At just 30 years old, Cara Goldenberg is at the top of her game. She is the founder and managing partner of Permian Investment Partners, a New York City-based hedge fund she launched in 2008.
卡拉•戈登伯格年仅30岁就已经成为业内顶尖人士。2008年，她在纽约创立了对冲基金Permian Investment Partners，并担任执行董事。

Goldenberg began her career at Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) as an analyst in the investment banking division. Her strong quant skills quickly funneled her into the private equity group, a move that allowed her to circumvent the traditional analyst-associate-business school route that many of her peers would follow.
戈登伯格的职业生涯始于摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley），当时她在该公司的投行部门担任分析师。凭借优秀的数据分析能力，她很快脱颖而出，进入了私募股权部门，这使她没像很多投行同业那样，走一条从分析师到项目经理、再就读商学院的老路。

Less than two years into her stint at Morgan Stanley, Goldenberg was one of the first young investment bankers to be picked off by the hedge fund industry. She left to work for Highbridge Capital Management. Brahman Capital's management team was so impressed with Goldenberg's questions during an investor meeting, that they recruited her away from Highbridge.
在摩根士丹利只干了不到两年，戈登伯格就被对冲基金行业相中，加盟了高桥资本管理公司（Highbridge Capital Management），成为转投对冲基金行业的第一批年轻投资银行家之一。后来在一次投资者会议上，戈登伯格提出的问题给Brahman Capital的管理层留下了深刻印象，于是他们从高桥资本管理公司那里挖走了戈登伯格。

Fortune recently spoke with Goldenberg about her impressive rise to the top. Here's an edited transcript of the conversation:
《财富》（Fortune）杂志最近采访了戈登伯格，了解到她是如何传奇般地崛起为金融界的顶尖人物。以下是这次访谈经过剪辑的文字记录。

Fortune: What has been the driving force for you as an investor?
《财富》：什么力量驱使你成为一名投资家？

Goldenberg: I was trained early on to focus primarily on management quality. If you follow brilliant management teams, it will lead you to brilliant investment ideas. It's pattern recognition.
戈登伯格：我很早就开始接受了管理质量培训。如果你跟随一个优秀的管理团队，就会激发你产生优秀的投资创意。这就是“模式识别”。

At Highbridge, I was able to hit the ground running because I was hardwired to look at things the way they did. I was looking at a universe of European companies that were mismanaged and had depressed earnings. They had cost-cutting and capital allocation opportunities that were far better than their U.S. counterparts. But their share prices didn't reflect that potential. We knew that the right management teams could turn these companies around. And no one else was terribly interested in them.
我之所以能在高桥资本管理公司如鱼得水，是因为我向来都追求事物的本质规律。我研究了大量管理不善、收益不佳的欧洲公司。相比同类型的美国公司，这些欧洲公司在削减成本和配置资本方面的机会好得多，但他们的股价并没有反映出这种潜力。我们知道，好的管理团队可以扭转这些公司的局面。但当时除了我之外，没人对这些公司特别感兴趣。

What was your big break?
你的重大转折点是什么？

Brahman. The European team at Highbridge left so I started looking at European Special Situations. That's how I met the founding partners at Brahman. I knew Europe reasonably well and spoke French and Italian. So when Brahman hired me from Highbridge, they said, "Go invest in Europe." That was really the beginning.
那是我在Brahman公司的时候。由于高桥资本管理公司的欧洲团队离开了，所以我把目光投向欧洲特别情况基金（European Special Situations），就这样，我认识了Brahman的创办合伙人。我对欧洲较为了解，而且我会说法语和意大利语，所以Brahman公司把我从高桥资本挖走，他们对我说：“去投资欧洲的公司吧。”然后就有了后来的故事。

Originally, I was the only one looking at European opportunities. I was focused on a different geography and I had real autonomy. Within two years, approximately two-thirds of the fund's assets had shifted to Europe and I had hired several analysts to help me.
一开始，我是唯一关注欧洲机会的人。我关注的是一个不同的地区，而且我拥有真正的自主权。在不到两年的时间里，这支基金大约有三分之二的资产都被转移到了欧洲，而且我也雇佣了几个分析师来帮我。

They didn't give me a budget, it wasn't "here's 'x' dollars." It was, "find the best ideas and we'll figure out how to prioritize." I am very grateful to them for taking a chance on me.
公司高层并没有给我一个预算，他们不会说“这里有多少多少钱，”而是说，“去找最好的投资点子，我们来想办法对它们进行优先排序。”我非常感激他们信任我，让我放手去干。

The first idea of real magnitude was Fiat. When we launched Permian in 2008, a famous hedge fund manager gave us money because, he said: "You had the guts when you were 23 to look at a company that no one else did. That's why I believe in you."
我做的第一笔真正重量级的交易是菲亚特（Fiat）。当我们在2008年建立Permian基金时，一位知名的对冲基金经理给了我们许多钱，他说：“你很有胆量，你在23岁的时候就敢于关注一家没人关注的公司，所以我对你有信心。”

How did you get to Fiat?
你为什么会投资菲亚特？

Sergio Marchionne, the new CEO, was a guy with a track record for creating value in Switzerland. He spent time in GE (GE, Fortune 500) and made his mark at a Swiss quality control company. He came into a company [Fiat] whose reputation was tarnished and whose brand equity had been decimated. But philosophically smart people choose smart businesses. Marchionne saw the opportunity, and we saw Marchionne.
菲亚特公司的新任首席执行官塞尔吉奥•马奇奥尼在瑞士多次创造出卓越价值。他曾在通用电气公司（GE）工作过，然后在一家瑞士的质量控制公司做出了引人注目的成绩。当他接管菲亚特的时候，菲亚特的名声已经受损，而且品牌资产大幅下跌。明智的人会选择明智的业务。马奇奥尼看到了菲亚特的机会，而我们看中了马奇奥尼。

We were likely the only investors outside Italy interested in Marchionne at the time. After some begging and pleading, he granted us a meeting.
当时，我们很有可能是意大利境外唯一对马奇奥尼感兴趣的投资人。几经恳求，他才答应同我们见个面谈谈。

Marchionne joined Fiat with a mandate to do whatever was necessary to fix the company. We bought some shares. He confirmed what we surmised. He had full support of the board and its new chairman. If auto was worth more dead than alive, he'd kill it.
马奇奥尼在加盟菲亚特的时候被告知，只要能够拯救这家公司，他可以做任何必要的事。我们购买了一些菲亚特的股权，马奇奥尼证实了我们的猜测。他得到了菲亚特董事会和新任董事长的全力支持。如果让菲亚特的汽车业务破产，比让它苟延残喘更有价值，那么他会让它申请破产。

Fiat was the biggest employer in Italy at the time. He took on the labor unions. He was fearless. He had real skin in the game and his incentives were aligned.
菲亚特公司当时是意大利最大的雇主。马奇奥尼与工会“叫板”，他无所畏惧。他在这场游戏中表现得非常强硬，还调整了他的激励手段。

Marchionne saved Fiat. He got $2.25 billion to cancel a legacy agreement that Fiat could "put" itself to GM (GM). No one thought it could happen -- there's no way this debt-laden, cash strapped Italian company will win in an international court of law. But Marchionne walked away with $2.25 billion of cash and Rick Wagoner [then CEO of GM] was fired shortly thereafter. This was half of Fiat's market cap.
马奇奥尼拯救了菲亚特。他从通用汽车（GM）那里拿到了22.5亿美元的资金，取消了一项使菲亚特“并入”通用汽车公司的遗留协议（事情起因于2000年，通用汽车斥资24亿美元，购买了菲亚特20%的股权，并计划逐步扩大持股份额，逐渐将菲亚特收于旗下，为此通用与菲亚特签订了一系列协议。后来由于通用和菲亚特两方都债务缠身，为了避免承担菲亚特的高额债务，通用决定不再收购菲亚特的其余汽车业务。作为与菲亚特之间法律争端的补偿，这22.5亿美金就是通用为菲亚特开出的“分手费”——译注） 。没有人料到会是这个结果——这样一家债务缠身、现金短缺的意大利公司，是无法在国际法庭上打赢这场官司的。但是马奇奥尼竟然从通用那儿拿到了22.5亿美元的现金，而时任通用汽车公司首席执行官的里克•瓦格纳不久后却被解聘了。22.5亿美元是当时菲亚特市值的一半。

We exited the position in the mid-teens and made a lot of money. It was the biggest profit generator in Brahman's history.
我们以15美元左右的价格平仓，赚了一笔大钱。这是Brahman公司历史上最赚钱的一笔交易。

Were you surprised by your early career successes?
你对你职业生涯早期的成功感到惊讶吗？

Was I surprised? No, it wasn't like I opened the door and there was Ed McMahon. The day Rick Wagoner parted with $2.25 billion, I was blown away. But no, I was never surprised by the success. I just became more and more convinced of the process and realized what a competitive advantage it was. This management-driven philosophy allowed me to follow the most intelligent, successful and capable people in the world. It allowed me to be contrarian. It made me excited to work harder and expand the team.
我惊讶吗？不。这并不像是我一打开门，发现门口站着艾德•麦克马洪（著名脱口秀主持人——译注）。通用汽车前首席执行官开出22.5亿美金与菲亚特“分手”那天，我确实很吃惊。但我从未因为个人的成功感到惊讶，我只是在做事情的过程中越来越有信心，逐渐明白自己的竞争优势。我的这种管理导向型的投资哲学，使我能够跟随世界上最聪明、最成功和最有能力的人一同进步。它使我敢于进行逆向投资，使我一直具有努力工作、扩展团队的激情。

Tell me what differentiates Permian from other hedge funds.
Permian与其他对冲基金有何不同？

Most of our investments are a product of what we've learned from working with and investing behind really great management teams. We're very isolated. We'd rather spend our time learning from successful operators and investors. CEO's making strategic decisions every day -- they are essentially investors themselves -- allocating capital in the most shareholder-friendly way. This approach keeps us independent and it keeps our portfolio unique.
我们与许多非常出色的管理团队进行了合作，并且对他们进行了投资，我们在这个过程中学到了很多东西，并且Permian的大部分投资都是以此为基础的。我们非常独立，宁愿花时间向成功的经营者和投资人学习。企业的首席执行官们每天都要进行战略决策，从本质上讲，他们自己也是投资人，在以对股东最有利的方式进行资本的分配。这种方法使我们保持独立，并且使我们的投资组合始终保持了自己的特色。

We have a network and investor base that is totally different from most hedge funds. Our reference list is our management teams. People say, "can you give me your list of references?' And we send a list of CEO's. And they say, "No, we'd like to speak with your investors." We say, "Those are our investors."
我们的关系网和投资人群体与大多数对冲基金完全不同。我们的推荐人名单上列的就是公司的管理团队。有人会问：“你能给我一份你们的推荐人名单吗？”我们就会发给他们一份名单，上面列的都是首席执行官的名字。他们说：“这不是我要的，我们是想和你们的投资人谈谈。”我们就会说：“他们就是我们的投资人。”

What would you say is your competitive advantage?
你认为你的竞争优势是什么？

I can get a management team to articulate an idea that will cement an opportunity that other colleagues perhaps can't get. It's communication, but it's stylistic. I think it stems from meeting with hundreds of CEO's year after year and really listening to, and learning from them. And asking the right questions.
我可以让管理团队明确地表达出他们的想法，从而使我们抓住机会，而其他人可能无法做到这一点。这就是沟通的艺术，但我在沟通上有我自己的风格。我想这是因为我每年都和数百位首席执行官会面，并且认真倾听，认真向他们学习，并且提出正确的问题。

We recently met a Finnish guy who spent 18 years at P&G (PG, Fortune 500) selling laundry detergent and Sunny Delight. He's now running a sporting goods conglomerate in Finland -- with totally different products and different distribution challenges.
我们最近与一个芬兰人进行了会面，他为宝洁公司（P&G）效力了18年，主要负责销售洗衣粉和Sunny Delight牌的饮料。现在他正在芬兰运营一家大型的体育用品企业，这与他从前销售的产品完全不同，分销渠道也截然不同。

Instead of saying, "What the hell do you know about a sporting goods company?" We looked at it the other way. We asked, what did it take for him to step out of eighteen years at P&G, where he had $25 billion of revenue. What did he see?
我们并没有问他“你对体育用品公司到底知道多少？”而是从另一个角度来看这个问题。我们问的是，他为什么要离开效力18年的宝洁公司，要知道，他为宝洁带来的营业收入高达250亿美元。他是怎么考虑的？

I asked him, "How many opportunities did you turn down before you took this one?" The answer was over 20. But when I asked, "Why did you take this one?" It was totally obvious.
我问他：“你在接手这份工作前拒绝了多少家公司的邀请？”他说20多家。然后我问道：“你为什么要从事这份工作？”听了他的回答，道理就很明白了。

There were brands in this portfolio. Wilson for instance, with 2% market share. Not 20% like you might think. Wilson had tremendous market power that hadn't yet been realized. There's enormous brand equity there.
因为这个行业蕴藏着巨大的品牌价值潜力。以威尔逊（Wilson）为例，威尔逊的市场占有率只有2%，而不是许多人认为的20%。威尔逊有极大的市场潜力还没有被挖掘。因此这个行业的品牌价值潜力极大。

Our investment had nothing to do with the business, per se. We didn't even identify a market opportunity. We just knew enough to talk to a guy who left P&G after 18 years.
我们的投资在本质上与业务本身无关，我们甚至没有去寻找市场机会。与这位曾经为宝洁效力了18年的高管一番畅谈后，我们已经知道了这项业务是否值得投资。

译者：朴成奎