在疫情最嚴(yán)重的時(shí)候,很多人擔(dān)心的都是一個(gè)“少”的問(wèn)題——如果被疫情沖擊得千創(chuàng)百孔的經(jīng)濟(jì)讓我們的錢(qián)變少了怎么辦?而在這次《財(cái)富》舉辦的年度投資者圓桌會(huì)議上,由于美國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)近來(lái)復(fù)蘇速度喜人,在談到明年經(jīng)濟(jì)形勢(shì)的時(shí)候,很多人已經(jīng)開(kāi)始擔(dān)心“多”的問(wèn)題了。
人們對(duì)消費(fèi)品的需求太多了,以至于造成了供應(yīng)鏈的混亂,加劇了通脹;太多熱錢(qián)集中在硅谷和華爾街,以至于很多初創(chuàng)公司和股票都有估值過(guò)高之嫌。從更高的層面看,大氣層里的二氧化碳也太多了,迫使企業(yè)的CEO、投資者和消費(fèi)者都必須在可持續(xù)發(fā)展問(wèn)題上做出艱難的選擇。面對(duì)這種局面,與會(huì)的每一位專(zhuān)家也都在尋找那些擁有合適的技術(shù)和商業(yè)模式的公司,希望它們能在如今這個(gè)快速變化的世界中勝出。
參加今年圓桌會(huì)議的嘉賓有:Fred Alger Management公司CEO、首席投資官兼投資組合經(jīng)理宗丹(Dan Chung),風(fēng)投機(jī)構(gòu)Graham & Walker創(chuàng)始人兼董事總經(jīng)理萊斯利·費(fèi)恩扎格(Leslie Feinzaig),T. Rowe Price公司證券與多元資產(chǎn)首席投資官、新書(shū)《資本配置:為股東創(chuàng)造長(zhǎng)期價(jià)值的原則、戰(zhàn)略與過(guò)程》的作者大衛(wèi)·吉洛斯(David Giroux),Parnassus Investments公司研究與投資總監(jiān)洛莉·基思(Lori Keith),以及高盛資產(chǎn)管理公司基本面證券業(yè)務(wù)負(fù)責(zé)人凱蒂·科赫(Katie Koch)。以下是他們?cè)趫A桌會(huì)議上的發(fā)言(有刪節(jié))。
《財(cái)富》:今年是經(jīng)濟(jì)強(qiáng)勢(shì)復(fù)蘇的一年,但是現(xiàn)在我們又看到了一些新的困難,比如通脹、勞工問(wèn)題、供應(yīng)鏈問(wèn)題,以及政府刺激計(jì)劃到期等等。你們是否認(rèn)為2022年的股市總體會(huì)降溫?
凱蒂·科赫:宏觀(guān)上看,我們認(rèn)為2022年是更強(qiáng)調(diào)經(jīng)濟(jì)韌性的一年,明年的回報(bào)率可能會(huì)有所降低。在此背景下,我們?cè)谕顿Y上必須具有高度的選擇性。說(shuō)到經(jīng)濟(jì)韌性,我們投資的領(lǐng)域主要包括穩(wěn)定供應(yīng)鏈——今年我們所有人都發(fā)現(xiàn)了穩(wěn)定供應(yīng)鏈的重要性;此外還有企業(yè)數(shù)字化領(lǐng)域,最后則是促進(jìn)全球向可持續(xù)發(fā)展方向轉(zhuǎn)型。
在疫情早期,數(shù)字化的好處似乎主要被大型科技公司享受了。是否也有些業(yè)務(wù)流向了不太知名的中小企業(yè)?
宗丹:從某種程度上來(lái)講,新技術(shù)的大規(guī)模應(yīng)用,是很多人不得不進(jìn)行的一項(xiàng)試驗(yàn)。但我認(rèn)為,這場(chǎng)試驗(yàn)大體上是相當(dāng)成功的——包括在一些十分傳統(tǒng)的行業(yè)。比如疫情期間,餐飲業(yè)受到的沖擊僅次于航空業(yè),但很多餐飲企業(yè)都開(kāi)啟了線(xiàn)上下單和外賣(mài)服務(wù),而且成績(jī)相當(dāng)亮眼。現(xiàn)在即便城市已經(jīng)開(kāi)放了,他們的外賣(mài)業(yè)務(wù)也比以前紅火很多,甚至要高于疫情前的水平。
萊斯利·費(fèi)恩扎格:正所謂“福兮禍之所倚”,危與機(jī)往往是并存的。疫情給我們的工作和生活方式帶來(lái)了很大干擾,很多人的行為尚未適應(yīng)“新常態(tài)”。在疫情以前,很多風(fēng)投對(duì)教育行業(yè)都是非常謹(jǐn)慎的。但是疫情一來(lái),我們才意識(shí)到,教育還有這么多種方式,因此這個(gè)行業(yè)的投資也達(dá)到了創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的水平。我個(gè)人也在教育領(lǐng)域投資了一兩家公司,其中之一是早教公司LegUp,另一個(gè)是旨在通過(guò)社區(qū)學(xué)院在美國(guó)中部地區(qū)提供學(xué)歷和技能提升項(xiàng)目的Stack Education。
在醫(yī)療服務(wù)領(lǐng)域也有很多創(chuàng)新模式。現(xiàn)在保險(xiǎn)也覆蓋了很多遠(yuǎn)程醫(yī)療項(xiàng)目,并被更多人接受。現(xiàn)在你只需要簡(jiǎn)單地預(yù)約,就可以輕松享受遠(yuǎn)程醫(yī)療服務(wù)。疫情期間,這種個(gè)人醫(yī)療領(lǐng)域的創(chuàng)新也為風(fēng)投創(chuàng)造了前所未有的機(jī)會(huì)。要不是這幾年我們的生活遭遇了這么重大的干擾,可能也就根本不會(huì)有這么大的創(chuàng)新動(dòng)力。
科赫:這種顛覆不僅發(fā)生在風(fēng)投界,也影響到了公開(kāi)市場(chǎng)。據(jù)我們估計(jì),明年包括以后,科技界的一些“大贏(yíng)家”,很有可能將不再是那些在美國(guó)上市的主流平臺(tái)。
想想20年前全球市值最高的十家大公司,活到現(xiàn)在還仍然榜上有名的就只有一個(gè),那就是微軟。其他9家公司已經(jīng)累計(jì)損失了2350億美元市值。這就充分說(shuō)明了尋找下一代企業(yè)的重要性。
我們認(rèn)為,明年企業(yè)界的科技支出可能會(huì)增長(zhǎng)4%,這將是10年來(lái)的最高預(yù)期增長(zhǎng)率。網(wǎng)絡(luò)安全是我們關(guān)注的領(lǐng)域之一,因?yàn)楝F(xiàn)在越來(lái)越多的人將工作放到了云端進(jìn)行。Palo Alto Networks是一家在這方面走在前沿的公司。HubSpot是軟件方面我們比較青睞的一家公司,它主要是在幫助美國(guó)的中小企業(yè)實(shí)現(xiàn)數(shù)字化。
在應(yīng)對(duì)氣候變化上,包括在如何讓企業(yè)實(shí)現(xiàn)綠色運(yùn)營(yíng)上,也有很多技術(shù)層面的機(jī)會(huì)。
洛莉·基思:對(duì)。我想重點(diǎn)談一家叫Roper Technologies的公司,它能幫企業(yè)減少用水量。他們是一家多元技術(shù)公司,主要為各個(gè)小眾市場(chǎng)開(kāi)發(fā)軟件工程產(chǎn)品。同時(shí)他們也提供了一款非常具有創(chuàng)新性的水泵,可以顯著減少用水量,同時(shí)還能監(jiān)測(cè)水質(zhì)。
另一家公司Guidewire Software也符合這個(gè)主題,只不過(guò)可能不那么明顯。當(dāng)然它也順應(yīng)了數(shù)字化的趨勢(shì)。氣候變化帶來(lái)的各種物理風(fēng)險(xiǎn)會(huì)顯著影響財(cái)產(chǎn)保險(xiǎn)的成本,而Guidewire公司的軟件和數(shù)據(jù)分析技術(shù)則可以幫助客戶(hù)管理這些風(fēng)險(xiǎn),處理好這些至關(guān)重要的氣候變化問(wèn)題。
大衛(wèi)·吉洛斯:未來(lái)20年,沒(méi)有任何一個(gè)行業(yè)在減排問(wèn)題上的重要性可以與電力行業(yè)相提并論。目前電力行業(yè)的做法基本是在用風(fēng)能、太陽(yáng)能取代煤炭和天然氣發(fā)電。但問(wèn)題是,煤炭、天然氣包括核能的發(fā)電載荷都是可預(yù)測(cè)的,而風(fēng)能和太陽(yáng)能的發(fā)電載荷卻有很多變數(shù)。為了讓清潔能源經(jīng)濟(jì)真的運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)起來(lái),我們認(rèn)為到2040年前,美國(guó)至少要在新的輸電項(xiàng)目上投資4000億美元。
其中相當(dāng)一部分項(xiàng)目會(huì)集中在中西部,因?yàn)槟抢镲L(fēng)力資源最強(qiáng),不存在像東西海岸那樣的選址問(wèn)題。因此,未來(lái)20年,中西部的電力公司在輸電項(xiàng)目上是大有可為的。Ameren、Exelon、AEP和Xcel等公司可能都會(huì)是比較大的受益者。而且中西部也更不容易受到極端惡劣天氣的影響。
今年,極端天氣事件也給供應(yīng)鏈造成了問(wèn)題。哪些行業(yè)應(yīng)對(duì)這個(gè)問(wèn)題做得最好?
基思:圍繞供應(yīng)鏈其實(shí)有兩個(gè)問(wèn)題:一是實(shí)際的供應(yīng)鏈問(wèn)題,二是勞動(dòng)力短缺的問(wèn)題。我們發(fā)現(xiàn),有些企業(yè)愿意對(duì)員工隊(duì)伍從安全、多元化、健康和福利等方面進(jìn)行投資,所以他們不光克服了勞動(dòng)力短缺的問(wèn)題,還實(shí)現(xiàn)了健康增長(zhǎng)。比如芝加哥期權(quán)交易所是全球最大的證券交易所之一,它的員工自愿離職率只有5%左右,是同類(lèi)企業(yè)中最低的。它提供了很多內(nèi)部項(xiàng)目,比如領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力發(fā)展項(xiàng)目、員工健康項(xiàng)目和一些女性倡議等等,還有一支50多人的多元化團(tuán)隊(duì),這些做法讓員工產(chǎn)生了很高的參與度,從而將離職率降到了最低,這使他們能以更快的速度實(shí)現(xiàn)增長(zhǎng)。
另一家我認(rèn)為很有優(yōu)勢(shì)的公司是Trumbull。 他們主要研究用于建筑業(yè)和農(nóng)業(yè)運(yùn)輸?shù)脑栖浖鉀Q方案。在運(yùn)輸行業(yè),卡車(chē)司機(jī)短缺是運(yùn)輸公司面臨的頭號(hào)問(wèn)題。Trumbull的做法是通過(guò)動(dòng)態(tài)調(diào)度,整合實(shí)時(shí)環(huán)境數(shù)據(jù)和交通數(shù)據(jù),提供優(yōu)化路線(xiàn),以減少司機(jī)在工作中遇到的阻力,提供直至“最后一公里”的服務(wù)。
專(zhuān)家選美股
Palo Alto Networks (PANW, $530)
HubSpot (HUBS, $822)
Roper Technologies (ROP, $498)
Guidewire Software (GWRE, $123)
Ameren (AEE, $85)
Exelon (EXC, $54)
American Electric Power Company (AEP, $83)
Xcel Energy (XEL, $65)
Cboe Global Markets (CBOE, $129)
PayPal (PYPL, $194)
Square (SQ, $225)
價(jià)值截止至2021年11月19日。股票名稱(chēng)按提及順序排列。
在勞動(dòng)力短缺方面,美國(guó)已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)了所謂的“大離職”浪潮,幾乎所有勞動(dòng)者都有一種身心被掏空的感覺(jué)。創(chuàng)業(yè)界一向是以“雞血”、“996”和“007”聞名的。我想知道,你們是否發(fā)現(xiàn)有公司已經(jīng)在著手解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題了?
費(fèi)恩扎格:我們當(dāng)然希望如此。現(xiàn)在我發(fā)現(xiàn)很多公司都在努力解決“留人”的問(wèn)題,從建立輔導(dǎo)平臺(tái)、提供健康服務(wù)到培訓(xùn)和發(fā)展,再到構(gòu)建企業(yè)文化和吸引員工參與。至于他們是否會(huì)成功,我還不知道。
大約10到15年前的時(shí)候,每個(gè)人都想在那種公共區(qū)域提供啤酒的初創(chuàng)公司里工作。不過(guò)現(xiàn)在,我認(rèn)為人們都想找一家真正把他們當(dāng)人看、能夠提供360度全方位支持的公司。現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)有很多公司在開(kāi)展心理健康日活動(dòng)了。要想爭(zhēng)奪人才,光靠給的工資多是不行的。現(xiàn)在人們關(guān)心的是,我的人生只有一次,我應(yīng)該在哪里度過(guò)我寶貴的人生,同時(shí)還能保持一些完整的自我?
你可能會(huì)說(shuō),這種心態(tài)的強(qiáng)化也與一些面向消費(fèi)者的公司的創(chuàng)新有關(guān),它們消除了交易中的阻力。
宗丹:以互聯(lián)網(wǎng)、云計(jì)算和移動(dòng)計(jì)算為代表的這波技術(shù)紅利已經(jīng)持續(xù)20年了。很多人都在說(shuō):“下一個(gè)大機(jī)會(huì)是什么?”有時(shí)它恰恰是那些原本在采用新技術(shù)上很滯后的行業(yè)。金融業(yè)和金融服務(wù)業(yè)絕對(duì)就是這種行業(yè)之一。比如說(shuō),現(xiàn)在的大銀行仍然有大量的實(shí)體分支機(jī)構(gòu),這簡(jiǎn)直令人難以置信。不過(guò)在疫情期間,我們終于看到金融領(lǐng)域的各種移動(dòng)APP被消費(fèi)者大量采用,比如Cash App、PayPal和Square等等,另外在金融服務(wù)業(yè)也有很多其他的移動(dòng)應(yīng)用。除此之外,企業(yè)在財(cái)務(wù)管理上,比如在票據(jù)支付、采購(gòu)與會(huì)計(jì)和合同管理等方面,也開(kāi)始大量應(yīng)用這些金融A(yíng)PP。
不過(guò)奇怪的是,很多這些東西在美國(guó)以外更先進(jìn)。比如在中國(guó),中國(guó)企業(yè)對(duì)微信和支付寶的應(yīng)用要遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)領(lǐng)先于美國(guó)企業(yè)。
科赫:現(xiàn)在這個(gè)時(shí)刻,很有意思的是,我們有了很多顛覆性的技術(shù),而且疫情還加快了這一進(jìn)程。不過(guò)這種創(chuàng)新大多發(fā)生在零售領(lǐng)域。所以現(xiàn)在我們現(xiàn)在可以在網(wǎng)上一鍵下單,第二天快遞就能送到家門(mén)口,簡(jiǎn)直超級(jí)方便,所有人都喜歡這一點(diǎn)。不過(guò)這些大的行業(yè)也容易受到更多監(jiān)管,所以它們?cè)诤芏喾矫娑际歉y被顛覆的。
目前,全球互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司的市值總額大約是14萬(wàn)億美元,全球 金融服務(wù)公司的市值總額大約是16萬(wàn)億美元,所以我認(rèn)為機(jī)會(huì)是巨大的。 2021年,我們將開(kāi)始看到一些即將被顛覆的公司已經(jīng)受到了非常嚴(yán)重的影響。一些傳統(tǒng)支付公司的收益極不理想,原因就是受到了一些宗丹剛剛提到的APP的影響,比如Toast、Square和Shopify等等。它們提供的服務(wù)與傳統(tǒng)支付公司非常類(lèi)似,但從很多方面看都要更好,而且他們的端對(duì)端服務(wù)的成本更低。
世界上已經(jīng)有其他國(guó)家在這方面走得比美國(guó)更遠(yuǎn)了。對(duì)此我有兩點(diǎn)感悟:首先,美國(guó)的支付生態(tài)會(huì)變得更像中國(guó),未來(lái)能把電商、社交和支付整合在一起的APP將會(huì)勝出。
其次,事實(shí)證明,要想在這些市場(chǎng)取得成功,你需要有大量的當(dāng)?shù)刂R(shí)。以巴西為例,巴西已經(jīng)開(kāi)始建立自己的支付生態(tài)系統(tǒng)了。 PagSeguro就是一個(gè)為小微商戶(hù)提供支付服務(wù)的公司。有些時(shí)候,新興市場(chǎng)國(guó)家之所以能在這些方面走在前列,是因?yàn)樗麄儧](méi)有傳統(tǒng)的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施作為歷史包袱。不過(guò)我們也意識(shí)到,美國(guó)也會(huì)產(chǎn)生很多本土贏(yíng)家。不過(guò)這個(gè)領(lǐng)域的全球大贏(yíng)家未必還會(huì)是美國(guó)的“五巨頭”。
新興市場(chǎng)是很多美國(guó)投資者嚴(yán)重忽視的地方。
科赫:你說(shuō)的對(duì)。大多數(shù)美國(guó)投資者對(duì)新興市場(chǎng)配置不足。新興市場(chǎng)約占全球證據(jù)市場(chǎng)的10%到15%,但美國(guó)投資者對(duì)新興市場(chǎng)的配資往往只有一兩個(gè)百分點(diǎn),很多壓根沒(méi)有新興市場(chǎng)投資。但新興市場(chǎng)也有一些很好的公司和增長(zhǎng)機(jī)會(huì)。
通脹對(duì)你的看法有何改變?
吉洛斯:2021年真是一場(chǎng)“完美風(fēng)暴”。即便是在正常經(jīng)濟(jì)復(fù)蘇的年份,通脹一般也會(huì)高于正常水平。但今年美國(guó)出臺(tái)了巨額的經(jīng)濟(jì)刺激計(jì)劃,而且人們也在積極消費(fèi),市場(chǎng)對(duì)耐用消費(fèi)品的需求比趨勢(shì)線(xiàn)高出了20%以上,我們以前從未在數(shù)據(jù)中看到這樣的情況。不管是電器、運(yùn)動(dòng)器材、空調(diào),還是電腦和ipad,它們的需求都遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超出了正常水平。而現(xiàn)有的供應(yīng)鏈不足支持需求在一夜之間暴漲20%。
由供應(yīng)鏈問(wèn)題導(dǎo)致的通脹可能要持續(xù)到2023年,此外還有一些結(jié)構(gòu)性因素也導(dǎo)致了美國(guó)的通脹高于疫情前5年的水平。首先是市場(chǎng)對(duì)大學(xué)以下學(xué)歷工人的需求正在上升,所以他們有了比以往更多的選擇——比如在亞馬遜送快遞,或者干一些靈活的零工。從人口上看,這一部分人口并未增加。所以從本質(zhì)上看,我們需要讓工資在一段時(shí)間里快速上漲,以刺激那些目前沒(méi)有就業(yè)的人去就業(yè)。我們可能不會(huì)永遠(yuǎn)保持4.5%的通脹率,但我認(rèn)為在未來(lái)三到五年,你都會(huì)看到美國(guó)的通脹率要會(huì)比疫情前略高。
這對(duì)投資者的策略有何影響?
吉洛斯:我認(rèn)為有一個(gè)資產(chǎn)類(lèi)別很有吸引力,那就是杠桿貸款。現(xiàn)在它在我的投資組合里占了10%左右,而一兩年前它大概只占1%。它們屬于浮動(dòng)利率貸款,所以如果利率上漲,你就賺了。如果利率是穩(wěn)定的,你也能拿到4%的回報(bào)。即便是利率下跌,你的損失也不會(huì)太大,況且目前并我不認(rèn)為有大幅降息的可能。由于國(guó)債目前價(jià)位很高,所以投資級(jí)債券并不很具有吸引力。而杠桿貸款由于其波動(dòng)性?xún)H有證券市場(chǎng)的三分之一,所以它對(duì)那些風(fēng)險(xiǎn)意識(shí)很強(qiáng)且不喜歡高風(fēng)險(xiǎn)的投資者是很有意義的。
我認(rèn)為現(xiàn)在所有人都有一個(gè)共識(shí),那就是隨著疫情日趨平穩(wěn),經(jīng)濟(jì)將逐步走向正常化——尤其是從消費(fèi)者的個(gè)人體驗(yàn)來(lái)看。你在這方面看到了哪些機(jī)會(huì)?
宗丹:我認(rèn)為接下來(lái)一兩年,小盤(pán)股的表現(xiàn)應(yīng)該會(huì)相當(dāng)不錯(cuò)。因?yàn)檫@些小盤(pán)股公司一般都是深耕國(guó)內(nèi)的公司,比如餐飲、酒店、消費(fèi)品零售和娛樂(lè)企業(yè)等等。他們一般會(huì)有更多的固定成本,并且需要更多的體力勞動(dòng)者。但隨著經(jīng)濟(jì)的復(fù)蘇和增長(zhǎng),一些受疫情影響最嚴(yán)重的行業(yè)將會(huì)有很積極的發(fā)展。
近幾十年,比起物質(zhì)需求,很多消費(fèi)者更加重視的是“體驗(yàn)”——比如旅行、聽(tīng)音樂(lè)會(huì)等等。Live Nation就是一家我們非常喜歡的公司,它是全美最大的音樂(lè)會(huì)和現(xiàn)場(chǎng)演出推廣公司。它的業(yè)務(wù)是數(shù)字化無(wú)法取代的,就連亞馬遜也沒(méi)法跟它搶生意。如果你想見(jiàn)你最喜歡的音樂(lè)人,最好的方法當(dāng)然是去看他現(xiàn)場(chǎng)演出。而且人們也喜歡看現(xiàn)場(chǎng)演出。另外,“千禧一代”已經(jīng)成了目前的消費(fèi)主力,他們是尤其注重體驗(yàn)的一代,他們對(duì)工作、房子、車(chē)子、孩子并不那么看重,但卻很重視旅行、體驗(yàn)、音樂(lè)會(huì)這些東西。
我比較感興趣的另一個(gè)新興的、非物質(zhì)的增長(zhǎng)領(lǐng)域是元宇宙。我們發(fā)現(xiàn),這一代年輕人是很相信元宇宙的,就像他們也能最早接受移動(dòng)化和社交媒體一樣。我并不認(rèn)為元宇宙會(huì)完全取代真實(shí)世界,但它會(huì)給很多年輕的“千禧一代”的生活提供某種補(bǔ)充。
科赫:我想補(bǔ)充兩點(diǎn)。首先,全球有85%的千禧一代人生活在新興市場(chǎng)國(guó)家。所以這些生活體驗(yàn)、旅行和戶(hù)外活動(dòng)方面的趨勢(shì)應(yīng)該是全球化的。其次,現(xiàn)在很多“千禧一代”和“Z世代”的年輕人都會(huì)把他們的生活體驗(yàn)拍成照片,然后發(fā)布在社交媒體上,這樣就實(shí)現(xiàn)了體驗(yàn)的物化——我本人是1980年出生的,所以我算“千禧一代”里的老年人,這些都是我的團(tuán)隊(duì)告訴我的。也就是說(shuō),現(xiàn)在的年輕人不在網(wǎng)上“秀”奢侈品了,但他們可以“秀”生活體驗(yàn)。我想強(qiáng)調(diào)的是好的戶(hù)外公司也有投資價(jià)值,特別是小盤(pán)股,不管是Yeti公司,還是一些做游泳池、房車(chē)或者游艇的公司——現(xiàn)在美國(guó)年輕人擁有的游艇比中老年人還多。
專(zhuān)家選美股
Toast (TOST, $45)
Shopify (SHOP, $1,691)
PagSeguro Digital (PAGS, $30)
Live Nation (LYV, $113)
Yeti Holdings (YETI, $103)
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, $155)
Nvidia (NVDA, $330)
Angi (ANGI, $10)
Roblox (RBLX, $135)
Silergy (6415.TW, $5,250)
MKS Instruments (MKSI, $163)
Prices as of 11/19/21
股價(jià)截止至2021年11月19日
宗丹:我們發(fā)現(xiàn),很多消費(fèi)品牌接受元宇宙的速度很快,他們已經(jīng)開(kāi)始在元宇宙里舉辦活動(dòng)了。他們采用了游戲化的手段,營(yíng)造了可視化的體驗(yàn),如果你采用Oculus這樣的VR頭盔,視覺(jué)效果顯然會(huì)更好。很多企業(yè)都押寶在這種3D化的、更有體驗(yàn)感的環(huán)境。比如Gucci打造了一款虛擬手袋——它是虛擬的,不是真的手袋,但居然也能賣(mài)出好幾千美元。再比如非同質(zhì)化代幣(NFT)。湯姆·布拉迪(著名橄欖球星)就推出了自己的NFT平臺(tái),它本質(zhì)上就是一張數(shù)字化的橄欖球卡片,跟以前的交易卡差不多。有些人跟我說(shuō),能想出這種概念的人肯定是瘋了。但我認(rèn)為,幾千年前的某一天,有個(gè)人走到市場(chǎng)上,他不是用牛羊來(lái)?yè)Q雞和玉米,而是拿出來(lái)了一種叫錢(qián)幣的東西。但是其他小販可能會(huì)以看傻子的眼神看著他說(shuō):“我不想要這個(gè)鐵片,把我的雞還給我。”
當(dāng)然,在我們這個(gè)時(shí)代,新事物達(dá)到50%普及率的時(shí)間已經(jīng)大大縮短。以前,美國(guó)用了66年才讓50%的美國(guó)人用上電話(huà),而電視卻只用了四分之一的時(shí)間就達(dá)到了50%的普及率。臉書(shū)的普及率更是不到4年就達(dá)到了50%。新技術(shù)的快速應(yīng)用是我們這個(gè)時(shí)代的特點(diǎn)之一,也是所有投資者都應(yīng)該關(guān)注的一個(gè)現(xiàn)象。在元宇宙領(lǐng)域,我目前還沒(méi)有特別推薦的投資對(duì)象,但我認(rèn)有一些公司是值得關(guān)注的,比如Roblox和Unity。當(dāng)然,現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)更名為Meta的臉書(shū)也很值得關(guān)注。另外我們認(rèn)為,一些傳統(tǒng)公司也很可能從元宇宙中獲益。比方說(shuō),元宇宙所需的計(jì)算力是驚人的,所以就需要像AMD和英偉達(dá)這樣的半導(dǎo)體公司來(lái)驅(qū)動(dòng)它。
基思:關(guān)于千禧一代,我再補(bǔ)充一點(diǎn),從年齡上看,千禧一代馬上即將進(jìn)入收入高峰期,他們最大的一筆開(kāi)銷(xiāo)就是房子——不管是買(mǎi)房、還房貸還是翻修房子。這樣的話(huà),像Angi這樣的公司就會(huì)從中受益。Angi是一家主流的線(xiàn)上房屋服務(wù)平臺(tái),它瞄準(zhǔn)的是一個(gè)9000億美元的目標(biāo)市場(chǎng)。千禧一代跟我們不一樣,他們更喜歡在網(wǎng)上找服務(wù)承包商,而我們這一代人則喜歡通過(guò)黃頁(yè)或者其他途徑。
費(fèi)恩扎格:我并沒(méi)有花太多時(shí)間思考過(guò)千禧一代的問(wèn)題,我主要關(guān)注的是人口的兩個(gè)邊緣,首先是“嬰兒潮”一代的老年人,以及相關(guān)的“養(yǎng)老經(jīng)濟(jì)”及技術(shù)。但更重要的是“Z世代”的年輕人,他們是第一代的“數(shù)字原住民”,他們對(duì)生活的態(tài)度和我們完全不同,敢于質(zhì)疑一切,而且他們彼此之間的關(guān)系也跟我們這一代有很大的不同。我在虛擬幣和元宇宙這兩種前沿技術(shù)上投資的不多,但我的確認(rèn)為它們是一種趨勢(shì)。目前,它們看起來(lái)有賭博和投機(jī)的意味——如果你沒(méi)有做好賠錢(qián)的準(zhǔn)備,就不要打算投資這一類(lèi)的東西。但它還是很值得了解的。
我投資的一家公司就在這個(gè)領(lǐng)域里做了一些很有趣的事,這家公司叫Makara。 Makara所做的事就是創(chuàng)建一個(gè)投資籃子。本質(zhì)上它們是由虛擬幣構(gòu)成的ETF基金,散戶(hù)投資者可以買(mǎi)入這些基金進(jìn)行投資。投資籃子里的資產(chǎn)被它以一種我們這些上了年紀(jì)的千禧一代人和X世代人可以理解的方式包裝了起來(lái),這樣一來(lái),我們就不用擔(dān)心油價(jià),不用管OpenSea(一個(gè)虛擬幣交易平臺(tái))是干什么的,也不用管為什么我們要買(mǎi)那些奇奇怪怪的動(dòng)物幣。
科赫:在這個(gè)行業(yè)里,我們經(jīng)常會(huì)談?wù)摱嘣膯?wèn)題——這是一個(gè)非常重要的問(wèn)題。我們的團(tuán)隊(duì)有一半的投資是由女性經(jīng)理管理的,這是一件很值得驕傲的事。我們經(jīng)常會(huì)談到性別和種族的問(wèn)題,但除此之外,你自己投資團(tuán)隊(duì)也要做到人才的多元化。否則你甚至都不知道為什么有人會(huì)在元宇宙里買(mǎi)一些莫名其妙的東西,這時(shí)候你就需要年輕人幫你理解這些。
新聞界有一條顛撲不破的真理:你的孩子在討論什么事,你就應(yīng)該關(guān)注什么事。我認(rèn)為這一點(diǎn)對(duì)投資者也是一樣的。
我想讓大家回答最后一個(gè)問(wèn)題:你們認(rèn)為明年最大的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)和機(jī)遇在哪里?
吉洛斯:2019年,標(biāo)普500的每股收益是164美元,今年有望達(dá)到205甚至207美元,已經(jīng)遠(yuǎn)高于平均趨勢(shì)。以中值計(jì)算,大盤(pán)股的估值也已接近25年來(lái)的最高點(diǎn),所以收益增長(zhǎng)即將放緩。通常來(lái)說(shuō),這對(duì)市場(chǎng)并不是一個(gè)好信號(hào)。如果總體增長(zhǎng)環(huán)境放緩了,那么那些一向穩(wěn)定增長(zhǎng)的公司就會(huì)重新受到青睞。
基思:我們認(rèn)為2022年最大的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)是勞動(dòng)力短缺,這給企業(yè)創(chuàng)新和增長(zhǎng)帶來(lái)了更大的挑戰(zhàn)。2020年4月份以來(lái),美國(guó)的非農(nóng)就業(yè)人口已經(jīng)增長(zhǎng)了1700萬(wàn)人,但仍然比疫情前低了500萬(wàn)人。因此,企業(yè)要想吸引和保留人才,就要提供一個(gè)安全、包容的環(huán)境。那些擁有強(qiáng)烈的宗旨使命感的企業(yè)將在吸引人才上具備很強(qiáng)的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)優(yōu)勢(shì)。
宗丹:我認(rèn)為最大的機(jī)遇還是在創(chuàng)新型、增長(zhǎng)型的公司身上。我們還處在一個(gè)疫情加劇、加速的時(shí)期,而這也加快了一些行業(yè)和企業(yè)的衰退速度。所以機(jī)會(huì)就會(huì)集中在這些引領(lǐng)趨勢(shì)的公司身上。
在風(fēng)險(xiǎn)方面,我最擔(dān)心的就是通脹。在很長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間里,美國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)的主要受益者是白領(lǐng)工人,而不是藍(lán)領(lǐng)工人。現(xiàn)在我們看到,藍(lán)領(lǐng)工人的待遇有所上升。我認(rèn)為這對(duì)社會(huì)是有好處的,藍(lán)領(lǐng)工人的高工資對(duì)現(xiàn)實(shí)生活是十分必要的,但時(shí)間一長(zhǎng)就容易轉(zhuǎn)化成更高的通脹。
其次是商品通脹。 現(xiàn)在的油價(jià)為83美元。金融危機(jī)以來(lái),我們還沒(méi)有見(jiàn)過(guò)83美元的油價(jià),造成這種現(xiàn)象的主要原因是中國(guó)的崛起。現(xiàn)在有一個(gè)有趣的現(xiàn)象,我本人是一個(gè)環(huán)保主義者,我歡迎能源行業(yè)向風(fēng)能、太陽(yáng)能等可再生能源轉(zhuǎn)型。但由于油氣行業(yè)資本支出的減少,再考慮到可再生能源的未來(lái)前景,接下來(lái)幾年,油氣價(jià)格可能會(huì)一直保持在高位。如果你想讓市場(chǎng)倒逼轉(zhuǎn)型,這或許是最好的方法,但中間也會(huì)有一段很不愉快的過(guò)渡時(shí)期。
科赫:我們擔(dān)心的是供應(yīng)鏈的問(wèn)題會(huì)持續(xù)到2022年,特別是芯片短缺的問(wèn)題。現(xiàn)在芯片從訂購(gòu)到交貨需要長(zhǎng)達(dá)22周的時(shí)間,這是非常滯后的。芯片短缺是一個(gè)非常重要的問(wèn)題,因?yàn)槲覀兘裉煺劦降暮芏鄸|西都需要技術(shù)上的創(chuàng)新,而芯片是所有這些技術(shù)的基礎(chǔ)。
這就引出了我的第二點(diǎn),那就是我們認(rèn)為2022年的一個(gè)重大機(jī)遇在于構(gòu)建供應(yīng)鏈的彈性。我們喜歡那些在這方面考慮得比較周全的公司。目前來(lái)看,中國(guó)和美國(guó)都會(huì)在本土市場(chǎng)上對(duì)芯片設(shè)計(jì)和制造進(jìn)行大規(guī)模的投資,所以我們很看好半導(dǎo)體設(shè)備制造商,比如亞洲的硅力杰、美國(guó)的MKS Instruments等。
萊斯利,你對(duì)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)和機(jī)遇有何看法?
費(fèi)恩扎格:作為做風(fēng)投的人,我一般不以一年而非幾十年為單位來(lái)考慮機(jī)遇和風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。不過(guò)我認(rèn)為很多風(fēng)險(xiǎn)同時(shí)也是機(jī)遇,就像一枚硬幣的兩面。我想說(shuō)的一點(diǎn)是,現(xiàn)在越來(lái)越多的錢(qián)進(jìn)入了創(chuàng)業(yè)領(lǐng)域,因?yàn)閯?chuàng)業(yè)從沒(méi)有像現(xiàn)在這么容易過(guò)。很多投資人發(fā)現(xiàn),風(fēng)投和初創(chuàng)的成果來(lái)得越來(lái)越大、越來(lái)越快。這當(dāng)然是一個(gè)機(jī)遇。
至于挑戰(zhàn),初創(chuàng)公司并不是一個(gè)你可以非常高效地投入大量資本的地方。有時(shí)候情況甚至恰恰相反,你向初創(chuàng)公司投得錢(qián)越多,他們?cè)綄W(xué)不會(huì)如何建立實(shí)際業(yè)務(wù),以及如何在成長(zhǎng)過(guò)程中有效利用資金,這最終對(duì)這些公司是不利的。
更大的機(jī)遇在于讓更多人去工作,去參與到投資和創(chuàng)造財(cái)富的巨大浪潮中來(lái)。在疫情以前,世界經(jīng)濟(jì)論壇曾指出,女性可能還需要160年的時(shí)間才能在經(jīng)濟(jì)上與男性平等。而疫情爆發(fā)以后,這個(gè)時(shí)間變成了300年左右。很多女性不再工作了,她們沒(méi)有參與到經(jīng)濟(jì)中來(lái),她們也沒(méi)有進(jìn)行投資,這種現(xiàn)象是全球性的。即便在我們這個(gè)行業(yè),全世界只有不到1%的資產(chǎn)是由女性管理的。
我將以積極的觀(guān)點(diǎn)結(jié)束發(fā)言——另一方面,現(xiàn)在創(chuàng)富、創(chuàng)業(yè)的周期大大加快,人們參與經(jīng)濟(jì)和創(chuàng)造財(cái)富的方式大大增加,這在以前是根本無(wú)法做到的。有些新模式為投資經(jīng)濟(jì)帶來(lái)了新人、新思維和新資本,我很樂(lè)見(jiàn)這一切所帶來(lái)的機(jī)會(huì)。
這是很好的結(jié)束語(yǔ)。感謝你們的時(shí)間、觀(guān)點(diǎn)和專(zhuān)業(yè)知識(shí)。
三個(gè)興奮點(diǎn)和三個(gè)擔(dān)憂(yōu)點(diǎn)
三個(gè)興奮點(diǎn)
小盤(pán)股
平均要比標(biāo)普500的大公司股便宜得多,隨著消費(fèi)的復(fù)蘇,很多小盤(pán)股公司將獲益,其中不乏一些快速增長(zhǎng)的技術(shù)創(chuàng)新者。
金融科技,永遠(yuǎn)的神
像Toast、Square和PayPal這樣的公司仍處于金融服務(wù)改革的早期階段。
福利更好的公司
初創(chuàng)公司和上市公司更加關(guān)注員工的福祉——這樣可以降低人才流失率,從而更好地回報(bào)股東。
三個(gè)擔(dān)憂(yōu)點(diǎn)
通脹
供應(yīng)鏈問(wèn)題應(yīng)該很快就會(huì)緩解,但勞動(dòng)力短缺問(wèn)題可能不會(huì)很快得到解決,這將引起工資通脹。(好的一面是,這有利于解決收入差距的問(wèn)題。)
芯片短缺
芯片訂貨時(shí)間過(guò)長(zhǎng),達(dá)到創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的水平,可能會(huì)減緩很多企業(yè)的升級(jí)和創(chuàng)新速度。
綠色之痛
化石能源向可再生能源的轉(zhuǎn)型具有極大的經(jīng)濟(jì)意義,但會(huì)提高企業(yè)和消費(fèi)者的短期成本。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng))
本文另一版本刊發(fā)在2021年12月/ 2022年1月刊的《財(cái)富》雜志上,題為《投資者圓桌會(huì)議:精明投資走出危機(jī)模式》。
譯者:樸成奎
在疫情最嚴(yán)重的時(shí)候,很多人擔(dān)心的都是一個(gè)“少”的問(wèn)題——如果被疫情沖擊得千創(chuàng)百孔的經(jīng)濟(jì)讓我們的錢(qián)變少了怎么辦?而在這次《財(cái)富》舉辦的年度投資者圓桌會(huì)議上,由于美國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)近來(lái)復(fù)蘇速度喜人,在談到明年經(jīng)濟(jì)形勢(shì)的時(shí)候,很多人已經(jīng)開(kāi)始擔(dān)心“多”的問(wèn)題了。
人們對(duì)消費(fèi)品的需求太多了,以至于造成了供應(yīng)鏈的混亂,加劇了通脹;太多熱錢(qián)集中在硅谷和華爾街,以至于很多初創(chuàng)公司和股票都有估值過(guò)高之嫌。從更高的層面看,大氣層里的二氧化碳也太多了,迫使企業(yè)的CEO、投資者和消費(fèi)者都必須在可持續(xù)發(fā)展問(wèn)題上做出艱難的選擇。面對(duì)這種局面,與會(huì)的每一位專(zhuān)家也都在尋找那些擁有合適的技術(shù)和商業(yè)模式的公司,希望它們能在如今這個(gè)快速變化的世界中勝出。
參加今年圓桌會(huì)議的嘉賓有:Fred Alger Management公司CEO、首席投資官兼投資組合經(jīng)理宗丹(Dan Chung),風(fēng)投機(jī)構(gòu)Graham & Walker創(chuàng)始人兼董事總經(jīng)理萊斯利·費(fèi)恩扎格(Leslie Feinzaig),T. Rowe Price公司證券與多元資產(chǎn)首席投資官、新書(shū)《資本配置:為股東創(chuàng)造長(zhǎng)期價(jià)值的原則、戰(zhàn)略與過(guò)程》的作者大衛(wèi)·吉洛斯(David Giroux),Parnassus Investments公司研究與投資總監(jiān)洛莉·基思(Lori Keith),以及高盛資產(chǎn)管理公司基本面證券業(yè)務(wù)負(fù)責(zé)人凱蒂·科赫(Katie Koch)。以下是他們?cè)趫A桌會(huì)議上的發(fā)言(有刪節(jié))。
《財(cái)富》:今年是經(jīng)濟(jì)強(qiáng)勢(shì)復(fù)蘇的一年,但是現(xiàn)在我們又看到了一些新的困難,比如通脹、勞工問(wèn)題、供應(yīng)鏈問(wèn)題,以及政府刺激計(jì)劃到期等等。你們是否認(rèn)為2022年的股市總體會(huì)降溫?
凱蒂·科赫:宏觀(guān)上看,我們認(rèn)為2022年是更強(qiáng)調(diào)經(jīng)濟(jì)韌性的一年,明年的回報(bào)率可能會(huì)有所降低。在此背景下,我們?cè)谕顿Y上必須具有高度的選擇性。說(shuō)到經(jīng)濟(jì)韌性,我們投資的領(lǐng)域主要包括穩(wěn)定供應(yīng)鏈——今年我們所有人都發(fā)現(xiàn)了穩(wěn)定供應(yīng)鏈的重要性;此外還有企業(yè)數(shù)字化領(lǐng)域,最后則是促進(jìn)全球向可持續(xù)發(fā)展方向轉(zhuǎn)型。
在疫情早期,數(shù)字化的好處似乎主要被大型科技公司享受了。是否也有些業(yè)務(wù)流向了不太知名的中小企業(yè)?
宗丹:從某種程度上來(lái)講,新技術(shù)的大規(guī)模應(yīng)用,是很多人不得不進(jìn)行的一項(xiàng)試驗(yàn)。但我認(rèn)為,這場(chǎng)試驗(yàn)大體上是相當(dāng)成功的——包括在一些十分傳統(tǒng)的行業(yè)。比如疫情期間,餐飲業(yè)受到的沖擊僅次于航空業(yè),但很多餐飲企業(yè)都開(kāi)啟了線(xiàn)上下單和外賣(mài)服務(wù),而且成績(jī)相當(dāng)亮眼。現(xiàn)在即便城市已經(jīng)開(kāi)放了,他們的外賣(mài)業(yè)務(wù)也比以前紅火很多,甚至要高于疫情前的水平。
萊斯利·費(fèi)恩扎格:正所謂“福兮禍之所倚”,危與機(jī)往往是并存的。疫情給我們的工作和生活方式帶來(lái)了很大干擾,很多人的行為尚未適應(yīng)“新常態(tài)”。在疫情以前,很多風(fēng)投對(duì)教育行業(yè)都是非常謹(jǐn)慎的。但是疫情一來(lái),我們才意識(shí)到,教育還有這么多種方式,因此這個(gè)行業(yè)的投資也達(dá)到了創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的水平。我個(gè)人也在教育領(lǐng)域投資了一兩家公司,其中之一是早教公司LegUp,另一個(gè)是旨在通過(guò)社區(qū)學(xué)院在美國(guó)中部地區(qū)提供學(xué)歷和技能提升項(xiàng)目的Stack Education。
在醫(yī)療服務(wù)領(lǐng)域也有很多創(chuàng)新模式。現(xiàn)在保險(xiǎn)也覆蓋了很多遠(yuǎn)程醫(yī)療項(xiàng)目,并被更多人接受。現(xiàn)在你只需要簡(jiǎn)單地預(yù)約,就可以輕松享受遠(yuǎn)程醫(yī)療服務(wù)。疫情期間,這種個(gè)人醫(yī)療領(lǐng)域的創(chuàng)新也為風(fēng)投創(chuàng)造了前所未有的機(jī)會(huì)。要不是這幾年我們的生活遭遇了這么重大的干擾,可能也就根本不會(huì)有這么大的創(chuàng)新動(dòng)力。
科赫:這種顛覆不僅發(fā)生在風(fēng)投界,也影響到了公開(kāi)市場(chǎng)。據(jù)我們估計(jì),明年包括以后,科技界的一些“大贏(yíng)家”,很有可能將不再是那些在美國(guó)上市的主流平臺(tái)。
想想20年前全球市值最高的十家大公司,活到現(xiàn)在還仍然榜上有名的就只有一個(gè),那就是微軟。其他9家公司已經(jīng)累計(jì)損失了2350億美元市值。這就充分說(shuō)明了尋找下一代企業(yè)的重要性。
我們認(rèn)為,明年企業(yè)界的科技支出可能會(huì)增長(zhǎng)4%,這將是10年來(lái)的最高預(yù)期增長(zhǎng)率。網(wǎng)絡(luò)安全是我們關(guān)注的領(lǐng)域之一,因?yàn)楝F(xiàn)在越來(lái)越多的人將工作放到了云端進(jìn)行。Palo Alto Networks是一家在這方面走在前沿的公司。HubSpot是軟件方面我們比較青睞的一家公司,它主要是在幫助美國(guó)的中小企業(yè)實(shí)現(xiàn)數(shù)字化。
在應(yīng)對(duì)氣候變化上,包括在如何讓企業(yè)實(shí)現(xiàn)綠色運(yùn)營(yíng)上,也有很多技術(shù)層面的機(jī)會(huì)。
洛莉·基思:對(duì)。我想重點(diǎn)談一家叫Roper Technologies的公司,它能幫企業(yè)減少用水量。他們是一家多元技術(shù)公司,主要為各個(gè)小眾市場(chǎng)開(kāi)發(fā)軟件工程產(chǎn)品。同時(shí)他們也提供了一款非常具有創(chuàng)新性的水泵,可以顯著減少用水量,同時(shí)還能監(jiān)測(cè)水質(zhì)。
另一家公司Guidewire Software也符合這個(gè)主題,只不過(guò)可能不那么明顯。當(dāng)然它也順應(yīng)了數(shù)字化的趨勢(shì)。氣候變化帶來(lái)的各種物理風(fēng)險(xiǎn)會(huì)顯著影響財(cái)產(chǎn)保險(xiǎn)的成本,而Guidewire公司的軟件和數(shù)據(jù)分析技術(shù)則可以幫助客戶(hù)管理這些風(fēng)險(xiǎn),處理好這些至關(guān)重要的氣候變化問(wèn)題。
大衛(wèi)·吉洛斯:未來(lái)20年,沒(méi)有任何一個(gè)行業(yè)在減排問(wèn)題上的重要性可以與電力行業(yè)相提并論。目前電力行業(yè)的做法基本是在用風(fēng)能、太陽(yáng)能取代煤炭和天然氣發(fā)電。但問(wèn)題是,煤炭、天然氣包括核能的發(fā)電載荷都是可預(yù)測(cè)的,而風(fēng)能和太陽(yáng)能的發(fā)電載荷卻有很多變數(shù)。為了讓清潔能源經(jīng)濟(jì)真的運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)起來(lái),我們認(rèn)為到2040年前,美國(guó)至少要在新的輸電項(xiàng)目上投資4000億美元。
其中相當(dāng)一部分項(xiàng)目會(huì)集中在中西部,因?yàn)槟抢镲L(fēng)力資源最強(qiáng),不存在像東西海岸那樣的選址問(wèn)題。因此,未來(lái)20年,中西部的電力公司在輸電項(xiàng)目上是大有可為的。Ameren、Exelon、AEP和Xcel等公司可能都會(huì)是比較大的受益者。而且中西部也更不容易受到極端惡劣天氣的影響。
今年,極端天氣事件也給供應(yīng)鏈造成了問(wèn)題。哪些行業(yè)應(yīng)對(duì)這個(gè)問(wèn)題做得最好?
基思:圍繞供應(yīng)鏈其實(shí)有兩個(gè)問(wèn)題:一是實(shí)際的供應(yīng)鏈問(wèn)題,二是勞動(dòng)力短缺的問(wèn)題。我們發(fā)現(xiàn),有些企業(yè)愿意對(duì)員工隊(duì)伍從安全、多元化、健康和福利等方面進(jìn)行投資,所以他們不光克服了勞動(dòng)力短缺的問(wèn)題,還實(shí)現(xiàn)了健康增長(zhǎng)。比如芝加哥期權(quán)交易所是全球最大的證券交易所之一,它的員工自愿離職率只有5%左右,是同類(lèi)企業(yè)中最低的。它提供了很多內(nèi)部項(xiàng)目,比如領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力發(fā)展項(xiàng)目、員工健康項(xiàng)目和一些女性倡議等等,還有一支50多人的多元化團(tuán)隊(duì),這些做法讓員工產(chǎn)生了很高的參與度,從而將離職率降到了最低,這使他們能以更快的速度實(shí)現(xiàn)增長(zhǎng)。
另一家我認(rèn)為很有優(yōu)勢(shì)的公司是Trumbull。 他們主要研究用于建筑業(yè)和農(nóng)業(yè)運(yùn)輸?shù)脑栖浖鉀Q方案。在運(yùn)輸行業(yè),卡車(chē)司機(jī)短缺是運(yùn)輸公司面臨的頭號(hào)問(wèn)題。Trumbull的做法是通過(guò)動(dòng)態(tài)調(diào)度,整合實(shí)時(shí)環(huán)境數(shù)據(jù)和交通數(shù)據(jù),提供優(yōu)化路線(xiàn),以減少司機(jī)在工作中遇到的阻力,提供直至“最后一公里”的服務(wù)。
專(zhuān)家選美股
Toast (TOST, $45)
Shopify (SHOP, $1,691)
PagSeguro Digital (PAGS, $30)
Live Nation (LYV, $113)
Yeti Holdings (YETI, $103)
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, $155)
Nvidia (NVDA, $330)
Angi (ANGI, $10)
Roblox (RBLX, $135)
Silergy (6415.TW, $5,250)
MKS Instruments (MKSI, $163)
Prices as of 11/19/21
價(jià)值截止至2021年11月19日。股票名稱(chēng)按提及順序排列。
在勞動(dòng)力短缺方面,美國(guó)已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)了所謂的“大離職”浪潮,幾乎所有勞動(dòng)者都有一種身心被掏空的感覺(jué)。創(chuàng)業(yè)界一向是以“雞血”、“996”和“007”聞名的。我想知道,你們是否發(fā)現(xiàn)有公司已經(jīng)在著手解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題了?
費(fèi)恩扎格:我們當(dāng)然希望如此。現(xiàn)在我發(fā)現(xiàn)很多公司都在努力解決“留人”的問(wèn)題,從建立輔導(dǎo)平臺(tái)、提供健康服務(wù)到培訓(xùn)和發(fā)展,再到構(gòu)建企業(yè)文化和吸引員工參與。至于他們是否會(huì)成功,我還不知道。
大約10到15年前的時(shí)候,每個(gè)人都想在那種公共區(qū)域提供啤酒的初創(chuàng)公司里工作。不過(guò)現(xiàn)在,我認(rèn)為人們都想找一家真正把他們當(dāng)人看、能夠提供360度全方位支持的公司。現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)有很多公司在開(kāi)展心理健康日活動(dòng)了。要想爭(zhēng)奪人才,光靠給的工資多是不行的。現(xiàn)在人們關(guān)心的是,我的人生只有一次,我應(yīng)該在哪里度過(guò)我寶貴的人生,同時(shí)還能保持一些完整的自我?
你可能會(huì)說(shuō),這種心態(tài)的強(qiáng)化也與一些面向消費(fèi)者的公司的創(chuàng)新有關(guān),它們消除了交易中的阻力。
宗丹:以互聯(lián)網(wǎng)、云計(jì)算和移動(dòng)計(jì)算為代表的這波技術(shù)紅利已經(jīng)持續(xù)20年了。很多人都在說(shuō):“下一個(gè)大機(jī)會(huì)是什么?”有時(shí)它恰恰是那些原本在采用新技術(shù)上很滯后的行業(yè)。金融業(yè)和金融服務(wù)業(yè)絕對(duì)就是這種行業(yè)之一。比如說(shuō),現(xiàn)在的大銀行仍然有大量的實(shí)體分支機(jī)構(gòu),這簡(jiǎn)直令人難以置信。不過(guò)在疫情期間,我們終于看到金融領(lǐng)域的各種移動(dòng)APP被消費(fèi)者大量采用,比如Cash App、PayPal和Square等等,另外在金融服務(wù)業(yè)也有很多其他的移動(dòng)應(yīng)用。除此之外,企業(yè)在財(cái)務(wù)管理上,比如在票據(jù)支付、采購(gòu)與會(huì)計(jì)和合同管理等方面,也開(kāi)始大量應(yīng)用這些金融A(yíng)PP。
不過(guò)奇怪的是,很多這些東西在美國(guó)以外更先進(jìn)。比如在中國(guó),中國(guó)企業(yè)對(duì)微信和支付寶的應(yīng)用要遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)領(lǐng)先于美國(guó)企業(yè)。
科赫:現(xiàn)在這個(gè)時(shí)刻,很有意思的是,我們有了很多顛覆性的技術(shù),而且疫情還加快了這一進(jìn)程。不過(guò)這種創(chuàng)新大多發(fā)生在零售領(lǐng)域。所以現(xiàn)在我們現(xiàn)在可以在網(wǎng)上一鍵下單,第二天快遞就能送到家門(mén)口,簡(jiǎn)直超級(jí)方便,所有人都喜歡這一點(diǎn)。不過(guò)這些大的行業(yè)也容易受到更多監(jiān)管,所以它們?cè)诤芏喾矫娑际歉y被顛覆的。
目前,全球互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司的市值總額大約是14萬(wàn)億美元,全球 金融服務(wù)公司的市值總額大約是16萬(wàn)億美元,所以我認(rèn)為機(jī)會(huì)是巨大的。 2021年,我們將開(kāi)始看到一些即將被顛覆的公司已經(jīng)受到了非常嚴(yán)重的影響。一些傳統(tǒng)支付公司的收益極不理想,原因就是受到了一些宗丹剛剛提到的APP的影響,比如Toast、Square和Shopify等等。它們提供的服務(wù)與傳統(tǒng)支付公司非常類(lèi)似,但從很多方面看都要更好,而且他們的端對(duì)端服務(wù)的成本更低。
世界上已經(jīng)有其他國(guó)家在這方面走得比美國(guó)更遠(yuǎn)了。對(duì)此我有兩點(diǎn)感悟:首先,美國(guó)的支付生態(tài)會(huì)變得更像中國(guó),未來(lái)能把電商、社交和支付整合在一起的APP將會(huì)勝出。
其次,事實(shí)證明,要想在這些市場(chǎng)取得成功,你需要有大量的當(dāng)?shù)刂R(shí)。以巴西為例,巴西已經(jīng)開(kāi)始建立自己的支付生態(tài)系統(tǒng)了。 PagSeguro就是一個(gè)為小微商戶(hù)提供支付服務(wù)的公司。有些時(shí)候,新興市場(chǎng)國(guó)家之所以能在這些方面走在前列,是因?yàn)樗麄儧](méi)有傳統(tǒng)的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施作為歷史包袱。不過(guò)我們也意識(shí)到,美國(guó)也會(huì)產(chǎn)生很多本土贏(yíng)家。不過(guò)這個(gè)領(lǐng)域的全球大贏(yíng)家未必還會(huì)是美國(guó)的“五巨頭”。
新興市場(chǎng)是很多美國(guó)投資者嚴(yán)重忽視的地方。
科赫:你說(shuō)的對(duì)。大多數(shù)美國(guó)投資者對(duì)新興市場(chǎng)配置不足。新興市場(chǎng)約占全球證據(jù)市場(chǎng)的10%到15%,但美國(guó)投資者對(duì)新興市場(chǎng)的配資往往只有一兩個(gè)百分點(diǎn),很多壓根沒(méi)有新興市場(chǎng)投資。但新興市場(chǎng)也有一些很好的公司和增長(zhǎng)機(jī)會(huì)。
通脹對(duì)你的看法有何改變?
吉洛斯:2021年真是一場(chǎng)“完美風(fēng)暴”。即便是在正常經(jīng)濟(jì)復(fù)蘇的年份,通脹一般也會(huì)高于正常水平。但今年美國(guó)出臺(tái)了巨額的經(jīng)濟(jì)刺激計(jì)劃,而且人們也在積極消費(fèi),市場(chǎng)對(duì)耐用消費(fèi)品的需求比趨勢(shì)線(xiàn)高出了20%以上,我們以前從未在數(shù)據(jù)中看到這樣的情況。不管是電器、運(yùn)動(dòng)器材、空調(diào),還是電腦和ipad,它們的需求都遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超出了正常水平。而現(xiàn)有的供應(yīng)鏈不足支持需求在一夜之間暴漲20%。
由供應(yīng)鏈問(wèn)題導(dǎo)致的通脹可能要持續(xù)到2023年,此外還有一些結(jié)構(gòu)性因素也導(dǎo)致了美國(guó)的通脹高于疫情前5年的水平。首先是市場(chǎng)對(duì)大學(xué)以下學(xué)歷工人的需求正在上升,所以他們有了比以往更多的選擇——比如在亞馬遜送快遞,或者干一些靈活的零工。從人口上看,這一部分人口并未增加。所以從本質(zhì)上看,我們需要讓工資在一段時(shí)間里快速上漲,以刺激那些目前沒(méi)有就業(yè)的人去就業(yè)。我們可能不會(huì)永遠(yuǎn)保持4.5%的通脹率,但我認(rèn)為在未來(lái)三到五年,你都會(huì)看到美國(guó)的通脹率要會(huì)比疫情前略高。
這對(duì)投資者的策略有何影響?
吉洛斯:我認(rèn)為有一個(gè)資產(chǎn)類(lèi)別很有吸引力,那就是杠桿貸款。現(xiàn)在它在我的投資組合里占了10%左右,而一兩年前它大概只占1%。它們屬于浮動(dòng)利率貸款,所以如果利率上漲,你就賺了。如果利率是穩(wěn)定的,你也能拿到4%的回報(bào)。即便是利率下跌,你的損失也不會(huì)太大,況且目前并我不認(rèn)為有大幅降息的可能。由于國(guó)債目前價(jià)位很高,所以投資級(jí)債券并不很具有吸引力。而杠桿貸款由于其波動(dòng)性?xún)H有證券市場(chǎng)的三分之一,所以它對(duì)那些風(fēng)險(xiǎn)意識(shí)很強(qiáng)且不喜歡高風(fēng)險(xiǎn)的投資者是很有意義的。
我認(rèn)為現(xiàn)在所有人都有一個(gè)共識(shí),那就是隨著疫情日趨平穩(wěn),經(jīng)濟(jì)將逐步走向正常化——尤其是從消費(fèi)者的個(gè)人體驗(yàn)來(lái)看。你在這方面看到了哪些機(jī)會(huì)?
宗丹:我認(rèn)為接下來(lái)一兩年,小盤(pán)股的表現(xiàn)應(yīng)該會(huì)相當(dāng)不錯(cuò)。因?yàn)檫@些小盤(pán)股公司一般都是深耕國(guó)內(nèi)的公司,比如餐飲、酒店、消費(fèi)品零售和娛樂(lè)企業(yè)等等。他們一般會(huì)有更多的固定成本,并且需要更多的體力勞動(dòng)者。但隨著經(jīng)濟(jì)的復(fù)蘇和增長(zhǎng),一些受疫情影響最嚴(yán)重的行業(yè)將會(huì)有很積極的發(fā)展。
近幾十年,比起物質(zhì)需求,很多消費(fèi)者更加重視的是“體驗(yàn)”——比如旅行、聽(tīng)音樂(lè)會(huì)等等。Live Nation就是一家我們非常喜歡的公司,它是全美最大的音樂(lè)會(huì)和現(xiàn)場(chǎng)演出推廣公司。它的業(yè)務(wù)是數(shù)字化無(wú)法取代的,就連亞馬遜也沒(méi)法跟它搶生意。如果你想見(jiàn)你最喜歡的音樂(lè)人,最好的方法當(dāng)然是去看他現(xiàn)場(chǎng)演出。而且人們也喜歡看現(xiàn)場(chǎng)演出。另外,“千禧一代”已經(jīng)成了目前的消費(fèi)主力,他們是尤其注重體驗(yàn)的一代,他們對(duì)工作、房子、車(chē)子、孩子并不那么看重,但卻很重視旅行、體驗(yàn)、音樂(lè)會(huì)這些東西。
我比較感興趣的另一個(gè)新興的、非物質(zhì)的增長(zhǎng)領(lǐng)域是元宇宙。我們發(fā)現(xiàn),這一代年輕人是很相信元宇宙的,就像他們也能最早接受移動(dòng)化和社交媒體一樣。我并不認(rèn)為元宇宙會(huì)完全取代真實(shí)世界,但它會(huì)給很多年輕的“千禧一代”的生活提供某種補(bǔ)充。
科赫:我想補(bǔ)充兩點(diǎn)。首先,全球有85%的千禧一代人生活在新興市場(chǎng)國(guó)家。所以這些生活體驗(yàn)、旅行和戶(hù)外活動(dòng)方面的趨勢(shì)應(yīng)該是全球化的。其次,現(xiàn)在很多“千禧一代”和“Z世代”的年輕人都會(huì)把他們的生活體驗(yàn)拍成照片,然后發(fā)布在社交媒體上,這樣就實(shí)現(xiàn)了體驗(yàn)的物化——我本人是1980年出生的,所以我算“千禧一代”里的老年人,這些都是我的團(tuán)隊(duì)告訴我的。也就是說(shuō),現(xiàn)在的年輕人不在網(wǎng)上“秀”奢侈品了,但他們可以“秀”生活體驗(yàn)。我想強(qiáng)調(diào)的是好的戶(hù)外公司也有投資價(jià)值,特別是小盤(pán)股,不管是Yeti公司,還是一些做游泳池、房車(chē)或者游艇的公司——現(xiàn)在美國(guó)年輕人擁有的游艇比中老年人還多。
專(zhuān)家選美股
Toast (TOST, $45)
Shopify (SHOP, $1,691)
PagSeguro Digital (PAGS, $30)
Live Nation (LYV, $113)
Yeti Holdings (YETI, $103)
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, $155)
Nvidia (NVDA, $330)
Angi (ANGI, $10)
Roblox (RBLX, $135)
Silergy (6415.TW, $5,250)
MKS Instruments (MKSI, $163)
Prices as of 11/19/21
股價(jià)截止至2021年11月19日
宗丹:我們發(fā)現(xiàn),很多消費(fèi)品牌接受元宇宙的速度很快,他們已經(jīng)開(kāi)始在元宇宙里舉辦活動(dòng)了。他們采用了游戲化的手段,營(yíng)造了可視化的體驗(yàn),如果你采用Oculus這樣的VR頭盔,視覺(jué)效果顯然會(huì)更好。很多企業(yè)都押寶在這種3D化的、更有體驗(yàn)感的環(huán)境。比如Gucci打造了一款虛擬手袋——它是虛擬的,不是真的手袋,但居然也能賣(mài)出好幾千美元。再比如非同質(zhì)化代幣(NFT)。湯姆·布拉迪(著名橄欖球星)就推出了自己的NFT平臺(tái),它本質(zhì)上就是一張數(shù)字化的橄欖球卡片,跟以前的交易卡差不多。有些人跟我說(shuō),能想出這種概念的人肯定是瘋了。但我認(rèn)為,幾千年前的某一天,有個(gè)人走到市場(chǎng)上,他不是用牛羊來(lái)?yè)Q雞和玉米,而是拿出來(lái)了一種叫錢(qián)幣的東西。但是其他小販可能會(huì)以看傻子的眼神看著他說(shuō):“我不想要這個(gè)鐵片,把我的雞還給我。”
當(dāng)然,在我們這個(gè)時(shí)代,新事物達(dá)到50%普及率的時(shí)間已經(jīng)大大縮短。以前,美國(guó)用了66年才讓50%的美國(guó)人用上電話(huà),而電視卻只用了四分之一的時(shí)間就達(dá)到了50%的普及率。臉書(shū)的普及率更是不到4年就達(dá)到了50%。新技術(shù)的快速應(yīng)用是我們這個(gè)時(shí)代的特點(diǎn)之一,也是所有投資者都應(yīng)該關(guān)注的一個(gè)現(xiàn)象。在元宇宙領(lǐng)域,我目前還沒(méi)有特別推薦的投資對(duì)象,但我認(rèn)有一些公司是值得關(guān)注的,比如Roblox和Unity。當(dāng)然,現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)更名為Meta的臉書(shū)也很值得關(guān)注。另外我們認(rèn)為,一些傳統(tǒng)公司也很可能從元宇宙中獲益。比方說(shuō),元宇宙所需的計(jì)算力是驚人的,所以就需要像AMD和英偉達(dá)這樣的半導(dǎo)體公司來(lái)驅(qū)動(dòng)它。
基思:關(guān)于千禧一代,我再補(bǔ)充一點(diǎn),從年齡上看,千禧一代馬上即將進(jìn)入收入高峰期,他們最大的一筆開(kāi)銷(xiāo)就是房子——不管是買(mǎi)房、還房貸還是翻修房子。這樣的話(huà),像Angi這樣的公司就會(huì)從中受益。Angi是一家主流的線(xiàn)上房屋服務(wù)平臺(tái),它瞄準(zhǔn)的是一個(gè)9000億美元的目標(biāo)市場(chǎng)。千禧一代跟我們不一樣,他們更喜歡在網(wǎng)上找服務(wù)承包商,而我們這一代人則喜歡通過(guò)黃頁(yè)或者其他途徑。
費(fèi)恩扎格:我并沒(méi)有花太多時(shí)間思考過(guò)千禧一代的問(wèn)題,我主要關(guān)注的是人口的兩個(gè)邊緣,首先是“嬰兒潮”一代的老年人,以及相關(guān)的“養(yǎng)老經(jīng)濟(jì)”及技術(shù)。但更重要的是“Z世代”的年輕人,他們是第一代的“數(shù)字原住民”,他們對(duì)生活的態(tài)度和我們完全不同,敢于質(zhì)疑一切,而且他們彼此之間的關(guān)系也跟我們這一代有很大的不同。我在虛擬幣和元宇宙這兩種前沿技術(shù)上投資的不多,但我的確認(rèn)為它們是一種趨勢(shì)。目前,它們看起來(lái)有賭博和投機(jī)的意味——如果你沒(méi)有做好賠錢(qián)的準(zhǔn)備,就不要打算投資這一類(lèi)的東西。但它還是很值得了解的。
我投資的一家公司就在這個(gè)領(lǐng)域里做了一些很有趣的事,這家公司叫Makara。 Makara所做的事就是創(chuàng)建一個(gè)投資籃子。本質(zhì)上它們是由虛擬幣構(gòu)成的ETF基金,散戶(hù)投資者可以買(mǎi)入這些基金進(jìn)行投資。投資籃子里的資產(chǎn)被它以一種我們這些上了年紀(jì)的千禧一代人和X世代人可以理解的方式包裝了起來(lái),這樣一來(lái),我們就不用擔(dān)心油價(jià),不用管OpenSea(一個(gè)虛擬幣交易平臺(tái))是干什么的,也不用管為什么我們要買(mǎi)那些奇奇怪怪的動(dòng)物幣。
科赫:在這個(gè)行業(yè)里,我們經(jīng)常會(huì)談?wù)摱嘣膯?wèn)題——這是一個(gè)非常重要的問(wèn)題。我們的團(tuán)隊(duì)有一半的投資是由女性經(jīng)理管理的,這是一件很值得驕傲的事。我們經(jīng)常會(huì)談到性別和種族的問(wèn)題,但除此之外,你自己投資團(tuán)隊(duì)也要做到人才的多元化。否則你甚至都不知道為什么有人會(huì)在元宇宙里買(mǎi)一些莫名其妙的東西,這時(shí)候你就需要年輕人幫你理解這些。
新聞界有一條顛撲不破的真理:你的孩子在討論什么事,你就應(yīng)該關(guān)注什么事。我認(rèn)為這一點(diǎn)對(duì)投資者也是一樣的。
我想讓大家回答最后一個(gè)問(wèn)題:你們認(rèn)為明年最大的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)和機(jī)遇在哪里?
吉洛斯:2019年,標(biāo)普500的每股收益是164美元,今年有望達(dá)到205甚至207美元,已經(jīng)遠(yuǎn)高于平均趨勢(shì)。以中值計(jì)算,大盤(pán)股的估值也已接近25年來(lái)的最高點(diǎn),所以收益增長(zhǎng)即將放緩。通常來(lái)說(shuō),這對(duì)市場(chǎng)并不是一個(gè)好信號(hào)。如果總體增長(zhǎng)環(huán)境放緩了,那么那些一向穩(wěn)定增長(zhǎng)的公司就會(huì)重新受到青睞。
基思:我們認(rèn)為2022年最大的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)是勞動(dòng)力短缺,這給企業(yè)創(chuàng)新和增長(zhǎng)帶來(lái)了更大的挑戰(zhàn)。2020年4月份以來(lái),美國(guó)的非農(nóng)就業(yè)人口已經(jīng)增長(zhǎng)了1700萬(wàn)人,但仍然比疫情前低了500萬(wàn)人。因此,企業(yè)要想吸引和保留人才,就要提供一個(gè)安全、包容的環(huán)境。那些擁有強(qiáng)烈的宗旨使命感的企業(yè)將在吸引人才上具備很強(qiáng)的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)優(yōu)勢(shì)。
宗丹:我認(rèn)為最大的機(jī)遇還是在創(chuàng)新型、增長(zhǎng)型的公司身上。我們還處在一個(gè)疫情加劇、加速的時(shí)期,而這也加快了一些行業(yè)和企業(yè)的衰退速度。所以機(jī)會(huì)就會(huì)集中在這些引領(lǐng)趨勢(shì)的公司身上。
在風(fēng)險(xiǎn)方面,我最擔(dān)心的就是通脹。在很長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間里,美國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)的主要受益者是白領(lǐng)工人,而不是藍(lán)領(lǐng)工人。現(xiàn)在我們看到,藍(lán)領(lǐng)工人的待遇有所上升。我認(rèn)為這對(duì)社會(huì)是有好處的,藍(lán)領(lǐng)工人的高工資對(duì)現(xiàn)實(shí)生活是十分必要的,但時(shí)間一長(zhǎng)就容易轉(zhuǎn)化成更高的通脹。
其次是商品通脹。 現(xiàn)在的油價(jià)為83美元。金融危機(jī)以來(lái),我們還沒(méi)有見(jiàn)過(guò)83美元的油價(jià),造成這種現(xiàn)象的主要原因是中國(guó)的崛起。現(xiàn)在有一個(gè)有趣的現(xiàn)象,我本人是一個(gè)環(huán)保主義者,我歡迎能源行業(yè)向風(fēng)能、太陽(yáng)能等可再生能源轉(zhuǎn)型。但由于油氣行業(yè)資本支出的減少,再考慮到可再生能源的未來(lái)前景,接下來(lái)幾年,油氣價(jià)格可能會(huì)一直保持在高位。如果你想讓市場(chǎng)倒逼轉(zhuǎn)型,這或許是最好的方法,但中間也會(huì)有一段很不愉快的過(guò)渡時(shí)期。
科赫:我們擔(dān)心的是供應(yīng)鏈的問(wèn)題會(huì)持續(xù)到2022年,特別是芯片短缺的問(wèn)題。現(xiàn)在芯片從訂購(gòu)到交貨需要長(zhǎng)達(dá)22周的時(shí)間,這是非常滯后的。芯片短缺是一個(gè)非常重要的問(wèn)題,因?yàn)槲覀兘裉煺劦降暮芏鄸|西都需要技術(shù)上的創(chuàng)新,而芯片是所有這些技術(shù)的基礎(chǔ)。
這就引出了我的第二點(diǎn),那就是我們認(rèn)為2022年的一個(gè)重大機(jī)遇在于構(gòu)建供應(yīng)鏈的彈性。我們喜歡那些在這方面考慮得比較周全的公司。目前來(lái)看,中國(guó)和美國(guó)都會(huì)在本土市場(chǎng)上對(duì)芯片設(shè)計(jì)和制造進(jìn)行大規(guī)模的投資,所以我們很看好半導(dǎo)體設(shè)備制造商,比如亞洲的硅力杰、美國(guó)的MKS Instruments等。
萊斯利,你對(duì)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)和機(jī)遇有何看法?
費(fèi)恩扎格:作為做風(fēng)投的人,我一般不以一年而非幾十年為單位來(lái)考慮機(jī)遇和風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。不過(guò)我認(rèn)為很多風(fēng)險(xiǎn)同時(shí)也是機(jī)遇,就像一枚硬幣的兩面。我想說(shuō)的一點(diǎn)是,現(xiàn)在越來(lái)越多的錢(qián)進(jìn)入了創(chuàng)業(yè)領(lǐng)域,因?yàn)閯?chuàng)業(yè)從沒(méi)有像現(xiàn)在這么容易過(guò)。很多投資人發(fā)現(xiàn),風(fēng)投和初創(chuàng)的成果來(lái)得越來(lái)越大、越來(lái)越快。這當(dāng)然是一個(gè)機(jī)遇。
至于挑戰(zhàn),初創(chuàng)公司并不是一個(gè)你可以非常高效地投入大量資本的地方。有時(shí)候情況甚至恰恰相反,你向初創(chuàng)公司投得錢(qián)越多,他們?cè)綄W(xué)不會(huì)如何建立實(shí)際業(yè)務(wù),以及如何在成長(zhǎng)過(guò)程中有效利用資金,這最終對(duì)這些公司是不利的。
更大的機(jī)遇在于讓更多人去工作,去參與到投資和創(chuàng)造財(cái)富的巨大浪潮中來(lái)。在疫情以前,世界經(jīng)濟(jì)論壇曾指出,女性可能還需要160年的時(shí)間才能在經(jīng)濟(jì)上與男性平等。而疫情爆發(fā)以后,這個(gè)時(shí)間變成了300年左右。很多女性不再工作了,她們沒(méi)有參與到經(jīng)濟(jì)中來(lái),她們也沒(méi)有進(jìn)行投資,這種現(xiàn)象是全球性的。即便在我們這個(gè)行業(yè),全世界只有不到1%的資產(chǎn)是由女性管理的。
我將以積極的觀(guān)點(diǎn)結(jié)束發(fā)言——另一方面,現(xiàn)在創(chuàng)富、創(chuàng)業(yè)的周期大大加快,人們參與經(jīng)濟(jì)和創(chuàng)造財(cái)富的方式大大增加,這在以前是根本無(wú)法做到的。有些新模式為投資經(jīng)濟(jì)帶來(lái)了新人、新思維和新資本,我很樂(lè)見(jiàn)這一切所帶來(lái)的機(jī)會(huì)。
這是很好的結(jié)束語(yǔ)。感謝你們的時(shí)間、觀(guān)點(diǎn)和專(zhuān)業(yè)知識(shí)。
三個(gè)興奮點(diǎn)和三個(gè)擔(dān)憂(yōu)點(diǎn)
三個(gè)興奮點(diǎn)
小盤(pán)股
平均要比標(biāo)普500的大公司股便宜得多,隨著消費(fèi)的復(fù)蘇,很多小盤(pán)股公司將獲益,其中不乏一些快速增長(zhǎng)的技術(shù)創(chuàng)新者。
金融科技,永遠(yuǎn)的神
像Toast、Square和PayPal這樣的公司仍處于金融服務(wù)改革的早期階段。
福利更好的公司
初創(chuàng)公司和上市公司更加關(guān)注員工的福祉——這樣可以降低人才流失率,從而更好地回報(bào)股東。
三個(gè)擔(dān)憂(yōu)點(diǎn)
通脹
供應(yīng)鏈問(wèn)題應(yīng)該很快就會(huì)緩解,但勞動(dòng)力短缺問(wèn)題可能不會(huì)很快得到解決,這將引起工資通脹。(好的一面是,這有利于解決收入差距的問(wèn)題。)
芯片短缺
芯片訂貨時(shí)間過(guò)長(zhǎng),達(dá)到創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的水平,可能會(huì)減緩很多企業(yè)的升級(jí)和創(chuàng)新速度。
綠色之痛
化石能源向可再生能源的轉(zhuǎn)型具有極大的經(jīng)濟(jì)意義,但會(huì)提高企業(yè)和消費(fèi)者的短期成本。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng))
本文另一版本刊發(fā)在2021年12月/ 2022年1月刊的《財(cái)富》雜志上,題為《投資者圓桌會(huì)議:精明投資走出危機(jī)模式》。
譯者:樸成奎
During the depths of the pandemic, many of us worried about scarcity: What if a battered, disrupted economy left us with too little? In contrast, when the panelists on our annual investor roundtable gathered to talk about 2022, in the context of a roaring U.S. recovery, many were grappling with the challenges of too much. Too much demand for consumer goods, tangling supply chains and stoking inflation; too much money sloshing around in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street, making startups and stocks look overvalued; and on a far more sober note, too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, posing difficult choices about sustainability for CEOs, investors, and consumers alike. No surprise, then, that each of our experts is on the hunt for companies that have the business models and the technology to adapt to a fast-changing world.
Joining us on this year’s panel were Dan Chung, the CEO, chief investment officer, and portfolio manager at Fred Alger Management; Leslie Feinzaig, the founder and managing director at venture capital firm Graham & Walker; David Giroux, chief investment officer for equity and multi-asset at T. Rowe Price and author of the new book Capital Allocation: Principles, Strategies, and Processes for Creating Long-Term Shareholder Value; Lori Keith, director of research and portfolio manager at Parnassus Investments; and Katie Koch, cohead of fundamental equity at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. What follows are edited excerpts from our conversation; read more at Fortune.com.
Fortune: We’ve been through this incredible rebound year, but now we’re starting to see new headwinds, whether it’s inflation, labor and supply-chain problems, or the end of government stimulus. Is 2022 a year when you see equities in general cooling off?
Katie Koch: Big picture, we think of 2022 as a year of transitioning from recovery to more resilience, where returns will be more muted. And we’re going to have to be highly selective against that backdrop. So in terms of resilience, areas where we’re looking to invest would include the reshoring of supply chains, which we all have discovered this year need to be more resilient; digitalization of businesses; and finally, investing in the transition to a more sustainable planet.
Early in the pandemic, the benefits of digitalization seemed to flow mostly to Big Tech. Are we seeing some of that business flow to lesser-known names or smaller companies?
Dan Chung: The massive acceleration in the adoption of technology, in some ways, was a forced experiment for a lot of stakeholders. But the experience, I think, by and large has been very positive—including in some much older industries. So for example, among restaurants, the most hard-hit industry other than airlines, many pivoted to delivery and online ordering. And the results are really quite amazing. For many of them, they’re seeing that even as we reopen, their delivery efforts are actually holding up quite a bit better; they’re above the levels where they were before COVID.
Leslie Feinzaig: Building on that point, I think that in times of great disruption comes great opportunity. And we’ve had a major disruption in how we live and work and plan to do everything, and behavior hasn’t settled into what the new normal will be. A lot of VCs were very cautious about the education industry before the pandemic. And now as we realize that there are so many different ways of delivering education, we’re starting to see record investing. Personally, I’m invested in a couple of companies in the space. One is LegUp, which helps parents connect with early childhood education suppliers, and the other is Stack Education, which is delivering upskilling and rescaling programs through community colleges in the middle of America.
I’m also seeing a lot of innovation around models for delivering health care differently. Now that insurance covers a lot more telehealth, it’s a lot more widely acceptable. Now you can just book an appointment and get on with your day. All of the extra thoughtfulness that people have had, for better or worse, around personal health through the pandemic is creating all of these opportunities for spaces that venture capital has never touched before. I don’t think we’d be seeing this much traction if it weren’t for the great disruption of our lives over the past couple of years.
Koch: That disruption in venture extends into the public markets too. And we expect some of the big winners in tech next year and beyond actually to be outside of those dominant platforms that are listed in the U.S.
If you think about the largest companies in the world by market cap 20 years ago and compare that to today, there’s only one company that’s still on that list, which is Microsoft. Those other nine companies since then have lost a cumulative $235 billion of market cap. And so this speaks to the importance of finding the next generation of companies.
We think that enterprise spending on tech could be up 4% next year, which would be the highest projected growth rate in 10 years. And some areas that we’re looking at include cybersecurity, as people move workloads from the edge of the network to the cloud. Palo Alto Networks would be a company that’s going to be at the leading edge of that. In software, HubSpot, one that we like, is helping to basically digitalize aspects of small and midsize businesses in the U.S.
There’s a big technological side as well to climate-change–related thinking and making companies’ operations greener.
Lori Keith: Absolutely. One company I’d highlight that is helping companies reduce their water use is Roper Technologies. They’re a diversified technology company that develops software-engineered products for a variety of niche markets. But they’ve been providing very innovative water pumps that allow their customers to use significantly less water and to monitor that water quality.
Another, maybe less obvious, candidate with this theme is Guidewire Software. Certainly, it also plays into the digitalization trend that Katie and Dan have spoken on. The physical risk of climate change is driving really dramatic costs in property insurance. Guidewire’s software and data analytics are helping its customers to manage these risks, handling these mission-critical climate-change issues.
David Giroux: If you think about utilities, probably over the next 20 years, there’s going to be no sector that’s going to play a bigger part in essentially reducing greenhouse gases. What you’re seeing the utilities do today is basically replace coal and less-efficient natural-gas plants with wind and solar. But the issue is what happens when you go from baseload generation that’s very predictable, like coal, like nuclear, like natural gas, to generation with wind and solar, which is more variable. To make this clean-energy economy work, we estimate you may need as much as $400 billion spent on new transmission projects in this country by 2040.
A good chunk of that going to be in the Midwest. That’s where the wind resources are the strongest, where you don’t have the same siting issues as you have on the East and West coasts. So the Midwest utilities that have a lot of exposure to transmission are really well positioned to benefit for the next 20 years. Companies like Ameren, Exelon, AEP, and Xcel would all be big beneficiaries. And the Midwest tends to have far less of the severe weather that impacts these utilities’ physical plants.
Extreme weather events have also been disrupting supply chains this year. Which industries are coping with that best?
Keith: There’s two issues around the supply chain: the actual supply chain and labor shortages. We’re seeing that companies that are investing in their workforce, building up strong, inclusive workplaces around safety, diversity, health, and wellness, have been much better equipped to not only manage, but thrive. Cboe, which is one of the largest global exchange holding companies, has a level of about 5% voluntary turnover, which is among the lowest of its peers. The programs it’s offering in-house—leadership development programs, employee wellness programs, women’s initiatives, a group of 50-plus diverse associates—are generating a very high level of engagement and minimizing that turnover, which allows them to continue to grow, faster.
Another company that I think is really well positioned is Trumbull. They’re primarily focused on cloud-based software solutions for construction and agricultural transportation. Within the transportation sector, for instance, truck driver shortages are the No. 1 issue for carriers right now. What Trumbull does is remove that friction from drivers’ jobs with dynamic scheduling, optimized routing that incorporates real-time, environmental data, traffic data, to provide a more efficient route, all the way down to that very last mile.
Picks from the experts
Palo Alto Networks (PANW, $530)
HubSpot (HUBS, $822)
Roper Technologies (ROP, $498)
Guidewire Software (GWRE, $123)
Ameren (AEE, $85)
Exelon (EXC, $54)
American Electric Power Company (AEP, $83)
Xcel Energy (XEL, $65)
Cboe Global Markets (CBOE, $129)
PayPal (PYPL, $194)
Square (SQ, $225)
Prices as of 11/19/21. Stocks appear in the order mentioned
On the labor shortage front, we’re in the middle of what people have been calling the Great Resignation, with workers feeling burned out. Leslie, the startup space is a notoriously hard-charging, work-all-hours universe. I’m wondering, are you seeing companies that are addressing this?
Feinzaig: I mean, you certainly hope so after the couple years that we’ve had. I’m seeing a huge number of companies trying to solve the future of work for bigger corporations, everything from mentoring platforms, health services, coaching, development, and trying to sell into the enterprise and create engagement across employees. Are they gonna succeed? I don’t know.
Ten, 15 years ago, everybody wanted to work at a startup that served beer in the lobby. I think these days, people are looking for a company that can think about them as a human being and provide that 360-degree support. We’re seeing a ton of companies doing companywide mental health days. To compete for talent, it’s no longer just about who pays the most money. It’s about, Where can I spend my one, precious life and have some wholeness?
You could argue that mindset is also reinforced by some of the innovations in consumer-facing companies, taking the friction out of transactions.
Chung: After 20 years of internet and technology and cloud and mobile computing, a lot of people say, “Well, what is the next big opportunity?” Sometimes it’s in industries that have been slow to adapt and change to meet consumers. Finance and financial services is definitely one of these. I mean, it’s still stunning how many physical branches there are for some of our major banks. But we finally did see during COVID massive adoption of all kinds of mobile apps for consumers in the financial sector. Cash App, PayPal, Square, and many others in financial services. And also for businesses, management of their financial processes—bill payment, purchasing and accounting, contract management.
Oddly enough, many of these things are more advanced in terms of digitalization outside the U.S., for example in China, where WeChat Pay and Ant Financial among Chinese companies are far ahead in their adoption compared to the U.S.
Koch: What’s really interesting about this moment, and what COVID has helped accelerate, is that we’ve had a lot of disruption of technology. But most of it happened in the retail space. And so we got these, you know, cardboard boxes that come overnight to our house. And it’s superconvenient. And everybody loves that. Now we’re at the precipice of technology being pointed at these very large sectors that tend to be more regulated. So they were in a lot of ways harder to disrupt.
There is currently $14 trillion of market cap globally in internet companies. And there’s $16 trillion of market cap in financial services companies. So the opportunity, I think, is enormous. In 2021, we’re starting to see some of those companies that were ripe for disruption get very, very hurt. Those old-line payments companies reported very muted earnings, because they’re getting disrupted by some of the companies that Dan was speaking to, whether it’s Toast or Square or Shopify, which are providing very similar service, and in a lot of ways a better service, at a lower cost with end-to-end solutions.
There are other parts of the world that are farther along on this journey. There’s two takeaways for me from that. The first is that you’re going to see the U.S. payment space look more like China. So it’s probably going to coalesce around e-commerce, social media and payments, and apps that can wrap those three things together are positioned to win.
Second, it turns out that you do need to have a lot of local knowledge to be successful in these markets. Take Brazil as an example. They’re starting to build out their very own payment ecosystem. So I would put forward PagSeguro as an example of a company that’s providing payments to micro-merchants. In some ways emerging markets are ahead because they didn’t have the legacy infrastructure. But we’re also realizing that we’re going to have a lot of local winners. It is not necessarily going to be those five Big Tech platforms that own the whole world in this space.
And emerging markets are an arena where a lot of American investors are notoriously underinvested.
Koch: You’re very right. Most U.S. investors are under-allocated to the rest of the world into emerging markets, specifically, which is somewhere between 10% to 15% of global equity market cap, but usually only a couple percent of people’s equity portfolio in the U.S., if they have it at all. And there are some fantastic companies, great growth opportunities.
How is inflation changing your thinking right now?
Giroux: We need to keep in mind that 2021 is really the perfect storm. Just through normal recovery, we were always gonna see above normal inflation this year. But we also had massive stimulus, and people are spending that. Demand for consumer durables is up in many cases more than 20% above the trend line. We really have never seen anything like it in the data before. You know, appliances, exercise equipment, air conditioning, computers, iPads—way above normalized demand. And the supply chain was just not built to support a 20% spike in demand overnight.
This supply-chain, cyclically driven inflation will probably go away going to 2023. But there are some structural things that will probably result in inflation being higher than it was in the five years prior to COVID. The issue comes down to the worker who doesn’t have a college education. Demand for those workers is going up. And they have more options than ever, whether it be Amazon or whether it be gig jobs that offer tremendous flexibility. Demographically that population is really not growing. So essentially, we need to have wages rise fast enough over time to drive people who are not working and incentivize them to work. We’re probably not going to have 4.5% inflation forever, but I think for next three to five years, you could see inflation be moderately higher than we saw pre-pandemic.
How is that shaping investor strategy?
Giroux: One of the asset classes that I think about being really attractive is leveraged loans. It is around 10% of my portfolio today. It was 1% of the portfolio a couple years ago. These are floating-rate loans, so if rates rise, you benefit from that. If rates are stable, you get a 4% return. And if rates drop, which I don’t think they’re going drop dramatically from right here, you’re probably not going to be hurt that much at all. Treasuries are very expensive right now. Investment-grade bonds don’t look that attractive. And so leveraged loans, earning 4% with one-third the volatility of the equity market—for most risk-averse, risk-aware investors, that makes a lot of sense.
I think one assumption all of us share is a confidence that more of the economy is headed toward normal, after COVID—especially consumer experiences happening in person. What kind of opportunities are you seeing in that world?
Chung: I think small-cap equities, in particular, are going to perform quite nicely in the next year to two years, because typically, small-cap companies are more domestic: a lot of restaurants, hotels, consumer retail, and entertainment. Their business often has more fixed costs and more physical labor. But as the economy unwinds and improves, some of what was the most negatively impacted by COVID will become a positive story.
A lot of consumers for decades have been replacing demand for material things and valuing more “experiences”—things like travel or concerts. Live Nation is a company that we like a lot, the largest concert and live events promoter. This is an Amazon-proof, brick-and-mortar business not subject to digitalization. If you want to go see your favorite musician, nothing replaces seeing them live. And people do like being part of an audience, a crowd. But you also have the rise of the millennials. This is the most experiential-based, youthful demographic group we’ve ever had. They are not as focused on, you know, job, home, car, having kids; they’re much more focused on travel, experiences, concerts.
Another emerging, nonmaterial growth trend I’m interested in is the metaverse. We are finding that this generation is really adopting that, just like they adopted mobile first, and then social media first. I don’t think it’s going to replace real-world experiences, but it’s a complement to the lives of many, many of the younger millennials.
Koch: Two things I would add to that: First, 85% of the world’s millennials live in emerging markets. So these trends around live experiences, travel, the great outdoors, we try to own globally. The other point I would make is that social media has enabled millennial and Gen Z consumers—and I was born in 1980, so I’m a geriatric millennial, I’m told by my team—to take pictures of experiences that they’re having and post them to social media and that in a way, it transforms an experience into a thing. So instead of showing off luxury goods, they can take experiences and do the same thing. I also want to emphasize this idea of being in the great outdoors. There’s a lot of ways to access that in small-cap, whether it’s Yeti, whether it’s pool companies, whether it’s owning the RV companies, or boats—because boat ownership is now higher among millennials and younger generations.
Picks from the experts
Toast (TOST, $45)
Shopify (SHOP, $1,691)
PagSeguro Digital (PAGS, $30)
Live Nation (LYV, $113)
Yeti Holdings (YETI, $103)
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, $155)
Nvidia (NVDA, $330)
Angi (ANGI, $10)
Roblox (RBLX, $135)
Silergy (6415.TW, $5,250)
MKS Instruments (MKSI, $163)
Prices as of 11/19/21
Chung: We’re seeing a rapid adoption by consumer brands hosting events in the metaverse. They are gamifying, creating environments that can be visually experienced, obviously better visually experienced if you use something like an Oculus, a VR headset. A lot of the leaders are going to transfer what they’ve been doing on social media into this more three-dimensional, more experiential environment. Gucci created a one-of-a-kind digital bag—digital, not a real bag. And they managed to sell it for thousands of dollars. Or look at non-fungible tokens, NFTs. Tom Brady, for example, has got an NFT; it’s basically a digital football card, like a trading card of old. Some people have told me that these ideas are crazy. And I say, Well, just remember one day thousands of years ago, somebody showed up at the marketplace. And instead of bringing sheep and pigs to trade for chickens and corn, they brought something called a coin. And probably the other vendors looked at them and said, “I don’t want that piece of metal. Where’s my chicken?”
Certainly, the experience of the adoption of new things in our age is that the time to 50% penetration has rapidly accelerated, consistently over many, many decades. It took 66 years to get 50% of America with a telephone. It took a quarter of that time to get TVs to 50%, and Facebook got adopted by 50% in probably like less than four years. We’re just seeing rapid, rapid adoption, and that is a phenomenon of our times that I think all investors need to be focused on. So when we think of the metaverse, I don’t have any particular investments to recommend, but I can think of some companies to watch like Roblox and Unity. And of course, Facebook itself, now called Meta, is one to watch. But we do think one interesting outcome is going to be the benefit to some traditional companies. So for example, to power the metaverse the amount of computing power needed is going to be amazing. So there are companies like AMD and Nvidia: Their semiconductors, they’re going to be needed to power this stuff.
Keith: One further point on the millennials: They’re approaching their peak earning years. And among their biggest purchases are going to be homes—financing homes, but also investing in their homes, repairing their homes. One beneficiary would be a company like Angi. Angi is the dominant platform provider of online home services and contracting services. It’s a $900 billion market that they operate across. And millennials are really going to be much more inclined to identify contractors online versus historically what we all did, pulling something out of the Yellow Pages or some other route.
Feinzaig: It’s funny: I haven’t spent much time thinking about millennials. I think a lot about the two edges of the population. One is baby boomers, and the caring economy and how to create technologies that can be for that population. But more important is Gen Z. These are, you know, the first digital natives—a completely different attitude to life, question everything you know—and they take a very different approach to, really, everything about how they relate to one another. So I’m not a huge investor in crypto and metaverse, those edge technologies and edge behaviors, but I do think that they are coming. And right now it looks a lot like play money, it looks very speculative—you certainly should not be investing anything that you’re not prepared to lose—but it is worth learning.
I have an investment in a company that is doing something really interesting in that space, called Makara. And what Makara does is create investment baskets: Essentially, they’re ETFs made up of cryptocurrencies that the retail investor can then go in as investments. It’s packaging all of this up in a way that we geriatric millennials and Gen Xers can understand and get behind, and not have to be quite so worried about gas fees, or what’s OpenSea, and why should I buy a GIF of an animal that looks really weird.
Koch: We talk about diversity a lot in this industry—it’s very, very important. We’re proud on our team that half the assets are run by portfolio managers that happen to be women. We talk a lot around gender and race, and we should, but the other thing that is also important is having demographic diversity on your own investing team. When you’re trying to figure out why someone wants to buy a burrito from Chipotle through Roblox in the metaverse, you need young people on the team to help you understand that.
There’s a truism in journalism that if your kids are talking about it, it’s a story you should pay more attention to. I think that’s true for investors as well.
I want to give everyone a chance to answer one last question: Where do you see the greatest risks and the greatest opportunities in the year ahead?
Giroux: The S&P 500 did $164 per share in earnings in 2019; we’re going to do $205, $207 this year. We’re well above trend earnings growth. Valuations are near 25-year highs in large-cap equities on a median basis, and earnings growth is going to slow. Usually that’s not a great combination for the market. If you’re going from an environment where growth is plentiful to a place where growth is more muted, companies that are more consistent growers will probably go back in favor.
Keith: What we see as the “Look out!” biggest risk for earnings in 2022 is the shortage of labor, which makes it much more challenging for companies to innovate and ultimately grow. Nonfarm payrolls have risen by 17 million since the trough of April 2020, but they’re still down 5 million from the pre-pandemic level. So providing a safe, inclusive, great workplace, I think that’s table stakes today for companies to be able to attract and motivate and retain their talent base. And companies that have a really strong corporate purpose, a mission, are going to be a very significant competitive advantage in attracting and engaging their employees.
Chung: The greatest opportunities I continue to see are in innovative growth companies. I think we’re in a period that COVID accentuated and accelerated, and for some companies and industries accelerated their decline. So the opportunities are around focusing on the companies leading those trends.
On the risk side, my greatest concern for the markets is inflation. For a long time, growth in the U.S. has benefited white-collar labor, but not blue-collar laborers. Now we’re seeing blue-collar [workers] gain some of that back. And I think that’s good for our society, but higher wages at the blue-collar jobs that are so necessary for actual real life do tend to translate into higher inflation over time.
And then there’s commodity inflation. Oil is at $83. We haven’t seen $83 since before the Great Financial Crisis, and that was driven by the rise of China. Today we have an interesting phenomenon. And it’s difficult for me because I am an environmentalist. I welcome the transition to renewables and sustainable wind and solar and others. But we could have a difficult period where because of disciplined, reduced capital spending in the oil and gas industries, and the future outlook for renewables, we could see sustained very high oil and natural-gas prices for years. If you want the markets to force the transition to renewables, that could be the best way for it to happen. But there could be a very unpleasant middle period there.
Koch: We are worried about supply-chain constraints lasting well into 2022. And an area that we have a particular focus on would be the chip famine that we’re all facing. Right now, we have a record high 22-week lead time between when a chip is ordered and when it is delivered. That is a very bad, bad lag. And it’s very relevant because a lot of what we’ve talked about today is the need for more technological disruption, innovation. Chips are foundational to all of that technology.
That leads me to my second point, which is, we continue to think a major opportunity in 2022 and beyond lies in building supply-chain resiliency. We like the companies that have already been thoughtful about that. For the moment, we are expecting both China and the U.S. to make massive investments in being able to design but also fab their chips in those home markets. And so we love semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Silergy would be an example of one in Asia, and MKS Instruments would be an example in the U.S.
Leslie, any last thoughts on risks and opportunities?
Feinzaig: As a VC, it’s hard for me to think about opportunities and risks in one-year chunks, rather than in decades. But most of the risks I see are the same as the opportunities; it’s two sides of the same coin. One thing I would say is, more and more money is coming into the startup space, because it has never been easier to start a company; it has never been easier to scale a company. A lot of investors are starting to see that the outcomes in venture and the outcomes in early stage are getting bigger, and they’re happening faster, and there’s more of them to be had. So that’s certainly an opportunity.
Now the challenge is that early stage is not a place where you can very efficiently invest large amounts of capital. In fact, if the opposite happens, like the more money thrown at early-stage companies, the less they learn how to build substantial businesses and be efficient with their capital as they grow, and that ends up being bad for the company.
We would also be remiss to not talk about the giant need and opportunity to bring more people to work, and to bring more people into the tide of investing and wealth creation. Before the pandemic, the World Economic Forum had said that it was going to take something like 160 years for women to reach economic gender parity [with men]. And after the pandemic, it’s almost 300 years. So many women are no longer working; they’re not participating; they’re not investing globally. Even in our profession, less than 1% of all assets worldwide are managed by women.
But the flip side of that is—I’m going to end on a positive note—that same increasingly fast cycle of wealth generation, of company creation, of growth creates huge opportunities for people to participate and build wealth in ways that were really kind of inaccessible to masses before. There are really interesting models out there that are bringing more new people, more new thinking, more new capital into the investing economy, and I’m super excited to see what that brings.
That’s a great note to end on. Thank you all so much for your time, your insight, and your expertise.?
3 things to get excited about, and 3 to worry about
Get excited about:
Small-cap stocks
They’re far cheaper, on average, than the S&P 500’s giants; many are poised to benefit from a consumer recovery; and their ranks include fast-growing tech innovators.
Fintech forever
Companies like Toast, Square, and PayPal are still in the early innings of their battle to shake up financial services.
Kinder companies
Startups and public companies are paying more attention to their employees’ well-being—which can pay off for shareholders by reducing turnover.
Worry about:
Inflation
Supply-chain bottlenecks should ease soon, but labor shortages probably won’t, and that will stoke wage inflation. (On the bright side, it could ease income inequality.)
Chip shortages
Record-high wait times for semiconductors could slow down many companies’ efforts to upgrade and innovate.
Green pain
The transition from fossil fuels to renewables is an economic imperative, but its short-term costs could bite companies and consumers alike.
A version of this article appears in the December 2021/January 2022 issue of Fortune with the headline, "Investor Roundtable: The smart money moves beyond crisis mode."