← 返回任务列表

1998年股东大会 · 巴菲特:我不会干预管理层经营企业的方式

58 段 · 3 位说话人 · 原片 5:17
M1
M10:00

好的,先生。

Yes, sir.

下午好。

Good afternoon.

我叫 Matt Lovejoy,来自 Kentucky 的 Lexington,而且我很高兴我不是顾问。

My name is Matt Lovejoy from Lexington, Kentucky, and gladly I'm not a consultant.

我有个问题想请教您,Buffett 先生,是关于您的运营管理风格。

I have a question, sir, Mr. Buffett, about your operating management style.

在我看来,主流媒体淡化了您那些非上市运营类投资的重要性。

In my opinion, the mainstream media minimizes the significance of your non-public operating investments.

当您考虑这些公司的资本配置时,您会让经理人提交年度经营计划吗?

When you consider capital allocation in these companies, do you have the managers submit annual business plans?

如果会的话,您会不会正式地和这些经理人开会,看看他们相对于这些计划的推进情况如何?

And if so, do you formally meet with those managers to see how well you can track progress against those plans?
M2
M20:45

对,这是个好问题。答案是,我们,我们可能会见他们——我们会每年和其中一些人见面。

Yeah, that's a good question, and the answer is that we, we may meet—we meet with some of them annually.

我们也可能和另一些人每半年见一次,但我们完全没有任何正式的制度,而且我们以后也永远不会有正式制度。

We may meet with others semi-annually, but we have no formal system whatsoever, and we will never have a formal system.

我们不会要求我们旗下任何经理人必须来开会。

We don't demand any meetings of any of our managers.

我们也不要求他们向总部提交什么经营计划。

We have no operating plan submitted to headquarters.

有些公司自己会用经营计划,有些则不用。

Some of the companies use operating plans themselves, some of them don't.

这些公司全都是由业绩非常出色的人在经营,而他们各自的打球风格也不一样。

They are all run by people who have terrific records, and they have different batting styles.

我们可不会去折腾一个打击率有三成七五的人,只因为另一个人握棒的方式稍微不同,或者用的是不同重量的球棒,诸如此类。

And we're not about to tinker with somebody that's batting .375 just because somebody else holds the bat a little differently or uses a different weight bat or something of the sort.

所以我们,呃,我们相信,让他们继续用过去成功过的方式来做事,不管是现在还是未来。

So we, uh, we believe in letting them do currently and in the future what has been successful for them in the past.

而且不同的人,风格差异非常大。

And different people have very different styles.

我自己也有我自己的风格,你知道,但是我们——

I've got my own style, you know, but we—
M1
M11:42

对。

Yeah.
M2
M21:43

我们有些经理人喜欢把事情拿出来讨论。

We have managers that like to talk things over.

我们也有别的经理人喜欢按自己的路子来。

We have other managers that like to go their own way.

我们有些经理人是按章办事的那一派,而且效果很好。

And we have managers that have a by-the-book approach, which works well.

我们也有别的经理人,压根不会去那么做。

We have other managers that wouldn't dream of that.

我们有些经理人——大多数经理人大概每个月都会看财务报表。

We have managers that—most managers probably have monthly statements of financials.

我们也有别的经理人不是这样。

We have other managers that don't.

而这其实并不是问题。

And that really isn't a problem.

我们想要的是优秀的经理人。

What we want to have is good managers.

而且,通往——至少通往商业天堂——的路不止一条,我们有不少人都找到了各自不同的路走到那里。

And there's more than one way to get to, at least, business heaven, and we have a number that have found different ways to get there.

所以我们从来没有强加过——当然因为我们是上市公司,还要满足 SEC 的要求,以及和 Internal Revenue Service 的协调要求,所以有一些规定——但我们从来没有自上而下地向任何运营管理层强加什么。

So we have never imposed—we have certain requirements because we're a public company and SEC requirements and Internal Revenue Service coordination—but we have never imposed anything from the top on any of the operating managements.

我们有 MBA 在经营公司,也有一些人连 business school 都没上过。

We have MBAs running companies, we have people that never saw a business school.

而人才,人才才是稀缺资源。

And talent, talent is the scarce commodity.

当你找到有才能的人,而他们自己也有一套做事的方法时,我们就让他们按自己的方式来——我们也很高兴他们这么做。

And when you find talent and they've got their own way of doing things, we let them— we're delighted to have them do it.

不只是让他们这么做而已,我们是希望他们就按自己的方式去做。

More than letting them do it, we want them to do it their way.

我们不想去改变他们。

We don't want to change them.

Charlie?

Charlie?
M3
M33:01

对,事实就是,我们在运营业务上把权力下放得非常彻底,几乎就差没有完全撒手不管了。

Yeah, the truth of the matter is that we have decentralized power in the operating businesses to a point just short of total abdication.

而且我们也不觉得我们的这套体系适合所有人。

And we don't think our system is right for everybody.

它,它很适合我们,也适合那些加入我们的人;但对于像 Emerson Electric 这样有运营计划、每个季度拿实际表现跟计划对比,诸如此类做法的公司,我们并没有什么批评。

It, it has suited us and the kind of people that have joined us, but we don't have criticism for other people like Emerson Electric or something who have operating plans and compare performance quarterly against plan and all that sort of thing.

那只是不是我们的风格而已。

It's just not our style.
M2
M23:37

对,我们把钱集中管理,其他基本上都分散下放。

Yeah, we centralize money and everything else we decentralize pretty much.

不过,我不知道你们刚才有没有见到他,但比如说,Al Ueltschi 今天就在这里。

But, and I don't know whether you've met him here, but for example, Al Ueltschi is here.

他在一九五一年创办了 FlightSafety,而他——我不知道他今年要在模拟器上花多少钱,但很可能轻轻松松就要一亿美元左右。

He started FlightSafety in 1951, and he's— I don't know what he'll spend on simulators this year, but it could easily be a $100 million or thereabouts.

而且他就是——就算我花上几个小时跟他聊,我也没法在怎么分配那笔钱这件事上,把他的认知提高哪怕百分之一的百分之一。

And he just— if I spent hours with him, I couldn't add 1/100th of 1% to his knowledge of how to allocate that money.

我是说,那太可笑了。

I mean, it would be ridiculous.

那既是浪费他的时间,也是我这边一种傲慢的表现。

It'd be a waste of his time, and it would be an act of arrogance on my part.

而且我一点也不担心 Al 会怎么分配那笔钱。

And I have no worries about how Al allocates the money.

而且,呃,相比我们大多数业务,这已经算是一个资本投入特别重的业务了。

And, uh, and that's an unusually capital-intensive business compared to most of our businesses.

也有一些业务,我会更深入一些去看细节,因为我和负责经营的人合作很多年了,我们也都挺享受这个过程。

There's some that I get into the details more because I've just worked with the person that's running things a long time and we kind of enjoy it.

Ajit 和我几乎每天晚上都会聊再保险业务。

Ajit and I talk virtually every night about the reinsurance business.

你知道,我根本没有在提升他决策的质量,但这本身是个很有意思的游戏,我喜欢听这些,他也不介意聊,所以我们就会一起讨论。

You know, I am not improving the quality of his decisions at all, but it's an interesting game and I like hearing about it and he doesn't mind talking about it, so we talk them over.

不过那——那只是个人之间的默契问题。

But that's— that's just a matter of personal chemistry.

而且随着我们增加更多经理人,我们也会去适应他们。

And as we add managers, we will adapt to them.

我们的会计系统在一定程度上也会为了他们做调整。

We adapt our accounting systems to a degree to them.

当然,我们确实有一些要求,这是 SEC 和 IRS 带来的。

Now, we do have certain requirements that result from the SEC and IRS.
M3
M35:00

但是我们并不会——

But we don't—.
M2
M25:03

我们的经理人了解他们自己的业务,也知道该怎么经营。

Our managers know their businesses and they know how to run them.

如果他们不知道——虽然实际上并不是这样——但如果他们真的不知道,那我们,你知道,我们会去处理经理人本身的问题。

And if they don't— this hasn't been the case— but if they didn't, we would, you know, we'd do something about the manager.

我们不会试图去搭建一大堆系统。

We wouldn't try and build a bunch of systems.

请 Zone 6 提问。

Zone 6, please.