第九部分：解决问题的能力(6～10问)

        问：你如何衡量你工作中的成功？?

　　答：我凭顾客的反映来衡量。顾客打电话向我推荐新客户时，我知道他们觉得与我合作愉快。但我认为拉住老客户比赢得新客户更令我感到满足。人们有尝试新公司的趋向，因为那类新公司拥有良好的声誉或产品，但顾客再次光顾是出于他们信任已建立起的合作关系。

　　你要依据什么样的结果或证据评估工作的成功？哪类反馈或奖赏制度对你重要？面试官想证实这些要求能在工作中得到满足。??

　　Q:How do you measure the success of your work?

　　A:I measure reactions of customers.When my customers call me with a referral,I know they?re happy.And I have to say that repeat business to me is more satisfying than winning a new account.People have a tendency to try a new company because of that company?s reputation or product,but they come back because of the relationship they?ve learned to trust.??

　　问：你做事切合实际吗？?

　　答：通常我能找出潜在的问题，即使问题并不显眼。我想起一位投资银行家，他听过我们的金融不动产课程，并问我们为什么东京投资集团难以吸引当地投资。许多工商管理硕士尝试从一系列复杂的原因去思考，但我认为这与迅速摆脱市场不利因素有关，是非流动性投资引发的问题。我是说，如果主要投资当地不动产且通货膨胀已经使货币价远高于黑市价，投资者会感到不稳定，这样一来，结束投资就成为投资者的首选了。

　　向面试官举例说明你用过的实际可行的方法。怎样才算是简单明了且又是最佳的解决方法？其他人忽略了明显的问题吗？在这个事例中，你要更多地显示出常识性技能而非专业技能。??

　　Q:How practical or pragmatic are you??

　　A:I can usually pick up on an underlying¹ problem,even of it?s not too obvious.I recall an investment banker who visited our real?estate?finance class and asked us what might cause the Tokyo investment community a problem in attracting local investment dollars.A number of finance M.B.A.?s in the class started trying to think of some complicated set of reasons.I decided² it would have to do with getting out of a bad market quickly,and that a nonliquid investment would create problems.I said investors³ would be unsettled if the primary investment is local real setate and inflation has caused the paper value to exaggerate the real street value.As it ended up,that was the answer he wanted.??

　　问：你如何把握对事实和对直觉的判断？?

　　答：事实确实重要，但人们通常忽略了时效的影响，特别是在做市场调查时。在一次调查中，我对涉及到的价格数据感到不对头，我怀疑顾客是否会像调查所示的那样花大量的金钱购买新车。因此，我们停下来并等候最后一季的价格结构。当利率攀升时，我们卖出了更多的车，而我们的对手却只能等待。

　　描述你曾靠直觉来处理问题，那类问题如果按照事实或常规步骤来处理的话，将会处理得一团糟。说明你具备突破常规去解决问题的能力。??

　　Q:How do you balance your reliance on facts with your reliance on intuition?

　　A:Facts are important but often neglect pointb in?time influences,especially with market research.One survey that I was uncomfortable with involved pricing data that was collected just after a major presidential election.The timing⁴ caused me to doubt that consumers would really spend as much as the survey indicated they would for new cars.So we ended up holding on to the last quarter?s pricing structure.We sold more cars while,as interest rates climbed,some of our competitors had expensive inventory⁵ carryover.??

　　问：在你上一份工作中最大的困难是什么？?

　　答：我要让对电脑一窍不通的老雇员接受电子邮件系统。首先，我说明了减少用纸的要求；然后，我决定建立一个临时的电子邮件账户，这个系统设有每日一谜，谁要是答对了就把谁的名字记在该周的图表上。每周图表上有名字的职员可以到当地一家很不错的餐馆享用四人套餐。这个方法就如一个很好的设计方案一样促使大家使用电子邮件系统。

　　面试官想了解应试者在他上一份工作中改进的地方。如果你被问到这类问题，不要只是抱怨而不说明解决方案。不要仅仅指出问题，更要证明你有能力提出解决方案。??

　　Q:What was your greatest problem in your last job?

　　A:I had to get longtime employees with few or no computer skills to embrace a new e?mail system.I started by explaining the need for less paper in everyone?s job.Then I decided to create a temporary e?mail account with one daily riddle⁶ on the system;everyone who responded correctly got their name put in a weekly drawing.Each week for one month a person from the drawing got dinner for four at a nice local restaurant.This approach went over well as a device to get people to use the system.??

　　问：谈谈你没有预料到的问题？?

　　答：我的上司要我解决正在执行的时间表的问题。我没有意识到在这些问题下工作的人会把我当成敌人。当我意识到的时候，我已做了一部分基础工作了。如果我先问一下他们的想法，我就能早一点让他们支持我的做法。

　　这个问题要求你谦逊，但也使你能从这件事情得到教训。你还明白了什么？这次经历如何使你的判断力得以提高？??

　　Q:Tell me about a problem that you failed to anticipate.

　　A:My boss asked me to solve an ongoing⁷ scheduling problem.I failed to realize that the person who had lived with the problem would see me as an antagonist⁸.By the time I realized it,I?d already done some of the groundwork.If I'd started by asking for the person?s opinion,I would have been able to get him on my side early on.