The transcript is a conversation between Charlie Munger and Anderson Fuller. Fuller, from Davenport, Nova Scotia, Canada, appreciates the insights provided by Munger and Berkshire Hathaway into the management's emphasis and successful use of properly aligned incentives. He views owning and leading a business as having two central benefits: direct benefits as the company goes through your equity, and having the autonomy to make decisions. He also notes that incentives for employees are easier to understand than those for managers.
Fuller expresses his hope for managers who love their business but don't like the constraints of a public company. He shares his experience of having had five bosses in his life, and he liked all of them, but two were huge factors making his life better. He loves working for himself and believes that running a company is the closest thing to owning your own.
He mentions that working for a big company like Berkshire Hathaway gives him freedom from having to court analysts who he might have contempt for in many cases, and from spending time with banks, getting money, especially in tough times. He believes that freedom could be meaningful and that maybe it would be better if he owned the whole place himself.
However, he acknowledges that this might not be achievable unless he sells to Berkshire, especially if he has a family business where people want to go in different directions. He believes there are still possibilities, but it's not for everyone.
Charlie Munger responds that they have a pretty good one, and that most of the people who are going to end up the way they did almost already know how to do it. He also mentions that the most important phase that they may have made was National Endowment for Democracy in Now because specifically what it led to, and Jack Ringwald controlled T Company and he knew him and liked him. He tells a story about how Jack was irritated when the Nebraska Department of Insurance or somebody would come around and give him theories about why it was a pain in the neck to control T Company. He told Charlie Hyder next time Jack is in that mood where he's ready to sell just because he's tired of fooling around with all these guys, be sure and find him. And so Charlie called him one day, and he says Jack is heated, I said bring him over. They made a deal, he was happy after they made the deal, and Fuller was happy after they made the deal.
1. The speaker's name is Anderson Fuller and he is from Davenport, Nova Scotia, Canada.
2. Fuller expresses gratitude towards the interlocutors for their insights into their management style and successful use of properly aligned incentives.
3. Fuller believes that owning and leading a business has two central benefits: fit and autonomy.
4. Fuller believes that incentives for employees are a bit easier to understand and offer benefits, fair pay, and create a strong culture.
5. Fuller discusses the problem of managers who like their business but don't like the public company aspects.
6. Fuller shares his personal experiences working for different companies and managers.
7. Fuller expresses his preference for working for himself over working for a large company.
8. Fuller discusses the freedom and flexibility of working for oneself or running a company, such as at Berkshire Hathaway.
9. Fuller mentions that he would not want to retire at 65 if he owned a public company worth billions and Berkshire Hathaway wanted to buy it.
10. Fuller shares his personal experience of making a deal with Jack Ringwald, who controlled the T Company.
11. Fuller expresses that the fun of playing the game, the opponents, and all kinds of things make the process exciting and unpredictable.