저자: CharlieMunger · 외국인
요약 보기
워런 버핏의 파트너 찰리 멍거가 연차보고서 활용법을 설명. 한 사업을 이해하려면 45분~1시간씩 읽고 동종업계 기업 보고서도 함께 봐야 하며, 월가 리포트보다 연차보고서에서 아이디어를 얻었다고 강조. 경영진은 주주 지향성과 능력을 보고, 좋은 사업이 좋은 경영보다 중요하다고 언급. 신문산업은 과거보다 경쟁력이 약화됐지만 여전히 좋은 사업이라는 취지.
다듬은 글
What I find is that it takes a long time to read the annual report. Even if it's a comparatively simple business, if you really are trying to understand it, it's not a bit easy. Yeah. I would say that on average in a business we're really interested in, even though we know what to skip to some extent, what to read, I mean, it's going to be 45 minutes or an hour on a report.
And if there are six or eight companies in the industry, that's going to be six or eight hours perhaps and and then their quarterlys and a lot of other I mean it the way you learn about businesses is by absorbing information about them, thinking it, deciding what counts and what doesn't count, relating one thing to another.
And uh you know that's that's the job that uh uh and you can't get that by looking at a bunch of little numbers on a chart bobbing up and down about a you know or or or or reading uh you know market commentary and periodicals or anything of the sort that just won't do it that you've got to understand the businesses that's where it all begins and ends know that you read lots and lots of annual reports and uh I'm curious what you are reading for if you would share that with us.
the main thing uh that they can't mandate in annual reports. I really like to have I I like to know as much as I can about the person that's running it and how they think about the business and what's really going on the business. Now, the SEC mandates a lot of information and and and some of that is is helpful.
Uh uh but there's an intent behind the report. I mean, if it's a sales document, I'm you know, I'm I'm less interested. I'm and uh I don't see any way to mandate uh what I'm talking about. But that's the kind of report I'm looking for. What I'm trying to do as I read reports a I like to understand just generally what's going on in all kinds of businesses.
If we own stock in in a company in an industry and there are eight other companies that are in the same industry, I want to own or be on the mailing list for the reports for the other eight because I can't understand how my company is doing unless I understand what the other eight are doing. I I want to have the perspective of in terms of market share or what's going on in the business or their margins or the trend of margins or all kinds of things that I can't get unless I know I can't be an intelligent owner of a business unless I know what all the other businesses in that in that industry are doing.
And so I try to get that information out of a report. If I'm thinking about investing in a specific company, I try to size up their business and the people that that that are that are that are running it. And over the years, I I I found uh reading a lot of reports to be quite useful in terms of making business decisions at at Bergkshire.
If we own all of a business, I want to own shares in in all of the competitors just to keep keep track of what's going on. And I want to be able to intelligently evaluate how our managers are doing that. And I can't do that unless I know the industry backdrop against uh against which they're working.
uh uh it's amazing uh you know what how well you can do in in invest in in investing really with what I would call outside information. I find inside information I'm not sure how useful that is but but outside information there's all kinds of information around as to as to businesses and you don't have to you don't have to understand all of them and you just have to understand the ones that you're thinking about getting in and and you can do it if you just but you nobody will do it for you.
You can't read, in my view, you can't read Wall Street reports and get anything out of them. You have to do it yourself and and and get your arms around it. I I don't think we've ever gotten an idea, you know, in 40 years from a from a Wall Street report, but but we've gotten a lot of ideas from annual reports.
You have discussed what a wonderful business is. Um, one of the criterias in your acquisition uh page 23 of your annual report is management. Could you discuss uh how you decide what good management is and how you decide whether you have a good manager? The really great business is one that doesn't require good management.
I mean, that is that's a terrific business. And the the uh the poor business is one that can only succeed or even survive with great management. And uh but we look we look for people that know their businesses, love their businesses, love their shareholders, want to treat them as as as partners, and uh we still look to the underlying business though.
we we uh uh if if we have somebody that we think is extraordinary, but they're locked into one of those terrible businesses because we've been in some terrible businesses and and you know, the best thing you can do probably is get out of it and and get into something else. But there's an enormous difference, frankly, there's an enormous difference in the talent of American business managers.
uh the CEOs of the Fortune 500 are not selected like 500 members of the American Olympic track and field team. Uh and and it is not the same process and you do not have the uniformity of top quality that you get with the American Olympic team in any sport. Uh you do you do not get that in in in in in top management in American business.
You get some very able people, some terrific people like a Bill Gates that we just mentioned, but you get you get a lot of mediocrity, too. And uh uh the test uh I think in some cases that it's fairly identifiable uh who has done an extraordinary job. And we like people that have batted 350 or 360 in terms of predicting that they're going to bat over 300 in the future.
and some guy says, you know, I batted 127 last year, but I've got a new bat or a new batting coach, you know, some management consultant has come in and told them how to do it supposedly. We're very suspicious of that. Uh so we don't uh uh we don't like uh banjo hitters who suddenly uh proclaim that they can uh become power hitters.
and uh and then we we try to figure out what their attitude is toward shareholders and and uh that isn't uniform either uh throughout corporate America. It's far from uniform. Uh uh we still want them to be in a good business though. I would emphasize that and uh uh we feel that uh I mean when I I I gave the illustration of Tom Murphy in the in the annual report.
I mean no one had either the ability No one could top his ability or or integrity in terms of the way he ran Cap Cities uh in terms of building the business. He only built it when it made sense, not when it did something for his his ego or or to make it larger alone. He did it when it was in his shareholders interests.
And they they're they're not all Tom Murphy's. But when you find them and and they're in a decent business, you want to bet very heavily and not make the same mistake I made by selling out once or twice, too. my first Berkshire meeting and I want to mention that I'm very intrigued at the influence you have over the shareholders here.
I note that the first beverage they ran out of in the lobby was Cherry Coke. My question is about the Buffalo News. You say in the uh in the letter for the 95 report that the uh newspaper industry has lost another notch in its economic attractiveness. Can you elaborate on that? Yeah, the u what you are seeing in newspapers is is uh a circulation trend that has been prevalent for a long time in terms of newspapers per household.
uh but that uh that has been declining and that uh uh daily newspapers and that uh I would say the trends of the last couple years are are uh somewhat worse uh in that respect. I would say that the ability to price both at the circulation and advertising level is is is has weakened a bit uh in recent years.
not dramatically, but but it's weakened a bit. At one time, newspapers really uh daily newspapers in in uh in a in in in single newspaper towns were probably as as as uh as attractive economically as any business you could find. I mean it it uh uh a large percentage of advertisers uh had very little choice in terms of of using them as an advertising medium.
People had less options in the way of learning what was going on around around them uh other than the daily newspaper. So the pos that they started from a position of extraordinary strength. They still have a very strong position and I've tried to emphasize in that report. I mean, they are they're a bargain at at the price they sell for.
They give you all kinds of information with very low price and uh they're a magnificent way for most merchants to to to reach uh their customers, but they are not they do not have the exclusive advantages in many cases that they had 15 or 20 years ago. Uh thirdass male has become more of an option. uh uh people have more ways of obtaining information.
As we talked earlier, information can be processed electronically and delivered uh at far lower cost than people dreamt of uh 20 years ago. So all of those things eat away a little bit. It's still it's still a very fine business, but those I I don't see anything that will reverse those trends. I don't think that they will necessarily accelerate, but I but I uh I think that if the only thing you owned in life was a daily newspaper in a single newspaper town 20 years ago, you would feel slightly less secure uh today than than you did at that time, but you'd still be a lot better off than owning virtually any other business.
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