巴菲特致股东的信（2003年）⑥伯克希尔治理

Berkshire Governance

伯克希尔治理

True independence – meaning the willingness to challenge a forceful CEO when something is wrong or foolish – is an enormously valuable trait in a director. It is also rare. The place to look for it is among high-grade people whose interests are in line with those of rank-and-file shareholders – and are in line in a very big way.

真正的独立，代表的是当企业发生错误或是愚昧的事情时，董事有勇于挑战强势总裁的勇气，这是担任董事必须具备最重要的特质之一。可惜这种特质极其罕见，要找到这种特质必须从品格高尚且利益着眼点与一般股东一致的人士，一定要相当一致的才行。

We’ve made that search at Berkshire. We now have eleven directors and each of them, combined with members of their families, owns more than $4 million of Berkshire stock. Moreover, all have held major stakes in Berkshire for many years. In the case of six of the eleven, family ownership amounts to at least hundreds of millions and dates back at least three decades. All eleven directors purchased their holdings in the market just as you did; we’ve never passed out options or restricted shares. Charlie and I love such honest-to-God ownership. After all, who ever washes a rental car?

在伯克希尔我们试着从内部寻找这类的人选，我们现在拥有十一位董事，而他们每一位，包含其家族成员在内，加起来总共持有价值超过 400 万美元的伯克希尔股票，而且每位持股的时间都相当长，其中六位，其家族持股价值都超过数千万美元，持有时间甚至长达 30 年以上，同时所有董事的持股跟其它股东一样都是从公开市场用钱买来的，我们从来没有发放过股票期权或是特别股，查理跟我喜欢这种俯仰无愧的持股方式，毕竟没有人会喜欢去洗外面租来的车。

In addition, director fees at Berkshire are nominal (as my son, Howard, periodically reminds me). Thus, the upside from Berkshire for all eleven is proportionately the same as the upside for any Berkshire shareholder. And it always will be.

此外，伯克希尔董事酬劳平平(我儿子 Howard 就时常提醒我这件事)，换句话说，伯克希尔全体董事的利益按比例与其它任何一位伯克希尔股东完全一致，一直以来皆是如此。

The downside for Berkshire directors is actually worse than yours because we carry no directors and officers liability insurance. Therefore, if something really catastrophic happens on our directors’ watch, they are exposed to losses that will far exceed yours.

不过伯克希尔董事们的不利的一面实际上远高于各位股东，因为我们没有投保任何的董事高管责任险，因此如果有任何可能的灾难发生在董事们身上，他们面临的损失将远高于各位。

The bottom line for our directors: You win, they win big; you lose, they lose big. Our approach might be called owner-capitalism. We know of no better way to engender true independence. (This structure does not guarantee perfect behavior, however: I’ve sat on boards of companies in which Berkshire had huge stakes and remained silent as questionable proposals were rubber-stamped.)

我们董事们的最后底线是，如果你们赢，他们就大赢，如果你们输，他们就大输，我们的方式或许可以被称之为所有者资本主义，我们不知道有什么方法可以维持真正的独立性，(虽然这样的安排无法保证一定会有完美的结局，但这比起我个人在伯克希尔拥有大量股份的公司董事会担任董事，当大多数有疑问的提案提出时，董事会往往只能扮演橡皮图章的角色，要好的太多了)。

In addition to being independent, directors should have business savvy, a shareholder orientation and a genuine interest in the company. The rarest of these qualities is business savvy – and if it is lacking, the other two are of little help. Many people who are smart, articulate and admired have no real understanding of business. That’s no sin; they may shine elsewhere. But they don’t belong on corporate boards. Similarly, I would be useless on a medical or scientific board (though I would likely be welcomed by a chairman who wanted to run things his way). My name would dress up the list of directors, but I wouldn’t know enough to critically evaluate proposals. Moreover, to cloak my ignorance, I would keep my mouth shut (if you can imagine that). In effect, I could be replaced, without loss, by a potted plant.

除了要维持独立性，董事们也必须具备丰富的商业经验、以股东利益为导向再加上在这家公司拥有真正的利益，在这三样条件中，第一项尤为难得，如果缺乏这一项，其它两项的作用就不大，社会上有许多聪明、有思想且受人景仰的知名人物，但他们对企业却没有充足的了解，这并不是他们的错，或许他们可以在别的领域发光发亮，但他们并不适合待在企业的董事会内，就像我本人也不适合待在医学或科学的委员会一样(虽然我可能也会是一些想要为所欲为的主席所欢迎的对象)，我个人的名声或许可以让董事会的组成更添光彩，但我却相当清楚自己没有足够的能力在这类的董事会上评论所提方案的可行性，更有甚者，为了要掩饰个人的无知，我可能会选择紧闭双唇(大家可以想象哪种景况)，事实上，如果我的位置可以由一个花盆来取代可能也无伤大雅。

Last year, as we moved to change our board, I asked for self-nominations from shareholders who believed they had the requisite qualities to be a Berkshire director. Despite the lack of either liability insurance or meaningful compensation, we received more than twenty applications. Most were good, coming from owner-oriented individuals having family holdings of Berkshire worth well over $1 million. After considering them, Charlie and I – with the concurrence of our incumbent directors – asked four shareholders who did not nominate themselves to join the board: David Gottesman, Charlotte Guyman, Don Keough and Tom Murphy. These four people are all friends of mine, and I know their strengths well. They bring an extraordinary amount of business talent to Berkshire’s board.

去年，我们着手调整董事会组织，我公开征求自认符合各项条件的股东自告奋勇担任伯克希尔董事，尽管没有董事责任险或者高额的董事回报，我们还是接到超过 20 件以上的申请，大部分申请者的条件都相当不错，许多以股东利益为导向的个人连同家族持股都超过百万美元，但在考量这些报名者后，查理跟我，在其它现任董事们的同意之下，我们还是邀请其它四位未提名自己担任董事的人士加入董事会，他们分别是 DavidGottesman(第一曼哈顿 CEO)、CharlotteGuyman(微软总经理)、DonKeough(可口可乐前总裁)以及汤姆.墨菲，这四位都是我个人的好朋友，我很了解他们的能力，他们也会为伯克希尔董事会增添了不少商业色彩。

The primary job of our directors is to select my successor, either upon my death or disability, or when I begin to lose my marbles. (David Ogilvy had it right when he said: “Develop your eccentricities when young. That way, when you get older, people won’t think you are going gaga.” Charlie’s family and mine feel that we overreacted to David’s advice.)

董事会的主要责任就是选任未来接替我的人选，不管是在我死亡、失去能力或理智之后，(奥美广告创办人DavidOgilvy 曾说，在年轻时应该培养怪僻，这样等你老了之后，就没有人会认为你是怪物)，查理跟我本人的家族都觉得我们俩对于 Ogilvy 的建议反应过度。

At our directors’ meetings we cover the usual run of housekeeping matters. But the real discussion – both with me in the room and absent – centers on the strengths and weaknesses of the four internal candidates to replace me.

在董事会开会时，我们除了进行例行的公式之外，真正实质的讨论(不论我有没有出席)，主要的议题就是围绕在内部可能接替我四位人选各自的优缺点。

Our board knows that the ultimate scorecard on its performance will be determined by the record of my successor. He or she will need to maintain Berkshire’s culture, allocate capital and keep a group of America’s best managers happy in their jobs. This isn’t the toughest task in the world – the train is already moving at a good clip down the track – and I’m totally comfortable about it being done well by any of the four candidates we have identified. I have more than 99% of my net worth in Berkshire and will be happy to have my wife or foundation (depending on the order in which she and I die) continue this concentration.

我们的董事会相当了解，其功过将由其选定接任我的继承者实际的成绩来论定，他或是她必须要能够维持伯克希尔的企业文化、资本配置同时让这群全美最优秀的经理人乐在各位的岗位上，这绝非世界上最困难的任务，因为我们的事业早已步入正轨，而我个人对于目前四位可能接替我的人选都感到相当放心，目前我个人将超过99%的身家都摆在伯克希尔之上，而往后我也很乐见我太太或基金会(这取决于我跟她谁先死)将财产继续集中在伯克希尔。