Monday, May 20, 2013

The grass is always greener on the other side….

Quote from Johann Peter Rupert on Compagnie Financière Richemont’s May 16th Earnings Call, in regards to investing in their own people and brands versus going out an acquiring new ones:

“A return on investment is so much higher by backing our own colleagues. I mean, it's multiple than buying another thing. And we have a saying at home that you only find out when you climb over that the reason why it's greener is because of all the cow dung that's hidden in the grass. And as soon as you start stepping in all of this stuff, then you wonder why did I climb across the fence? So whenever we buy something, we find that, we'd never thought of this, but it's there. And then it takes the most valuable component of these 3 guys on the right. It takes their time and you start wasting time on things that are not going to return -- give you the same returns, as if you spend more time on Cartier, Van Cleef and Piaget.”