I.H.34.Warren Buffett.Operating and Investment

经营和投资的能力是统一，巴菲特的这个想法经历过改变，有区别的想法明显不符合“平常心”的定义。

1、《1996-05-06 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting-Morning Session》

It’s always struck me as terribly illogical, the way property-casualty insurance companies are run, because they’ve been dominated by the underwriting side of the business. And here they have this important investment side, but it’s always been — virtually every company’s been subservient to the underwriting.

我一直觉得财产意外保险公司的运作方式非常不合逻辑，因为它们一直被承保业务主导。而这里有这个重要的投资方面，但几乎每家公司都一直屈从于承保。

And GEICO, very logically, set up a co-CEO arrangement some years back where — originally Bill Snyder before that — but Tony Nicely ran the underwriting end of the business and Lou Simpson ran the investment side.

而 GEICO 非常合理地在几年前设立了共同首席执行官的安排——最初是比尔·斯奈德，但托尼·尼克利负责业务的承保部分，而卢·辛普森负责投资方面。

And those are two very different functions. Same person, logically, doesn’t fit both functions in most cases. I mean, it’s a rarity when the same person happens to hit for both functions.

这两种功能是非常不同的。逻辑上来说，同一个人通常不适合这两种功能。我是说，当同一个人恰好同时满足这两种功能时，这是一种罕见的情况。

So GEICO worked very well that way. Still works that way. Lou runs investments. Tony runs underwriting.

所以 GEICO 以这种方式运作得非常好。现在仍然如此。Lou 负责投资。Tony 负责承保。

And Berkshire — slightly different — it’s a variant on it. But, essentially, at Berkshire headquarters, you need someone overseeing and not meddling in them too much, but making sure you’ve got the right manager and you’re treating him fairly.

而伯克希尔——稍有不同——这是它的一种变体。但从本质上讲，在伯克希尔总部，你需要有人进行监督，而不是过多干预，但要确保你有合适的经理，并且公平对待他。

You need someone on the operating side. You need someone on the investment/capital allocation side. We’ve got those people now. And we’ll have them, you know, whenever it happens, too.

你需要在运营方面有人。你需要在投资/资本分配方面有人。我们现在有这些人。无论何时发生，我们也会有他们。

That’s the — that is the structure. And we’ve got some very good businesses.

那就是——那就是结构。我们有一些非常好的业务。

2、《1997-05-05 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting》

69. Aim to increase both operating earnings and investments

目标是同时增加运营收益和投资收益

WARREN BUFFETT: Area 3.

沃伦·巴菲特：第三区。

AUDIENCE MEMBER: My name is Gul Asnani (PH). I’m from Allentown, Pennsylvania.

观众：我叫古尔·阿斯纳尼（音），来自宾夕法尼亚州的阿伦敦。

I have a question concerning page four of the annual report where you talk about the investments per shares, et cetera.

我有一个关于年报第4页的问题，涉及每股投资等内容。

WARREN BUFFETT: Right.

沃伦·巴菲特：好的。

AUDIENCE MEMBER: And my question is, how much claim do the operating businesses have on these marketable securities?

观众：我的问题是，这些经营业务对这些可交易证券的占有权有多大？

WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah. Well, that table’s a very important table in my view. And we measure our progress, to some extent, by the figures in both columns of that table, one of which shows the investments per share. And the other shows the operating earnings from everything other than investments.

沃伦·巴菲特：是的。在我看来，那张表格非常重要。我们在一定程度上通过表中两列的数据衡量我们的进展，其中一列显示了每股投资，另一列显示了除投资以外的所有运营收益。

The operating businesses have first claim on anything that relates to their business. I mean, if See’s is going to buy a new plant, which it probably is now — or buy an additional building, I shouldn’t say a new plant — you know, that comes first. The business has grown. It’ll produce some economies and all that. We do that. You know, we try and do it as intelligently as possible. But that comes first. The —

经营业务对与其业务相关的任何资金具有优先权。我是说，如果See’s要买一座新厂房——也许是现在正在买——或者购买一个附加建筑，不应该说是新厂房——您知道，这会是优先考虑的。业务已经增长，这会带来一些经济效益等等。我们会这样做，并尽可能明智地执行。但这是第一优先事项。

That doesn’t use but a small fraction of the capital. All of those needs don’t use but a small fraction of the capital that Berkshire will generate. The investments reside largely in insurance companies because that’s where largely the liquid funds are.

但这只用了一小部分资本。这些需求只用了伯克希尔将产生资本的一小部分。投资主要分布在保险公司，因为那里是流动资金的主要所在地。

They have to have capital strength, obviously, because they have huge promises outstanding.

显然，它们必须具备资本实力，因为它们承担了巨大的未履行承诺。

But where they reside does not determine who manages them. Lou Simpson manages GEICO’s portfolio specifically. But in effect, Charlie and I manage everything else.

但它们的所在地并不决定谁来管理它们。卢·辛普森专门管理GEICO的投资组合。但实际上，查理和我管理着其他所有的投资。

So where they precisely reside really makes no difference. I mean, they’re sitting someplace. They’re not for the operating management to use in projects that are far afield from what they’re doing.

所以它们具体存放在哪里并不重要。我的意思是，它们放在某个地方。但这些资金不会被经营管理层用在远离其业务范围的项目上。

But if they need money in any operating business, you know, we’ll have a check there that day. FlightSafety, for example, will be a fairly capital-intensive business.

但如果他们在任何经营业务中需要资金，我们会在当天提供支票。例如，FlightSafety就是一个相当资本密集型的业务。

I mean, if our project with Boeing goes as we hope it goes, you know, there will be substantial money in there because there — you know, we will have many more simulators around the world, and we’ll be paying our proportional cost of it.

我是说，如果我们与波音的项目按预期进行，那么会有大量资金投入其中，因为——您知道——我们将在世界各地拥有更多的模拟器，我们将支付我们的相应份额成本。

But they don’t need to keep money around to prepare for that day, which they would if they were a standalone operation. We can — money’s fungible.

但他们不需要提前留出资金为那一天做准备。如果他们是独立运营的企业，可能就需要这样做。我们可以——资金是可以调配的。

We can deploy it all the time. And whenever anybody needs it, we’ll come up with it. But we don’t leave it around awaiting the day when some specific operation needs it.

我们可以随时部署资金。无论谁需要，我们都会提供资金。但我们不会将资金闲置在那里等待某个具体业务需要它的那一天。

Charlie?

查理？

CHARLIE MUNGER: The odds are very good that the marketable securities will keep going up, even as the businesses expand. That’s the way the game has worked in the past. And we hope it’ll keep going that way.

查理·芒格：很有可能，即使业务扩展，可交易证券的价值仍会继续增长。这就是过去的运作方式。我们希望它能继续这样下去。

WARREN BUFFETT: What we are doing is trying to increase the numbers in both columns. We don’t have any favoritism for this over that or anything of the sort. But we’re looking, all the time, for things that will do — will help both columns. And we’d be disappointed if five or 10 years from now that they both haven’t increased significantly.

沃伦·巴菲特：我们正在做的是努力增加表中两列的数字。我们没有偏向其中任何一项，或者类似的倾向。但我们始终在寻找能够同时推动这两列增长的东西。如果五年或十年后，两者都没有显著增加，我们会感到失望。

But which column will increase at the greater rate, we don’t know.

但哪一列会以更高的速度增长，我们并不知道。

3、《2015-05-02 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting》

39. Unlikely that one person will run both investments and operations

不太可能由一个人同时负责投资和运营。

WARREN BUFFETT: OK. Then we’ll move on to Jonathan. (Laughs)

沃伦·巴菲特：好的。那我们继续谈乔纳森。(笑)

JONATHAN BRANDT: Warren, you have up to this point said that Berkshire in the future will have a chief executive officer and one or more chief investment officers.

乔纳森·布兰特：沃伦，到目前为止你说过，伯克希尔未来将有一位首席执行官和一位或多位首席投资官。

You haven’t explicitly said that a chief investment officer cannot be the CEO, but that has, for me at least, been implied.

您没有明确说首席投资官不能担任首席执行官，但对我来说，这已经是暗示了。

Berkshire has been successfully managed for 50 years by a chairman and vice chairman whose principal experience was in allocating capital amongst a number of businesses and industries with which they were familiar and whose attributes they could compare.

伯克希尔在过去 50 年里成功地由一位董事长和一位副董事长管理，他们的主要经验是在他们熟悉的多个企业和行业之间分配资本，并能够比较这些企业和行业的特征。

Since capital allocation is the key skill needed for a company structured the way Berkshire is, why couldn’t the company’s principal decision maker in the future also be someone who is experienced in choosing among different reinvestment options, with perhaps a second outstanding person expert in operations acting as chief operating officer, albeit a route of the hands-off one, given Berkshire’s extreme decentralization?

既然资本配置是像伯克希尔这样结构的公司所需的关键技能，那么为什么未来公司的主要决策者不能是一个在选择不同再投资选项方面有经验的人，同时也许有第二个在运营方面非常出色的专家担任首席运营官，尽管这是一个不干涉的路线，鉴于伯克希尔的极端去中心化？

WARREN BUFFETT: That’s a very good question.

沃伦·巴菲特：这是个非常好的问题。

It’s not inconceivable. It’s very unlikely, Jonny, that — but as you say, the — a chief investment officer has a — will have — or should have — a significant array of skills that would be useful, also, for a chief executive officer.

这并非不可想象。乔尼，这种可能性非常小，但正如你所说，首席投资官应该具备一系列对首席执行官也有用的重要技能。

But I would say, also, that I would not want to move — if I were voting on it — I would not want to vote to put somebody whose sole experience had been investments in charge of an operation like Berkshire, who had not had any, also, significant operating experience.

但我也想说，如果我在投票的话，我不想投票让一个唯一的经验是投资的人负责像伯克希尔这样的运营，因为他也没有任何显著的运营经验。

I’ve said that I’m a better investment manager because I’ve been an operating manager, and I’m a better operating manager because I’ve been the investment manager.

我说过，我是一个更好的投资经理，因为我曾是一个运营经理，而我也是一个更好的运营经理，因为我曾是投资经理。

But the — you — operations — I’ve learned a lot through operations that I wouldn’t have learned if I’d stayed in investments all my life. I would not have been equipped to run it.

但是——你——的运营——我通过运营学到了很多，如果我一辈子都待在投资领域，我就不会学到这些。我不会有能力去管理它。

I learned a lot of things about operations by being in operations. So if you had somebody that had the dual experience and was very good at investments, but had a lot of experience in operations, that would be conceivable. Otherwise, I wouldn’t vote that way.

我通过在运营部门工作学到了很多关于运营的知识。因此，如果有一个人同时具备投资和丰富的运营经验，那是可以想象的。否则，我不会这样投票。

Charlie? 查理？

CHARLIE MUNGER: Well, every year at Berkshire, as now constituted, the owned and controlled businesses get more and more important, and the measurable securities are relatively less important.

查理·芒格：每年在伯克希尔，目前的结构下，拥有和控制的业务变得越来越重要，而可衡量的证券相对不那么重要。

So, I think it would be crazy not to go with the tide to some extent.

所以，我认为不去顺应潮流有点疯狂。

And we need more — we need expertise beyond that of a typical portfolio analyst.

我们需要更多——我们需要超越典型投资组合分析师的专业知识。

WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah. But the CEO should have some real understanding of investments and investment alternatives and all that.

沃伦·巴菲特：是的。但是首席执行官应该对投资、投资替代方案以及所有这些有一些真正的理解。

I’ve seen a lot of businesses run by people that really don’t understand the math of investing or capital allocation very well. So having a dual background is useful, but actually our operating managers know — some of them know — a lot about investing.

我见过很多企业由那些对投资或资本配置的数学了解不深的人管理。因此，拥有双重背景是有用的，但实际上我们的运营经理知道——他们中的一些人知道——很多关于投资的知识。

4、《2024-05-04 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting》

Warren Buffett: Yeah, I would say that decision actually will be made when I’m not around, and I may try and come back and haunt them if they do it differently. But I’m not sure the Ouija board will get that job done. So that job, I’ll never know the answer on whether it get covered, but I feel very comfortable about the fact that it will be made by a board, that they’ve got loads of brainpower, they’ve got a dedication to an unusual institution, and they will figure things out. But I would say that if I were on that board and were making the decision, I would probably, knowing Greg, I would just leave. I would leave the capital allocation to Greg. And he understands businesses extremely well. And if you understand businesses, you understand common stocks. I mean, if you really know how business works, you are an investment manager. How much you manage, maybe just your own funds or maybe other people. And if you really are primarily interested in getting assets under management, which is where the money is, you know, you don’t really have to understand that sort of thing. But that’s not the case with Ted or Todd, obviously. But I think the responsibility ought to be entirely with Greg.The responsibility has been with me, and I farmed out some of it. And I used to think differently about how that would be handled, but I think the responsibility should be that of the CEO. And whatever that CEO decides may be helpful in effectuating that responsibility. That’s up to him or her to decide at the time they’re running

沃伦·巴菲特：是的，我会说这个决定实际上会在我不在的时候做出，如果他们做得不同，我可能会试着回来纠缠他们。但我不确定灵媒板能否完成这个工作。所以这个问题，我永远不会知道是否会被覆盖，但我对这个决定感到非常放心，因为它将由一个董事会做出，他们拥有丰富的智慧，他们对一个不寻常的机构有着奉献精神，他们会找到解决办法。但我会说，如果我在那个董事会并且在做决定，我可能会，了解格雷格的情况下，我会选择离开。我会把资本配置留给格雷格。他对商业的理解非常透彻。如果你理解商业，你就理解普通股。我的意思是，如果你真的知道商业是如何运作的，你就是一个投资经理。你管理多少，可能只是你自己的资金，或者其他人的资金。如果你真的主要关注的是管理资产，这就是钱所在的地方，你知道，你并不一定需要理解那种事情。但显然，泰德或托德并不是这样的情况。但我认为责任应该完全在格雷格身上。责任在我身上，我将其中一些工作外包了出去。我曾经对如何处理这件事有不同的看法，但我认为责任应该由首席执行官承担。无论首席执行官决定什么，都可能有助于履行这一责任。这取决于他或她在执掌时的决定。

I.H.34.Warren Buffett.Operating and Investment

I.H.34.Warren Buffett.Operating and Investment

1、《1996-05-06 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting-Morning Session》

2、《1997-05-05 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting》

3、《2015-05-02 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting》

4、《2024-05-04 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting》

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