{"id":4226,"date":"2023-12-11T23:17:53","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T05:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:10043\/?p=4226"},"modified":"2024-12-27T07:56:54","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T13:56:54","slug":"take-a-page-from-buffett-and-munger-when-working-on-a-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/take-a-page-from-buffett-and-munger-when-working-on-a-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Take a page from Buffett and Munger when working on a partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This article originally appeared in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennessean.com\/story\/money\/tech\/2023\/12\/10\/partnerships-take-shared-philosophies-goals-and-respect\/71829617007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Tennessean<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Say it isn\u2019t so.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Hall and Oates, one of the most successful pop duos of all time, are suing each other.\u00a0 Apparently, John Oates is looking to sell his portion of their business partnership and Darryl Hall can\u2019t go for that.\u00a0 His court filing, \u201cno can do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Is anyone surprised?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Not really.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Successful bands break up all the time. The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, The Spice Girls\u2014the list goes on. If you\u2019re old enough to remember VH1\u2019s \u201cBehind the Music,\u201d it would seem that nearly every band eventually falls apart.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"gnt_m gnt_x gnt_x__lbl gnt_x__al\" aria-label=\"advertisement\">\n<div id=\"ad-slot-7103-tn-nashville-C1056-native-article_link-tech-2\" class=\"gnt_x_sl gnt_x_al\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-method=\"llx\" data-google-query-id=\"CJKWv6iOiYMDFeSopgQdABsMgA\">\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Disagreements, conflicts, lawsuits, resentments, and sometimes just flat-out anger are, of course, not unique to bands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The business world is littered with failed partnerships that happen every day. Whether it\u2019s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/ai-consulting-for-small-businesses\/\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"1245\">small family business<\/a> or giant corporate merger\u2014more often than not things eventually go awry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Why is this?\u00a0 Why do so many partnerships, whether a band, a business, or even a marriage ultimately end up failing?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">This question was on my mind last week when I read that Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett\u2019s business partner of 60 years, had died.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Unlike Hall and Oates, the partnership of Munger and Buffett successfully persevered through good times and bad.\u00a0 Not only were Charlie and Warren great business partners, but they somehow remained great friends as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">What was their secret?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Most partnerships (nearly 80% of them in the business world) fail for common reasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Differing values, communication issues, undefined roles, diverging goals, and mismatched philosophies\u2014all it takes one of these factors to occur, and conflict will ensue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The Munger and Buffett duo managed to avoid these common pitfalls in very intentional ways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">First, their philosophies about business were aligned.\u00a0 They both were committed to a \u201cvalue investing\u201d approach as the cornerstone of their company.\u00a0 They started off from day one on the same page.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">With their business approach aligned, they were able to work together in complementary but respectful ways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In 2014, Warren Buffett shared that \u201cCharlie and I have never had an argument. We\u2019ve disagreed on a lot of things. And it\u2019s just never led, and never will, lead to an argument. We argue with other people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The two billionaires also had similar communication styles. With a shared midwestern sense of humility and transparency when they did disagree, they communicated with a tone of humor and mutual respect. Munger once joked with Buffett, \u201cyou\u2019ll end up agreeing with me because you\u2019re smart, and I am right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">So, with aligned business philosophies and an easy, respectful shared communication style, the partners were able to maintain a relationship that gave them a great chance of meeting their business and personal goals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Which brings us to the final (but perhaps most important) ingredient of the duo\u2019s unparalleled success: shared goals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Both Munger and Buffett have been in it for the long-term.\u00a0 They\u2019ve had a shared mutual vision of allocating capital to create long-term value for Berkshire Hathaway shareholders without taking heavy risks.\u00a0 This has been key to their successful partnership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">To be clear, Hall and Oates have nothing to be ashamed of.\u00a0 It would be hard to argue that their partnership has been a failure after having so much success over decades.\u00a0 Great music, fame, fortune\u2014their achievements are impressive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">But the news of their legal battle just goes to show how fragile partnerships can be. A partnership gone bad can be an existential threat to an entire business (or band). \u00a0\u00a0And, it\u2019s not an easy relationship to keep.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">But as Charlie Munger says, \u201cJust keep your head down and do your best.&#8221;\u00a0 Here\u2019s to the great Charlie Munger, and all he did to show us how partnerships can succeed.<\/p>\n<p><em>JJ Rosen is the founder of <\/em><a class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|${u}\"><em>Atiba<\/em><\/a><em>,<\/em><em>\u00a0a <\/em><a class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|${u}\"><em>custom software development firm<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0and <\/em><a class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|${u}\"><em>Nashville IT support company.<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0Visit <\/em><a class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" href=\"https:\/\/atiba.com\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|${u}\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Atiba.com<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0for more info.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article originally appeared in\u00a0The Tennessean. Say it isn\u2019t so. Hall and Oates, one of the most successful pop duos of all time, are suing each other.\u00a0 Apparently, John Oates is looking to sell his portion of their business partnership and Darryl Hall can\u2019t go for that.\u00a0 His court filing, \u201cno can do.\u201d Is anyone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":4227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-tennessean"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}