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When Boardex started mapping the professional relationships between prominent business people, the London-based company was targeting corporate governance watchdogs as clients.
当Boardex开始为商界精英间的相互关系建立图谱时，这家总部驻伦敦的企业把目标客户群瞄准了企业治理监管机构。
James Daly, chief executive, thought its database would be used to track connections between executives and board members to guard against cronyism in the wake of Enron’s 2001 collapse.
该公司首席执行官詹姆斯•戴利(James Daly)认为，该公司的数据库可以用来跟踪高管和董事会成员间的人际关系，旨在防止在2001年安然破产后公司治理中的任人唯亲现象。
The product eventually took off – but not in the way Boardex intended. Corporate governance watchdogs were interested, “but they didn’t have the budget to spend on it”.
最终，该产品向市场推出了，不过其反响却出乎Bordex意料。公司治理监管机构对这种产品挺感兴趣，“不过他们没有用于该产品的预算”。
Instead, the database was picked up by bankers and lawyers as a way of identifying which employees were best placed to win new business.
相反，使用该数据库的是些银行家和律师，他们用这个数据库来发掘那些最能拉来新业务的员工。
Mr Daly says clients are paying up to $1m a year to use the data. “Two years ago it started to become a trend. Companies started looking at the relationships their employees had and recognised it as a form of capital.”
戴利表示，客户如今每年使用这些数据的费用高达1百万美元。“两年前，这么做开始成为一种潮流。企业开始审视员工拥有的关系网，并把这视为一种资本。”
Technology such as Boardex’s is indeed making it easier to put a value on the adage “it is not what you know, it is who you know”, both for high-level employees and rank-and-file workers.
“重要的不在于你知道什么，而在于你认识谁。”Boardex等公司的技术确实令这句谚语的价值体现得更加淋漓尽致——对高层员工和一般员工来说这句话都同样成立。
In recent years, for instance, companies such as Klout, Kred and PeerIndex have emerged, promising to measure the level of influence that an individual has online.
比如，最近几年Klout、Kred和PeerIndex这类公司应运而生，它们承诺能量化评价个人在网上的影响力水平。
Factors such as how many followers someone has on Twitter and how influential those followers are can be condensed into a single number by Klout. Accenture, the consultant, is among those using it as part of its recruitment process in the US.
某人在Twitter上拥有多少粉丝，粉丝的影响力如何，这些因素都可以被Klout浓缩为一个数字。在美国，对这一数字的考察被咨询公司埃森哲(Accenture)等公司纳入了其招聘流程。
Profiles on the LinkedIn networking service are another guide to an individual’s connectedness, publicly listing how many contacts someone has (although it stops counting at 500).
领英(LinkedIn)网络服务中提供的背景资料则是另一个关于个人人脉关系的指南，因为其中公开列出了用户本人的联络人数目（尽管这一数字到了500之后就不再增加）。
But to what extent should employers track such indicators when they hire, promote and manage staff?
不过，雇主在雇佣、提升和管理员工时，到底应该在多大程度上参考这类指标呢？
Michael Wright, head of talent acquisition for the Asia Pacific region for Group M, an advertising company, says that, while he would never hire someone solely on the basis of their Klout score or LinkedIn profile, it can be a useful filter for weeding out candidates.
群邑集团(Group M)是一家广告公司，该公司亚太区人才招聘主管迈克尔•赖特(Michael Wright)表示，尽管他不会把Klout分数或领英的背景资料当做聘用某人的唯一标准，不过这些材料可以用来过滤部分候选人。
“If someone has just four connections on LinkedIn and they haven’t bothered to upload a photo, it is a warning sign. They would be off our longlist of candidates for a role,” he says.
他说：“如果某个人在领英上只有四个朋友，他甚至懒得上传一张照片，这是一个值得警惕的信号。这样的人会从我们的初步候选人名单上剔除。”
“If someone is looking to relocate from Europe to Asia and a quick scan through their contacts shows they have no connections in Asia, that would count against them as this is a relationship business,” he adds.
他补充说：“如果某人打算从欧洲搬到亚洲，快速浏览一下他的联络人信息，发现他在亚洲没有认识的人，那将对他很不利，因为我们做的是基于人脉关系的业务。”
Paul Guely, managing partner at Arma Partners, a corporate finance advisory firm, says technical tools can only be a small part of the process.
Arma Partners管理合伙人保罗•盖利(Paul Guely)表示，技术工具在整个招聘过程中可能只占一小部分。Arma Partners是一家企业融资顾问公司。
He says: “I am a member of a number of social networks and I do get value from them in terms of seeing who knows who. But when I want to understand what “know” means – whether someone trusts this person, how much business they really do together – I have not yet found a substitute for the off-the-record phone call to someone who knows them.”
他说：“我是几个社交网络的会员，从了解谁认识谁这方面来说，我确实从这些社交网络获得了有价值的信息。不过，如果我想弄清楚‘认识’到底是什么意思——比如说某人是否信任这个人，他们实际上会合作开展的业务有多少——我发现什么也不如私下给认识他的人打电话更管用。”
Russell Reynolds, an executive search firm, is one of the more than 250 companies that use Boardex’s software. Tim Cook, co-leader of its information officers practice, finds the software useful for looking at a candidate’s job history but says it can never be a complete substitute for a recruiter’s own market insight.
罗盛咨询(Russell Reynolds)是一家高管猎头公司，该公司是使用Boardex软件的250多家公司之一。蒂姆•库克(Tim Cook)是该公司信息官员部门的联合主管，他认为该软件对于审查求职者的就业史很有用，不过他还表示，该软件永远不能完全代替招聘者自身对市场的洞察力。
“Knowing who is connected to who is interesting, but knowing who has excelled in their role and how they have done it is the insight on which we act,” he says.
他说：“了解谁认识谁很有趣，不过了解谁在自己的岗位上表现出色以及他是如何办到的，才是我们想要的参考依据。”
The Boardex database maps relationships between more than 600,000 business people. If a bank wants to pitch to a company for work – to Intel, say – the software can indicate which of its employees are closest to Intel senior management.
Boardex的数据库记载了逾60万名商界人士间的相互关系。如果一家银行因工作关系有求于一家企业——比如说英特尔(Intel)——该软件能显示出哪位员工最接近英特尔资深管理层。
The relationships are ranked by strength, “so that having met someone once at a cocktail party does not have the same value as having served on a board with them for 10 years,” Mr Daly says.
戴利表示，所有关系都根据关系的强弱进行了排名，“这样，那种曾在鸡尾酒会上见过某人的‘关系’，与同某人在一个董事会共事10年的‘关系’会得到不同的评价”。
The most valuable information is not so much the direct connections, which might be known through other means, but the second-degree ones, which are more difficult to discover.
最有价值的信息并不总是那种直接往来——通过其他手段也能了解到直接往来方面的信息，而是间接往来。相比之下，这种间接往来更难发现。
The system can also show a company areas where it lacks connections, as well as the impact a particular employee’s departure might have.
该系统还能显示出一家企业在哪个领域中缺乏人脉关系，以及某位特定员工离职可能造成的影响。
Mr Daly goes so far as to claim that its algorithms could put an overall financial value on a company’s relationships that would merit being placed on its balance sheet alongside other intangible assets. He believes such a number would be at least as valid as an estimate of goodwill – a notoriously finger-in-the-air asset created in takeovers.
到目前为止，戴利始终声称该系统的算法能对公司拥有的人脉关系进行总体财务估值，这一估值或许可以和其他无形资产一同列入公司的资产负债表中。他相信这种估值至少和那种对商誉的估值一样有效——商誉是在并购交易中创造的、众所周知不太可靠的一种资产。
But even as companies are offered new ways to value their employees’ relationships, there is concern in some cases over who owns those networks. Put bluntly: are your business contacts your own or the company’s?
不过，在企业获得了评价员工人际关系新途径的同时，有时候人们会担心这类人脉关系的归属权问题。简单说：你的商业联络人归私人所有还是归企业所有？
Mr Daly talks of a “healthy tension” between individuals and their employers on this point. This is by no means entirely new. The loss of valuable connections has always been a threat to any relationship-based business, such as investment banking.
在这个问题上，戴利提到个人和雇主间存在的一种“健康的张力”。这种说法绝不是戴利的发明创造。对于任何基于人际关系的业务（比如投资银行业务）来说，有价值人脉关系的流失一直是一大威胁。
The tension is also creeping into the world of social media, however; courts have yet to work out a clear position on who owns what online when an employee leaves (see box).
不过，这种张力也逐渐渗透到了社交媒体中。到目前为止，对于员工离职时网上人脉关系的归属权，法院还无法得出明确结论。
Donna Ballman, an employment lawyer and author of the book Stand Up For Yourself Without Getting Fired, says that as “relationship capital” becomes more important, employment contracts will need to start including more clauses on ownership of online networks.
《如何维权而不失业》(Stand Up For Yourself Without Getting Fired)一书的作者、就业律师唐娜•鲍尔曼(Donna Ballman)表示，随着“关系资本”变得越来越重要，劳动合同中需要开始加入更多关于在线人脉网络归属权的条款。
“This issue continues to be a hot topic in employment law. The courts frequently look to what the parties agreed in any contracts. I see provisions dealing with social media in employment agreements, confidentiality agreements, intellectual property agreements and non-solicitation agreements,” she says.
她表示：“这个问题仍旧是劳动法的热门话题。法院往往会留心双方在合同中达成的条款。我曾在劳动合同、保密协议、知识产权协议和竞业禁止协议中见到过与社交媒体有关的条款。”
Even so, it remains unclear whether such contracts related to social media can be enforced. If any of the contacts are deemed to be in the public domain, for example, ownership clauses would not apply.
即便如此，目前仍不清楚这种与社交媒体有关的合同能否得到执行。比如，任何被视为属于公共领域的联络人，均不适用有关归属权的条款。
So how worried should you be if your own Klout score is less than stellar and you do not have a contact who knows Larry Ellison and can therefore make you stand out on the Boardex database?
那么，如果你的Klout得分不够高，你的联络人里也没人认识拉里•埃里森(Larry Ellison)，于是你无法从Boardex数据库中脱颖而出，你该不该为此担忧呢？
“It is just one tool in a very big toolbox,” says Mr Wright, of Group M. “The final decision on hiring needs human assessment. But it will be used more and more. I have a friend who says you are the product of the people you keep company with and I think there is some truth in that.”
群邑集团的赖特表示：“这只是超多评估工具中的一个而已。是否聘用投资者的最终决定需要经过人力评估。不过这套工具的使用频率会越来越高。我有位朋友曾说，看一个人跟哪些人来往，就知道他是什么样的人。我认为这话有些道理。”
