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Bartleby
巴托比专栏
The allure of the company town
公司小镇的诱惑
Lego, Corning and the persistence of an old idea.
乐高、康宁，以及一个古老想法的持久性。
Billund is a small town in Denmark with a population that stands at a little over 7,000 people.
比隆是丹麦的一个小镇，人口仅为7000人出头。
It is also the birthplace and headquarters of the world’s largest toy company.
比隆也是世界上最大的玩具公司的诞生地和总部。
If you live in Billund, there is a decent chance you or one of your family works for Lego.
如果你住在比隆，那么有很大的几率你或你的家人在乐高工作。
If you visit for work, you are probably going to Lego’s offices (passing a sign near the entrance that instructs “Play on the grass”).
如果你出差到比隆，那么你可能会去乐高的办公室（你会经过入口旁的一个标志牌，上面写着“请在草地上玩耍”）。
If you go there as a tourist, you are almost certainly going to a Lego-themed attraction.
如果你是作为游客去比隆，那么你几乎肯定会去一个乐高主题的景点。
The noun you hear most often is “brick”.
你最常听到的名词是“积木”。
Corning is a small town in upstate New York, with a population of around 10,000 people.
康宁是纽约州北部的一个小镇，人口约为1万人。
There, the noun you hear most often is “glass”.
在那里，你最常听到的名词是“玻璃”。
The town bestowed its name on one of the world’s leading glass companies, which moved there in 1868 and still has its headquarters in Corning.
这个小镇为世界领先的玻璃公司之一赋予了名字，康宁公司于1868年搬到这里，至今仍将总部设在康宁。
The “Little Joe” tower, where glass was once stretched into long, thin tubes to be cut into thermometers, is the town’s most obvious landmark.
“小乔”塔是康宁镇最显眼的地标，玻璃曾经在这座塔里被拉伸成细长的管子，然后被切割成温度计。
If you visit for work, you are probably there to see a Corning employee.
如果你出差到康宁，那么你很可能是来见康宁员工的。
If you are going for fun, you are doubtless headed for the Corning Museum of Glass.
如果你来游玩，那么你无疑是要去康宁玻璃博物馆的。
Company towns conjure up a bygone era: the textile hub of Lowell in Massachusetts, built by the Boston Manufacturing Company in the 19th century, or the faded coal town of Gary in West Virginia, named for the then chairman of US Steel, the company that built it.
公司小镇让人想起了一个过去的时代：19世纪由波士顿制造公司建造的马萨诸塞州洛厄尔纺织中心，或者西弗吉尼亚州逐渐黯淡的加里煤炭镇，该镇得名于当时建造了这座城镇的美国钢铁公司董事长之名。
They are out of whack with prevailing economic wisdom.
公司小镇与主流经济智慧脱节。
Cities are where “agglomeration” spurs innovation: a larger population means that more people come together to swap ideas.
城市是“集聚效应”刺激创新的地方：人口越多意味着有越多的人聚集在一起交流想法。
A bigger labour pool makes it easier for managers to hire people.
劳动力资源越丰富，管理者就越容易招聘到员工。
For employees, too, there are obvious risks in living in a place that is dependent on a single firm.
对于员工来说，生活在依赖于单一公司的地方也存在明显的风险。
But as the examples of Billund and Corning show, company towns are not just relics of the industrial past.
但正如比隆和康宁的例子所表明的，公司小镇不仅仅是工业历史的遗迹。
Hershey, in Pennsylvania, is still the home of the chocolate firm that created it.
宾夕法尼亚州的好时镇仍然是创造了这个小镇的好时巧克力公司的所在地。
In Germany Wolfsburg is dominated by Volkswagen.
在德国，沃尔夫斯堡由大众汽车主导。
Bentonville, the town in Arkansas where Sam Walton opened his first store, is synonymous with Walmart.
本顿维尔是阿肯色州的一个小镇，山姆·沃尔顿在那里开了他的第一家商店，这个小镇已经成为沃尔玛超市的代名词。
Elon Musk is reportedly building a town in Texas to house employees of his various firms.
埃隆·马斯克据说正在得克萨斯州建造一座小镇，以容纳他旗下各家公司的员工。
And even if theory suggests that company towns have downsides, they also have some advantages.
而且即使理论表明公司小镇存在缺点，它们也有一些优点。
Firms can easily draw on their heritage to instil a sense of culture among workers: Lego’s corporate museum in Billund is located in the old family home of the company’s founder.
公司可以简便地利用传统遗产向员工灌输企业文化意识：乐高在比隆的企业博物馆就位于公司创始人的故居。
Employees in company towns have fewer alternatives.
公司小镇的员工就业选择更少。
Low rates of attrition do not just lessen the costs and disruption that stem from replacing people.
低减员率不仅降低了因人员更替而产生的成本和干扰，
They also lead to deeper institutional memories and stronger relationships: retired Corning scientists act as mentors to current ones, for example.
还能带来更深刻的机构记忆和更牢固的关系：例如，退休的康宁科学家会成为现任科学家的导师。
Confidentiality is also easier to maintain in comparatively remote places.
在相对偏远的地方也更容易维持保密性。
Bill Gates’s decision to base Microsoft in Seattle rather than Silicon Valley was partly because it was easier to keep secrets there.
比尔·盖茨决定将微软总部设在西雅图而不是硅谷，部分原因是在西雅图更容易保守秘密。
Company towns seem to favour a more insular type of innovation as a result.
结果是公司小镇似乎更倾向于内部创新。
A paper published in 2009 by Ajay Agrawal of the University of Toronto and his co-authors looked at North America’s most inventive locations.
多伦多大学的阿贾伊·阿格拉瓦尔及其合著者在2009年发表了一篇论文，研究了北美最具创造力的地区。
By examining citations of prior patents, the researchers found that large firms in company towns drew disproportionately on their own previous work to make breakthroughs.
通过研究先前专利的引用情况，研究人员发现，位于公司小镇的大公司严重依赖本公司以前的工作来取得突破。
New patents were in turn more likely to be cited by other inventors within the same firm than were patents filed in more diverse locations.
相比于在公司更多元的地方提交的专利，公司小镇的新专利继而又更有可能被本公司的其他发明者引用。
Being the boss of a big firm in a small town is likely to change the way that decisions are made.
作为小镇大公司的老板，决策方式很可能会因此改变。
If the consequences of corporate decisions affect your neighbours, friends and family members, the incentives to make more considered choices are sharper.
如果公司决策的后果会影响到你的邻居、朋友、家人，那么更慎重决策的动力就会更强烈。
There is proxy evidence for this in research into the decision-making of hometown CEOs, who are likely to have a greater attachment to the place where their company is located and more concern for their local reputation.
在对家乡CEO决策的研究中，有代理证据证明了这一点，这些CEO可能对公司所在地有更深的依恋，也更关心自己在当地的声誉。
Studies show that hometown bosses are less likely to cut research-and-development budgets in response to short-term pressures or to take corporate risks in the form of, say, greater leverage.
研究表明，家乡老板不太可能因短期压力而削减研发预算，也不太可能用更大的杠杆之类的形式让企业承受风险。
Whether that sounds like long-termism or timidity depends partly on your point of view.
这是长期主义还是胆小懦弱，在一定程度上取决于你的个人观点。
Company towns can seem strange—cultish, even—to outsiders.
对于外人来说，公司小镇可能让人感觉奇怪——甚至有点像邪教。
God only knows what it is like to live in Billund if you don’t like Lego or Corning if you’re not a fan of glass.
如果你生活在比隆但不喜欢乐高，如果你生活在康宁但不喜欢玻璃，只有上帝知道你过着什么样的日子。
But their persistence is not just an accident of history.
但公司小镇的经久不衰并非仅仅是历史的偶然。
They have qualities that are worth reflecting on.
这些小镇具备一些值得深思的品质。
