← 返回任务列表

2010年股东大会 · 什么是世界上资本回报率最高的生意?

46 段 · 3 位说话人 · 原片 4:11
F1
F10:00

对 Berkshire 来说,哪个生意的资本回报率最好?如果放眼全世界,又是哪个生意的资本回报率最高?

What business has had the best return on capital for Berkshire, and what business of any on earth has had the best return on capital?

他还补了一句:附言,我本来想坐火车来的,但运粮食的火车车厢里没有座位。

And he adds, P.S., I would have come by rail, but there are no seats in the grain rail cars.
M1
M10:16

这——

The—.
M2
M20:16

这个可以从两个角度来看。

There's 2 ways of looking at it.

如果你说的是经营这个生意本身所需要的资本,而不是我们当初为买下这个生意花了多少钱,我是说,如果我们买下一家很棒的公司,像 The Coca-Cola Company,只要你已经有装瓶系统,你几乎可以在不需要资本的情况下运营它。

If you talk about the capital necessary to run the business as opposed to what we might have paid for the business, I mean, if we buy a wonderful business, you could run The Coca-Cola Company, assuming you had the bottling systems, you could run it with no capital.
M1
M10:32

对。

Yeah.
M2
M20:33

当然,如果你是一千亿美元把它买下来的,那你可以把这一千亿美元看成你的资本,也可以看成是这个生意本身所需的基础资本。

Now, if you buy it for $100 billion, I mean, you can look at that as your capital, or you can look at the basic capital.
F1
F10:40

我们——

We—.
M2
M20:41

我们在判断什么是好生意的时候,定义标准是这个生意实际运行所需要的资本。

When we look at what's a good business, we're defining it in terms of the capital actually needed in the business.

至于它对我们来说是不是一笔好投资,最终就取决于我们为它付了多少钱。

Whether it's a good investment for us depends on how much we pay for that in the end.

有不少生意其实是在负资本的情况下运转的。

There are a number of businesses that operate on negative capital.

比如 Gannett 旗下的 Fortune magazine,还有任何一家优秀的杂志,基本上都是负资本运作。

Gannett's with Fortune magazine, you know, any, any of the great magazines operate with negative capital.

我的意思是,订户会提前付款。

I mean, the subscribers pay in advance.

几乎没有什么固定资产可言,应收账款也不算多。

There are no fixed assets to speak of, and the receivables are not that much.

存货几乎等于零。

The inventory is nothing.

所以杂志这个生意,我猜 People magazine 也好,Sports Illustrated 也好,都是在负资本状态下运作的。

So a magazine business, my guess is that People magazine operates, or Sports Illustrated operates, with negative capital.

尤其是 People 很赚钱。

And particularly People makes a lot of money.

呃,所以有些生意——嗯,我们以前有一家叫 Blue Chip Stamps 的公司,我们会提前拿到 float,也就是沉淀资金,实际上是靠相当可观的负资本在运营。

Uh, so there are certain businesses— well, we had a company called Blue Chip Stamps that, that where we got the float ahead of time and operated with really substantial negative capital.

不过也有很多非常棒的生意,呃,所需要的资本非常非常少。

Uh, but there are a lot of great businesses, uh, that need very, very little capital.

Apple 就不需要那么多资本。

Apple doesn't need that much capital.

当然,最好的生意,就是那种在几乎不需要资本的情况下还能做得非常大的生意。

It, you know, it, uh, the best ones, of course, are the ones that get very large while needing no capital.

See's 是一门很棒的生意,需要的资本很少,但是——我们没法让人们每天都吃十磅盒装巧克力。

See's is a wonderful business, needs very little capital, but it— we can't get people eating 10 pounds of box chocolates every day.
M1
M12:13

除了在这儿。

Except here.
M2
M22:15

我们倒是希望这样。

We want to.

呃,一般来说,优秀的消费品生意需要的资本都相对较少。

Uh, generally, the great consumer businesses need relatively little capital.

呃,那些客户会提前把钱付给你的生意,比如杂志订阅就是一个例子,保险也是一个例子,你其实是在使用客户的资本,我们喜欢这样的生意。

Uh, the, the businesses where people pay you in advance, you know, magazines for subscriptions being a case, insurance being a case, you know, you're using, you're using your customers' capital, and we like those kind of businesses.

但当然了,全世界其他人也喜欢,所以在收购这类生意的时候,竞争就会非常激烈。

But of course, so does the rest of the world, so they can become very competitive in, in buying them.

比如说,我们有一家公司,叫 Business Wire,由 Cathy Baron Tamraz 经营得非常出色。

We have a business, for example, that's run wonderfully by Cathy Baron Tamraz called Business Wire.

Business Wire 不需要很多资本。

Business Wire does not require a lot of capital.

它也有应收账款之类的东西,但它本质上是服务型业务。

It has receivables and everything, but it is a service-type business.

很多服务型生意和消费类生意,需要的资本都比较少。

And many of the service-type businesses and consumer-type businesses require a little capital.

而且一旦它们做成功了,你知道,规模和价值都可能变得非常惊人。

And when they get to be successful, you know, they can really be something.

Charlie?

Charlie?
M1
M13:19

我没什么可补充的,不过不管怎么说,这个公式从来没变过。

I've got nothing to add, but at any rate, the formula never changes.

如果你能拥有——

If you could own—
M2
M23:31

如果让你在全世界拥有一家企业,你会选什么,Charlie?

If you could own one business in the world, what would it be, Charlie?

我希望我自己已经拥有它了。

I hope I already own it myself.
M1
M13:45

你知道,很多很多年前,我们就因为谈这个话题惹过麻烦。

You know, you and I got in trouble by addressing such a subject many decades ago.
M2
M23:48

没错。

That's right.
M1
M13:49

我觉得我还是不要再回到这个话题上了。

I don't think I'll come back to it.

好。

Okay.
M2
M23:53

第十三个问题。

Number 13.
M1
M13:55

如果你点名说某门生意拥有不可思议的定价权,那你说的其实就是一家垄断企业,或者接近垄断的企业。

If you name some business that has incredible pricing power, you're talking about a business that's a monopoly or a near monopoly.
M2
M24:02

当然。

Sure.
M1
M14:03

所以我不觉得我们坐在这里,把一个在别人看来属于垄断的企业,说成是我们最欣赏的生意,是件多聪明的事。

And I don't think it's very smart for us to sit up here naming as our most admired business as something that other people regard as a monopoly.
M2
M24:11

好。

Okay.