Charlie Munger: 3 Business Titans You NEVER HEARD OF... | Collection: Charlie Munger #306
[Transcript]
BECKY QUICK
I want to ask, who were some of the people you most admired and looked up to? What was it about them that made them so special?
CHARLIE MUNGER
Well, some of the best people, I would argue that Jim Sinegal at Costco was about as well-adapted for the executive career he got. And by the way, he didnโt go to Wharton, and he didnโt go to the Harvard Business School. He started working at age 18 in a store, and he rose to be CEO at Costco. In effect, he was a founder under a man named Sol Price. I would argue that what he accomplished in his own lifetime was one of the most remarkable things in the whole history of business in the history of the world. Jim Sinegal and his life. Heโs still very much alive, but he had one business throughout his whole life basically. And he got so damn good at it, there was practically nothing he didnโt understand, large or small. And there arenโt that many Jim Sinegals.
Iโll tell you somebody else, for a job of the kind he has, Greg Abel in a way is just as good as Sinegal was. He has a kind of genius for the way he handles people and so forth and problems. And I canโt tell you how I admire somebody who has enough sense to kind of run these utilities as though he were the regulator. Heโs not trying to pass on the cost because he can do it. Heโs trying to โ heโs trying to do it the way heโd want it done if he were the regulator, instead of the executive. Of course, thatโs the right way to run a utility. But how many are really run that way? So there are some admirable business people out there, and Iโve been lucky to have quite a few of them involved in my life.
The guy [Paul Andrews] who ran TTI was a genius. TTI is a Berkshire subsidiary. You Daily Journal people, think how lucky youโd be if we still had our monopoly on publishing our cases or something, weโd be like TTI. Well, TTI has just marched from triumph to triumph. And it was run by a guy, he got fired and created the business.
BECKY QUICK
He got fired from where?
CHARLIE MUNGER
It was a defense contractor. I forget which one.
BECKY QUICK
General Dynamics, maybe?
CHARLIE MUNGER
I canโt remember exactly. But he was a terrific guy. And he ran the business for us. he wouldnโt let us raise his pay. How many people have the problem with their managers that they wonโt let them โ they wonโt allow you to raise their pay? (Laughs)
BECKY QUICK
Itโs pretty rare. (Laughs)
CHARLIE MUNGER
Yeah.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/live/9VVPO3KWj3A?feature=share)
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[YAPSS Takeaway]
Jim Sinegal, Greg Abel & Paul Andrews.
"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." ~Isaac Newton
