Competing for the Top Spot

Competing for the Top Spot

Caudwell knows what he is looking for, he calls them the four 1)cornerstones of success.

"First thing in need is ambition, then in need the will to win. Then intellect, commercial intellect and finally in need 2)lashings and lashings of 3)resilience."

--John Caudwell

Hurdle 2 1

Before the hopefuls get to show these skills at Caudwell's mansion 3, they'll have to convince his recruitment team at his crew 4)HQ. First of the four to face the music is football captain and focused achiever Gareth Jones. He's taking a break from his finals to come to the interview, waiting for him is Martin Grey, Caudwell's recruitment supreme 4, they call him the 5)rottweiler. Martin wants to reveal Gareth's innermost character. So, what motivated him at age 15?

Gareth: At that age the success was really important...

Martin: Yeah...

Gareth:  What marks success to me was financial reward, and was just being filthy 5 rich, seeing people driving around in Mercedes Benz doing this that and the other and you're just thinking. Seeing them on yachts, seeing them having a high profile. They at this sort of high profile life, it was just like yeah I want that.

Martin: Hmm.

Good start but now Martin 6)sinks his teeth right in.

Martin: What are you most as...when you look back on your life what are you most ashamed of?

Gareth: Umm...most ashamed of?

After almost an hour and a half the 7)interrogation is over, Gareth is called back in for the verdict.

Gareth:  I'm pretty angry about how the interview went, to be honest. I don't think you enabled me to concentrate on any attributes of mine. I think you wanted to, wanted to look at my disappointments and my failures and my, am I ashamed of anything and will I do bad business with anyone else. I mean that was obviously a tactic 6 of your interview, that's the way you wanted to do it, so I mean that's your opinion, but I don't think that stops me from being a high flier.

Now he's showing the full fighting form that Caudwell would love.

Martin: Well it's interesting that, that you've come back in the room with quite a bit of edge and I think in terms of just to put you out your misery 7, I would love to put you forward to the final stage of the process with John.

The final contestant 8 is Sara Dinum. Sara’s dealt in bonds at 21, equities 9 at 22, and she’s always known how to deal well with people, even people like Martin. Martin wants to know what is Sara’s real motivation.

Sara: And they said eventually you can, you know, you can be a, a bank officer and you can earn 25,000 pounds a year. I thought 25,000 pounds a year is not gonna keep me in shoes and handbags.

This certainly sounds like the Caudwell spirit but soon Martin finds that there’s more to Sara than meets the eye.

Martin: OK. On your CV you’ve got education qualifications and you’ve got business studies, economics and law. Yet you dropped law and so did you, did you, is that not misleading me from a CV point of view to put law on there?

Sara: Yes. Yes.Yes.

Martin: Right, so why did you do it then to mislead me?

Sara: No I didn’t do it to...I didn’t do it to deliberately 10 mislead you. I did take my first part of my law exam, I then subsequently dropped it.

It’s no ordinary interview, Martin doesn’t mind the creativity on her CV, Sara presses on.

Sara: If I weren’t to get this job, I would be devastated 11.

It’s the moment of truth for Sara.

Martin: Alright, thanks for your time you’ve invested so far. All on you did very well and, and I want you to put you forward to the next stage.

Real winners are hard to find. John knows the interview process is flawed but thinks his technique is the best way there is.

“I try and drill inside the person themselves and try and understand the psychological make up, and bring all sorts of aspects out.”

—— John Caudwell

Hurdle 2

It's the day of reckoning, will one of them be a winner? John begins gently to drill.

John: What do you think your greatest strength is?

Sara: That's a really tough one, I don't know, I think my greatest strength is, my enthusiasm.

A straight answer to a straight question, John spotted 12 her 8)manipulation, Sara's selling herself as nice, this could sell phones too but John probes further.

John: Are you, are you nice beyond beyond successful, or would you make the really tough decisions timely, quickly even though that might be personally painful because the people you might actually like are the people that are working for you?

Sara: I, I'm not nice beyond that.

So Sara's had her chance, has she shown Caudwell what he's looking for?

Next up is Gareth Jones. John starts by probing Gareth on his well known 9)bugbear, bad British bosses. Will the 22 year old say the right thing?

John: What do you think of managers generally?

Gareth: I've met a lot of managers that I just can't believe uh can call themselves managers.

John: What percentage do you think of the people that you've worked for were that you  thought would have good and added real value to the business?

Gareth: I don't think I thought any of them would've.

John: None of them?

Gareth: They had their strengths that I liked but I don't think a lot of them achieved what I thought they should be achieving. I think they were definitely lacking in different aspects and they did not like to hear that, especially being managers and me being a work placement student.

Gareth can criticize but would he do any better himself? The winner of the sport's field is on a role as he describes his success.

Gareth: I will always trust my judgment 13. I think that's important, there's people that are born to lead and people that are born to follow as far as I'm concerned and I am one of those people that is born to lead.

Evaluation 14

After weeks of competition, it's decision time for Sara and Gareth. Was Sara too ruthless, was Gareth too cocky? Will one of them get through?

John (to Sarah): You're extremely skilled, you're manipulative and I can see you always making a successful career in sales. However you left me concerned about where you drew the line on the ethical 15 side of things and ruth, ruthlessness. And we are looking for people with a real cutting edge, and I wasn't really sure where your line was.

It's a hard business, now it's Gareth's turn.

John: So how did you think you did?

Gareth: Confident.

John: You confident?! congratulations I am delighted to be able to offer you the job.

Gareth: Fantastic.

John: We'll be keeping a really close, you know, relationship with you and develop and make sure that you will build really quickly and be one of my future top guys in a few years time.

Gareth will now be paid 50K plus 50 bonus as he gets his chance to transform a Caudwell business.

注释:

1) cornerstone [5kC:nEstEJn] n. 奠基石，墙角石

2) lashing 1 [5lAFIN] n. 猛冲，冲击

3) resilience [rI5zIlIEns] n. 弹力，恢复力，顺应力

4) HQ 即headquarters，总部

5) rottweiler [5rCt7waIlE(r)] n. 罗特韦尔狗（德国种黑色短毛高大猛犬）

6) sink one's teeth in(to) 乐于攻克难关

7) interrogation [in7terE5^eiFEn] n. 讯问，审问

8) manipulation [mE7nipju5leiFEn] n. （使用手段的）操纵，控制

9) bugbear [5bQ^bZE] n. 无端的恐惧

职场较量最终赢家

考德威尔知道自己需要的是什么，他称之为成功的四大要素。

“首要的是雄心壮志，然后是成功的决心，再是才智，商业才智，最后是相当的韧性。”

——约翰•考德威尔

第一关

在这些候选人得以进入考德威尔的公司一展身手之前，他们必须要在考德威尔员工总部让其招聘小组相信他们具备这些能力。四人中第一个面对挑战的是功成名就、众所瞩目的足球队队长加雷思·琼斯。他从决赛赛事中脱身出来参加面试。等待他的是考德威尔的高级招聘官马丁·格雷，有人叫他“铁面考官”。马丁想要揭示加雷思内心最深处的性格。那么，他十五岁的时候，是什么激励他的呢？

加雷思∶在那样的年纪，成功对我来说是非常重要的。

马丁：嗯……

加雷思∶那时对我来说，成功的标志就是金钱上的回报，也就是非常富有，看到别人驾着梅塞德斯－奔驰车四处兜风，意气风发，而你只能想想罢了；他们乘游艇出游，风光无限。他们这种风风光光的生活就像……啊，我也想那样。

马丁：嗯。

开了个好头。不过接着马丁开始出击了。

马丁：什么是你最……当你回忆以前的生活时，你感到最羞愧的是什么？

加雷思：唔……最羞愧的？

将近一个半小时后询问结束，加雷思被叫回来听结果。

加雷思：老实说，面试弄成这个样子，我很生气。我认为你没有给我机会把注意力集中在我的资质方面。我认为你想看到我沮丧和失败的样子以及我的，我是不是为什么事感到羞愧，还有我会不会跟别人把事情做得一团糟。我的意思是，那显然是你面试的策略，你想采用这种方式，所以，我是说那只是你的想法，不过我想那阻止不了我成为有所作为的人。

现在他表现出不服输的本性，考德威尔会欣赏这一点。

马丁：嗯，非常有意思的是，你这一回来倒是锋芒毕露，我想，就为打消你的疑虑而言，我也乐意让你进入最后一轮面试，去和约翰谈谈。

最后一个竞争者是莎拉·迪南。莎拉21岁开始操作债券，二十二岁介入股票，而且她一向都知道如何与人打交道，甚至包括像马丁这样的人。马丁想知道莎拉的真实动机是什么。

莎拉：有人对我说以后你会，嗯，你会成为一名，一名银行官员，一年能挣两万五千英磅。我认为两万五千英磅并不能维持我的日常开销。

听起来这的确像考德威尔的精神，但很快马丁发现莎拉并不像看上去那么简单。

马丁：好吧，你的简历上提到你的学历，你修了商学、经济学和法律. 然而你并没有念完法律，那么单就简历而言，你把法律加进去是不是在骗我呢？

莎拉：是的。是的。是的。

马丁：那好，你当时为什么要这样做来骗我呢？

莎拉：没有，我那样做并不是要……我那样做并不是要故意骗你，我确实参加了第一部分的法律考试，只是后来我放弃了。

这不是普通的面试，马丁并不介意她简历上的无中生有。莎拉继续坚持下去。

莎拉∶如果得不到这份工作，对我会是个沉重的打击。

现在对莎拉来说是个关键时刻。

马丁：好的，谢谢你的宝贵时间。你做得非常棒，我想让你进入下一轮面试。

很难决定谁真正胜出。约翰知道面试的流程有缺陷，不过他认为他的技巧是最管用的。

“我尝试深入人的内心世界，试图了解其心理特征并使之彻底地表现出来。”

--约翰·考德威尔

第二关

今天就要决出胜负，他们中会有一人胜出吗？约翰开始小心试探。

约翰：你认为你最大的优点是什么？

莎拉∶真是很难回答，我不清楚，我想我最大的优点是，热情吧。

直问直答。约翰看出她在耍花招。莎拉把自己形容得很棒，这点用来推销手机也还可以。但约翰进一步深入探查。

约翰∶你会不会，过于好心而不能，或者说你能否迅速而及时地做出非常艰难的决定，即便这个决定的做出对你个人而言非常痛苦，因为你可能真正欣赏的人正是你的下属？

莎拉：我，我能做到。

莎拉已经有过机会，她有没有表现出考德威尔要寻找的特质呢？

下一个是加雷思·琼斯。约翰从他众所周知的弱点——蹩脚的英国老板开始探查。这个二十二岁的家伙会口吐真言吗？

约翰：一般说来你对经理有什么看法？

加雷思：我和许多经理打过交道，我真是不能相信，呃，他们好意思自称是经理。

约翰：你认为你的这些老板中有相当水平并且能为公司真正增值的占几成？

加雷思：我认为他们中没人算得上。

约翰：一个也没有？

加雷思：他们具有我欣赏的优点，但我认为他们中许多人都没有取得我认为他们应该取得的业绩。我想他们肯定是各有缺陷,而且他们不愿意听这些，尤其是在他们作为经理而我是实习生的时候。

加雷思有评判的权利，但是换做是他就能做得更好吗？运动场上的胜者总是擅长描绘自己的成功。

加雷思：我永远相信自己的判断。我认为这非常重要。依我来看，有的人天生就是发号施令的领导者，有的人天生就是亦步亦趋的附和者。我就属于天生就是发号施令的领导者这一类。

总评

经过数周的竞争，是该决定莎拉和加雷思胜负的时候了。莎拉是不是太不择手段了？加雷思是不是太自负了？他们中会有人通过吗？

约翰(对莎拉)：你很有经验，善于玩花样而且我看得出来你一直在销售领域取得骄人的业绩。不过你让我对你在职业道德与不择手段之间界限的把握上产生了顾虑。而我们寻找的是真正高素质的人，况且我不太清楚你如何把握界限。

现实无情。现在轮到加雷思了。

约翰：你认为你表现得怎么样？

加雷思：我很自信。

约翰∶你很自信？祝贺你，我很高兴能够给你这份工作。

加雷思：太棒了！

约翰：我们会跟你保持密切的联系，而且加以培养，确保你很快有所发展，并且在几年内成为我将来的得力人才之一。

加雷思获得机遇，对一家考德威尔企业进行改革，并将得到五万英磅的年薪和 50%的分红。