調查發現，這位CEO最能創新

一項新的民意調查顯示，在頂尖科技公司的首席執行官里，亞馬遜的首席執行官杰夫·貝佐斯堪稱最佳。

根據哈里斯民意調查機構代表《財富》雜志的調查，83%受訪者表示相信貝佐斯可以推動公司發展并堅持創新，高于蘋果首席執行官蒂姆·庫克（77%），微軟首席執行官薩蒂亞·納德拉（76%），谷歌首席執行官桑達爾·皮查伊（76%）和Facebook首席執行官馬克·扎克伯格（71%）。

貝佐斯一手將亞馬遜從小型在線書商轉變為電子商務巨頭，也由此揚名。他還拓展公司業務，大力發展流媒體視頻、信息技術、Kindle電子書閱讀器，以及最近的Echo智能揚聲器，也擴展到實體零售，特別是收購連鎖雜貨店全食超市。

“現在亞馬遜發展的路線比較獨立，”哈里斯民意調查的首席執行官約翰·格澤馬表示，“就像10年前的蘋果公司一樣。”

但對于科技公司的首席執行官來說，當前情況比較復雜。以前人們認為科技能讓生活更輕松，隨著隱私泄露問題曝光，聲討人們花太多時間盯著屏幕的聲音越來越多，很多科技公司也遭受質疑。

為了評估公眾對主要科技公司首席執行官的看法，今年10月中旬，《財富》雜志請哈里斯民意調查機構對2,000多名美國成年人進行在線調查。調查人群基本可代表全民。

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is the most skilled leader among top tech CEOs, according to a new poll.

Eighty-three percent of respondents said they had confidence in his abilities to grow his company and innovate, beating Apple CEO Tim Cook (77%), Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (76%), Google CEO Sundar Pichai (76%), and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (71%), according to a survey conducted on Fortune’s behalf by The Harris Poll.

Bezos has earned his top position by transforming Amazon from a tiny online bookseller into an e-commerce Goliath. At the same time, he pushed the company beyond its roots into streaming video, information technology, Kindle tablets, and, more recently, Echo smart speakers while also expanding into physical retail, most notably by acquiring grocery chain Whole Foods.

“Amazon is sort of it’s own thing right now,” Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema said. “It’s like what Apple was 10 years ago.”

But the current landscape is complicated for tech CEOs. Once seen largely as helping make life easier for their users, many of them are now under suspicion amid problems like privacy missteps and the growing sentiment that people spend too much time staring at screens.

In an effort to gauge public sentiment about major tech CEOs, Fortune enlisted Harris Poll to conduct an online survey on its behalf in mid-October of over 2,000 U.S. adults. The group represents the population at large.

民意調查發現，公眾對庫克、納德拉和皮查伊的信心與貝佐斯基本差不多。

過去，蘋果的首席執行官通常排名遠高于競爭對手。但在最新的民意調查中，格澤馬發現信心出現下降，他認為原因在于跟前任首席執行官史蒂夫·喬布斯相比，現在的蘋果缺乏創新。喬布斯曾推動初代iPhone和iPad問世。

雖然蘋果公司的收入繼續增長，財務健康狀況尚可，而且開創了快速增長的蘋果音樂等服務，還是缺乏新的革命性產品，這可能是公眾對庫克的信心不如貝佐斯的原因。

另一方面，近年來微軟在納德拉的帶領下聲譽節節攀升，納德拉被譽為“能力出眾且具有遠見卓識的首席執行官”，格澤馬表示。在納德拉的領導下，微軟股價創歷史新高。微軟從Windows操作系統等傳統業務轉向增速更快的云計算和相關云軟件業務，華爾街對此很看好。

公眾可能不太熟悉谷歌首席執行官桑達爾·皮查伊，因為他非常低調，而且級別不如谷歌母公司Alphabet的首席執行官拉里·佩奇。但格澤馬表示，看起來多數美國人認為谷歌在皮查伊的指揮下能保持成長，而且認為公司的成功與這位知之甚少的高管很可能有關。

不過，在哈里斯民意調查之后不久，數千名谷歌員工高調罷工，抗議公司高管團隊處理數起員工性騷擾投訴不力。后來谷歌修改了一些性騷擾相關政策，包括撤銷性騷擾和性侵索賠強制仲裁的規則。

目前尚不清楚最近的谷歌罷工會不會影響調查結果。

曝出一系列數據泄露丑聞之后，Facebook的首席執行官馬克·扎克伯格在調查中排名最后。今年4月，有消息稱研究人員將社交網絡巨頭Facebook用戶數據非法出售給政治咨詢公司劍橋分析，Facebook還遭到黑客攻擊，可能影響多達3000萬用戶。

Facebook方面還有個調查結果值得注意，18歲-34歲的受訪者有79%對扎克伯格的能力抱有信心，比年長一些的人比例要高，35歲-44歲的受訪者表示有信心的占72%，45歲-54歲的占67%，55歲-64歲的占63%。可能原因是年輕人更熟悉Facebook旗下問題較少的Instagram照片應用，他們更關注首席執行官比較年輕，或者對該公司最近的負面消息了解不多。

The poll found that public confidence in Cook, Nadella, and Pichai was almost neck-and-neck, just below Bezos.

In the past, Apple, and by implication, its CEO, usually ranked much higher than its rivals. But in the latest poll, Gerzema noticed a decline in confidence, which he attributed to a shortage of innovation at Apple compared to during the era of former CEO Steve Jobs, who unveiled the original iPhone and iPad.

While Apple has continued to grow its revenue, indicating financial health, and has created fast-growing services businesses like Apple Music, the lack of new revolutionary products could be partly why the public gave Cook a lower confidence score than Bezos.

Microsoft’s reputation, on the other hand, has climbed in recent years under Nadella, who is praised as a “competent and visionary CEO,” Gerzema said. Under Nadella, Microsoft shares have reached record highs due in part to Wall Street’s enthusiasm about the company’s shift from older businesses like the Windows operating system to newer and faster growing cloud computing and related cloud software businesses.

The public is probably less familiar with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, because he keeps a lower profile and is outranked by Larry Page, CEO of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. But most Americans seem to think that Google will continue growing under Pichai’s watch, and likely attribute the company’s success to an executive they likely don’t know, Gerzema said.

That said, the Harris Poll survey was conducted before thousands of Google employees participated in a high-profile walkout to protest how the company’s executive team handled several sexual harassment complaints by workers. Google eventually revised some of its sexual misconduct policies, including ending rules that required mandatory arbitration of sexual harassment and assault claims.

It’s unclear if the recent Google walkout would have impacted the survey results.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg finished last in the survey following a number of data privacy scandals. The company came under fire in April when news reports emerged that a researcher improperly sold Facebook user data to the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm, and the social networking giant recently suffered a major hack that may have affected up to 30 million people.

A noteworthy addendum for Facebook, however, was that people 18-34 were more confident in Zuckerberg’s abilities (79%) than older adults, 35-44 (72%), 45-54 (67%), and 55-64 (63%). Some possible explanations are that younger people are more familiar with Facebook’s less problem-plagued Instagram photo app, they identify more with the CEO’s relative youth, or that may be unaware of recent negative news about the company.

對首席執行官領導力的民意調查只是一部分，其實更全面的調查主要詢問公眾對科技巨頭，還有對數據隱私和道德相關問題的觀點。其他調查結果顯示，人們認為在保護數據方面，Facebook在各大技術巨頭里最不值得信賴，而且會比以往更認真關注科技公司的數據政策。

格澤馬指出，舉個例子，雖然公眾對數據倫理的看法方面貝佐斯排名最高，但認可率僅為77%，不像其他調查問題上高管認可率經常高出80%很多，甚至超過90%。這可能意味著受訪者越發關心亞馬遜在新興領域的發展，例如Alexa語音助手。跟別家的語音助手一樣，積攢的用戶數據會越來越多。

至于全面調查中的重要內容，格澤馬預計隨著大型科技公司擴展新業務線，公眾監督也會更嚴格。

“在硅谷眼里，這些公司只是科技品牌，但在美國公眾眼里，它們都是生活方式品牌，”格澤馬表示，“科技大公司是生活的一部分。”（財富中文網）

譯者：Vanian

The poll on CEO leadership skills was part of a larger survey on the public’s perception of tech giants and issues pertaining to data privacy and ethics. The results from the other survey questions found that Facebook is viewed as the least trustworthy of the tech giants when it comes to safeguarding data, and that people are beginning to scrutinize tech companies and their data policies more than they have been.

For instance, while Bezos ranked the highest among the CEOs regarding the public’s perception of data ethics, his approval was at 77% and not the high 80s or even 90s that the executive typically receives in other Harris Poll surveys, Gerzema noted. This could imply that the survey respondents are becoming increasingly concerned with Amazon’s growth into newer areas like the Alexa voice-activated digital assistant, which like other digital assistants, improves over time with more user data.

As for the big takeaways from the overall survey, Gerzema predicted that there will be increased public scrutiny of big tech companies as they expand into new business lines.

“Silicon Valley might look at these companies as tech brands, but the American public looks at them as lifestyle brands,” Gerzema said. “They are a part of their lives.”