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The Essays for Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America (平装)
by Warren Buffett, Lawrence A. Cunningham (Editor)
| Category:
Investing, Value investing, Stock investing |
| Market price: ¥ 278.00
MSL price:
¥ 248.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Listen to this man, every word, every utterance, and every point of view, to be a top player in stock investing. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 9 items |
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J. Esbech (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
There is little doubt that Warren Buffett is one of the most successful business men of our time. The track record of Berkshire Hathaway speaks for it self, as does Warren Buffett. He has made a point out of speaking frankly and openly at the Annual Meetings for the shareholders and printing the yearly reports will give you all his thoughts throughout the years.
This book organises his thoughts very well into a number of key areas and thereby leads you through the Buffett Universe. It is a very intelligent and surprisingly unsofisticated one, build on a set of core values the corporate businesses should take a careful look at.
If you like investing yourself, this also gives you a few hints on what to focus on and what not to focus on.
The Oracle from Omaha is always entertaining and this book makes that very obvious and is well worth a read.
Be aware... it is not a normal business book, you may find yourself laughing from time to time...(J. Esbech, USA)
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M. Nowacki (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
The most famed investor of his time, Warren Buffett, has never written a book. Although there are dozens of books that are written about him, this is the only book in Buffett's own words. This collection of Buffett's writings on different topics come from his annual reports. It is true that you could go to the Berkshire Hathaway website and look at the annual reports yourself, but not everyone wants to flip through 15 annual reports. Moreover, this book is organized by topic and not by year, unlike the annual reports.
This is an invaluable for both investors and managers. I emphatically recommend this book to CFOs, investment bankers, financial analysts, and anyone else interested in corporate finance and business valuation.
For those people that wish to learn about Buffett's philosophy this is the book to read. Who better to learn about Buffett than from Buffett himself? |
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Brian Lomax (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
Buffett has a very uniquely apt understanding of many modern business practices and investment strategy along with the ability to explain these concepts in a down to earth framework. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever felt they didn't understand what was going on in corporate America. |
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Francis Mchinerney (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
I cannot imagine that Mr. Warren Buffet is not on any investor's top 10 list of the greatest investors since there were markets in this Country. I would also suggest that a dispassionate appraisal of his performance argues quite eloquently that he is the best to have ever amassed his fortune, and that of his shareholders on Wall Street.
Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Lawrence A. Cunningham readers have access to essays that previously were available primarily to shareholders, and which are organized in this book thematically for the first time. Annual reports are generally easy to come by, however as I write, 1 Share Of Berkshire Hathaway "A" requires $59,900.00, and the "Baby Berkshires" $1,966.00 per share. Many are quick to respond the price is so high as Mr. Buffet has not split the stock, ever. But what is more important is why he has never done this. This book explains his theory on this matter, and dozens of others.
Mr. Buffet has his critics, they range from the idiotic, "he's lucky", "his success allows him to make attractive deals", and to those who feel he missed the money that was made in tech stocks. As for the luck theory, who else has earned 23.8% compounded annually for over 25 years? Winning the lottery is probably more likely an event. As to the attractive deals his wealth is said to facilitate, I guess the answer is, is the questioner serious? He made what he has, his reputation allowed him to have the Federal Government allow Solomon Brothers to continue participating in the bond market based on one thing, his word! This is a man who has rescinded very successful trades because news arrived within days of his buying that could have given the appearance of his having had information others were not privy to.
This book has more useful information and ideas that have been proven over decades than any 10 hot Business Books of the moment. Mr. Buffet has had off years, but he has never gone bust.
One of my favorite stories is when he was hanging out with friends as a kid, his pals were collecting bottles for the deposit. He was collecting bottle caps, sorting them, and determining who was drinking what brand! He clearly was put amongst us for a reason.
On a time invested basis there is no better or more rewarding reading than these essays. No one can match what he has accomplished, why would someone not wish to hear what he has to say on dozens of topics? |
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Scipio (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
For all of you investors who want to invest like Warren Buffett - that is, successfully - this is what you really want to read. There are a large and growing number of books out there that will claim to make you think/act/be like Buffett; here you can actually read his thoughts. As WB has often said, go to the source material (not the analyst reports, etc.) to make your judgments, and that is true in studying Buffett as well.
On top of that, Buffett is a much better writer than most of his biographers. The editor of this compilation has done a good job of organizing Buffett's writings into themes with a light hand. You get a good idea of how Warren thinks.
Buffett has an amazing way of penetrating the thick coating of B.S. that covers most of what passes for investment theory nowadays. He ruthlessly applies Ockham's Razor to cut things down to their essential truths; two of the most basic are that owning stock in a company is truly owning part of a business and that the future is full of uncertainty. Obvious, right? But, when you really absorb these concepts the answers to the questions of when and why you should buy a stock become much clearer. I won't attempt to boil down any more of his thoughts - you can find plenty of that elsewhere. Suffice it to say that, although I am a Chartered Financial Analyst and have advised others regarding investments for over 20 years, when reading this book I had many "V-8 moments" - where you want to slap yourself on the forehead and say "of course!"
While I first heard of WB many years ago (before he was cool), this book was my first significant exposure to his writings. He writes well, with wit and wisdom, and makes fairly complex subjects amazingly accessible to the uninitiated. I wish I had read this book much earlier, but I'm not sure if I would have been mature enough to put much of it into action anyway.
One thing to keep in mind when you hear about all the easy ways to make money from following charts, or are tempted to buy the latest idea emanating from your brother-in-law - or a talking head on CNBC: what Buffett does REALLY works. To put it crudely, it isn't an accident that he is, per Forbes, the 2nd richest man in the world - out of over 6 billion people. (I haven't seen any chartists make the list yet.) If you are really a serious investor, why would you NOT want to read what he has to say?
However, I can tell you why you probably won't actually put into practice most of what he says - it's no fun! It's no fun (for most) reading 10-Ks and 10-Qs. It's no fun keeping your own council and avoiding the crowd. Also, why wait, perhaps for years, for the "fat pitch" of a great company at a great price when you can get your kicks day-trading? After all, if most people were willing to wait until the odds were truly in their favor before they risked their money, lotteries would disappear and Las Vegas would be a dusty little village. Even those who acknowledge Warren's achievements and study his words will find putting his seemingly obvious concepts into action surprisingly difficult.
But that is how you actually earn the money.
Here's a story, retold by Buffett, that illustrates the herd mentality you must overcome. I quote:
Ben Graham told a story 40 years ago that illustrates why investment professionals behave as they do: An oil prospector, moving to his heavenly reward, was met by St. Peter with bad news. "You're qualified for residence", said St. Peter, "but, as you can see, the compound reserved for oil men is packed. There's no way to squeeze you in." After thinking a moment, the prospector asked if he might say just four words to the present occupants. That seemed harmless to St. Peter, so the prospector cupped his hands and yelled, "Oil discovered in hell." Immediately the gate to the compound opened and all of the oil men marched out to head for the nether regions. Impressed, St. Peter invited the prospector to move in and make himself comfortable. The prospector paused. "No," he said, "I think I'll go along with the rest of the boys. There might be some truth to that rumor after all." (Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway Letter to Shareholders, 1985)
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Marc Cenedella (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
In the first place, Lawrence Cunningham, whose school it turns out is just a couple blocks from me here in Manhattan, has done a very fine public service in collecting these essays. If you've ever tried to wade through Buffett's annual letters yourself, you know that there are long bits of detailed financial discussions interspersed with the gems of wisdom, aphorisms, and humor that the amateur Buffett-ette is more apt to be seeking. So his collection and coalition, which is well-chosen, well-ordered, and well-edited is a treat for any Buffett fan looking for an accessible volume of the man's work.
Buffett has the strangest of powers in that he comes across as a homespun billionaire. Now that's different from just being homespun, the way Sam Walton was, or just being a billionaire, like Bill Gates. Buffett flaunts his wealth and his professional love of money, all the while expressing essential, eternal truths in simple, earthy phrases. When I saw Buffett speak at business school he tapped on the microphone to test it and said "testing, testing, one-million, two-million, three-million." It is that natural genius for combining wealth, truth and comedy that is most vividly on display in The Essays of Warren Buffett.
Of course, these timeless, simple truths are all known - the way we know that "eat less, exercise more" is how to lose weight. And yet, and yet, it takes Buffet to remind us to "think like an owner"; invest only in management that you "like, trust, and admire"; and buy pieces of business (stocks) when it costs less than the intrinsic value.
There are the excellent statements of managerial accountability, business valuation, and capital structure. Helpful warnings on accounting shenanigans, trading costs, and paying heed to Mr. Market. For clarity, brevity, wit, truth, and learning, there is no business writer in the 20th century that compares with Warren Buffett.
Buffett's sayings are irreplaceable (and I am not cherry picking here, but merely highlighting a half-dozen of the hundreds of bons mots in this book):
"On the other hand, working with people who cause your stomach to churn seems much like marrying for money - probably a bad idea under any circumstances, but absolute madness if you are already rich."
"The speed at which a business success is recognized, furthermore, is not that important as long as the company's intrinsic value is increasing at a satisfactory rate. In fact, delayed recognition can be an advantage: It may give us the chance to buy more of a good thing at a bargain price."
"Just as work expands to fill available time, corporate projects or acquisitions will materialize to soak up available funds... any business craving of the leader, however foolish, will be quickly supported by detailed rate-of-return and strategic studies prepared by his troops."
In regard to acquisitions, which usually fail to earn the cost of capital: "The managers at fault periodically report on the lesson they have learned from the latest disappointment. They then usually seek out future lessons."
"One of the ironies of the stock market is the emphasis on activity. Brokers, using terms such as "marketability" and "liquidity," sing the praises of companies with high share turnover... but investors should understand that what is good for the croupier is not good for the customer. A hyperactive stock market is the pick pocket of enterprise."
On acquiring bad companies for cheap prices: "In my early days as a manager I, too, dated a few toads. They were cheap dates - I've never been much of a sport - but my results matched those of acquirers who courted higher-price toads. I kissed and they croaked."
Buffet is approaching literature here - the nuance involved, and the delicious counter-pointing of toads, dates, sport are pitch-perfect. The payoff - "I kissed and they croaked" is as fine a line of found poetry as exists.
Buffett, having studied at the feet of the master of investment literature for the first half of the 20th century, has ascended to become the master of investment literature, unqualified. This is a book that will please Buffet-maniacs, investors, finance newbies, and anybody with an interest in the articulated evolution of managerial capitalism that has separated the finance and capital allocation specialties from the operational and day-to-day specializations.
In closing, it's appropriate to quote America's great investing wag quoting America's greatest political wag - the subject is, as always with Buffett, simple maths and simple truths:
"Managers thinking about accounting issues should never forget one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite riddles: "How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg?' The answer: "Four, because calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg'." Enjoy this book. |
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Lou Schuler (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
Buffett, the Bard of Omaha, is a genuine American folk hero, if folk heroes are allowed to build fortunes worth upward of $15 billion. He's great at homespun metaphor, but behind those catchy phrases is a reservoir of financial acumen that's generally considered the best of his generation. For example, in an essay on CEO stock options, he writes, "Negotiating with one's self seldom produces a barroom brawl." This is his way of saying that an executive who can give himself compensation totally disproportionate to his performance surely will. There are uncountable gems of financial wisdom to be harvested from these essays, taken from the annual reports he writes for Berkshire Hathaway, his holding company. Just to pick one more, here's a now-famous line about those he competes with when making stock-market investments: "What could be more advantageous in an intellectual contest - whether it be chess, bridge, or stock selection - than to have opponents who have been taught that thinking is a waste of energy?"
While Buffett has a policy of seldom commenting on stocks he owns - he feels public pronouncements will only lead to the public's expectation of more public pronouncements, and he likes to keep his cards close to his vest - he loves to discuss the principles behind his investments. These come primarily from Ben Graham, under whom Buffett studied at Columbia University and for whom he worked in the 1950s. First among them is the idea that price is what you pay and value is what you get - and if you're a smart investor, the first will always be less than the second. In that sense, the value of the lessons learned from Buffett's Essays could be far greater than the book's price.
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Joe Cool (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
The Essays of Warren Buffett is a textbook on proper business practice used at Cardozo Law. Yeah, I know you can go to the Berkshire Hathaway website and get all of Buffett's letters to the shareholders (in fact those who truly want to know more can do this). But this book cuts to the chase. It is edited in such a way that the essays are grouped in a logical manner. Thus, you don't have to plow through all the letters ( which at times can be boring and redundant).This makes reading rather convenient and efficient. The parts of the book that are most useful for an individual investor are the sections on "corporate governance" (in which Buffett describes what makes a good CEO and Board) and on "corporate finance and investing" ( in which Buffett argues against the Efficient Market Theory and argues for the Graham-Dodd approach). I found the essays on "accounting and valuation" and "accounting policy and tax matters" a bit tedious (though the section on stock options was rather interesting). |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
If you are used to reading public company annual reports, including the (usually) short letters from company presidents, you know how shallow, self-congratulatory and sometimes even misleading these reports can be. On the (extreme) other hand, Warren Buffett's annual letters in his Berkshire Hathaway annual reports represent detailed, on-target, lively and highly readable masterpieces of valuable education, information, and wit. You can read Buffett's annual letters for free at Berkshire Hathaway's website, but it will take you a while, since there are many of them (back to 1977) and they run 20+ pages each. Further, Buffett's various letters weren't intended to serve as serial chapters of a book. Better, you can shell out the cost of Lawrence Cunningham's thematically organized collection (220 pages or so)of Buffett's essays and gain a better appreciation of the numerous important topics that Buffett addresses. These topics include, first and foremost, the critical impact of the quality of corporate governance - Buffett was years ahead of most investors in focusing on this area. Other topics include corporate finance (addressed with a clarity that is both unusual and revealing of Buffett's powers of insight), mergers and acquisitions, accounting (Buffett is the only person I know who can regularly make accounting seem positively interesting), taxes, junk bonds and much more.
Moreover, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is nearly unique in its intense commitment to shareholders. The opposite (a commitment to management entrenchment and exorbitant compensation) is the norm with so many companies today that it would be easy to forget how vital shareholder primacy should be. As you read Buffett's essays you will have a model to measure other companies against - which should come in handy the next time you exercise your voting rights as a shareholder.
Life is short. As an investor or a concerned citizen-shareholder, you can learn through your own experiences, of course. There's nothing wrong with that, but the process can be long and expensive. (Depending on one's experiences, it can be very expensive.) Alternately, you can learn via Warren Buffett's lifetime of experiences distilled into a very readable, lively, fascinating collection of his essays. Buy the book-I doubt that you'll regret it.
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1 Total 1 pages 9 items |
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