Great Businesses According to Buffett

I finished digesting the latest Berkshire Hathaway 2007 letter to shareholders today. I found the most interesting part of this year’s letter was Warren Buffett’s discussion of what kinds of businesses turn him on.

The companies that he and Charlie Munger look for are:

1. Understandable
2. Businesses with favorable long-term economics
3. Run by trustworthy management
4. Selling at sensible prices

Mr. Buffett once again reiterates that “a truly great business must have an enduring ‘moat’ that protects excellent returns on invested capital.” Fat Pitch Financials has been all about finding companies with wide moats ever since I first set up this blog in 2004. Given my economics background, I find Buffett’s arguement for the need for wide moats compelling. He argues that companies that lack a barrier to competition will succumb to the competitive forces of a capitalist market that tend to drive profits to zero. In this year’s letter, Buffett provides the example of GEICO’s and Costco’s low-cost production and Coca-Cola’s (KO) and Gillette’s world-wide brand as formidable barriers that are essential for maintaining enduring competitive advantages. Other durable competitive advantages include legal protections, high switching costs, the network effect and toll bridges. I discussed these barriers to entry in my review of Ten Ways to build Moats to hold Back Competition. The key is that these moats need to be “enduring” in order to avoid the creative destruction of capitalism. Companies in industries prone to rapid and continuous change are to be avoided, since it is unlikely their moats will be enduring. Start by finding out if it’s even possible for you to rank in your target city by doing a little Google searching of your own. In some cases, using non-city modifier terms might extend the search area and bring up a result for your listing, but this is far from the best solution. Search your key terms with the target city modifier and investigate the listings that appear in the Google maps pack. Does the provided local cluster show up near your business or further into the city? Are any of the other listings that appear in the maps located outside of the city, showing non-city addresses? If these factors are true, there is a chance that you can get results targeting this location. If all of the listings appearing in search are located within the city with city addresses, you need a new listing with a new address in that city in order to stand a chance of ranking there. There are a few other things to consider when ranking for a city where you don’t have an address. For instance, specialization can help you to narrow down some of your competition or increase the service area radius in Google search for your key terms. Imagine you have a sore tooth and need a dentist. You’ll look for one in your city that accepts your insurance and most likely that will be the end of that. Now imagine you need a root canal or extraction. Now you might find yourself less concerned with the distance and more concerned with finding a specialist who can provide the service you need. If you’re thinking of trying to rank outside of your city, remember the golden rule: your services have to be worth the extended travel for your clients. In some cases, you can also try investing in Google Ads in order to pop up in the maps pack for your keywords in your target city. This has its own pros and cons, including putting your ad marked listing in a separate ‘3 pack’ that appears above the normal maps listings. In short, your best option is to focus on organic ranking factors and providing a quality, specialized service. You can find this contact form Troubleshooting GMB Rankings.

In the past, Mr. Buffett often talked about return on equity, but many had assumed he actually meant returns on invested capital. This assumption was right since in this letter Mr. Buffett explicitly mentions returns on invested capital (ROIC). I think this is the first letter Warren Buffett has been so explicit about the importance on returns on invested capital. He actually also notes the importance of looking at a business’s returns on incremental capital invested when he discusses See’s Candy. Shai Dardasti examined Warren Buffett’s discussion regarding See’s Candy in a recent blog post that I highly recommend. Buffett uses the example of a successfully growing medical practice led by a premier surgeon, but unlikely to be as successful if this leading surgeon leaves. To know more about medical bills attorney in Knoxville visit us here. However, the well know Mayo Clinic is likely to endure regardless of who is running it. This reminder makes me a bit nervous about my investment in Western Sizzlin (WEST), because I think Sardar Biglari is likely critical for that company to produce great returns. Of course, for many years it could be said that Warren Buffett was required to produce great results at Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A).

While Buffett says it is important to have trustworthy management, he also notes that if you restrict your investments to companies with durable competitive advantages that this “eliminates the business[es] whose success depends on having a great manager.” Invest in companies that can be run by an idiot because often one eventually will. Buffett reminds us in his letter that a great business should not require a superstar to produce great results, so if you want to market a business online, having the right resource for this is important.

Finally, Buffett also notes how advantagous it can be to have a business with low capital investment requirements. I can personally attest to that advantage. My online business has virtually no capital requirements, but has the ability continually increase its earnings.

Great businesses have sustainable competitive advantages, low capital investment requirements, don’t require superstar managers, and are in stable industries, they just need great marketing, click right here to find out more. Do you have any companies that fit these criteria? Share them below to see if they can hold up to Buffett’s criteria for great businesses.