The Perfect Business

March 1, 2011 3 Comments

The best and easiest way to make money either as a businessperson or an investor is to get hold of an as near to perfect business as possible.The best businesses have the following features:

High profitability. If the business provides customers a product or service they need or want very much, and only this business can provide it, and there are few substitutes available then this firm can charge a premium price far above the costs it incurs.
High returns on capital. A business with high margins ceases to be very attractive if it is very capital intensive and requires massive amounts of capital to launch and/or remain in business. The greatest businesses require little or no money to start, can grow without major additions of capital, and do not require much maintenance cap ex.
An enormous moat. To ensure high margins and return on capital in the future it’s critical for a business to have major competitive advantages that are unlikely to dissipate over time. The key here is lack of change .Rapid change as in the hi- tech sector,benefits consumers but is very bad for investors. To quote Warren Buffett, “We see change as the enemy of investments… so we look for absence of change. We don’t like to lose money. Capitalism is pretty brutal. We look for mundane products that everyone needs…. I guarantee that Coke, Wrigley’s , and Gillette will dominate. The Internet won’t change what brands people like.”
Profitable reinvestment opportunities. The greatest businesses can reinvest their robust free cash flows back into the business at equally high rates of return on capital. Consider this: Warren Buffett has often lamented the fact that See’s Candies has never been able to expand much beyond its historical West Coast markets. It’s a fabulous company and was one of his best acquisitions ever, but the inability to reinvest its free cash flows back into growing its operations makes it an inferior business to, say, Wrigley, which has been able to grow globally over the years. Read more of this post

Filed under Entrepreneurship, Paper Assets, Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with accounts payable, accounts receivable, businessperson, cap ex, capital intensive, Cash Conversion Cycle, cash flow, Coke, competitive advantage, entrepreneur, free cash flows, gillette, growth, inventory, Investor, Perfect Business, postaday2011, profitability, RandomBlog2011, Return on Capital, See's Candies, Warren Buffet Quotes, Warren Buffett, Wrigley's

The Right Approach To Long Term Investment Success In The Stock Market

February 24, 2011 2 Comments

There are many ways to make money in stocks. But not every way works well over longer periods of time.There are people who never make any money from stocks and there are others who make significant amounts of money in the stock market only to lose it again.To understand how to make money from stocks and keep it the long term we need t0 study the habits of investors who have remained successful over a long term.Such an exercise shows that the odds of long-term investment success are greatly enhanced with an approach that embodies most or all of the following characteristics:

Thinking about investing as the purchasing of companies, rather than the trading of stocks.
Ignoring the daily noise of the market. As Graham wrote in his classic, ‘The Intelligent Investor‘, “Basically, price fluctuations have only one significant meaning for the true investor. They provide him an opportunity to buy wisely when prices fall sharply and to sell wisely when they advance a great deal. At other times, he will do better if he forgets about the stock market.”
Only buying a stock when it is on sale i.e. available at a discount to its intrinsic value.
Focussing first on avoiding losses, and only then think about potential gains. “We look for businesses that in general aren’t going to be susceptible to very much change,” says Warren Buffett “It means we miss a lot of very big winners but it also means we have very few big losers…. We’re perfectly willing to trade away a big payoff for a certain payoff.” Read more of this post

Filed under Paper Assets, Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with Benjamin Graham, Bill Miller, Common Sticks and Uncommon Profits, discount to intrinsic value, Legg Mason, Long term stock investment, Peter Lynch, Philip Fisher, postaday2011, RandomBlog2011, share market, stock investment, stock share, The Intelligent Investor, Warren Buffett

A Critique of the Giving Pledge

February 21, 2011 5 Comments

Wealthymatters.com

Following is a very nice critique of the Giving Pledge and the Buffett-Gates style of philanthropy.I found it a couple of days ago at http://heybrowncow.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/are-gates-and-buffet-teaching-the-world-how-to-live-the-american-way/ . It points out the good and the bad in the effort.The red text are points I find particularly interesting.How do you feel about the Giving Pledge? On what points do you agree/disagree with the author below?

Are Gates and Buffet teaching the world how to live (or give), the American way?

By Dingzi

AMERICAN billionaires and founders of The Giving Pledge Bill Gates and Warren Buffet may be heading next for the Nobel Peace Prize. Imagine what a heap of good the billions that have been pledged can do to make a better world.

Having persuaded 40 fellow American super-rich to pledge at least 50 per cent of their wealth to charity by the time they die – the collective pledge has reached US$1.25 billion – the two philanthropists are taking the campaign international. Read more of this post

Filed under Philanthropy Tagged with Argo Information Digital Technology, Bill Gates, billionaire, campaign, Chen Guangbio, China, Chinese, Chow Yuen Fatt, Critique, elite club, Feng Jun, Hon Hai, Jack Ma, Jiangsu Huangpu Renewable Resource Utilization, Maslow, Michael Bloomberg, Philanthropy, Tax shelters, Terry Gou, The Giving Pledge, Warren Buffett, Yu Pengnian, yuan

Charlie Munger

February 12, 2011 2 Comments

For all those who are like who the heck is this Charlie?And there are many who would ask the question where I come from. Charles Thomas (Charlie) Munger is an investment manager. He is Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation and Warren Buffett’s long term associate. Munger is also the chairman of Wesco Financial Corporation, based in Pasadena, California. Wesco Financial is an 80.1%-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. It began as a savings and loan association, but now controls Precision Steel Corp., CORT Furniture Leasing, Kansas Bankers Surety Company, and other ventures. Wesco Financial has an equity portfolio of over $1.5 billion dollars that is concentrated in Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods, US Bancorp, and Goldman Sachs.

Buffett has often publicly stated that he regards Charlie Munger as his partner. In fact Charlie Munger owns enough Berkshire Hathaway stock to be a bona fide billionaire in his own right. There are many similarities between these two long time friends.However the lesser known Charlie Munger is not a carbon copy of Warren Buffett.There are distinct differences in the way in which the two long -time friends think .Ofcourse what is so fascinationg is how both these people’s thoughts mesh to create a better whole.Also Warren Buffett is known to devote his time almost exclusively to his business, while Charlie Munger, who does not involve himself in the day-to-day operations of Berkshire, is a generalist for whom investment is only one of a broad range of interests.

Charlie Munger is a great admirer of Benjamin Franklin.His thoughts are compiled in a 500 odd pages tomb called “Poor Charlie’s Almanack”.

Charlie Munger believes in thinking about things by inverting. So to understand how to be happy in life, Charlie will study how to make life miserable; to examine how businesses become big and strong, Charlie first studies how businesses decline and die; most people care more about how to succeed in the stock market, Charlie is most concerned about why most have failed in the stock market. Read more of this post

Filed under Tidbits Tagged with Benjamin Franklin, Berkshire Hathaway Corporation, billionaire, Charles Munger, Charlie Munger, Elementary Worldly Wisdom, Lollapalooza Effect, Multiple Mental Models, Mungerisms, Open Outcry Auctions, Poor Charlie's Almanack, Tupperware Parties, Warren Buffett, Wesco Financial Corporation

A German Perspective on Philanthropy

February 5, 2011 2 Comments

I came across this article by chance while looking for information on Chinese billionaires.It is from Der Spiegel.I was struck by the point made by Peter Kramer.Thought I’d put up the article here.What do you think about this point of view?Do write me your comments.I would love to hear them.

08/10/2010

Negative Reaction to Charity Campaign

German Millionaires Criticize Gates’ ‘Giving Pledge’

Germany’s super-rich have rejected an invitation by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to join their ‘Giving Pledge’ to give away most of their fortune. The pledge has been criticized in Germany, with millionaires saying donations shouldn’t replace duties that would be better carried out by the state.

Last week, Microsoft founder Bill Gates attempted to convince billionaires around the world to agree to give away half their money to charity. But in Germany, the “Giving Pledge,” backed by 40 of the world’s wealthiest people, including Gates and Warren Buffet, has met with skepticism, SPIEGEL has learned.

“For most people that is too ostentatious,” said the asset manager of one of the billionaires contacted by Gates, adding that many of the of the people contacted had already transferred larger proportions of their assets than the Americans to charitable foundations.

Dietmar Hopp, the co-founder of the SAP business software company, has transferred some €2.9 billion to a foundation. Klaus Tschira, another founder of SAP, has handed more than half his wealth to a foundation.

Peter Krämer, a Hamburg-based shipping magnate and multimillionaire, has emerged as one of the strongest critics of the “Giving Pledge.” Krämer, who donated millions of euros in 2005 to “Schools for Africa,” a program operated by UNICEF, explained his opposition to the Gates initiative in a SPIEGEL interview.

SPIEGEL: Forty super wealthy Americans have just announced that they would donate half of their assets, at the very latest after their deaths. As a person who often likes to say that rich people should be asked to contribute more to society, what were your first thoughts? Read more of this post