2018: Can a multicultural team improve international business relations?

Audience Member: Hi, Mr. Buffett and Mr. Munger. My name’s Kevin, and I’m from Shenzhen, China, currently studying finance and philosophy at Boston College. I have a rather broad question. In this more and more globalized world, what do you think our younger generation can do to best leverage our background and experience of both China and the U.S. to create value and benefit the two countries' economy and relationship? And what do you see as valuable in a person with a multicultural background? Thank you.

Warren Buffett: Well, I think in answer to the last question, I think it’s terrific to have a multicultural background. And I never was any good at languages. But if I were in college today, in either country, I’d be learning the language of the other country, because I think it would be a great advantage over time.

The first part of the question, I’d like to have that stated again to me. I want to make sure I’m answering your specific aspect there. I think it’s going to be good for your future. Could we get the microphone back up there?

Audience Member: So the first part of the question is, like, what do you think our younger generation can do to best leverage our background and experience of both China and the U.S.?

Warren Buffett: Well, I’d start with being multilingual, certainly, you know. Obviously, you want to be able to express yourself in both languages. And the better you understand the culture of another society, that’s obviously a benefit.

But I think the market system, modified as it may be, both in China and in the United States, does work in a way that improves the lot of future generations, partly through interactions with the rest of the world. Since World War II, we’ve made a lot of progress in this respect. I mean, the Marshall Plan was a terrific idea; it was much more intelligent than how we behaved after World War I, which led to a worse outcome.

So I’m optimistic about the future of the United States, China, and the rest of the world. People will be living better 10, 20, 50 years from now, and I don’t think that can be stopped. Charlie? Absent weapons of mass destruction.

Charlie Munger: Yeah, well, with multicultural skills, it wouldn’t do you much good to be fluent in both English and Chinese if you were, say, a proctologist in China or Nebraska. (Laughter) So, if you’re going to use your multicultural background, you’ve got to work at some interface between the United States and China. You could raise money in the United States and invest it in China like Li Lu does, or you could be an importer or a trade specialist. But you’ve got to get near that interface to benefit from being bilingual and so on.

Warren Buffett: But you would bet that the interface will be substantially greater.

Charlie Munger: Huge.

Warren Buffett: Yeah.

Charlie Munger: Huge.

Warren Buffett: And that’s what you want to prepare for.

Charlie Munger: Yes. And I think that generally, you can also be multidisciplinary with multicultural skills. But generally, I think people make more money if they’re very narrowly specialized, like the proctologist. (Laughter) It’s much harder to make a lot of money for most people if you try to imitate Warren and me.

Warren Buffett: I’m glad I didn’t meet him earlier. (Laughter)