2019年7月13日
Warren Buffett's favourite business is a little chocolate maker with an 8000% return
Warren Buffett has invested in Apple, Coca-Cola, Amazon, Bank of America, and other household names. Yet See’s Candies, a California seller of boxed chocolates, is the investment guru’s “dream business.” Buffett has frequently applauded See’s since buying it in 1972. He and his investment partner Charlie Munger have “earned exceptional returns and had a good time,” The so-called Sage of Omaha’s has praised See’s outsized financial returns, modest capital needs, economic moat, quality personnel, and the chocolates themselves.
“We put $US25 million into it and it’s given us over $US2 billion of pretax income, well over $US2 billion,” Buffett said. Selling chocolates f0r cash means the business takes in revenue immediately, and a short production and distribution cycle minimizes the volume of funds tied up in inventory. See’s has only required $US40 million in investment from Berkshire Hathaway to generate upwards of $US2 billion in profits for the conglomerate.
Two of the key competitive advantages of See’s are its famous brand and loyal customer base, which make it easy to charge more and tough for rivals to steal business. See’s also enjoyed a “pervasive favourable reputation with consumers based upon countless pleasant experiences they have had with both product and personnel." See’s products have been sold at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting for years. In fact, attendees consumed more than 13,400 pounds of its products in 2013.
BusBot, the driverless bus being trialled by the NSW government that you hail with your smartphone
It’s unlikely any of the residents of Marion Grove Retirement Village ever dreamed a driverless bus was possible. Now many of them are not only seeing the vehicles at work but are some of the first people in the country to be counted as passengers in a new trial.
Seniors simply hail the so-called BusBot using an app on their smartphone, enter their destination and then get on board. The trial is the product of a partnership between NSW Transport, bus operator Busways, AV technology provider EasyMile and US transport company Via.
“If autonomous vehicles are to reach their full potential for providing low-cost, efficient rides, they need to be shared by multiple passengers,” VIA CEO Daniel Ramot said in a media statement.The technology allows multiple users to share the bus routes, with the bus using algorithms to figure out the most efficient routes. It marks the second phase of a three-location trial in Coffs Harbour, with Harbour Drive connecting the city’s CBD to be the next destination. Each phase involves an increasing degree of complexity to test the technology’s current limits.
Are you too busy working 'in' your business not 'on' your business?
Starting your own business is a whole different ball game. As you’re no longer working for someone else and it’s up to you to execute on your vision, it’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind when you instead need to be thinking large. Here are the main lessons we have discovered from the series so far:
1. Listen to feedback: it’s very easy to get caught up in your own vision and miss something important that only new eyes will catch. Make sure you find that essential balance between listening openly to feedback and staying true to your business purpose.
2. Learn to delegate: “Bringing other people [in] and growing the business meant that I could have more time … to work on the business and be a little bit more strategic about the direction where we’re heading.”
3. Find your competitive advantage: “I’ve got that much broader offerings, so I walk in and I say, I do x, y and z. Whereas a builder will probably just do x.”
4. Be disciplined with your finances: You wouldn’t spend outside your means in your personal finances, and you shouldn’t be doing it when starting a business either. Use business tools, make graphs or do whatever you need to do to keep a regular and detailed eye on your expenditure.
5. Stick to a business plan: Once you start putting your plans into action, you’ll start getting a lot of compliments and ideas from friends, family and other people in your industry. As much as you love doing something, if you’re not getting the return on it and it’s taking you away from your other business, it’s actually costing you money
6. Be driven by more than money: I think in business you’ve got to be fascinated, you’ve got to be interested in the business. It’s that sort of passion and sort of drive to respond to what’s happening around you that I guess that’s helped us to develop a new business.
网友评论