Як уникнути заборгованості: Уоррен Баффет - фінансове майбутнє американської молоді (1999)
Fortune Magazine - Warren Buffett is famous for its investment rules When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is usually the company's reputation remains intact, you should invest in a business that even a fool can run, because someday a fool will And perhaps most famously, never invest in a business you can not understand.
So when a friend of Buffett and his longtime partner in Berkshire Hathaway BRKB, Charlie Munger, suggested early last year that they invest in BYD, an obscure Chinese battery, mobile phone and electric car company we could have predicted Buffett quote rule # 3 above is, after all, a man who flees the booming technology industry in the United States during the 1990s.
But Buffett, who is 78, was intrigued by Munger description of the entrepreneur behind BYD, a man named Wang Chuan-Fu, he had met through a mutual friend This guy, Munger says Fortune's a combination of Thomas Edison and Jack Welch - something like Edison in solving technical problems, and something like Welch to do what to do, I've never seen anything like that.
Coming from Munger, it meant a lot Munger, Vice President 85 years old Berkshire Hathaway, which is a grumpy frowns on most investment ideas When I called Charlie with an idea, Buffett said, and he said, this is really a stupid idea, it means that we must put 100 of our net worth in this case it says is the most stupid thing I've ever heard speak, then you should put 50 your net worth in only if, he says, I'll have you committed, does that mean he doesn t really like the idea.
This time Buffett asked another trusted partner, David Sokol, chairman of a utility company owned by Berkshire called MidAmerican Energy to visit China and closer to BYD.
Last autumn Berkshire Hathaway purchased 10 of BYD for $ 230 million The agreement, which is awaiting final approval from the Chinese government, didn t get notices when it was announced in late September, as markets global financial flickered over the abyss But Buffett and Munger and Sokol think it is a very big effect They think BYD has a chance to become the largest automaker in the world, primarily by selling electric cars and an leader in the solar energy industry growth.
Wang Chuan-Fu started BYD letters are the initials of the Chinese name of the company in 1995 in Shenzhen, China A chemist and government researcher, Wang raised some 300,000 parents, leased about 2,000 square meters of space and began to manufacture rechargeable batteries to compete with imports from Sony and Sanyo to 2000 BYD had become one of the largest mobile phone battery manufacturers in the world the company has continued to design and manufacture telephone handsets Mobile and parts for Motorola MOT Fortune 500 NOK Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung.
Wang entered the automotive sector in 2003 by buying a car company owned by the Chinese state was all but defunct he knew very little about making cars, but have proven to be a quick study In October a BYD sedan called the F3 became the best-selling sedan in China, ahead of well-known brands such as the Volkswagen Jetta and Toyota Corolla TM.
BYD has also started selling a plug-in electric car with a backup gasoline engine, a move highlighting GM, Nissan, and plug-in Toyota BYD, called the F3DM dual-mode, goes further on one charge - 62 miles - other electric vehicles and sells about 22,000, less than the Prius plug-in and well-hyped Chevy Volt is expected to cost when they hit the market at the end of 2010 more simply, little known upstart sped ahead of its much larger rivals in the race to build an affordable electric car today, BYD employs 130,000 people in 11 factories, eight in China and one in India, Hungary and Romania.
Its US operations are small - about 20 people working in a sales and marketing outpost in Elk Grove Village, Illinois near Motorola, and another 20 or so work in San Francisco next Apple BYD made about 80 of Motorola RAZR handsets, as well as batteries for iPod and iPhone and cheap computers, including the model distributed by One Laptop per nonprofit child based in Cambridge, mass Nicholas turnover Negroponte, who have increased about 45 years during the last five years, reached 4 billion in 2008.
By acquiring a stake in BYD, Buffett broke a couple of his own rules, I do not know a thing about cellphones or batteries, he admits, and I do not know how cars work But, he adds, Charlie Munger and Dave Sokol are smart guys, and they understand it and there is no doubt that it's been done since 1995 at BYD is extraordinary.
One thing reassured Berkshire Hathaway first tried to buy 25 of BYD, but Wang refused the offer he wanted to be in business with Buffett - to improve its brand and open doors in the United States, it is said it - but it would not let go more than 10 shares of BYD This was a man who wanted to sell his business, Buffett said that was a good sign.
We are lost in Shenzhen, I have flown 8,000 miles to meet Wang, and on the way to the interview, my driver is on the side of a dusty road he's yelling in Cantonese into his phone and frantically sketching Chinese characters on the touch screen GPS Navigator the PR woman next to me was worried ISN the GPS t work, she says too many new roads.
I can not blame the driver or GPS - which, I think, was probably made close because Shenzhen is the manufacturing hub of the global electronics industry, instead of your mobile phone, camera digital camera and a laptop probably came from just in front of a river Hong Kong, Shenzhen is the largest and fastest growing city in the world that most Americans can not find on a map is as the Chinese city more like America, because people who live here are from elsewhere in search of a better life.
When Deng Xiaoping designated Shenzhen as the first special economic zone of China in 1980, inviting capitalism to take root, it was a fishing village; today, it is a sprawling megalopolis from 12 million to 14 million people, mostly migrant workers who work hard in large factories such as those managed by BYD and earn about 1,300 renminbi, or 190 per month.
When we find BYD new headquarters - a silver office building that would not look his place in Silicon Valley - I am not given a tour of the company museum, which celebrates the products and the steps the brief history company, then escorted into a conference room where apples plates, bananas and cherry tomatoes are spread on a Wang table takes a seat in front of me - he is 43, a smallish man with black hair and glasses - and starts, an interpreter, to tell me his story.
He began with a modest goal BYD aboard the Japanese battery industry dominated by imports from Japan was very expensive batteries, Wang said that there were import duties, and delivery were he studied long Sony and Sanyo patents and dismantled batteries to understand how they were made, a process that involved a lot of trial and error, he said later Sony and Sanyo BYD sued unsuccessfully for violating their patents.
BYD breakthrough came when Wang decided to replace migrant workers for machines up robotic arm used on Japanese assembly lines, which cost 100,000 or more each, BYD actually reduces costs by hiring hundreds, then thousands of people.
When I visited the BYD factory, I was shocked, said Daniel Kim, technology analyst at Merrill Lynch based in Hong Kong, which was the fully automated production lines in Japan and Korea It Sá model business completely different from quality control, BYD broke all the fundamental tasks in jobs and applied strict testing protocols in 2002, BYD became one of the four largest manufacturers worldwide - and the largest Chinese manufacturer - in each of the three rechargeable battery technology Li-Ion, NiCd and NiMH, according to a Harvard business School case study of the company and BYD Wang stressed that, unlike Sony and Sanyo, has never faced a recall its batteries.
Deployment of armed workers in BYD is an officers managers and engineers who invent and body product design Today, the company employs about 10 000 engineers graduate business training programs - some 40 of those who enter either quit or are returned - and 7,000 new college graduates are trained Wang said that engineers come from China's top schools, they are on the summit, he said that they are very hard working and they can rival BYD whole world can afford to hire a lot of them because their salaries are only about 600 to 700 per month; they also get subsidized housing in residential buildings owned by the company and low cost meals in canteens BYD They're essentially breathing, eating, thinking and working in the company on July 24, said a leader US who studied BYD.
Wang usually works until 11 pm or midnight, five or six days a week in China, people of my generation put work and life first second, said the CEO, whose wife takes responsibility for raise their two children.
This advantage of human resources is the most important part of the strategy of BYD, Wang said that its engineers are investigating a wide range of technologies, automotive air conditioning systems that can run on battery design streetlights to energy solar Unlike most automakers, BYD manufactures almost all of its cars by itself - not just the engines and body, but the air conditioning, lights, seatbelts, airbags, and electronic It is difficult for others to competition, Wang said that if we put our people in Japan or the United States, we could not afford to do anything like that.
Wang grew up in extreme poverty of his parents, farmers, died before his high school entrance, and he was raised by a brother and sister The train ride from the village where he grew up in South Central Industrial University of Technology, where he earned his degree in chemistry, took him by Yellow Mountain, a popular destination for hikers and tourists, but never visited there, I did not go then because we had not money, he said I do not go now because we have little time.
Regarding the accumulation of wealth that I'm not interested, he says he doesn certainly not live a luxurious lifestyle, he was paid about 265 000 in 2008, and he lives in a complex apartments owned by BYD with other engineers His only indulgences are a Mercedes and a Lexus, and have a practical purpose, it takes their engines apart to see how they work on a trip to the United States, he tried a after dismantling the seat of a Toyota owned by Fred Ni, a leader who drove him around Shortly after BYD became public, Wang made something extraordinary, it took about 15 of its stake in BYD and distributed shares about 20 other executives and the company's engineers, it still has about 28 shares, worth about 1 billion euros.
The company itself is frugal Until recently, executives always flew coach said he was shocked when he learned that Ford, which lost billions last year, organized a gala hotel George V at the Paris motor show, however, the last time BYD executives visited the auto show in Detroit, they rented a suburban house to save the cost of the hotel rooms.
This attention to costs is one reason that BYD made money yet although it has increased in new business each business unit BYD - battery, mobile phone components and automobiles - was profitable in 2008, although on a small scale in all, net profit of about 187 million BYD, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock Exchange, has a market value of about 3 $ 8 billion which is less than Ford F Fortune early April 500 7 billion, but General Motors GM Fortune 500 March 1 bln.
Towards the end of our conversation, I asked Wang on behalf of the company It's been reported that BYD stands for build your dreams, but he said he added that the motto of the company that later Others say Motorola, Apple and Berkshire Hathaway have made their way in Shenzhen, the name took another sense Bring your money.
When David Sokol toured BYD's operations last summer, Wang took him to a battery factory and explained that BYD wants to make its batteries 100 recyclable To this end, the company has developed a non-toxic liquid electrolyte To mark point, Wang poured battery liquid in a drinking glass and has good taste doesn t, he said, making a face and offering a sip of Sokol.
Sokol politely declined but received the message His goal was that if we help solve environmental problems, we can create new environmental problems does our technology, says Sokol.
Sokol, author of a slim volume on the management principles called Pleased, but not satisfied Wang gauged during this visit and decided it was said Executive Sokol exceptionally Purposeful, Many good contractors can go from zero to two million sales and it s two hundred people over 100 000 people Few people can do when he returned to the United States Sokol said Buffett incredible this guy you want to meet him.
Even before visiting BYD, Sokol believed in electric cars of its people to MidAmerican studied clean technologies, such as batteries and wind energy for years because of the threat of climate change in one way or another Sokol said, energy companies will have to produce more energy while emitting less carbon dioxide.
Electric cars are a response they produce fewer emissions of greenhouse gases than cars that burn gasoline, and they fuel costs, even when oil is cheap This is because the electric motors are more efficient than internal combustion engines, and because energy production on a large scale in coal plants or nuclear is less wasteful than doing it on a small scale by burning gasoline in a motor internal combustion.
The figures look like this Suppose you drive 12,000 miles a year, the cost of one gallon 2 gas, and electricity is priced at $ 12 per kilowatt, what most Americans pay a gasoline car that gets 20 miles the gallon - say, a Chevy Impala or a BMW X3 - will have annual fuel costs by 1200 and generate about 6 6 tons of carbon dioxide equip cars with electric motors and fuel costs drop to 400 per year emissions are reduced to about 1 to 5 tons.
The big problem is that they are expensive to manufacture, and the biggest cost is the battery manufacturing safe, reliable battery, durable, and fast charging for a car is a complex and expensive undertaking BYD claims to have achieved a breakthrough with its lithium ion ferrous phosphate technology, but nobody can be sure it will work as promised.
Skeptics say that BYD battery can not be both more powerful and less expensive than those made by competitors, and the US Department of Energy has purchased a F3DM to take the battery apart Chitra Gopal, an analyst at Nomura Securities in Singapore that closely follows the company, said BYD is betting on a completely new technology, and the ability to produce on the scale and at low cost has not been proven William Moore, publisher and editor EV World, an electric car site says, they need to persuade people that they are selling a reliable, durable, automotive quality.
Even BYD admirers say the fit and finish of company cars severly lacking Their cars are far behind Toyota, of course, Sokol admits BYD currently exports gasoline cars in Africa, South America and the Middle East, but they compete on price, not quality.
first plug-in hybrid, called a car BYD dual-mode, is designed to run primarily on electricity, with a combustion engine for backup Two all-electric cars - E3 and E6 - will follow later this year the two will be sold initially in China, mainly to users of the fleet of government, post office, public services and taxi companies that will build all of the central fast charging facilities in Europe, with its high prices gas is the most promising export market for electric cars BYD Wang signed an agreement last year with AutoBinck, a group of Dutch dealers to distribute its cars in the Netherlands and five European countries Eastern.
The company has not yet decided whether it will enter the US market, where the economy of electric cars are not as convincing Sokol, who now sits on the board of BYD, said BYD could instead become a provider batteries to global automakers Some Americans, however, are eager to do business with BYD on the day after the visit of Fortune BYD, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski came to test drive an electric car and push the company to import through the port Portland Meanwhile, BYD researchers are at their next big idea, a product they call a house Clean power Solution is basically a set of solar panels on the roof with integrated battery to power storage for use when the sun is not all be designed and manufactured by BYD sun is an inexhaustible source of energy, said Wang With better technology, we can reduce costs.
Wang also focused on building a strong management team to drive the company forward The good news is, it's old, 42 years old Sokol said the bad news is that it is clearly the brains behind the organization, and the reader, it must develop a faster team, but I think he knows that last winter it was the turn of Wang Sokol lead a tour of his home country, they started in Detroit, where car BYD generated buzz at the north American Auto Show, and wound on the coast West, where Wang met for the first time with Charlie Munger between, they stopped in Omaha.
How BYD get so far Warren Buffett asked Wang, speaking through a translator Our society is based on technological expertise, Wang replied Wary as always a set of technology, Buffett asked how BYD would support his lead us It never, ever rest, said Wang.
Buffett can not understand batteries or cars, or Mandarin for that unit of matter, however, is something that needs no translation.
Why Warren Buffett invests in the electric car company BYD April, warren, buffett, invest.