17 A great classical writer once defined history as \learned from examples.\And a distinguished Brattle Street resident of Cambridge, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, gave us this eloquent summary: Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time. First Things First
18 My third suggestion is this: let's keep our sense of order straight. Let's put first things first.
19 We have all heard shortsighted businesspeople attribute a quotation to Vince Lombardi: \is not the most important thing; it's the only thing.”
20 That's a good quotation for firing up a team, but as a business philosophy it is sheer nonsense. There is another, much better Lombardi quotation. He once said he expected his players to have three kinds of loyalty: to God, to their families, and to the Green Bay Packers, \21 He knew that some things count more than others. Businessmen and women can be unabashedly proud of their companies. But the good of an entire society transcends that of any single corporation. The moral order of the world transcends any single nation-state. And one cannot be a good business leader — or a good doctor or lawyer or engineer — without understanding the place of business in
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the greater scheme of things.
22 There is an incandescent example of a group who understood this fact: who saw life steadily, saw it whole, and saw it in a hierarchy — the delegates who drafted the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia 200 years ago. What do we remember the oldest of them — Benjamin Franklin25— for? Not for his vigorous advice on how to get up early in the morning, drive a business, make a profit, and win success in the marketplace, though he did all these things with gusto. We remember him and the others in Philadelphia — and those who signed the Declaration of Independence — because they did not see winning or self-advancement or even life itself as the only thing. To something greater than themselves — to a new nation \in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal\— to that concept they pledged all subordinate things — their lives, their fortunes, and sacred honor.
23 We should never forget their example. So there are three suggestions:
? Fortify our ethical buttresses — role models, codes of conduct, the honor system.
? Reinvigorate our children's study of the past. ? Keep our priorities straight.
24 If we do these things, we shall go far toward discharging our responsibilities as managers and as human beings: contribute to our countries' strengths, heighten their
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capacity for leadership in an increasingly competitive and productive world, and keep them on the right track as we close out this century and enter the twenty-first.
Introduction to the author
John F. Akers (1934-) Chairman and CEO of IBM from 1985 to 1993. A graduate of Yale, Mr. Akers joined IBM in 1960 as sales trainee in San Francisco following active duty as a Navy carrier pilot. After various marketing assignments, he was named president of the Data Processing Division, then IBM’s largest domestic marking unit, in 1974 at age 39. He became a vice president in 1976, a senior vice president in 1982 and president in 1983. This article ―Ethics and competitiveness—putting first things first‖ was first published in 1989 in Sloan Management Review, winter, 69-71.
New Words
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Phrases and Expressions
at the outset take a hard look at 视
spell out fire up be endowed with provided with property,
at the beginning开始
take a closer and penetrating look审explain very clearly or in detail详解 inspire激发
be provided with a natural gift; be
income, etc.天赋；捐赠
attribute to regard as the work of a specified agent,
place, or time认为
是……创作
Exercises
I. Reading Comprehension
Answer the following questions based on the text. 1. What is the issue Akers discusses in the passage?
2. What is the wide angle of vision with which, as Akers urges, managers ought to look at ethics and competitiveness?
3. Why does Akers think that ethics and competitiveness are inseparable?
4. What fact does Akers acknowledge in the introductory part of his essay?
5. What are the three suggestions Akers makes so that we work in an atmosphere characterized by mutual trust and confidence?
6. What ethical buttresses does Akers talk about in the first
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suggestion he makes?
7. What subject should we consider, according to Akers, in the beginning of our ethical instruction? And why?
8. What bothers Akers when he hears reports that American high school students know little or nothing about their country's literature and history?
9. How does Akers respond to the fact that businessmen and women can be unabashedly proud of their companies? 10. What do we remember Benjamin Franklin for?
II. Structure of the Text
Complete the following outline based on the text. 1. Introduction: (Paras. 1-5)
A central subject in international business competition is _________________. We are urged to look at ___________________________________ with a wide angle of vision.
Ethics and competitiveness are __________________________. They are important not only in ___________________________ but also in ___________________________. 2. Body (Paras. 6-23) 1)
________________________________________________________________.
A. We should ____________________________________ that help all of us know and understand and _______________________________________. The simplest and most powerful buttress is ________________________________.
B. There are other ethical buttresses such as the institutional buttresses
____________________________________________
___________________.
C. . 2) . A. Ethical instruction is important in a business school or anywhere else in the universities, but to take ethical examination is equally important. B. We should start from kindergarten to twelfth grade with a clear-cut study of the past because . C. The more we know of the history of us, the
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