1、创造财富企业财务战略与决策外文翻译本科毕业论文（设计）外 文 翻 译原文：Creating WealthCorporate Financial Strategy and Decision MakingCorporate Financial Strategic PlanningHerbert Simon has written that there is a Greshams law of planning: “Programmed activity tends to drive out non programmed activity.” The decision to buy a new en
2、ergy-saving piece of equipment is a lot easier to discuss and analyze than strategic investment decisions. In the case of the energy-saving equipment, cash flows can be estimated and the decision to buy or not to buy can be made based on well-known capital budgeting techniques. The basic capital bud
3、geting techniques are “programmed activities” in Simons law. Strategy issues are a lot softer and a lot less satisfactory to write about and to read. However, it may well be that strategy issues are much more important, even if they are not fun to consider.Strategy leads a firm to enter the energy b
4、usiness. That is the first and most important decision. The firm might then have to value a prospective acquisition as a means of accelerating the entry into the industry, but without the strategy decision it would not be necessary to value the acquisition. All business decision making is based on a
5、bstractions from reality. We have to simplify in order to make decisions. We can delay decision making by insisting- on more information, but when the more information is obtained, there will still be more information that could be obtained if you were willing to defer action. Sooner or later one ha
6、s to resist the opportunity to get more information, and one has to make the decision.Herbert Simon has said this best: Administrative theory is peculiarly the theory of intended and bounded rationality of the behavior of human beings who satisfice because they have not the wits to maximize. And as
7、additional explanation: Whereas economic man maximizes selects the best alternative from among all those available to him, his cousin, administrative man, satisfices looks for a course of action that is satisfactory or “good enough.” Examples of satisficing criteria, familiar enough to businessmen i
8、f unfamiliar to most economists, are “share of market,” “adequate profit,” “fair price.”The substitution of the word “satisfice” for “maximize” is not necessary if we are willing to consider the costs of information, search, and delay in the decision to maximize. In a sense we can conclude that Simo
9、n is suggesting that it is better to make decisions, even imperfect decisions, than to endure the long wait until the perfect information and perfect decision processes are available. “In an important sense, all decision is a matter of compromise.”While Simons “satisfice” description is an extremely
10、 useful device for describing how managers operate, we shall find it convenient to collapse Simons “satisfice” and profit maximization into one expression. Infect, the profit maximization (where profit is defined in terms of risk-adjusted present value) is deemed to be the primary objective of the f
11、irm. More is better. Further, the profit maximization objective includes the information cost and cost of search so that it is consistent with Simons satisfice (we are not rejecting the satisfice concept). The assumption is that decisions should be made from the point of view of improving the well-b
12、eing of the stockholders. This is a reasonable point of departure, but it cannot be the entire message. Managers, employees, customers, and society in general have interests in the results of a firms operations. We must also consider the impact of decisions on the well-being of these groups. One mig
13、ht object to this conclusion, but realistically such considerations are being included by successful firms.No manager submits an investment or other decision proposal without carefully considering the impact of the decision being reviewed on his or her well-being. Even the board of directors will co
14、nsider the well-being of managers if for no other reason than that managers are likely to be on the board. Employees also must be considered, since an obvious and continuous disregard of their interests will cause them to insist on the right to protect their interests. Customers also gain their righ
15、t to be considered by the economic power they wield, not in the board room directly, but indirectly via the right of a consumer to avoid buying a corporations product.The rights of society can to some extent be ignored by a corporation for a short period of time, but continuous implementation of a “
16、public be damned” philosophy is likely to bring forth a string of government legislation. The interests of society must be respected if only to avoid such legislation. A corporation should do “right” either because it is the proper thing to do or because it is in its own best interests to behave in
17、such a fashion.Key Elements of Strategic PlanningThe five key elements of the strategic planning are listed below:The first element in developing a strategy is the identification of the problems and opportunities that exist. A successful firm will have a fertile idea-generating environment. What pro
18、blems and opportunities are there? Problem and opportunity identification is one of the more important outputs resulting from good strategic planning. No problem can be solved or an opportunity can be seized unless it exists.The second element is to set goals (objectives). Goal setting is not indepe
19、ndent of the identification of opportunities. If the goal is to achieve growth in sales of 15% per year, it will be necessary to spend more resources generating ideas than if the goal is to avoid growth. It may be argued that top management should stop with the setting of the goals and leave everyth
20、ing else to the operating managers. For example, top management might set the goals to earn at least 25% return on investment (ROI), to maintain a 15% growth rate per year, and to corner 20% of the total market as the firms profit goals. Operating management would then establish the details as to ho
21、w the goals would be achieved. A popular form of managerial style is to “manage by objectives.” If one manages by objectives, the goal is set by the top, but the specific method of getting to the goal is not controlled. The results are important, not the method of getting to the results. Performance
22、 measurement is substituted for detailed supervision. Thus goal setting becomes a crucially important element in the strategic planning.We now have problems and goals defined. The third element is to have a procedure for providing, possible solutions, or “paths” the firm can follow to find a solutio
23、n. For example, the current energy situation can be defined as a problem or an opportunity. The goal might be to achieve energy independence or to make a given return on investment. Assume a firm has decided to enter the energy industry and has to decide what kind of energy it will develop and how i
24、t will go about it. For example, it might consider solar, wind, tide, and fossil and then decide to go with solar.Having decided to enter the solar energy industry, the corporation might decide to spend large sums on research or alternatively might decide to acquire a firm that already has valuable
25、know-how and thus accelerate its entry into the industry. The setting of tactics follows the setting of the basic strategy for entering the industry.The basic decision is to “enter the solar energy industry.” The goals that are set can be to earn 25% ROI, increase earnings 15% per year, and gain 20%
26、 of the total market. Top management of the corporation might then leave the details of how this is to be achieved to the managers operating the solar energy division. This is an extreme form of decentralization and “bottom line management.” The more normal procedure is for top management to oversee
27、 the more important decisions that are made, especially those involving large investment outlays or other large commitments.The fourth element of strategic planning is to choose the best solution, given possible solutions and the firms objectives. On what basis will the best solution be chosen? The
28、goal might have been established to maximize the well being of the stockholders. This is easy to state, but given a large number of ways to enter the energy industry, which method should be chosen? It might be decided to choose the path with the largest net present value. But then risk consideration
29、s should enter analysis. Choosing the best solution, even with well-defined goals established, is a difficult job.The fifth and final element of strategic planning is to have some type of review procedures to check how the best solution has actually performed. How this review function is executed wi
30、ll depend on the preferences and style of management.The above five elements of strategic planning do not reveal anything about the style in which they (and the resulting plans) will be implemented. They are broad enough to encompass a wide range of financial decisions. For example, if the goal is t
31、o have reasonable growth but little risk, the amount of risk that is acceptable to the owners of the corporation (or in their absence, to the board of directors) will greatly affect the amount of debt that is used to finance the corporation.A major planning question not yet answered is to what exten
32、t the interests of the organization come ahead of the interests of the different groups of employees. What sort of performance measures will be used, and what happens when goals are not met? Will excuses (explanations) be listened to, or will there be an insistence on performance? Managerial style w
33、ill circle back and affect things like idea generation.Approach to StrategyWe will consider four approaches to strategy. The first uses brilliance and is unstructured, while the second uses dramatic simplifications and broad generalizations. The third relies heavily on statistical data, and the fourth is a theoretical approa
