Labitan.沃伦.巴菲特文集(EN)——The_Warren_Buffett_Business_F(3)

Although our form is corporate, our attitude is partnership. Charlie Munger and I think of our shareholders as owner-partners, and of ourselves as managing partners. (Because of the size of our shareholdings we also are, for better or worse, controlling partners.) We do not view the company itself as the ultimate owner of our business assets. Instead, we view the company as a conduit through which our shareholders own the assets. In line with this owner-orientation, our directors are all major shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. In the case of at least four of the five, over 50% of family net worth is represented by holdings of Berkshire. We eat our own cooking.

Friends and Wonderful Businesses

I attended Columbia University's business school in 1950-51, not because I cared about the degree it offered, but because I wanted to study under Ben Graham, then teaching there. The time I spent in Ben's classes was a personal high, and quickly induced me to learn all I could about my hero. I turned first to Who's Who in America, finding there, among other things, that Ben was Chairman of Government Employees Insurance Company, (GEICO), to me an unknown company in an unfamiliar industry. Ben wrote: “Investment is most intelligent when it is most businesslike.” This quote comes from what I think is the best book on investing ever written - “The Intelligent Investor.”

Berkshire dominates both the investment portfolios of most members of our families and of a great

many friends who belonged to partnerships that Charlie and I ran in the 1960's. We could not be more motivated to do our best.

Honesty

We feel that you, as owners, are entitled to the same sort of reporting by your manager as we feel is owed to us at Berkshire Hathaway by managers of our business units. Obviously, the degree of detail must be different, particularly where information would be useful to a business competitor or the like. But the general scope, balance, and level of candor should be similar. We don’t expect a public relations document when our operating managers tell us what is going on, and we don’t feel you should receive such a document.

We believe that our formula - the purchase at sensible prices of businesses that have good underlying economics and are run by honest and able people - is certain to produce reasonable success. We expect, therefore, to keep on doing well.

Charlie Munger

Charlie Munger and I can attain our long-standing goal of increasing Berkshire's per-share intrinsic value at an average annual rate of 15%. We have not retreated from this goal. But we again emphasize, that the growth in our capital base makes 15% an ever-more difficult target to hit. What we have going for us is a growing collection of good-sized operating businesses that possess economic characteristics ranging from good to terrific, run by managers whose performance ranges from terrific to terrific. You need have no worries about this group. The capital-allocation work that Charlie and I do at the parent company, using the funds that our managers deliver to us, has a less certain outcome: It is not easy to find new businesses and managers comparable to those we have.

My pal Charlie has always emphasized the study of mistakes rather than successes, both in business and other aspects of life. He does so in the spirit of the man who said: “All I want to know is where I’m going to die so I’ll never go there.” You’ll immediately see why we make a good team: Charlie likes to study errors and I have generated ample material for him, particularly in our textile and insurance businesses. Irrespective of titles, Charlie and I work as partners in managing all controlled companies. We enjoy our work as managing partners. And we enjoy having you as our financial partners.

Charlie is broader in his interests than I am. In Berkshire’s investments, Charlie and I have employed the principles taught by Dave Dodd and Ben Graham. Our prosperity is the fruit of their intellectual tree. At Berkshire, our managers will continue to earn extraordinary returns from what appear to be ordinary businesses. These managers look for ways to deploy their earnings advantageously in their businesses. What's left, they will send to Charlie and me. We then try to use the funds in ways that build per-share intrinsic value. Our goal is to acquire either part or all of businesses that we believe we understand, that have good, sustainable underlying economics, and that are run by managers whom we like, admire and trust.

Ben Graham

Ben Graham taught me that the key to successful investing was the purchase of shares in good businesses when market prices were at a large discount from underlying business values. The true investor welcomes volatility. Ben Graham explained this in Chapter 8 of The Intelligent Investor. There he introduced "Mr. Market," an obliging fellow who shows up every day to either buy from you or sell to you, whichever you wish. The more manic-depressive this chap is, the greater the opportunities available to the investor. That's true because a wildly fluctuating market means that irrationally low prices will periodically be attached to solid businesses. It is impossible to see how the availability of such prices can be thought of as increasing the hazards for an investor who is totally free to either ignore the market or exploit its folly.

Ben Graham told a story 40 years ago that illustrates why investment professionals behave as they do: An oil prospector, moving to his heavenly reward, was met by St. Peter with bad news. “You’re qualified for residence”, said St. Peter, “but, as you can see, the compound reserved for oil men is packed. There’s no way to squeeze you in.” After thinking a moment, the prospector asked if he might say just four words to th …… 此处隐藏：5965字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……