English Hacking

저같은 매트릭스 광팬이라면 아마 다음과 같은 대화를 기억하실 겁니다.

Neo: A black cat went past us, and then another that looked just like it.
Trinity: How much like it? Was it the same cat?
Neo: It might have been. I’m not sure.
Morpheus: Switch! Apoc!
Neo: What is it?
Trinity: A déjà vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.

트리니티 왈, “데자뷰는 보통 매트릭스의 버그야. 그들이 무엇인가를 바꾸면 생기지…”

그러니까, 검은고양이가 두 번 나타나면, 그건 매트릭스의 버그인거죠. 그들이 무언가를 바꾸었다는거구요… 다음에서 이야기하는 나라는 어느 나라일까요?

아시아에 있는 이 나라에 대해 사람들은 처음에는 무시했다. 그들은 조그맣고 못생겼고, 옷도 아무렇게나 입고, 스스로 잘 하는 것은 거의 없었다. 이들이 할 줄 아는 것이라는 것은 남들이 만드는 것을 베끼거나, 또는 남들보다 더 싸게 만드는 것 밖에는 없었다. 그나저나, 이 나라 때문에 살기가 어려워졌으니 환율 평가절상을 하라고 강제해야겠다. 그나저나 고유가때문에 죽겠다.

어쩌면 여러분 생각이 맞을겁니다. 중국일 수 있죠. 그런데, 시대가 2009년이 아니라 1975년 무렵이라면요?

Every year, in April, the Japanese edition of this book experiences a surge in sales. It took me a while to figure it out. I was 32 years old in 1975 when The Mind of the Strategist (Kigyo Sanbo) was published in Japan. It was a best-seller, particularly among the middle-tier Japanese managers who were 35 to 40 years old. Today they are reaching the senior ranks of their companies and they give my book to university graduates who typically arrive in April.
They could in fact give these new arrivals one of three dozen other books I’ve published in Japan since then, but The Mind of the Strategist is clearly the favorite. Perhaps it’s because when it was published Japan, at least corporate Japan, was not feeling very good about itself. We were in the middle of an oil crisis. And we were also in a crisis of confidence. We were thought of as a country of “copycats,” a nation incapable of true invention that could only “do more better” or do it more cheaply. My book argued that that didn’t need to be the case. It said there was a way to think about strategy, to think creatively about new services and products. It talked about “degrees of freedom” versus avenues of imitation. (Kenichi Ohmae, The Mind of the Strategist, p. xi)

네, 일본입니다.

네, 오마에 겐이치의 책을 한 번 읽어 보려구요. 근데, 자꾸 프라자 합의와 환율 평가절상 이야기가 떠오르네요… 자꾸 잡생각이 떠오르기 전에 좀 더 읽어 볼까요?

Both in Japan and in the West, this breed of natural or instinctive strategist is dying out or at least being pushed to the sidelines in favor of rational, by-the-numbers strategic and financial planners. Today’s giant institutions, both public and private, are by and large not organized for innovation. Their systems and processes are all oriented toward incremental improvement – doing better what they are doing already. In the United States, the pressure of innumerable social and governmental constraints on corporate activities – most notably, perhaps, the proliferation of government regulations during the 1960s and 1970s – has put a premium on the talent for adaptation and reduced still further the incentive to innovate. Advocates of bold and ambitious strategies too often find themselves on the sidelines, labeled as losers, while the rewards go to those more skilled at working within the system. This is especially true in mature industries, where actions and ideas often move in narrow grooves, forcing out innovators. Conversely, venture capital groups tend to attract the flexible, adaptive minds.
In all times and places, large institutions develop cultures of their own, and success is often closely tied to the ability to conform. In our day, the culture of most business corporations exalts logic and rationality; hence, it is analysts rather than innovators who tend to get ahead. It is not unreasonable to say that many large U.S. corporations today are run like the Soviet economy. In order to survive, they must plan ahead comprehensively, controlling an array of critical functions in every detail. They specify policies and procedures in meticulous detail, spelling out for practically everyone what can and what cannot be done in particular circumstances. They establish hurdle rates, analyze risks, and anticipate contingencies. As strategic planning processes have burgeoned in these companies, strategic thinking has gradually withered away. (pp. 3 -4)

근데, 검은 고양이가 두 번 나타나면 그거 버그 맞겠죠? 그죠?