Charlie Munger's Influence Will Be Felt For Generations, Says Ramesh Damani

BSE member and veteran investor Ramesh Damani. (Image courtesy: BQPrime)

Charlie Munger's influence will be felt beyond the investing world for generations to come, according to market veteran Ramesh Damani.

"I think his influence will be felt not only in terms of investing, but in terms of philosophy, logic, architecture, corporate governance for many many generations beyond this one," Damani said in an interview with BQ Prime's Niraj Shah.

Munger, who was vice chairman at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Warren Buffett's partner for the last six decades, died at the age of 99 on Nov. 28.

"Berkshire Hathaway could not have been built to its present status without Charlie's inspiration, wisdom and participation," Buffett, chief executive at the company, said in a statement.

The partnership began when they bumped into each other in Los Angeles, where Munger was practicing law. Damani cited an incident from the mid-80s. When Buffett bought a plane for himself, Munger had called the move indefensible. Adding humor to the situation, Buffett had named the plane 'Indefensible'.

While Buffett pulled Munger into investing, it was Munger who asked his him to buy a great business at a fair price, rather than buying a fair business at a great price as "compounding over a long term will make a huge difference to the value of that business". A lesson that Damani has learnt from them.

"The one thing that Munger told very clearly about investing was the importance of inverting. He used the great mathematician Jacobi and said invert a problem you can't solve...Linearly invert the problem," Damani said. "...I think it helps to look backward and try and solve the problem and I often tend to use that in my own investing."

To highlight the kind of influence the legendary investor had, Damani mentioned how the dining hall was named after Munger at Dakshina Institute in Pune. The wisdom, anecdotes, investment thesis, he said, are now spreading to smaller cities.

"It'll take almost a generation of investors to forget the presence of Munger (at Berkshire Hathway AGM), which unfortunately we'll have to get used to," he said.