HELPS TO BE A GOOD INVESTOR, TO BE A GOOD BUSINESSMAN
AUTHOR: TREN GRIFFIN
Charlie Munger along with Warren Buffett are the co-chairmen
of American conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, the $715 billion – almost 25 times
the size of the Uganda economy, enterprise that is into everything from insurance
to power generation; railways to furniture and from paint to candy makers.
The diverse nature of the company’s holdings is what happens
when rationale investors -- Buffett and Munger, are in charge of a company. In their
search for good companies, run by good managers they can work they have built a
literal mosaic of companies, which on the surface seem to follow no rhyme or
reason.
"While Buffett is widely acknowledged as the greatest investor of all time, Munger is considered his equal at least in how he thinks about business and investment. The two of them have been at the helm since 1970 and bolted together a wealth creation machine the likes of which have never been seen. As of writing this review Berkshire Hathaway was trading at about $480,000 (sh1.7b) a share, and that is not a typo.
Author Tren Griffin distills the wisdom of Munger in this
compact book and below are a few of Munger’s thoughts on investment and
business.
1.
Understanding how to be a good investor makes
you a better business manager and vice versa
He says it in the book that the number one job of the
investor is asset allocation, committing money with the hope of future return.
To do this optimally it helps to understand the business you are investing in. On
the flip side as a businessman if you understand how investors think you can
better structure your business for long term success, because investors are
looking for businesses that can sustain high returns for the long term. A
businessman who thinks like an investor will focus on building the companies
value consistently.
2.
Betting on the quality of the business is a
better than betting on the quality of the management.
A business quality is largely dependent on its ability to
develop and sharpen its competitive advantage, that thing that it can do
profitably better than the competition. By developing and maintaining its competitive
advantage not only will it keep the competition at bay or people dissuade
people from joining the industry, it allow them better flexibility in
determining pricing of their products or services. Those are the best
businesses to be in, than those whose pricing is determined by their
competition.
3.
The most effective way to genuinely reduce risk
is to know what you are doing.
When you leave home to drive to work, no one seeing you
having done the trip to and from often, fear that you will not return at the
end of the day. But give the car keys to your ten-year old child to drive and
the risk rises exponentially. The way to mitigate risk is to know more about
the business or investment. Just because your neighbour has made a killing in
the mobile money business doesn’t mean you will enjoy equal success, mostly
because you don’t know what he knows.
4.
Excess cash is an advantage not a disadvantage.
They say profit is an opinion but cash is fact. Anyone who has been in business knows that what is in the profit and loss statement may not reflect what is in the bank account. While the accountants fret about too much cash lying around, because the returns on it are not much, cash on hand allows you flexibility and may be the difference between surviving a crisis – like the covid-19 pandemic, or not. At last count Berkshire Hathaway has $149b in cash and has served as the savior of other less liquid companies during the financial crisis of 2008 and more recently with Covid-19. So actively building cash reserves in the business should not be frowned upon even if the bean counters think otherwise.
5.
The only
way you win is by knowing what you are good at and what you are not good at and
sticking to what you are good at.
Munger and Bufffet always talk about circle of competence and
how important it is to know the boundaries of this circle. As suggested above
to stray out of this circle increases the risk of failure. How many businesses
have come unstuck because following success in one endeavor the promoter thinks
he can replicate the success in another field of business? Munger counsels
concentration of ones efforts for better returns, while diversification seems to
be a hedge against future disaster, it risks pulling you out of your circle of
competence, increasing the chance for loss of capital.
Munger and his partner have been in the business of
investment for more than 100 years between themselves, so when they talk you
listen.
Its fantastic book, more than worth its weight in gold.
The book is available on Amazon.
