问答题

Every successful business is built on superior senses—of timing, opportunity, responsibility, and, not infrequently, humor. None, however, is more critical than the ability to sense the market. A senior executive’s instinctive capacity to empathize with and gain insights from customers is the single most important skill he or she can use to direct technologies, product and service offerings, indeed, all elements of a company’s strategic posture. People like Bill Gates brought this ability to the enterprises they founded. Without it, their ventures might have been short-lived or at least far less successful. But many top level managers, particularly those at industrial companies, consider customer contact the bailiwick of sales and marketing staff. And even if they do believe that market focus is a priority, most retain only limited contact with consumers as their organizations grow, relying instead on subordinates’ reports—second-or-third-hand information—to define and sense the market for them.

解析：
【翻译要点】
翻译时需特别留意形似的词，以免造成误译。该题第三句中不要把empathize错看为emphasize。这两个词拼写很相似，但意思完全不同，前者是“设身处地为…着想”，后者是“强调”，文中指：高级管理人员的一个非常重要的本事是能很自然地设身处地为客户着想…。此外，注意第四句中founded是found（成立，创立）的过去式，不要把其错看成find的过去时found。