Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street. Chapter 10. Stockholder Season

好的，以下是将您提供的内容翻译为中文： 这章名为“股东季”，讲述了作者在1966年春天参加几次公司年度股东大会的经历。作者首先描绘了背景，强调了少数大型公司及其专业管理人员手中掌握的巨大权力，暗示这些公司的权力堪比中世纪的封建领主。尽管权力如此集中，但正式的结构规定，最终的权力属于股东，他们在美国有超过2000万。然而，股东的漠不关心、无知和庞大的数量等因素削弱了他们的权力，导致几乎所有投票都一致支持管理层认可的董事候选人名单。 因此，年度股东大会成为股东施加影响力的主要场合。受到前一年股东大会上不守规矩的行为引发的公司管理层对股东采取“强硬路线”的新闻的吸引，作者开始亲身观察这些互动。这种“强硬路线”的特点是驱逐制造混乱的股东，执行更严格的会议规则，并指派特别小组来控制起哄者，似乎旨在让“理论上的根本权力持有者”安分守己。 作者观察到一种趋势，即公司将年度股东大会从纽约迁走，表面上是为了方便其他地区的股东。然而，作者怀疑这些搬迁与避免来自纽约的喧闹、持不同意见的股东有关。作者从底特律的美国电话电报公司（AT&T）开始。作者注意到AT&T股东的数量庞大（近300万），但参会人数相对较少。人群构成多样化，但明显缺乏少数族裔的代表。 本章的很大一部分重点关注公司主席与“专业股东”之间的互动动态——这些个人通过提出问题和提出决议来积极参与年度股东大会。作者将这些专业股东，尤其是威尔玛·索斯夫人和路易斯·D·吉尔伯特，描述为在很大程度上是自封的代表，代表着一个可能非常需要代表的庞大选民群体。虽然他们中的一些人因粗鲁和辱骂行为而受到批评，但另一些人，如索斯夫人和吉尔伯特先生，被认为是见多识广、敬业和勤奋的批评家，尽管他们的名字经常在官方公司报告中被回避。 作者描述了AT&T股东大会上的互动，包括索斯夫人和伊芙琳·Y·戴维斯女士等专业股东的抱怨和干扰，以及卡佩尔先生试图维持秩序。作者注意到，公司通过在纽约以外的地方举行会议获得了优势：能够利用地区自豪感来对抗直言不讳的异见者。然后，作者参加了在亚特兰大举行的通用电气股东大会，在那里，“强硬路线”通过对会议的受控管理得到展现。在多元化的制药和化学公司辉瑞公司（Charles Pfizer and Company）的另一次会议上，作者发现气氛最为友好。作者参加的最后一次会议是通信卫星公司（Communications Satellite Corporation）的会议，结果一片混乱。 最后，作者反思了年度股东大会的价值以及专业股东的角色。作者承认专业股东是管理层的秘密武器，但认为他们的异议，虽然经常带有攻击性，却是商业结构中人际关系的一个有价值的功能。

This chapter, "Stockholder Season," recounts the author's experiences attending several corporate annual meetings in the spring of 1966. The author sets the stage by highlighting the immense power concentrated in the hands of a few large corporations and their professional managers, suggesting that these corporations wield a power comparable to medieval feudal lords. Despite this concentration of power, the formal structure dictates that ultimate authority resides in the stockholders, numbering over 20 million in the U.S. However, factors like stockholder indifference, ignorance, and sheer numbers undermine their power, resulting in near-unanimous votes for management-endorsed director slates. The annual meeting, therefore, becomes the primary occasion for stockholders to exert influence. Intrigued by reports of a "new hard-line approach" from company management towards stockholders, triggered by unruly behavior at the previous year's meetings, the author embarks on a journey to observe these interactions firsthand. This "hard-line approach," characterized by ejecting disruptive stockholders, enforcing stricter meeting rules, and assigning task forces to control hecklers, seems designed to put the "theoretical holders of fundamental power" in their place. The author observes a trend of companies moving their annual meetings away from New York, ostensibly to accommodate stockholders in other regions. However, the author suspects a connection between these relocations and the desire to avoid noisy, New York-based dissident stockholders. The author begins with AT&T in Detroit. The author notes the massive number of AT&T stockholders (almost three million) and the relatively small attendance at the meeting. The crowd is diverse, but notably lacking in representation from minority groups. A significant portion of the chapter focuses on the dynamic between corporate chairmen and "professional stockholders" - individuals who actively participate in annual meetings by raising questions and proposing resolutions. The author describes these professional stockholders, notably Mrs. Wilma Soss and Louis D. Gilbert, as largely self-appointed representatives of a huge constituency that may badly need representing. While some of them are criticized for boorish and abusive behavior, others like Mrs. Soss and Mr. Gilbert, are recognized as well-informed, dedicated, and diligent critics, although their names are often avoided in official corporate reports. The author describes interactions at the AT&T meeting, including complaints and interruptions from professional stockholders like Mrs. Soss and Mrs. Evelyn Y. Davis, and Mr. Capel's attempts to maintain order. The author notes the advantages companies gain by holding meetings away from New York: the ability to leverage regional pride against vocal dissidents. The author then attends the General Electric meeting in Atlanta where the "hard line" is demonstrated through controlled management of the meeting. Another meeting of the diversified pharmaceutical and chemical firm Charles Pfizer and Company, the author finds the most amicable. The last meeting the author attends is of the Communications Satellite Corporation where total chaos ensues. The author concludes by reflecting on the value of annual meetings and the role of professional stockholders. While acknowledging that the professional stockholders are management's secret weapon, the author believes their dissent, though often abrasive, is a valuable function of the human relationship within business structures.