1996-03-01 Warren Buffett.Helzberg
Helzberg's Diamond Shops Helzberg
钻石连锁店
A few years back, management consultants popularized a technique called "management by walking around" (MBWA). At Berkshire, we've instituted ABWA (acquisitions by walking around).
几年前，管理咨询顾问把一种叫“management by walking around”（MBWA，走动式管理）的方法炒热了。在 Berkshire，我们则搞出了 ABWA（acquisitions by walking around，走动式收购）。
In May 1994, a week or so after the Annual Meeting, I was crossing the street at 58th and Fifth Avenue in New York, when a woman called out my name. I listened as she told me she'd been to, and had enjoyed, the Annual Meeting. A few seconds later, a man who'd heard the woman stop me did so as well. He turned out to be Barnett Helzberg, Jr., who owned four shares of Berkshire and had also been at our meeting.
1994 年 5 月，年度股东大会结束后一周左右，我在纽约第五大道与 58 街的路口过马路时，有位女士喊了我的名字。我听她说，她去参加了年度大会，而且很喜欢。几秒钟后，一个听到她叫住我的男士也把我拦下了。他就是 Barnett Helzberg, Jr.，持有 Berkshire 四股，也同样参加了我们的大会。
In our few minutes of conversation, Barnett said he had a business we might be interested in. When people say that, it usually turns out they have a lemonade stand - with potential, of course, to quickly grow into the next Microsoft. So I simply asked Barnett to send me particulars. That, I thought to myself. will be the end of that.
在我们短短几分钟的交谈里，Barnett 说他有一门生意我们可能会感兴趣。别人这么说时，通常意味着他们只有一个柠檬水摊——当然，潜力巨大，随时可以长成下一个 Microsoft。于是我只是让 Barnett 把具体资料寄给我。我当时心里想：这事就到此为止了。
Not long after, Barnett sent me the financial statements of Helzberg's Diamond Shops. The company had been started by his grandfather in 1915 from a single store in Kansas City and had developed by the time we met into a group with 134 stores in 23 states. Sales had grown from $10 million in 1974 to $53 million in 1984 and $282 million in 1994. We weren't talking lemonade stands.
没过多久，Barnett 给我寄来了 Helzberg’s Diamond Shops 的财务报表。这家公司由他祖父于 1915 年在 Kansas City 从一家单店创立。到我们见面时，它已经发展为覆盖 23 个州、134 家门店的连锁体系。销售额从 1974 年的 1,000 万美元增长到 1984 年的 5,300 万美元，再到 1994 年的 2.82 亿美元。我们谈的显然不是柠檬水摊。
对家族企业有偏好。
Barnett, then 60, loved the business but also wanted to feel free of it. In 1988, as a step in that direction, he had brought in Jeff Comment, formerly President of Wanamaker's, to help him run things. The hiring of Jeff turned out to be a homerun, but Barnett still found that he couldn't shake a feeling of ultimate responsibility. Additionally, he owned a valuable asset that was subject to the vagaries of a single, very competitive industry, and he thought it prudent to diversify his family's holdings.
Barnett 当时 60 岁，他热爱这门生意，但也希望能从中“抽身”。1988 年，为了朝这个方向迈一步，他请来了 Jeff Comment（曾任 Wanamaker’s 总裁）协助管理。聘用 Jeff 的结果堪称“全垒打”，但 Barnett 仍然发现自己摆脱不了那种“最终责任在我”的感觉。与此同时，他的财富高度绑定在一个单一、且竞争极其激烈的行业上，而这类资产价值又会随行业景气起伏而波动；因此他认为，把家族资产做些分散化是审慎之举。
Berkshire was made to order for him. It took us awhile to get together on price, but there was never any question in my mind that, first, Helzberg's was the kind of business that we wanted to own and, second, Jeff was our kind of manager. In fact, we would not have bought the business if Jeff had not been there to run it. Buying a retailer without good management is like buying the Eiffel Tower without an elevator.
对他而言，Berkshire 简直是量身定做。我们在价格上磨合了一阵子，但在我心里从来没有疑问：第一，Helzberg’s 属于我们想要拥有的那类生意；第二，Jeff 属于我们想要的那类经理人。事实上，如果不是 Jeff 在那里负责经营，我们根本不会买这家公司。收购一家零售企业却没有优秀管理层，就像买下 Eiffel Tower 却没有电梯一样荒唐。
珠宝店的假设可能跟see's candy有相似的地方，后者是谈恋爱，前者是结婚。
We completed the Helzberg purchase in 1995 by means of a tax-free exchange of stock, the only kind of transaction that interested Barnett. Though he was certainly under no obligation to do so, Barnett shared a meaningful part of his proceeds from the sale with a large number of his associates. When someone behaves that generously, you know you are going to be treated right as a buyer.
我们在 1995 年完成了对 Helzberg 的收购，方式是免税的股票置换——这也是 Barnett 唯一感兴趣的交易形式。尽管他完全没有义务这么做，Barnett 仍把出售所得中相当有意义的一部分分享给了许多同事与伙伴。一个人能如此慷慨行事，你就会知道：作为买家，你会被公平对待。
The average Helzberg's store has annual sales of about $2 million, far more than competitors operating similarly-sized stores achieve. This superior per-store productivity is the key to Helzberg's excellent profits. If the company continues its first-rate performance - and we believe it will - it could grow rather quickly to several times its present size.
Helzberg’s 门店的平均年销售额约 200 万美元，远高于那些经营相似规模门店的竞争对手。单店生产率的这种优势，是 Helzberg’s 优秀利润水平的关键。如果公司能继续保持一流表现——我们相信会的——它的规模就有可能相当快地增长到目前的数倍。
Helzberg's, it should be added, is an entirely different sort of operation from Borsheim's, our Omaha jewelry business, and the two companies will operate independently of each other. Borsheim's had an excellent year in 1995, with sales up 11.7%. Susan Jacques, its 36-year-old CEO, had an even better year, giving birth to her second son at the start of the Christmas season. Susan has proved to be a terrific leader in the two years since her promotion.
另外需要补充的是，Helzberg’s 与我们在 Omaha 的珠宝业务 Borsheim’s 完全是两种不同类型的运营，两家公司将彼此独立运作。Borsheim’s 在 1995 年也度过了非常出色的一年，销售额增长 11.7%。其 36 岁的 CEO Susan Jacques 的一年更是“喜上加喜”，她在圣诞季一开始就迎来了第二个儿子。Susan 在升任后的两年里，已证明自己是一位非常出色的领导者。
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