巴菲特模式：廣受崇拜卻無人能效仿
Omaha, Nebraska: a place of pilgrimage, where 35,000 shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway have come to pay homage. This is a global event but quintessentially American. On Friday, the conglomerate’s products are on sale; See’s Candies and Fruit of the Loom T-shirts are the most popular. Precision Castparts, the maker of specialist components for aircraft engines, puts on a bewildering display. A model railway represents the Burlington Northern Santa Fenetwork. Sadly, there are no discounts on NetJets, the pay-per-flight private aircraft operator. In the evening, we drink cocktails and eat junk food in a tacky marquee alongside a display of expensive jewellery (25 per cent off for Berkshire shareholders).
奧馬哈，美國內(nèi)布拉斯加州：一個朝圣之地。3.5萬名伯克希爾哈撒韋(Berkshire Hathaway)股東不久前趕到那里朝拜。這是一項全球盛事，但具有典型的美國風(fēng)格。4月29日，該集團旗下的產(chǎn)品開始搞特賣;時思糖果(See’s Candies)和Fruit of the Loom的T恤最受歡迎。飛機引擎專用配件制造商精密機件公司(Precision Castparts)的展品令人眼花繚亂。一個鐵路模型代表伯靈頓北方圣達菲鐵路公司(Burlington Northern Santa Fenetwork)。遺憾的是，私人飛機租賃運營商利捷(NetJets)不提供折扣。晚上，我們在一個寒酸的帳篷里喝著雞尾酒，吃著垃圾食品，周圍展示的是昂貴珠寶(伯克希爾公司股東可享受七五折)。
The truly devout queue from 4am outside the CenturyLink Arena to secure seats near the front. Many are Chinese, with insufficient English to follow the lengthy proceedings; they seek only proximity to the master. Saturday starts with a movie full of in-jokes about personalities in the Berkshire family.
為了獲得前排座位，真正虔誠的那些人從凌晨4點就開始在世聯(lián)中心(CenturyLink Arena)門外排隊。其中很多是中國人，他們的英語一般般，在漫長的大會議程中，他們其實聽不大懂，只是希望離大師近一點。4月30日的大會以一部電影開場，里面有許多有關(guān)伯克希爾家族個性人物的笑話，只有內(nèi)行才懂。
Then the ritual’s high point: journalists, analysts and shareholders fire questions at Warren Buffettand Charlie Munger, vice-chairman, for five hours. The stamina of Mr Buffett, 85, and Mr Munger, 92, would be astonishing if they were younger men. They engage in easy, witty repartee; if Mr Buffett is prolix, Mr Munger is sardonically concise.
接著，儀式進入高潮部分：記者、分析師和股東開始向沃倫•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)和伯克希爾公司副董事長查理•芒格(Charlie Munger)提問，這個環(huán)節(jié)長達5個小時。即便巴菲特(85歲)和芒格(92歲)再年輕一點，這種耐力也是驚人的。他們回答得輕松、風(fēng)趣、機智;如果說巴菲特的回答有些啰嗦，芒格的回答則簡短而冷峭。
The business model is as simple as it is effective: a closed-end fund, whose shares can be redeemed only by selling to another investor, with a strategy of long-term commitment and close engagement with the companies invested in. What is surprising is that Berkshire’s success produced so little imitation. Where other conglomerates use financial engineering and impose “transferable” management skills, Mr Buffett eschews creative accounting and has no illusions that he will manage Precision Castparts better than the incumbents. His method is to find well-run companies and give them more freedom than they would enjoy on public markets.
該公司的商業(yè)模式既簡單又高效：一只封閉基金，其份額只能通過賣給另一個投資者才能變現(xiàn)，并遵循長期持有、與被投資公司密切接觸的戰(zhàn)略。令人意外的是，伯克希爾公司的成功很少有人效仿。當(dāng)其他大型綜合企業(yè)運用財務(wù)手段并實行“可接替”管理技能時，巴菲特卻避免使用創(chuàng)造性會計方法，并且從不幻想如果他自己管理精密機件公司，會做得比現(xiàn)任管理層更好。他的方法是找到管理完善的公司，然后賦予它們比在公開市場上會享受到的更大的自由。
Yet the closed-end fund is out of fashion; financial advisers and regulators prefer the open-ended model, with all the accompanying constraints on long-term investment. In the EU, closed-end vehicles are to be classified as complex products, supposedly dangerous for small shareholders such as those who flock to the arena to applaud Mr Buffett.
然而，封閉基金已不流行;金融顧問和監(jiān)管機構(gòu)青睞開放基金模式，伴隨著對長期投資的種種限制。在歐盟(EU)，封閉基金將要被列為復(fù)雜產(chǎn)品，理論上，這種產(chǎn)品對小股東(例如蜂擁到此為巴菲特鼓掌的那些)而言是危險的。
The control mechanisms in the group are tight but informal. Exchanges with analysts at the shareholder meeting demonstrate that the tiny staff at the headquarters in Omaha is familiar with what is happening in the operating businesses. Mr Buffett, however, is at pains to emphasise the absence of formal reporting lines and control systems, central budgets and targets, and complex incentive schemes. In a revealing moment, he was asked about the absence of conventional due diligence in his acquisition process; Berkshire had made bad acquisitions, he acknowledged, but never one that could have been avoided by the kind of information that due diligence might have revealed.
該集團的控制機制嚴密但非正式。在此次股東大會上與分析師的交流證明，奧馬哈總部里人數(shù)很少的員工，對旗下運營公司的情況了如指掌。然而，巴菲特盡力強調(diào)，該集團沒有正式的報告規(guī)則和控制體系，沒有中央預(yù)算和目標，也沒有復(fù)雜的激勵機制。一個很能說明問題的時刻是，有人問道，為何他在收購過程中不做傳統(tǒng)的盡職調(diào)查;他承認，伯克希爾公司做過錯誤的收購，但這些錯誤沒有一個是原本可以通過盡職調(diào)查避免的。
The overriding ethos of the shareholder weekend is that of a cult, an ethos engendered by informality but also crucial to the effectiveness of that informality. Berkshire’s success is based on the trust between the group, its operating companies and its investors. It is a world apart from the notion of the company as nexus of contracts among people who find it mutually advantageous, for the moment, to do business together; a world apart from the place to which financial innovation has led us.
此次股東大會的最高精神是崇拜，造就這種精神的是非正式的管理風(fēng)格，但這種精神對于這種非正式管理風(fēng)格的有效性至關(guān)重要。伯克希爾公司的成功基于該公司與旗下運營公司以及股東三者之間的信任。伯克希爾公司的成功與這種看法相差甚遠，即認為公司連接著一群人之間的契約關(guān)系，這些人認為就目前而言，在一起做生意對他們有利;該公司的成功也與金融創(chuàng)新一直將我們帶往的地方相距甚遠。
Mr Buffett’s particular genius is not that he is a great stock picker. His genius lies in the relentless clarity of his appreciation of the nature of business: focus on competitive advantage, find good management, give that management freedom with accountability only for results. And in his creation of a business model that follows those insights.
巴菲特的特殊天賦不體現(xiàn)在他非常善于挑選股票。他的天賦體現(xiàn)為他對企業(yè)本質(zhì)無比清晰的認識：關(guān)注競爭優(yōu)勢、發(fā)現(xiàn)優(yōu)秀管理層、賦予該管理層充分的自由、只看結(jié)果。他的天賦還體現(xiàn)在他創(chuàng)建了一種遵循這些洞見的商業(yè)模式。
