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
初创公司CEO们分享王牌招聘秘诀
编者注：作为创业者来说，单单靠自己的力量是远远不够的。最理想的状态就是能够招募到一群志同道合的朋友或者员工来一同打拼。然而在雇佣员工方面，有很多的注意点。比如说，要遵循几个原则：首先是因事择人原则，即上面所说的志同道合；其次，就是公开、公平和公正原则，要给应征者平等的竞争机会；再次，竞争择优原则。当然，公司的招聘还要遵循效率优先原则，招聘活动要尽可能用低的成本找到合适的员工。
当下，最为流行的励志书籍之一就是Stephen Covey的《高效率人士的7大习惯》。这本书之所以能够吸引如此多的读者，是因为人们被CEO或者业务总监身居高位却如此的坚定和付出所震慑了。
以下就是CEO王牌雇佣准则的内容：
符合公司的发展要求
关注他们成功的原因是非常重要的。有些人会说，如果雇主不能招聘那些有能力的人来为其服务，他就不会成功。一家大型企业每年在组织寻找合适的潜在招聘对象的过程中都会损失成千上万美元。为了使得公司损失最小化以及利润最大化，CEO需要招聘合格的雇员。为了避免做出错误的招聘决定，他们需要寻求那些有对口技能和证书资质的人。如果候选人没有达到要求，那么雇主就不应该再将其考虑在内。而那些最成功CEO的招聘策略则可以给你启示，告诉你如何为自己的公司招兵买马。
绩效考核
对于你来说，招聘一位员工并且给他一定时间的试用期来考察能力是一个不错的做法。而此后他的去留都取决于在试用期内的表现。而另外一种检验雇员能力保守的方法就是让他独立完成一个项目。但是，还有一点很重要，那就是你要咨询一位精通劳动法的律师来确保你的雇佣合同中有关试用阶段的条款的可行性。
现实中没有十全十美的人
因为人无完人，所以你需要宽容个人的某些缺点。每一个个体都存在缺点，但是最重要的是招聘那些长处突出而缺点略少的人。为了达到这个目的，你可以把集体的共同意愿和理想分解成那些可调停、可选择以及值得拥有的部分。这样才能让自己清楚明白自己是否愿意妥协。
并且，在你面试候选人时，你还需要尽可能调整自己的态度，拿下领导的帽子，以免对员工太苛刻。所以说，记住打破某些固有习惯还是很重要的。
员工是你的镜子
Bill Unrue是InsureWell的CEO，他认为所招聘的员工某种程度上反映了雇主的特征。每一位CEO都必须意识到：雇员的内部或外部行为都是公司的外界反馈。Unrue说：“如果有两位有着相似资质的人需要做出选择，你一定要选择那个热情大于一切的。”在企业初创之时，无限的驱动力可以弥补某些技术上的缺陷。
听听Rockefeller怎么说
John D. Rockefeller是 Standard Oil 的创始人兼CEO，他有一句关于强调招聘顶尖人才的名言。他说：“我不信有什么还能比坚持更必要，更能带来成功。坚持可以战胜所有的困难，甚至是人类的极限。”且不谈论他们的技术如何，你只要招聘那些能够证明自己充满无限活力并且积极进取的人。
联邦快递（FedEx）CEO Fred Smith
联邦快递的CEO Fred Smith与Facebook的Mark Zuckerberg有着同样的信念，他偏向于公司的招聘要反映出领导人的原则。这是招聘那些为公司发展做出贡献的能力者的唯一途径。他说：“领导者站在前沿，不断地提高评判自己和接受评判的标准。”对于将来的创业家和CEO来说，招聘员工时做出正确决策是非常重要的。CEO必须要在面试过程中识别出顶尖人才。
Startup CEOs Share Their Number One Hiring Tip
One of the most popular motivational books of our time is "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," by Stephen Covey. The book has actually attracted large numbers of people who are amazed at how devoted and determined CEOs or business directors acquire and preserve such high positions.
The best cogs in the machine
It is important to note the reasons for their success. Some would say that a CEO cannot be successful if he or she does not employ the services of capable employees. A big organization loses tens-of-thousands of dollars a year in the course of choosing the right candidates to hire. In order to minimize losses and maximize profit in your company, there is a need for CEOs to employ qualified candidates. To prevent making the mistake of hiring the wrong employee, CEOs have to search for a candidate that has the qualities and credentials he or she seeks. If the candidate does not meet the requirements needed, that candidate should not be considered. Examining the hiring tactics of the most successful CEOs gives new insights into how to hire for your own company.
Test performance
It's a good idea to hire a person and put him or her on probation for some time, after which the candidate will be fully employed or laid off depending on his or her performance. Another conservative method to test prospective employee abilities is to create a project that can be completed as an independent contractor. It's important to note however that you should talk to a labor or employment lawyer to make sure your employment contract talks about the test period appropriately.
The perfect person doesn't exist
Since no one is perfect, you need to tolerate some weak points in individuals. Every individual has his or her own weak points, but the most important thing is to employ one whose strengths far outweigh any weaknesses. You can do this by breaking down your collective wishes, hopes and dreams into deal-breakers versus nice-to-haves. That's the best way to figure out where you're willing to compromise.
You also need to shift your priorities as you interview candidates to avoid being too rigid on your employees. It's therefore important to bear in mind that there are some deals that are meant to be broken.
Your employees are your reflection
Bill Unrue, the CEO of InsureWell believes that the employees you hire are a reflection of you. Every CEO must realize that all actions of their employees, both internal and external, are reflections of the company. "If you are choosing between two candidates with similar credentials, always go with the one who shows boundless enthusiasm--over other considerations, says Unrue." In business, a relentless drive can make up for quite a few lacking technical skills at the very beginning.
Listen to Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller was the founder and CEO of Standard Oil and his most famous quote puts emphasis on hiring top tier talent. He says, "I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature." No matter their skills, only hire people who have proven themselves to be relentless go-getters.
FedEx CEO Fred Smith
Frederick Smith, the CEO of FedEx has the same belief as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. He recommends that the company's hiring practices should reflect the principles of the leader. This is the only way to hire capable employees that have all it takes to contribute to the growth of the company. He elaborates:"Leaders get out in front and stay there by raising the standards by which they judge themselves--and by which they are willing to be judged." It is quite important for would-be entrepreneurs and future CEOs to make good decisions when it comes to employing a staff. A CEO must have the quality of recognizing top talents during interviews.
Source:Inc
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