Coursera 如何破解中国市场的谜题
编者按: 达瓦尔·沙阿(Dhawal Shah )是 Class Central的创始人兼首席执行官。
今年 7 月,Coursera 宣布 自己在中国的注册用户人数超过了 100 万,而中国也超越印度成为其第二大市场。在打入中国市场方面,大部分美国消费互联网公司都遭遇了困难。
文化差异和互联网防火墙是巨大的进入壁垒。甚至连谷歌、Facebook 和 Twitter 那样的科技巨头,他们要么退出了中国市场,要么被隔绝在中国互联网防火墙之外。所以,作为一家相对年轻的公司,Coursera 是如何取得这一重大里程碑的呢?
合作伙伴,合作伙伴,合作伙伴
“合作伙伴在中国的重要程度超过了世界其他任何地方。”——Flipboard 首席技术官埃里克·冯(Eric Feng)在 KPCB CEO Workshop 大会上的发言。
为了扩大在中国的影响,Coursera 跟多家本地公司和大学机构进行了合作。这些本地合作关系通常牵涉两件事情:翻译和分发内容。
为了对网站进行本地化和翻译内容,Coursera 跟中国社交网站果壳网和翻译社区译言网进行了合作。
为了分发内容,Coursera 跟 网易公开课 合作 创建了 Coursera 社区 ,这是由网易托管的Coursera.org 汉语门户。为了提升中国用户的使用体验,Coursera 还在网易的服务器上存储了自家视频的本地副本。
今年早些时候,Coursera 宣布 跟中国最大的互联网学习平台沪江网达成合作。Coursera 计划在沪江网平台内部创建自己的网络 ID 和社区系统,以此打通跟后者 8,000 万活跃用户的连接。
Coursera 在中国跟 5 所大学进行了合作,分别是:复旦大学、上海交通大学,北京大学,西安交通大学,以及南京大学。这些大学加在一起提供了 50 多门课程,其中大多数是汉语内容。综合起来,Coursera 平台在中国提供了 125 门课程,其中既有原生汉语内容,也有翻译内容。
可靠的人脉网络
在成为 Coursera 的首席执行官之前,里克·莱文(Rick Levin)是耶鲁大学校史上任期最长的校长。他任内的重要成就之一就是在全球范围内建立合作关系,并尤其侧重于亚洲和中国。
在他担任校长期间,耶鲁大学跟中国大学开展了多项联合行动,其中包括在北京建立国际性的工作/学习计划,以及举办由中国 14 所顶尖大学参加的领导力培训项目。
莱文曾会见中国两任国家主席(江泽民和胡锦涛),被复旦大学授予荣誉职称,还被选入了美中关系全国委员会(National Committee on United States-China Relations)。
因此,在 Coursera 的中国战略方面,里克·莱文带来了人脉和威信。莱文要跟中国名牌大学开展高级别的对话可能本就不是什么难事,但更重要的是,他拥有在重大议题上跟大学和政府领导人进行合作的经验。
忧虑
当 Coursera 跟网易的合作关系被公布后,Coursera 的少数大学合作伙伴选择了退出,持有 Coursera 股份的宾夕法尼亚大学就是其中之一。
宾大担心那项合作会对政治和学术自由产生影响,因此希望谨慎行事。情况看起来是,宾大的担忧已经得到缓解,该大学的课程现在已经登陆了网易公开课。事实上,沃顿商学院刚刚上线了中文版本的 《商务基础》课程 。
中国的一些大学领导人 担心 ,“外来思想”会通过 MOOCs(大规模在线开放课程)进入中国。还有人担心,成本低廉的 MOOCs 会造成实体大学的崩塌。
中国教育部正在推进 MOOCs 的发展,并 鼓励 中国高等教育机构创建更多的在线课程。教育部还计划“建立一套检验机制,以监督平台的教学过程和运营,防止有害信息传播”。
查理·钟(Charlie Chung)对本文亦有贡献。
How Coursera Cracked The Chinese Market
Dhawal ShahCrunch Network Contributor
Dhawal Shah is founder and CEO of Class Central.
Coursera announced in July that they crossed 1 million registrations as China became their second largest market, overtaking India. Most U.S. consumer Internet companies have a hard time breaking into China.
Cultural differences and the Internet firewall are a huge barrier to entry. Even tech giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter have pulled out or found themselves on the wrong side of the Chinese firewall. So how did Coursera, a relatively young company, achieve this significant milestone?
Partnerships, Partnerships, Partnerships
“Partnerships are more critical in China than anywhere else in the world” — Eric Feng, CTO Flipboard @ KPCB CEO Workshop
To increase their China footprint, Coursera has partnered with a number of local companies and universities. The local partnerships usually revolve around two things: translations and distribution.
To localize the website and translate its content, Coursera partnered with Guokr, a Chinese social networking site, and Yeeyan, a translation community.
For distribution, Coursera partnered with NetEase to create a Coursera Zone on 163.com, a NetEase-hosted, Chinese-language portal to Coursera.org. To improve performance for its Chinese users,Coursera also stores local copies of its videos on NetEase servers.
Earlier this year, Coursera announced a partnership with Hujiang, China’s largest Internet learning platform. Coursera plans to build its own online identity and community within the Hujiang platform in order to access its 80 million active users.
Coursera has five partner universities in China: Fudan, Shanghai Jiao Tong, Peking, Xi’an Jiaotong and Nanjing. Combined, these universities offer more than 50 courses, most of them in Chinese. In all, Coursera has more than 125 courses in Chinese (native + translations) on its platform.
A Credible Connection
Before becoming the CEO of Coursera, Rick Levin was the President of Yale University, serving the longest tenure in the school’s history. One of the hallmarks of his tenure was cultivating relationships internationally, especially in Asia, and particularly with China.
Under his presidency, Yale conducted a number of joint initiatives with and for Chinese universities, including helping establish international work/study programs in Beijing, and hosting a university leadership program for leaders from 14 of China’s top universities.
Levin met two Chinese presidents (Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao), has an honorary appointment at Fudan University and was elected to the board of the National Committee on United States-China Relations.
Thus, Rick Levin brought connections and credibility to his role at Coursera with respect to its China strategy. It would probably not have been difficult for him to initiate conversations at the very highest levels at prestigious universities, but more important is his experience in working with university and government leaders on issues that were important to them.
Concerns
When the NetEase partnership was announced, a small number of Coursera’s partner institutions opted out of the arrangement. Penn, which owns an equity stake in Coursera was one of those universities.
Penn was concerned about political and academic freedom and wanted to proceed cautiously. It seems that Penn’s concerns were addressed and now their courses are available on NetEase. In fact, Wharton just launched their Business Foundations specialization in the Chinese language.
A few university leaders in China were concerned about “foreign ideas” being imported via MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses). There were also concerns of MOOCs, by virtue of being cheaper, might cause the collapse of physical universities.
The Ministry of Education is moving forward with MOOCs, and is encouraging higher-education institutes in China to create more of them. The ministry also plans to “set up an inspection system to supervise the teaching process and operation of the platforms, preventing harmful information from being disseminated.”
Thanks to Charlie Chung for contributing to this story.
来源:techcrunch.com
Netflix的成功秘诀:信赖员工,给员工自由编者注:本文原作者为Rod Garvin。Rod Garvin是是一位专注于研究多样性与包容性、人才与领导能力发展、企业家精神与创新之间的交互关系的跨学科专家。他目前在Charlotte Chamber担任副总裁,负责人才招聘、新员工融入以及能力发展等方面的事务。Netflix是一家在线影片租赁提供商,连续五次被评为顾客最满意的网站。
Netflix的“解放宣言”
凭借其在媒体及娱乐行业中雄霸一方的业绩,和广受好评的自制剧如《纸牌屋》、《女子监狱》,Netflix登上了新闻头版。同时,Netflix也由于其开创性的工作文化而备受赞誉。
2009年,CEO Reed Hastings以及CTO(首席人才官)Patty McCord出版了《Netflix文化:自由与责任》一书。(该书slideshare.net上在被阅读超过1200万次)
书中讲述了Netflix为何更重视创造力而不是工作流程,为什么为员工提供休假时间上的自主选择权,而不是按照其受雇时间或者其他主观因素决定。公司避开了其他快速成长的创新型企业的通病——即在企业成长过程中变得越来越官僚化,越来越不自由。
本周Netflix宣布了其针对新手父母的无限制休假政策,让他们能够在孩子出生或领养的第一年中按照自己的需求进行休假。
自由,才能吸引人才
不管是在农业社会、工业社会还是后工业社会,如此高程度的员工自由完全违背了绝大多数企业的管理层以及人力的常规做法。它甚至赶超了许多科技企业,科技企业往往通过以自由和灵活性替代津贴和高档办公室的方式,来谋求人才。
对于严苛地规定员工上班时间以及休假时间,领导者的理由是,在办公室受监督的情况下,员工的效率和盈利能力更高。
Julie Clow在她的《工作革命:为全员的自由和卓越(Work Revolution: Freedom and Excellence for All)》一书中认为,Netflix关注的是一项任务或者项目的结果而不是花在上面的时间。
这种企业文化对于工作水平高的员工来说非常有吸引力,也相应提高了企业的竞争优势。她解释说尖端人才喜欢有创造空间以及个人决策权,因此如果他们丧失了其中任意一样都会倾向于离职。
来自Deloitte Center for the Edge的John Hagel III等人也赞同Julie Clow的观察结论。在《The Hero’s Journey Through the Landscape of the Future》这一报告中,作者预计由于创新型人才跳槽其他企业的能力不断提高,企业在这类人才的保留上将面临巨大挑战。
曾经能将人才吸引到大型成熟企业的安全网逐渐消失,顶尖人才开始寻找自主权和创造性之类的无形福利。“明星”工作者可能跳槽到更小但是能提供更多自由的小企业,或者干脆自主创业。
“信任别人,别人才会对你忠诚;尊敬别人,别人才显示其可敬之处。”——爱默生
要自由,先信任
在任何雇佣关系中,信任是自由的前提。
对许多机构而言,缺乏信任会导致Netflix风格的企业文化完全无法实施。这种对于某人专业性以及人格的信任,可以被定义为是一种心理状态,它包含了在各种人际关系(不管是一对一、团队还是组织)中对于他人的积极期望,愿意接受其脆弱性的心理状态。(Fulmer& Gelfand,2012年,第1174页)
许多企业认为这种信任的成本太高,其连带的自由也包含了许多风险。对于一些企业来说,这样的担忧是正确的,但是对于知识创新驱动的行业来说,这样的想法是一种负担。让我们来看看这些事实:
1. Netflix是全球最大的互联网电视网络及流媒体,拥有超过6200万用户遍布全球50个国家。
2. 在过去的几年中Netflix每年增长500到600万的新用户,并且这种增长趋势将继续下去。
3. 2014年Netflix的总收入是55亿美元,毛利约2亿美元。目前已经超越了2015年的财务预算。
结论
在商场上,金钱永远拥有第一话语权。显然,不是所有组织都能像Netflix这样赚钱,但是如果他们希望留住人才、增加客户、刺激创新、增长利润,却不认真思考在组织中实施信任、甚至不思考提高员工自由的可能性,这样的企业一定会被淘汰。
对于更加相互信任更加自由的企业来说,那些现存的失去信任、企业文化死板严苛的企业是处于竞争劣势的。由于婴儿潮一代人的退休,未来将会面临人才紧缺,雇主们应该反思:“我们企业是高端人才想要追求的‘潜力股’还是他们想要逃离的‘牢笼’?”
Netflix's Winning Formula: Trust Employees and Set Them Free
Netflix's "Emancipation Proclamation"
Netflix dominates the news, because of its tremendous success as one of the most dominant disruptors of the media and entertainment industry, as well as its popular critically-acclaimed series such as "House of Cards" and "Orange is the New Black". But, the company has also gained a reputation for its pioneering work culture. In 2009, CEO Reed Hastings and then Chief Talent Officer Patty McCord published a deck entitled "Netflix Culture: Freedom & Responsibility" (At the time of this writing it's been viewed almost 12 million times on slideshare.net).
The deck outlines why Netflix values creativity over process and has given its employees full discretion over the amount of vacation time they take, instead of basing it on tenure or other subjective factors. The company has avoided the mistake that other high-growth, innovative firms have made, which is to reduce freedom over time as they become bigger and more bureaucratic. And just this week Netflix announced their "unlimited leave policy for new moms and dads that allows them to take off as much time as they want during the first year after a child’s birth or adoption."
[Slide from Netflix's Culture Deck]
Freedom Attracts Talent
This level of employee freedom flies in the face of the management and human resource practices of the vast majority of companies over the history of the agricultural, industrial and post-industrial eras. It even outpaces many technology firms, which often attempt to substitute perks and pretty offices for genuine freedom and flexibility. The explanations (or excuses) that leaders make for policing the amount of time employees spend at their desks and for rationing out vacation days, are steeped in tradition and are a misguided belief that work hours spent in the office, under the watchful eyes of supervisors, equal higher performance and profitability.
In her book, Work Revolution: Freedom and Excellence for All, Julie Clow writes that Netflix does not concentrate on the amount of time spent on a task or project, but more importantly focuses on results. This culture is especially appealing for the high-performing employees that give the company its competitive advantage. She explains that top talent thrives on creativity and personal autonomy, and is more likely to leave if they lose either creative or autonomous freedom.
John Hagel III, et al, from Deloitte Center for the Edge, echoes Clow's observations. In the whitepaper, "The Hero's Journey Through the Landscape of the Future," the authors predict that companies will increasingly have challenges retaining creative talent, because of their enhanced ability to pursue other ventures. As the safety nets that used to attract workers to large, established companies are diminishing, top talent will be looking for the intangible benefits of autonomy and creativity. "Star" performers may leave for smaller enterprises that can offer the freedom that they seek, or just start their own.
“Trust [people] and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Trust Before Freedom
Trust is the precursor of freedom in any arrangement between employee and employer. The lack of the former in many institutions makes it virtually impossible to even consider implementing a fraction of a Netflix style culture. Trust in a professional and personal context can be defined as a psychological state consisting of a willingness to accept vulnerability based on positive expectations of another or others on various interpersonal levels, whether they are one-to-one, team, or organizational (Fulmer & Gelfand, 2012, p. 1174)*. Many companies say the estimated costs of such trust are too high and the risks of the freedom that could be leveraged from it are too numerous. For certain industries these concerns may be valid, but for knowledge and innovation driven enterprises this line of thinking is a liability. Consider this reality-check:
Netflix is the largest Internet television network (and video-streaming service) in the world with over 62 million customers in 50 countries.
It has been adding 5 million to 6 million net subscribers for the past several years and will continue to grow at that rate
It's total revenue in 2014 was 5.5 billion dollars and its gross income was almost 2 billion, and is currently exceeding financial projections for 2015
Conclusion
In business money talks first and foremost. Obviously, all organizations will not generate the numbers that Netflix does, but if they are struggling to attract and retain talent, grow their customer base, stimulate innovation and increase profitability, then they would be negligent if they did not conduct a serious inquiry into the level of trust within their organizations and at least consider the possibility of enhanced employee freedom. Those companies that are surviving in spite of unhealthy doses of organizational mistrust and restrictive cultures are still at a competitive disadvantage to more trusting and liberated enterprises. In the coming years of talent shortages due to the Boomer exodus from the workplace, employer's should ask themselves, "Are we the 'promised land' that top talent wants to run to or the dungeon that they want to escape from?
Source: LinkedIn