📖Li Lu

Management Evaluation

🌿 Intermediate★★★★★

Judge management by actions, not words.

💬

Evaluate management by their actions, not their words. Look for a track record of capital allocation, shareholder communication, and aligned incentives.

— Li Lu Columbia Lectures,2010

🏠 Everyday Analogy

Valuation is like buying a house: the asking price reflects mood, but true value comes from structure, location, and long-term utility. Good assets still need sensible prices.

📖 Core Interpretation

In Management Evaluation, Li Lu focuses on the gap between price and value. Returns come from paying less than what a business is worth, not from guessing short-term market moves.
💎 Key Insight:Track record reveals true management quality.

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❓ Why It Matters

Ignoring valuation turns even good companies into poor investments. Overpaying compresses future returns and leaves little margin when assumptions are wrong.

🎯 How to Practice

Estimate intrinsic value with conservative assumptions, set clear buy ranges, and act only when price offers a meaningful discount with acceptable downside.

⚠️ Common Pitfalls

Confusing a low price with true cheapness
Using one metric without business context
Overly optimistic assumptions that erase margin of safety

📚 Case Studies

1
Post‑Crisis BYD Volatility (2011)
After initial success, BYD’s stock price fell sharply amid concerns over growth, competition, and China’s EV policy shifts.
✨ Outcome:Li Lu maintained a concentrated stake, emphasizing intrinsic value; the company later recovered and reached new highs as EV adoption accelerated.
2
BYD Investment (2003)
Li Lu and Charlie Munger invested in Chinese battery and EV maker BYD when it was little-known and cheap.
✨ Outcome:By holding for over a decade, the investment multiplied many times as BYD became a global EV leader.

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