巴菲特的“护城河四要素”Buffett's“Four Elements of Moat”
什么是企业的“护城河” What is a corporate moat?
护城河，也叫“壁垒”，就是竞争对手不易模仿的要素，就是易守难攻的战略优势。
The moat, also known as the "barrier", is an element that competitors are not easy to imitate and a strategic advantage that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.
当企业能抓住市场上短暂的供需失衡，就能获得红利，赚取利润。但接下来的问题是，当所有人都看到这块蛋糕时，如何阻击竞争者？如何能持续地获取利润？最好解决方案是：挖护城河。
When an enterprise can seize the short-term imbalance between supply and demand in the market, it can earn dividends and profits. But the next question is, when everyone sees this cake, how can they stop competitors? How to make profits continuously? The best solution is to dig a moat.
企业经营和发展必须“顺势而为”，至少有两步要走：
Enterprise management and development must "follow the trend" and have at least two steps to take:
1. 顺应商业进化的方向，抓住“红利”；
Conform to the direction of commercial evolution and seize the "dividend";
2. 尽早开始深挖护城河，守住“利润”。
Start digging deep into the moat as soon as possible to keep "profits".
巴菲特经典的“护城河四要素” Buffett's Classic "Four Elements of Moat"
第一要素：无形资产（Intangible Assets），包括许可和品牌；
The first element: Intangible Assets, including licenses and brands;
第二要素：成本优势（Cost Advantage），包括规模和管理；
The second element: Cost Advantage, including scale and management;
第三要素：网络效应（Network Effects），包括用户和生态；
The third element: Network Effects, including users and ecology;
第四要素：迁移成本（Switching Costs），包括习惯和资产。
The fourth element: Switching Costs, including habits and assets.
无形资产 Intangible Assets
无形资产就是无法简单用钱来衡量的东西，主要是“许可”和“品牌”。许可，就是我能做，但你不能做的事情。品牌，就是用户的了解、信任和偏好。
Intangible assets are things that cannot be simply measured by money, mainly "license" and "brand". Licenses and patents is what I can do but you cannot. Brand is the understanding, trust and preference of users.
A. 许可（Licenses and Patents）
许可，包括特殊资质、特效经营权、各类认证等等，就是阻挡竞争对手的门槛，可以把对手排除在利润区外，减小竞争。
Licenses and patents, including special qualifications, special effects management rights, various certifications, etc., are barriers to competitors, which can exclude competitors from the profit zone and reduce competition.
口罩因为新冠疫情的爆发，发生了短暂的供需失衡，如果你发现了这个市场机会，能马上进货销售口罩吗？回答是：并不能。
Due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, there has been a temporary imbalance between supply and demand of masks. If you find this market opportunity, can you purchase and sell masks immediately? The answer is: no.
因为口罩的销售，需要《第二类医疗器械经营备案凭证》，这就是一种“行业许可”，我拿到了，就能抓住这次市场的机会。你发现了机会才去申请，也许申请下来，市场的供需又重新达到平衡，机会也就消失了。
Because the sale of masks requires the "Certificate of Record for Operation of Type II Medical Devices", which is a kind of "industry license". Once I get it, I can seize this market opportunity. If you find an opportunity to apply, perhaps once you apply, the supply and demand in the market will again reach a balance and the opportunity will disappear.
除了特效许可证，专利也是一种许可，iPhone解锁的方式，是用户非常习惯的滑块，苹果为这种“滑块解锁”申请了专利，华为和小米都不能使用这种解锁方式，也许有的用户，就是为了这个小习惯，而被iPhone的专利“锁住”。
In addition to special effects license, patent is also a license. The way iPhone unlocks is a slider that users are very accustomed to. Apple has applied for a patent for this "slider unlock". Huawei and Xiaomi cannot use this unlocking method. Perhaps some users are "locked" by iPhone patent for this small habit.
B. 品牌（Brand）
品牌的价值，是降低了消费者在无数小品牌之间的“比较成本”。消费者买大品牌的产品，交易成本更低，风险更小。而买小品牌的产品，可能就是一次冒险之旅。
The value of a brand is to reduce the "comparative cost" of consumers among numerous small brands. Consumers buy big brand products with lower transaction costs and less risks. And buying small brand products may be an adventure.
好的品牌能让用户更方便地找到你，最极致的情况就是，一个品牌和一个行业划等号，比如可乐里的“可口可乐”，剃须刀里的“吉列”，搜索引擎里的“Google”。
Good brands can make it easier for users to find you. The most extreme case is that a brand is equated with an industry, such as "Coca Cola" in Coke, "Gillette" in Shaver, and "Google" in Search Engine.
品牌不仅降低了公司的营销成本，甚至能帮助公司的产品实现更高的定价。品牌就是美誉度，需要用金钱和时间来挖；品牌就是信任，是给消费者惩罚企业的权力，宝洁一年投入几十亿美元，没日没夜地打广告，如果宝洁的产品出问题了，会怎么样？可能会让几十亿美元广告费泡汤了。品牌，就是企业递给消费者的一把刀，企业的产品要是对不起消费者，消费者就拿这把刀“捅死”企业。
Brand not only reduces the marketing cost of the company, but also helps the company to realize higher pricing of its products. Brand is reputation, which needs money and time to dig up. Brand is trust and gives consumers the power to punish enterprises. Procter & Gamble invests billions of dollars a year and advertises day and night. What will happen if something goes wrong with Procter & Gamble's products? It could cost billions of dollars in advertising. Brand is a knife that the enterprise hands to the consumer. If the product of the enterprise is sorry to the consumer, the consumer will "stab" the enterprise with this knife.
品牌也是“用户偏好”，这需要用感情来挖。你更喜欢吴亦凡，还是蔡徐坤？这个问题，就算打起来，双方的粉丝最终也是谁也说服不了谁。这就是偏好，是长时间活动建立的感情使然。这种基于偏好的品牌价值，最终会让你就算有点不如别人，粉丝也会捍卫你，而不是抛弃你。
Brand is also "user preference", which needs emotion to dig. Do you prefer Wu Yifan or Cai Xukun? This problem, even in a fight, the fans of both sides can't convince anyone in the end. This is the preference, and it is the result of feelings built up over a long period of time. This preference-based brand value will eventually allow fans to defend you rather than abandon you even if you are slightly inferior to others.
企业通过自身优势，抓住市场供需失衡的机会，获得红利和利润，但红利所带来的仅仅是先发优势，先发优势只能帮你争取到挖护城河的时间，只有挖起了护城河，才能持续地赚钱利润。
Enterprises, through their own advantages, seize the opportunity of imbalance between supply and demand in the market to obtain dividends and profits, but dividends bring only a first-mover advantage. First-mover advantage can only help you win the time to dig a moat. Only by digging a moat can you make profits continuously.
成本优势 Cost Advantage
在面临同样的产业环境时，成本领先一直是竞争的有效手段之一。成本领先可能来自于这家公司精益求精、步步为营的长期建设，成本优势的核心是“规模”和“管理”。
Facing the same industrial environment, cost leadership has always been one of the effective means of competition. Cost leadership may come from the company's long-term construction, which strives for perfection step by step. The core of cost advantage is "scale" and "management".
商业上基本的“成本公式”：成本=（固定成本/销售规模）+变动成本。
The basic "cost formula" in business: cost = (fixed cost/sales scale)+variable cost.
降低成本，有三种基本的深挖方法：
To reduce costs, there are three basic deep excavation methods:
1. 降低固定成本（比如降低生产线的投入）；
Reduce fixed costs (e.g. reduce production line input);
2. 降低变动成本（比如降低原料采购价格）；
Reduce variable costs (e.g. reduce the purchase price of raw materials);
3. 提升销售规模。
Increase sales scale.
A. 规模（Scale）
假如做一个智能手环的固定成本是1000万（包括设计费、开模具、投入生产线），变动成本是60元（包括芯片、电池、包装等），如果小米卖61元，其他商家如何竞争，那小米为何要卖61元？因为他会豪赌自己能卖出去1000万个智能手环。
If the fixed cost for making an intelligent bracelet is 10 million yuan (including design fees, mold opening and putting into production lines), and the variable cost is 60 yuan (including chips, batteries, packaging, etc.), if Xiaomi sells 61 yuan, how do other businesses compete? Then why does Xiaomi sell 61 yuan? Because he would gamble that he could sell 10 million smart bracelets
雷军曾经在发布会做过一个公开承诺：“小米硬件综合利润率，永远不会超过5%。如有超过的部分，将超出部分全部返还给用户”。5%的利润率是真的吗？是真的，因为小米要下一盘更大的棋，硬件可以不超过5%的利润率，但小米有广告、有内容分发、会员费等等，这些都有超高的利润率。在硬件的大用户量基础上，小米总体的盈利能力还是很强的。
Lei Jun once made a public promise at the conference: "Xiaomi's comprehensive profit margin on hardware will never exceed 5%. If there is excess, all excess will be returned to the user. " Is the profit margin of 5% true? It's true, because Xiaomi wants to play a bigger game of chess, and the hardware can have a profit margin of no more than 5%, but Xiaomi has advertisements, content distribution, membership fees and so on, all of which have extremely high profit margins. Based on the large number of users of hardware, Xiaomi's overall profitability is still very strong.
如果你确实觉得自己看准了商业进化的方向，就可以用“一把全压”的方式直接上规模，把竞争对手吓退在护城河之外。
If you really feel that you have seen the direction of business evolution, you can use a "one-shot" approach to scale up and scare your competitors out of the moat.
B. 管理（Management）
战略是恢宏的决策，但管理才是每日的功课。企业制定了作战方针，就要靠每个作战团队去执行和实施，如果说执行过程中，企业遇到的每一个困难是一个“局”，那么管理的作用，就是不断“破局”。
Strategy is a grand decision, but management is the daily homework. When an enterprise formulates its operational policy, it must rely on each operational team to carry out and implement it. If every difficulty encountered by the enterprise during the implementation process is a " game", then the function of management is to continuously "break the game".
管理就是不断地破局，“局 ”就是你身边各种资源之间相互关联和相互作用的状态与关系，或称为“资源”。人是资源，物是资源，名声也是资源，是一种无形的资源。总之，你身边的一切其实都是资源。而且，这些资源都和你有关系。“破局 ”本质上就是调整资源的性质，正的变成负的，负的变成正的，然后变换资源和你之间的相互关系，让自己能够走得通。
Management is the continuous breaking of the game. " Game " is the state and relationship, or "resources", in which various resources around you are interrelated and interact with each other. People are resources, things are resources, reputation is also resources, is an invisible resource. In short, everything around you is actually resources. Moreover, these resources are all related to you. "Break the game" is essentially to adjust the nature of resources, positive to negative, negative to positive, and then transform the relationship between resources and you, so that they can make sense.
就如很多人钦佩“海底捞”的管理很到位，服务员总能让顾客满意而归，但什么时候要给客户递餐巾？什么时候要给客户打包整个西瓜？恐怕难标准化地去规定，黄铁鹰写过一本书叫《海底捞你学不会》，意思是管理并非告诉你，你就能做到。管理是一门科学，也是一门艺术，你能做到，别人做不到，你就在成本上拥有优势。管理所带来的成本降低，永远都是一条深深的护城河。
Just as many people admire that the management of "Haidilao" is in place. The waiter can always make the customer satisfied, but when should he deliver the napkin to the customer? When will you pack the whole watermelon for your customers? I'm afraid it's difficult to standardize the regulations. Huang Tieying wrote a book called "Can't You Learn at Haidilao", which means that management can't be done without telling you. Management is a science as well as an art. If you can do it and others can't, you have an advantage in cost. The cost reduction brought by management will always be a deep moat.
网络效应 Network Effects
网络效应，就是某种产品对一名用户的价值，取决于使用这个产品的其他用户的数量，用户越多，越有价值；越有价值，用户就越多。网络效应是有生命的，一旦挖掘成功，就会自我生长，越来越强大。
Network effect is the value of a product to a user. It depends on the number of other users who use the product. The more users, the more valuable it is. The more valuable, the more users. The network effect is alive. Once it is successfully dug up, it will grow and become more and more powerful.
网络效应主要有两种：
There are two main types of network effects:
A. 用户（User）
用户，或称为“单边规模效应”，就是用户规模越大，效率越高。
Users, or "unilateral scale effect", means that the larger the user scale, the higher the efficiency.
比如共享单车，哪一家公司的车子越多，用户用它就越方便，但它是一个单边的模型，也就是说只有靠公司单方面加大投产来形成规模，争取用户。
Such as shared bicycles, the more bicycles a company has, the more convenient it will be for users. However, it is a unilateral model, which means that the company can only increase production unilaterally to form a scale and win over users.
B. 生态（Ecology）
生态，也称为“多边网络效应”，用户“越少就越少，越多就越多”，这中间一定存在一个临界点。过了这个点之后，用户就会自我增加，易守难攻，形成护城河。
Ecology, also known as the "multilateral network effect", has "fewer users, more users", and there must be a critical point. After this point, users will increase themselves and become vulnerable to attack, forming a moat.
像出租车、专车领域就是，它有司机的需求，也有乘客的需求，更多的司机会带来更多的乘客，更多的乘客也会带来更多的司机。像世纪佳缘或者百合网，女生越多，就会迎来更多男生，更多优质的男生，又会吸引更多女生。
For example, in the field of taxis and special cars, it has the needs of both drivers and passengers. More drivers will bring more passengers and more passengers will bring more drivers. Like Shijijiayuan or Baihe Net, the more girls there are, the more boys there will be, the more quality boys there will be, and the more girls there will be attracted.
用户，是单边网络效应；生态，是多边网络效应。网络效应的护城河，成就了很多企业，比如说微软的开发者和用户之间，淘宝的买家和卖家之间，小米的万物互联的设备和海量用户之间。
Users are unilateral network effects. Ecology is a multilateral network effect. The moat of the network effect has made many enterprises, such as Microsoft's developers and users, Taobao's buyers and sellers, Xiaomi's interconnected devices and massive users.
迁移成本 Switching Costs
转换成本的高低，决定了先发优势的稳定性有多强。如果说前面讲的三个要素，无形资产、成本优势、网络效应，是阻挡竞争对手进来，那么迁移成本，就是防止用户跑出去。
The level of conversion cost determines how stable the first-mover advantage is. If the three elements mentioned above, intangible assets, cost advantage and network effect, prevent competitors from entering, then the cost of migration is to prevent users from running out.
A. 习惯（Habit）
中国大陆的用户，大部分用习惯用“微信”作为即使聊天的工具，用户的很多东西都沉淀在上面，绝不会轻易更换。
Most users in China use WeChat as a chat tool. Many things of users aredeposited on it and will never be changed easily.
例如，白领们都习惯了Office这款办公软件，如果要更换其他新产品，需要从头再来学习一遍，迁移成本太高。而像日用快消品，换一个新产品毫不费力，这也是为什么，转换成本越低的产品，就越会把精力投入到渠道建设中，来弥补这种不足，因为这是商家把你锁在它护城河之内的“习惯锁”。
Another example is that white-collar workers are accustomed to this Office software. If they want to replace other new products, they need to learn it again from scratch. The cost of migration is too high. For example, it takes no effort to change a new product for daily-use consumer goods, which is why the lower the conversion cost, the more energy will be put into the channel construction to make up for this deficiency, because this is the "habit lock" that the merchant locks you in its moat.
B. 资产（Assets）
2019年11月27日，工信部正式宣布运营商必须在全国范围提供“携号转网”的服务，但如果你尝试去办理，你就会发现“携号转网”难于登天，总有一些套餐让你无法转网，或因为你购买的靓号合约期，让你无法转网。
On November 27, 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially announced that operators must provide "number portability" service nationwide. However, if you try to do so, you will find that "number portability" is as difficult as climbing up to heaven. There are always some packages that prevent you from switching to the Internet, or because of the contract period of your beautiful number, you cannot switch to the Internet.
为什么各个运营商，在“携号转网”的问题上，还是故意制造各种门槛，刁难用户？因为手机号码是用户的核心资产，它是防止用户逃离的、极其重要的护城河。手机号码注册了各种手机银行和App，如果不能携号转网，这些App就都登录不了。而原来的手机号码一旦分配给了别人，其他人甚至就有可能用验证码的方式，登录你的账号。
Why do all operators deliberately create various barriers to make things difficult for users on the issue of "carrying numbers to switch networks"? Because mobile phone number is the core asset of users, it is an extremely important moat to prevent users from escaping. Mobile phone numbers are registered with all kinds of mobile phone banks and apps. If you can't transfer your number to the Internet, these apps can't be registered. However, once the original mobile phone number is assigned to someone else, the other person may even log in to your account with a verification code.
手机号码，对用户来说已经是无法抛弃的重大资产，你用的时间越长越不能换。只要运营商掌握着用户手机号码这种核心资产，用户的迁移成本就会非常高。因为那就是一把锁，把你锁在它的护城河之内的“资产锁”。
The mobile phone number is already an important asset that users cannot abandon. The longer you use it, the more you cannot change it. As long as the operator holds the core asset of the user's mobile phone number, the user's migration cost will be very high. Because that is a lock, the "asset lock" that locks you in its moat.
用户的个性化数据，可以是这把资产锁。投资公司，可以根据用户的个性化数据，提供更有针对性的投资方案；酒店，可以在用户入住前，提前准备好他喜欢的报纸和水果；社交App，可以免费把用户的聊天记录存在云端。
The user's personalized data can be this asset lock. Investment companies can provide more targeted investment plans according to users' personalized data. The hotel can prepare his favorite newspapers and fruits in advance before the user checks in. Social App can store users' chat records in the cloud for free.
公司的护城河主要体现在无形资产、成本优势、网络效应、迁移成本4个方面，“护城河理论”非常经典，并且按照这个理论挑选出来的公司，都反复被巴菲特杰出的投资业绩所验证，没有护城河时，越好的产品反而会招致越激烈的竞争，红利，来自短暂的供需失衡；护城河，才能使企业持续赚取利润。
The moat of the company is mainly embodied in intangible assets, cost advantage, network effect and transfer cost. The moat theory is very classic. The companies selected according to this theory have been repeatedly verified by Buffett's outstanding investment performance. Without moat, the better products will lead to more intense competition and dividends from short-term imbalance of supply and demand. The moat can make the enterprise continuously earn profits.