巴菲特致股东的信（2021年）⑧一个了不起的人和一门了不起的生意

A Wonderful Man and a Wonderful Business

一个了不起的人和一门了不起的生意

Last year, Paul Andrews died. Paul was the founder and CEO of TTI, a Fort Worth-based subsidiary of Berkshire. Throughout his life – in both his business and his personal pursuits – Paul quietly displayed all the qualities that Charlie and I admire. His story should be told.

去年，保罗·安德鲁斯 (Paul Andrews) 去世了。保罗是TTI的创始人兼CEO，这是一家总部位于沃斯堡 (Fort Worth) 的伯克希尔子公司。纵观他的一生——无论是在商业上还是个人追求中——保罗总是默默地展现着查理和我所钦佩的一切品质。他的故事值得讲述。

In 1971, Paul was working as a purchasing agent for General Dynamics when the roof fell in. After losing a huge defense contract, the company fired thousands of employees, including Paul.

1971年，当天塌下来的时候，保罗正在通用动力公司 (General Dynamics) 担任采购代理。公司在失去一份重大国防合同后，裁掉了数千名员工，保罗也在其中。

With his first child due soon, Paul decided to bet on himself, using $500 of his savings to found Tex-Tronics (later renamed TTI). The company set itself up to distribute small electronic components, and first-year sales totaled $112,000. Today, TTI markets more than one million different items with annual volume of $7.7 billion.

第一个孩子即将出生的保罗决定赌上一把，用自己仅有的500美元积蓄创立了Tex-Tronics公司（后更名为TTI）。公司创立之初从事小型电子元器件的分销，第一年销售额为112,000美元。如今，TTI销售超过100万种产品，年销售额高达77亿美元。

But back to 2006: Paul, at 63, then found himself happy with his family, his job, and his associates. But he had one nagging worry, heightened because he had recently witnessed a friend’s early death and the disastrous results that followed for that man’s family and business. What, Paul asked himself in 2006, would happen to the many people depending on him if he should unexpectedly die?

让时间回到2006年。63岁的保罗，与家人、工作和同事都相处愉快。但他有一个挥之不去的隐忧——因为他最近亲眼目睹了一位朋友的早逝以及由此给那位朋友的家庭和生意带来的灾难性后果，这种隐忧更加强烈了。2006年，保罗不禁自问：如果自己意外去世，那些依靠他的人会怎样？

For a year, Paul wrestled with his options. Sell to a competitor? From a strictly economic viewpoint, that course made the most sense. After all, competitors could envision lucrative “synergies” – savings that would be achieved as the acquiror slashed duplicated functions at TTI.

整整一年，保罗都在为各种选择而纠结。卖给竞争对手？从严格的经济角度看，这条路最划算。毕竟，竞争对手能够预见丰厚的"协同效应"——收购方砍掉TTI中重复的职能部门所节省的成本。

But . . . Such a purchaser would most certainly also retain its CFO, its legal counsel, its HR unit. Their TTI counterparts would therefore be sent packing. And ugh! If a new distribution center were to be needed, the acquirer’s home city would certainly be favored over Fort Worth.

但是……这样的买家几乎必然会保留自己的CFO、法律顾问和HR部门。TTI的对应人员因此只能卷铺盖走人。更糟的是，如果需要新建一个配送中心，收购方的总部城市肯定会被优先考虑，而不是沃斯堡。

Whatever the financial benefits, Paul quickly concluded that selling to a competitor was not for him. He next considered seeking a financial buyer, a species once labeled – aptly so – a leveraged buyout firm. Paul knew, however, that such a purchaser would be focused on an “exit strategy.” And who could know what that would be? Brooding over it all, Paul found himself having no interest in handing his 35-year-old creation over to a reseller.

不管财务上有多划算，保罗很快就下了结论：卖给竞争对手不是他要走的路。接着他考虑找一个财务买家——这类机构曾被恰如其分地称为杠杆收购公司。但保罗知道，这种买家的焦点在于"退出策略"。而谁知道最终会怎样退出？反复权衡之后，保罗发现自己完全没有兴趣把自己35年心血浇灌的企业交给一个转手商。

When Paul met me, he explained why he had eliminated these two alternatives as buyers. He then summed up his dilemma by saying – in far more tactful phrasing than this – “After a year of pondering the alternatives, I want to sell to Berkshire because you are the only guy left.” So, I made an offer and Paul said “Yes.” One meeting; one lunch; one deal.

当保罗来见我时，他解释了为什么排除了上述两类买家。然后，他用比我转述的要委婉得多的措辞总结了自己的困境——"思考了一整年的各种选择之后，我想卖给伯克希尔，因为你是剩下的唯一买家了。"于是，我报了一个价，保罗说"好的"。一次会面，一顿午餐，一笔交易。

To say we both lived happily ever after is an understatement. When Berkshire purchased TTI, the company employed 2,387. Now the number is 8,043. A large percentage of that growth took place in Fort Worth and environs. Earnings have increased 673%.

说我俩从此过上了幸福的生活，都有点轻描淡写了。伯克希尔收购TTI时，公司有2,387名员工。现在这个数字是8,043。新增员工中的很大一部分就在沃斯堡及其周边。公司利润增长了673%。

Annually, I would call Paul and tell him his salary should be substantially increased. Annually, he would tell me, “We can talk about that next year, Warren; I’m too busy now.”

每年，我都会给保罗打电话，告诉他应该大幅加薪。每年，他都会回我："沃伦，这事明年再说吧，我现在太忙了。"

When Greg Abel and I attended Paul’s memorial service, we met children, grandchildren, long-time associates (including TTI’s first employee) and John Roach, the former CEO of a Fort Worth company Berkshire had purchased in 2000. John had steered his friend Paul to Omaha, instinctively knowing we would be a match.

当格雷格·阿贝尔和我参加保罗的追悼会时，我们见到了他的孩子、孙辈、多年的老同事（包括TTI的第一名员工），以及约翰·罗奇 (John Roach)——伯克希尔2000年收购的一家沃斯堡公司的前CEO。约翰当年凭直觉把他的朋友保罗引荐到了奥马哈，因为他知道我们会很合拍。

At the service, Greg and I heard about the multitudes of people and organizations that Paul had silently supported. The breadth of his generosity was extraordinary – geared always to improving the lives of others, particularly those in Fort Worth.

在追悼会上，格雷格和我听到了保罗默默帮助过的无数个人和机构。他的慷慨之广令人叹为观止——始终致力于改善他人的生活，尤其是沃斯堡的人们。

In all ways, Paul was a class act.

从各方面来看，保罗都是一等一的人物。

Good luck – occasionally extraordinary luck – has played its part at Berkshire. If Paul and I had not enjoyed a mutual friend – John Roach – TTI would not have found its home with us. But that ample serving of luck was only the beginning. TTI was soon to lead Berkshire to its most important acquisition.

幸运——有时是非同寻常的幸运——在伯克希尔的发展中扮演了重要角色。如果保罗和我没有一个共同的朋友——约翰·罗奇——TTI就不会找到伯克希尔这个归宿。但这份丰厚的幸运大餐仅仅是个开始。TTI很快就引领伯克希尔完成了最重要的一笔收购。

Every fall, Berkshire directors gather for a presentation by a few of our executives. We sometimes choose the site based upon the location of a recent acquisition, by that means allowing directors to meet the new subsidiary’s CEO and learn more about the acquiree’s activities.

每年秋天，伯克希尔的董事们都会聚在一起，听几位高管做汇报。我们有时会把地点选在新近收购的企业所在地，这样董事们就能与新子公司的CEO见面，更深入地了解被收购企业的业务。

In the fall of 2009, we consequently selected Fort Worth so that we could visit TTI. At that time, BNSF, which also had Fort Worth as its hometown, was the third-largest holding among our marketable equities. Despite that large stake, I had never visited the railroad’s headquarters.

2009年秋天，我们因此选了沃斯堡，以便参观TTI。当时，同样把总部设在沃斯堡的BNSF是我们流通股持仓中的第三大重仓股。尽管持仓规模很大，我却从未去过这家铁路公司的总部。

Deb Bosanek, my assistant, scheduled our board’s opening dinner for October 22. Meanwhile, I arranged to arrive earlier that day to meet with Matt Rose, CEO of BNSF, whose accomplishments I had long admired. When I made the date, I had no idea that our get-together would coincide with BNSF’s third-quarter earnings report, which was released late on the 22nd.

我的助理黛布·博萨内克 (Deb Bosanek) 把董事会的开幕晚宴安排在了10月22日。与此同时，我安排当天提前抵达，去会见BNSF的CEO马特·罗斯 (Matt Rose)，我对他的成就仰慕已久。定这个日子的时候，我完全不知道我们的会面恰好赶上BNSF三季度业绩发布——报告在22日晚间公布。

The market reacted badly to the railroad’s results. The Great Recession was in full force in the third quarter, and BNSF’s earnings reflected that slump. The economic outlook was also bleak, and Wall Street wasn’t feeling friendly to railroads – or much else.

市场对铁路公司的业绩反应很差。大衰退在第三季度全面肆虐，BNSF的收益也反映了这种低迷。经济前景一片灰暗，华尔街对铁路行业——以及其他大多数行业——都不待见。

On the following day, I again got together with Matt and suggested that Berkshire would offer the railroad a better long-term home than it could expect as a public company. I also told him the maximum price that Berkshire would pay.

第二天，我再次和马特碰面，提出伯克希尔能为这家铁路公司提供一个比上市公司更好的长期归宿。我同时告诉了他伯克希尔愿意支付的最高价格。

Matt relayed the offer to his directors and advisors. Eleven busy days later, Berkshire and BNSF announced a firm deal. And here I’ll venture a rare prediction: BNSF will be a key asset for Berkshire and our country a century from now.

马特把报价转达给了他的董事会和顾问。忙碌了十一天之后，伯克希尔和BNSF共同宣布了一项确定的交易。在此，我斗胆做一个难得的预测：从现在起的一百年后，BNSF仍将是伯克希尔和我们国家的核心资产。

The BNSF acquisition would never have happened if Paul Andrews hadn’t sized up Berkshire as the right home for TTI.

如果不是保罗·安德鲁斯当初认定伯克希尔是TTI的理想归宿，收购BNSF的故事根本不会发生。