制定財務戰(zhàn)略[外文翻譯]

1、本科畢業(yè)論文（設計）外 文 翻 譯原文一：setting financial strategyin a capitalistic society, the decisions about investing capital in productive resources are made primarily by private enterprise. the long-term economic successes of individual corporations and of the society as a whole are largely determined by the qu

2、ality of such decision. therefore, dealing with questions about raising, investing, and managing capital is among the most important responsibilities of a board of directors.actually, boards routinely participate in decisions about raising or investing significant amounts of capital. typically, mana

3、gement is required to forecast the result of investment proposals before the directors approve them. similarly, the board is normally intimately involved in decisions about raising capital and about how much of earnings should be reinvested in the business.where many boards fall seriously short of d

4、ischarging their responsibility for financial decision making is in failing to establish a coherent long-range financial strategy. investments are often based on which one of several competing executives can make the most persuasive case for his current project rather than on the boards broad judgme

5、nt as to what investing areas are likely to pay off best in the long run.look at source and cost of capitalmoreover, capital investments are frequently approved with no more attention to capital sources and costs than being reasonably certain that funds will be available for approved projects. consi

6、der these typical examples:company a was in a mature industry. over a period of many years, its returns on invested capital, like that of most of its competitors, was far lower than average for all industries. nevertheless, the board of directors continued to approve continuing investments in the bu

7、siness without demanding an answer to the basic question of whether company a had a reasonable expectation of an attractive return.company b, on the other hand, was a high-technology growth company with apparently limitless opportunities to invest at returns of 25 percent or more on equity. moreover

8、, maintaining its leadership position in its field appeared to require continuing investments in facilities and working capital as well as research and development. based on the companys remarkable record of rapid increases in earnings, the board approved the presidents recommendation to pay cash di

9、vidends of over 30 percent of earnings. even if they received the dividends tax-free, few of the shareholders had available to them other investment opportunities comparable to reinvesting in expanding operations of company b.integrate financial plan with strategythe existence of a long-range financ

10、ial plan is no guarantee that management or the board has a reasonable financial strategy. such plans are often little more than compilations of projections made by operating managers with sources of funds suggested by the chief financial officer, but without any in-depth consideration by the direct

11、ors. the following example is illustrative:company c, a successful new york stock exchange corporation, had developed a new operation based on proprietary technology. its early success was so outstanding that top management announced publicly that the new business would be its major growth area and

12、would receive a disproportionately high share of the companys capital investment over the foreseeable future. yet because management had difficulty seeing what specific investments might be appropriate for the new business after the first two years, the five-year plan allocated almost noting to it i

13、n years three to five and consequently developed plans to invest all of its available funds in other directions.in previous issues of the journal of business strategy, i have dealt with the need for a basic concept of what the enterprise is trying to do and the need to focus on developing the key re

14、sources on which the firms performance will depend. the financial strategy will be effective only if integrated and consistent with these other elements of the overall corporate strategy.to deal effectively with questions of financial strategy, a board of directors must apply its judgment to the bas

15、is issues of:the rate at which to invest;which segments of the business merit increased(or decreased)capital commitments;how best to raise needed funds; andhow to control the financial operations to conform to the strategy.this is the kind of area in which the broad experience and objectivity of a s

16、trong board can be of enormous help to operating management.how much to invest?according to elementary economics courses taught in the universities, the firm should invest in all of those projects which promise to return more than the cost of capital. unfortunately, for the board of directors with d

17、ecisions in front of them, following this principle is not simple. to begin with, developing a meaningful figure for the cost of capital is difficult in a world of fluctuating interest rates, differing opinions about what is an acceptable debt/equity ratio, and rapidly varying conditions in the equi

18、ty markets. moreover, not only is it difficult to calculate with confidence the return on investment which may be expected from a project, but the return on the specific project may be quite different from the return which can be expected from that business segment as a whole.a simpler alternative t

19、o computing cost of capital is to observe what level of return on equity and on total capital is being earned by other companies with a comparable degree of risk. extensive data on return on investment is readily available from the department of commerce as well as in business periodicals such as fo

20、rtune and forbes. to the extent that opportunities are available which promise to provide greater return than is typically being earned elsewhere, a board of directors can be fairly confident that such investment is justified. on the other hand, business which earn less than is typical for industry

21、probably should receive little, if any, new money.gauging the returnin any case, the board cannot properly discharge its responsibilities without forming some general opinions about the kind of return which can be expected from each segment of its business. in order to make an informed judgment, the

22、 board of directors needs to know about the markets in which the firm is, or intends to be, active and their competitive positioning in each. the essence of the issue is whether the firm is, or can reasonably expect to become, better qualified to serve certain groups of customers than other firms. i

23、f it can, it should expect a superior return on capital invested in that business. if it cannot, it has no reason to expect an attractive return on money invested there.where a company has an opportunity to build a profitable leadership position in a substantial market, competitive strategy often di

24、ctates that the firm should invest as rapidly in that business as it is able .the gating factor determining how rapidly it can invest can be either operational or financial.limits to growththere is a limit to how fast a company can hire and organize new people, build plants, expand distribution, and

25、 enlarge operations without chaos. more over, when money is plentiful, an organization may adopt wasteful spending habits which are difficult to change later on and which are not compatible with attractive earnings. even if financing is readily available, the board must assure itself that the propos

26、ed rate of investment is manageable.that financial capacity can limit growth is obvious. the board must assure itself that what is undertaken by the company is within its financial means, or serious problems may result:company d, after an arduous technical development program, perfected a unique med

27、ical device for which there appeared to be a large market. as orders started to flow in, management quickly hired a sizable sales force, expanded the plant, and greatly increased its inventory of raw materials. the companys cash was quickly exhausted, and it had suddenly to lay off many of its new e

28、mployees. its financial ratios went out of control and operational chaos ensued. the bank became alarmed and withdrew its support. as the company teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, new ownership and new management had to be brought in to salvage what could have been a great success story.profitabi

29、lity and flexibilitysuccessful rapid investment seems usually to be associated with two conditions. the first is that the firm needs to demonstrate the ability to earn attractive profits while it is growing. the financial community sometimes will provide money for a company before it has demonstrate

30、d profitability, but patience in this field tends to be rather short and companies which continue to expand without profits soon find new money quite hard to get.the second condition is financial flexibility. the future is hard to predict and prudence requires that the firm maintain enough liquidity

31、 to withstand any adverse developments which are at all likely to happen. thus, a growing company should invest only to the extent that it can continue to maintain enough flexibility and liquidity to remain financially viable even in face of unexpected problems.there are many factors which properly

32、influence the rate at which a company invests. what is critically important is that the board consider those factors which are relevant and develop a policy with respect to rate of investment which will represent a key element in the firms overall financial strategy. among the factors which must usu

33、ally be considered are the quality and quantity of investment opportunities available to the company and the financial and management capacity to expand.where to invest (and disinvest)?too often, top management, in a misguided effort to be even-minded, expects growth from all of the corporations bus

34、iness and expresses a willingness to invest in each depending on the quality of the case which can be made by the responsible executive. when the only path to recognition and advancement is expansion, executives have a powerful incentive to go to great lengths to put together a plausible reason for

35、major investment in their operation. in such a climate, which is common, top management is often reluctant to play favorites or to starve some division. the result is frequently grossly inadequate discrimination as to where to invest and where not to invest. such a condition represents an absence of

36、 investment strategy and should not be permitted by a board of directors.the basis for deciding where to channel capital investment is the relative attractiveness of various alternative opportunities. two types of information which are of specific importance for a board to have available in consider

37、ing expansion of an existing operation, but which is often not adequately provided, are:what is the size and nature of the market and what competitive advantages and disadvantages does the company have?what does the record say about the kind of return the company can expect in this area?unless a fir

38、m has some sort of meaningful and defensible element of superiority over competition, it has no basis for expecting an attractive return over the long haul. often operating managers base requests for capital funds on what, in essence, is no more than optimism and determination to succeed. while thes

39、e may be admirable qualities, they are clearly not an adequate basis on which to commit major long-term investment. a responsible board will insist on enough information on the market place and competition so that it can independently form a positive conclusion about the prospects for the company in

40、 the given business segment. once having formed such a conclusion and adjusted corporate strategy accordingly, the board should not change its course lightly.because of problems of shared costs, many companies make no attempt to calculate return on capital for various segments and sub segments of it

41、s business. without such data, management is forced to make decisions with out what may be most meaningful information relative to investment decisions.calculating return on capital for specific product lines and/or market segments frequently requires making estimates in allocating manufacturing, ma

42、rketing, management, or other cost elements. the difficulty of attaining great accuracy in such calculations should not deter a board from insisting on at least a first approximation: often differences in profitability are so great that where first to invest is obvious once even rough estimates are

43、made.even when meaningful calculations are not available, the board of directors is not totally without resources with which to gain information about relative profitability of different business segments, as is illustrated in this case:company e manufactured products of two basic types. one was qui

44、te old and showed little growth. the other was newer and was showing healthy increases in volume. the directors, however, did not have adequate information on the basis of which to judge the relative profitability of the two lines.in this case, the board took an unusual and extreme step. it split th

45、e company in two. to ensure complete separation, it took steps to have the ownership of the two entities slightly different.once the operations were separated, a dramatic difference in profitability was apparent. the older business was incurring large losses and needed major surgery. the newer segme

46、nt was more profitable than had been imagined. the assets of the older unit were sold and shell was reunited with the newer one so that the proceeds of the sale could be invested in the more attractive operation. out from under the older operation, the new company has prospered beyond what anyone ha

47、d believed possible, to the enormous benefit of the shareholders.in considering investing in a new field, the board has less to go on. but in considering any major investment, the board should determine whether it is consistent with a financial strategy based on sound reasons for expecting competiti

48、ve success in a market of adequate size.how to finance expansion?the most readily available and usually the least expensive source of capital is cash flow from operations. normally, there is an economic advantage to shareholders for the company to reinvest as much of this cash in the business as wil

49、l generate an above-average return. for mature firms with limited investment opportunities, it is appropriate to return cash to the shareholders. most often, this is done in the form of cash dividends, although more frequently these in the open market, thus giving share-holders the option of cashing

50、 in or holding the shares.source: milton lauenstein,1981.“setting financial strategy” .journal of business strategy,vol.1,no.4, pp.66-71.譯文：制定財務戰(zhàn)略在資本主義社會中，關于生產(chǎn)資源的投資資本的決定主要由私人企業(yè)做出。個別企業(yè)和整個社會長遠經(jīng)濟的成功在很大程度上取決于這些決策的質(zhì)量。因此，處理關于籌資、投資以及資本管理的問題是決策者最重要的責任。事實上，董事會經(jīng)常參加有關籌集和投入大量資本決定的會議。一般情況下，管理層需要在決策者批準他們之前預測投資建議的

51、結(jié)果。同樣地，董事會通常密切參與關于籌集資金和需要大約多少收入進行在商業(yè)投資的會議。許多董事應認真履行他們在財務決策時未能建立一個連貫的長期財務戰(zhàn)略的責任。投資往往是基于幾個相互競爭的管理人員中能夠做出當前項目最有說服力的那個案例，而不是董事會上的董事對于哪個投資領域有可能得到最好的、長遠的回報的所做的決策。資本的來源和資本成本方面此外，資本投資往往不再關注資本來源和資本成本，而是關注被合理確定資金將用于批準的項目?？紤]這些典型的例子：a公司是出于成熟產(chǎn)業(yè)的階段，經(jīng)過了數(shù)年的時間，像大多數(shù)的競爭對手一樣，投入資本的回報遠遠得高于行業(yè)的平均水平。然而，董事會的決策者仍然批準持續(xù)不斷得商業(yè)投資，而

52、不要求回答關于a公司是否有一個合理的、有吸引力的回報期望的最基本問題。b公司，在另一方面，是一個高科技成長型公司，擁有無限的機會來投資在百分之二十五的股權甚至更多的回報。此外，維持其在該領域的領導地位需要繼續(xù)在設施和營運資金以及研究和發(fā)展上進行投資。在公司快速增長的驕人戰(zhàn)績的基礎上，董事會批準了會長的建議，支付百分之三十的現(xiàn)金股利。即使他們的股息免稅，與b公司擴大再投資相比，股東也很少向他們提供其他投資機會。財務計劃與財務戰(zhàn)略整合一個長期財務計劃的存在沒有保證管理部門或董事會有一個合理的財務戰(zhàn)略。這樣的計劃往往比經(jīng)營管理人員所做的匯編多一點，但沒有經(jīng)過任何由決策者進行的深入審議。下面的例子很能

53、說明問題：c公司，一個成功的紐約證券交易所，制定了一項基于專利技術的新的業(yè)務。其早期的成功是如此得突出，其高層管理人員公開宣布，新業(yè)務將是其主要增長的領域，將在可預見的將來獲得該公司的資本投資不成比例的高的份額。然而，由于管理層很難看到在投資頭兩年之后的適合新業(yè)務的具體投資，五年計劃幾乎沒有可以分配給在三到五年制定的計劃，而去投資其他方向所有的可用資金。在經(jīng)營戰(zhàn)略雜志上所反映的以前的問題里，我已經(jīng)掌握了一個什么樣的企業(yè)正在試圖做的基本概念，以及需要重點發(fā)展的主要資源即本公司的表現(xiàn)將取決于需求。財務戰(zhàn)略將有效地綜合這些其他因素，使其與整體企業(yè)戰(zhàn)略相一致。為了有效得處理財務戰(zhàn)略問題，董事會必須對一

54、些基本問題做出判斷：該投資哪個項目的比率。哪個部門進行商業(yè)價值增加或減少的資本承擔。如何以最佳方式籌集所需資金。如何控制財務業(yè)務，以符合戰(zhàn)略要求。這種領域的董事會的豐富經(jīng)驗和客觀性，能夠?qū)?jīng)營管理提供巨大的幫助。投資多少？根據(jù)大學里的初級經(jīng)濟學課程，企業(yè)應該投資在所有能夠得到的回報超過資本成本項目中。不幸的是，董事會的決策者對于擺在他們面前的決策，根據(jù)這一原則其實并不簡單。首先，制定一項有意義的資本成本數(shù)字在利率波動，不同的關于可接受的債務/權益比率的觀點以及迅速變化的市場條件的股票的環(huán)境下市非常困難的。此外，不僅難以計算一個項目預期的投資報酬率的信心，但對其具體項目的回報率，從該業(yè)務分部作為

55、一個整體的預期收益的差異可能會很大。一個簡單的用來替代資本成本的計算是觀察什么樣的凈資產(chǎn)和總資本回報水平正在被其他擁有相當程度的風險的公司所賺取。對投資回報廣泛的數(shù)據(jù)很容易從商務部以及在諸如財富和福布斯商業(yè)期刊得到。在某種程度上，這機會可提供比其他地方通常賺取的回報更大的承諾，董事會可以相當?shù)糜行判?，這種投資是有道理的。另一方面，賺取比典型的行業(yè)更少的業(yè)務，如果有的話，可能應該得到更少新的資金。衡量回歸在任何情況下，董事會不能正常履行對沒有形成可以從每個業(yè)務部門得到的預期的回報的一些一般性意見的責任。為了做出明智的判斷，董事會需要了解市場中該公司正在或打算是活躍在每一個有競爭力的定位。這個問題

56、的實質(zhì)是這個公司是否比其他的公司更合理的預期和更好的質(zhì)量去服務一部分客戶群體。如果它可以，那么它就應該在該業(yè)務上有更優(yōu)越的投資資本回報。如果它不能，那它就沒有理由期望得到具有吸引力的投資資本回報。凡公司有機會在龐大的市場建立一個有利可圖的領導地位，競爭策略往往決定了企業(yè)盡可能快的投資于那些可能的業(yè)務。這個因素決定了投資于經(jīng)營或財務的速度。對發(fā)展的限制在不混亂的情況下，公司聘請和組織新人，建廠，擴大銷售，擴大業(yè)務的速度是有一個限制的。此外，當資金充足時，組織很可能養(yǎng)成浪費的消費習慣，這種習慣在以后是很難改變的，而且不能得到可觀的收益。即使資金是隨手可得的，董事會必須確保自身的投資收益率是可以控制的。財政能力可以限制發(fā)展是顯而易見的。董事會必須明確什么是由公司在其財政能力范圍內(nèi)承擔可能導致的嚴重問題：d公司，在經(jīng)歷艱苦的技術發(fā)展規(guī)劃之后，完善了一個獨特的、具有一個巨大市場的醫(yī)療設備。隨著訂單開始流入，管理層迅速聘請了相當大的銷售隊伍，擴大了工廠，并且大大增加了原材料的庫存。該公司的現(xiàn)金被迅速耗盡，致使不得不裁掉了許多新員工。公司的財務比率開始失控，混亂的業(yè)務也接踵而至。銀行也開始驚慌，并撤回其投資。隨著公司面臨著破產(chǎn)的邊緣，新的所有權和新的管理必須引進來，來挽救公司，使其成為一個成功的故事。盈利能力和靈活性成功的快速投資似乎通常與兩個條