英语翻译No longer Poles apartWhen Peter Welch,President of Cusso

英语翻译
No longer Poles apart
When Peter Welch,President of Cussons Polska and Uroda SA,arrived at Cussons’ newly discovered that the concept of teamwork didn’t exist.’The guy who ran it before had a queue of people outside his offic waiting for decisions on everything from taking a day’s holiday to major investments.All decisions were made by one man.’Cussons entered Poland by taking over a manufacturer of cleaning products in Wroclaw.Two years later they bought Warsaw-based Uroda toiletries.Turnover increased at Wroclaw from ￡11m to ￡50m and the smaller Uroda quickly grew into a ￡22m business.Both businesses are now major brands in Poland and export to other eastern European markets.
But in spite of these successes,it is still hard to develop new approaches,’The company culture here is the result of fifty years of regulation and control,’explains Welch.’It is not easy to get people to take on responsility and be accountable when things go wrong.The sales department used to be a guy next to the phone waiting for it to ring.
To help solve these problems,Cussons brought in three expatriate managers to work closely with the local sales staff in project teams.They also brought in senior Coverdale managerment consultant Keith Edmonds to work on the team’s managerial skills and improve communication within the team.Edmonds held two one-week programmers,working on team-building and developing creative thinking.
‘The imaginative ideas participants came up with were extraordinary-electric.’He describles the programmes as helping people recognise that there is a range of effective management styles.’We wanted to throw new lighe on old problems.’The participants responded very positively.In one task,they were given ￡500 and told to make as much profit with it as possible.’They came up with amazing ideas,’ says Edmonds.’They put on discos.They went to the Czech border,bought products and then sold them at a profit.’
Welch beileves the programmes were excellent at’getting people excited about their jobs’.But he warns,’we need to ensure that what happens on the programme happens back in the workplace’.The results,however,are already very positive.’The two progrmmes cost us about ￡40,000 in total,including food and accommodation,’ says Welch,’but the returns we are getting from them are huge.We saved about ￡200,000 from the fist programme and we’re expecting savings of around ￡700,000 from the secons one.’
The programmers also form the basis of monthly reviews,in which progress is mesured against taegets set in the programmes.You can see the results improving each month.I’m very pleased with the way it has worked out.’says Welch.

No longer Poles apart

不再有两极之遥.

题目是一个双关语（pun）.Pole 的意思是极地,Poles apart是惯用语,基本意思是“完全相反”、“大相径庭”；同时,Poles 又是波兰人的意思.题目利用双关,指卡森公司与其新并购的波兰分公司原先在团队合作,公司管理等方面大相径庭,但通过培训等一系列措施,双方弥补了这方面的差异.题目的字面意思是“不再有两极之遥”,按照意译的方法,我们可以翻译为“弥合差距”.
1993年,当卡森波兰公司和乌诺达股份有限公司总裁彼得·维奇刚到在波兰新并购的工厂时,他发现那儿根本不存在团队合作的概念.以前管理这家工厂的人办公室门外总有一队人在等着他作出各种决策,小到放一天假,大到重大投资,所有的决策都由一个人作. 卡森公司是通过并购弗罗茨瓦夫的一家洗洁用品厂进驻波兰的.两年后,他们并购了位于华沙的乌诺达化妆品公司.弗罗茨瓦夫的营业额从1100万英镑增加到5000万英镑；而规模小一些的乌诺达公司则迅速成长为一个营业额达到2200万英镑的企业.目前,这两家公司的产品都是波兰的主导品牌,并且出口到其它东欧市场.
尽管有这些成就,但要开拓新的工作方法仍然相当困难.这里的公司文化是50年集权控制的结果,要让人们承担责任或在出现问题时负起责任很不容易.以前的销售部就是一个人坐在电话机旁等候电话铃响.为了解决这些问题,卡森公司专门聘请了三位旅居海外的经理,同波兰本地的销售人员结成团队一起工作.除了聘请海外经理,卡森公司还从著名的科佛戴尔公司聘请了资深管理顾问凯恩·埃德蒙来指导团队的管理技能,改进团队的内部交流.埃德蒙主持了两个为期一周的活动,专门解决如何搞好团队建设以及开拓创造性思维.
埃德蒙说：“参与者们富有想象力的点子非同寻常,令人兴奋.”埃德蒙认为这些项目的作用是帮助他们认识到有各种不同的管理风格.他说：”我们想用新眼光来看待老问题,参赛者反应十分积极.有一项任务是给他们500英镑,要求他们用这笔钱牟取最大的利润.”埃德蒙接着说：“他们想法很惊奇,表演了迪斯科.然后他们来到捷克边界,买了一些产品又把它们买掉,从中赚了钱.”
维奇认为这些训练项目对“调动人们的工作积极性”很有效果.但维奇并没有盲目乐观,他也警告说：“我们要保证训练中达到的效果在工作中也能体现出来.”然而,结果已经是非常肯定的了. 维奇又接着说：“这两个培训项目总共花去了4万英镑,包括食宿在内,但我们从中得到的回报是巨大的.第一个项目就给我们省了20万英镑,而第二个项目我们期望能省70万英镑左右.”
维奇说：“这个计划也奠定了针对计划目标的月报表的基础.你可以看出每个月进步的效果.我很高兴这个计划能起这样的作用.”