criterion [krai5tiEriEn] n.（复）-ria [-riE]（批评、判断、检验等的）标准，准则，尺度

7. candidate [5kAndideit] n. 申请求职者

8. academically [7AkE5demikEli] ad. 学术上地

搜索成功

王大庆：近年来，中国的信息产业发生了举世瞩目的巨大变化，你认为自从百度4年前诞生以来，它在互联网市场中起着什么作用？

李彦宏：我认为信息检索，特别是搜索引擎，是互联网时代一个非常基本的功能。互联网是一个信息网络，人们自然会依靠搜索引擎去寻找信息。实际上，随着网上可获得的信息量不断增大，这种趋势变得更加明显。百度作为中文搜索引擎已经有4年半的时间。我们所做的只是中文搜索，并一直专注于此，这就是百度成为世界上最大的中文搜索引擎的原因。我们有一个庞大的用户基础，每天都有很多人来百度搜索他们所需要的信息。我相信很多人确实认为他们可以依靠百度来查找信息。

王：尽管百度已经成为互联网上最大的中文搜索引擎，但是随着更多的公司，包括微软，雅虎等巨型企业进入了这个领域，竞争日益激烈。你认为百度面临的最大挑战是什么？你们将如何应对？

李：激烈的竞争正趋于白热化，一些大公司，像你所提到的微软、雅虎，正在进入这个领域。但是如果你看一下搜索引擎的历史，从1994年开始，你会发现没有一个成功的搜索引擎来自大公司。恰恰相反，他们都是新兴的公司。搜索引擎取得成功并不是因为公司有很多钱，而是因为他们具有创新精神，而且非常专一——他们只做搜索。所以，尽管越来越多的大公司正进入这个领域，我相信百度在这个领域里是有竞争力的。我相信只要我们专注于我们所做的事情——我们只做搜索--我们能够保持自己的地位。

王：随着百度不断发展，你们肯定会需要招聘更多的人员。你最欣赏的员工的品质是什么？你是如何衡量他们的能力的？

李：一般来说，我们着重两个标准。第一是员工能否在这个企业文化中很好地工作以及是否赞同我们的企业文化。百度非常像硅谷的新兴企业，员工可以公开地交流，工作时间灵活，穿着随意，并实行开放式办公政策。我们鼓励员工创新和努力工作。我们必须确信有可能聘用的员工能够赞同并且能在这种环境中工作。第二，我们确实非常注重一个人的工作能力。我们不太注重应聘者的学历、背景、性别或者婚姻状况，我们只注重应聘者能否胜任其工作。这就是我们所看重的两个标准。

王：你在学术上和商业上都非常成功，你更希望被看作是一个顶级的搜索引擎专家还是一个成功的商人？为什么？

李：最好是两者兼有。如果我必须给自己贴个标签，我想或许我仍然是一个工程师。作为一个工程师，我的梦想是让尽可能多的人来使用我设计的程序或方案。所以百度是我实现梦想的一个途径。每天数以千万计的人使用百度查找信息，创造这样一种能帮助许多人从互联网中受益的产品让我充满激情。

王：现在许多年轻人都把你看作他们的榜样，对于这些希望在未来取得成功的年轻人，你有什么建议或忠告？

李：我年轻时也想过很多这类问题。首先我认为，一个成功的人所具有的最重要的特征是独立思考的能力。机会有很多，但是能够发现属于自己的机会的人并不多。所以你必须具备独立思考的能力——你最擅长什么？什么是最适合你的工作？当你选择职业道路的时候，你必须牢记这一点。也许你擅长销售，也许你精于技术，也许你适合开办一个新公司，也许你适合为大公司工作。你需要独立地思考，确定你究竟擅长什么。我想这是最重要的。第二，一旦你弄清楚了什么是你想做的和你所擅长的，你就应当专心做下去。不要每年都换工作，这样做不好。也不要改变你所专注的事，你应当明白，如果你专注于一件事情，你就会比其他大多数人做得更好。