The Essays Of Warren Buffett

In the third edition of this international best seller, Lawrence Cunningham brings you the latest wisdom from Warren Buffett’s annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. New material addresses: the financial crisis and its continuing implications for investors, managers and society; the housing bubble at the bottom of that crisis; the debt and derivatives excesses that fueled the crisis and how to deal with them; controlling risk and protecting reputation in corporate governance; Berkshire’s acquisition and operation of Burlington Northern Santa Fe; the role of oversight in heavily regulated industries; investment possibilities today; and weaknesses of popular option valuation models. Some other material has been rearranged to deepen the themes and lessons that the collection has always produced: Buffett’s “owner-related business principles” are in the prologue as a separate subject and valuation and accounting topics are spread over four instead of two sections and reordered to sharpen their payoff. Media coverage is available at the following links: Interviews/Podcasts: Motley Fool, click here. Money, Riches and Wealth, click here. Manual of Ideas, click here. Corporate Counsel, click here. Reviews: William J. Taylor, ABA Banking Journal, click here. Bob Morris, Blogging on Business, click here. Pamela Holmes, Saturday Evening Post, click here. Kevin M. LaCroix, D&O Diary, click here. Blog Posts: On Finance issues (Columbia University), click here. On Berkshire post-Buffett (Manual of Ideas), click here. On Publishing the book (Value Walk), click here. On Governance issues (Harvard University blog), click here. Featured Stories/Recommended Reading: Motley Fool, click here. Stock Market Blog, click here. Motley Fool Interviews with LAC at Berkshire's 2013 Annual Meeting Berkshire Businesses: Vastly Different, Same DNA, click here. Is Berkshire's Fat Wallet an Enemy to Its Success?, click here. Post-Buffett Berkshire: Same Question, Same Answer, click here. How a Disciplined Value Approach Works Across the Decades, click here. Through the Years: Constant Themes in Buffett's Letters, click here. Buffett's Single Greatest Accomplishment, click here. Where Buffett Is Finding Moats These Days, click here. How Buffett Has Changed Through the Years, click here. Speculating on Buffett's Next Acquisition, click here. Buffett Says “Chief Risk Officers” Are a Terrible Mistake, click here. Berkshire Without Buffett, click here.

The author's annual letters to the stockholders of Berkshire Hathaway are edited to present the main themes regarding business, investing, price, value, corporate governance, and other important topics.

As in previous editions of The Essays of Warren Buffett, this one retains the architecture and philosophy of the original edition but adds selections from Warren Buffett's most recent annual shareholder letters. All the letters are woven together into a fabric that reads as a complete and coherent narrative of a sound business and investment philosophy. As an aid to all readers, and to enable readers of the previous editions to see what is new in this one, a disposition table at the end of the book shows the various places in this collection where selections from each year's letter appear. Footnotes throughout indicate the year of the annual report from which essays are taken. To avoid interrupting the narrative flow, omissions of text within excerpts are not indicated by ellipses or other punctuation. This new edition is called for not because anything has changed about the fundamentals of Buffett's sound business and investment philosophy but because articulation of that philosophy is always delivered in the context of contemporary events and business conditions so periodic updating is warranted to maintain its currency

The year 2015 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Berkshire Hathaway under Warren Buffett's leadership, a milestone worth commemorating. The tenure sets a record for chief executive not only in duration but in value creation and philosophizing. The fourth edition of The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America celebrates its twentieth anniversary. As the book Buffett autographs most, its popularity and longevity attest to the widespread appetite for this unique compilation of Buffett's thoughts that is at once comprehensive, non-repetitive, and digestible. New and experienced readers alike will gain an invaluable informal education by perusing this classic arrangement of Warren's best writings. The fourth edition's new material includes: Warren's 50th anniversary retrospective, in what Bill Gates called Warren's best letter ever, on conglomerates and Berkshire's future without Buffett; Charlie Munger's 50th anniversary essay on "The Berkshire System"; Warren's definitive defense of Berkshire's no-dividend practice; and Warren's best advice on investing, whether in apartments, farms, or businesses. "Larry Cunningham has done a great job at collating our philosophy." -- Warren Buffett "Larry Cunningham takes Buffett's brilliant letters to a still-higher level by organizing them into single-subject chapters. The book begins, moreover, with an excellent introduction by Larry." -- Carol Loomis "This is a very important book. I recommend it to everyone who is interested in learning about investing, corporate governance, and business judgement." -- Bill Ackman "The book on Buffett--a superb job." -- Forbes "Extraordinary--full of wisdom, humor, and common sense." -- Money "A classic on value investing and the definitive source on Buffett." -- Financial Times "Cunningham has done a truly commendable job distilling and organizing the essence of Buffett's letter to Berkshire shareholders...While the essays reviewed in the latest edition of this volume range across a broad assortment of topics, for most readers the most valuable part of this book will be Buffett's lessons and insights on investing. It is extraordinarily rewarding to be able to survey the accumulated wisdom of one of the world's most successful investors." -- Kevin M. LaCroix, The D&O Diary

"First class. A great job at collating our philosophy." - Warren Buffett"Very practical." - Charlie Munger"One of the top investment books of all time." - The Motley Fool"A must-read business book." - JP Morgan Private Banking"As much a business management book as a personal finance book." - Publishera's Weekly"One of the best books of the year. Two thumbs up!" - CNN (Financial News)"A serious investment course with entertainment thrown in." - Investora's Chronicle"The book on Buffett - a superb job!" - Forbes"Extraordinary - full of wisdom, humour and common sense." - Money"A classic on value investing and the definitive source on Buffett." - The Financial Times

Berkshire Hathaway, the $300 billion conglomerate that Warren Buffett built, is among the worldÕs largest and most famous corporations. Yet, for all its power and celebrity, few people understand Berkshire, and many assume it cannot survive without Buffett. This book proves that assumption wrong. In a comprehensive portrait of the distinct corporate culture that unites and sustains BerkshireÕs fifty direct subsidiaries, Lawrence A. Cunningham unearths the traits that assure the conglomerateÕs perpetual prosperity. Riveting stories recount each subsidiaryÕs origins, triumphs, and journey to Berkshire and reveal the strategies managers use to generate economic value from intangible values, such as thrift, integrity, entrepreneurship, autonomy, and a sense of permanence. Rich with lessons for those wishing to profit from the Berkshire model, this engaging book is a valuable read for entrepreneurs, business owners, managers, and investors, and it makes an important resource for scholars of corporate stewardship. General readers will enjoy learning how an iconoclastic businessman transformed a struggling shirt company into a corporate fortress destined to be his lasting legacy.

Among the landmark occasions in the legendary history of Berkshire Hathaway and its iconic co-leaders, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, was a 1996 symposium held in New York at Cardozo Law School. The focus of the symposium was Warren's letters to Berkshire shareholders. The format was a series of panels with two dozen different experts dissecting all the ideas in the letters, about corporate governance, takeovers, investing, and accounting. Intellectual sparks illuminated the two-day affair, which drew unusual press interest for an academic convocation. While the principal tangible result of the conference was the publication of the international best-seller, The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, the transcript of the symposium is now being made available with annotations and updated commentary that show just how timeless the topics are and how venerable the principles Buffett laid out remain. I had the honor of hosting the event, editing The Essays, and now publishing this archival treasure, with current assessments by such luminaries as Robert Hagstrom as well as several participants from the original symposium.

At the age of 26, Warren Buffett founded Buffett Partnership Limited, which lasted from 1956 to 1970. During this time he wrote 33 letters to his small but growing group of partners. These letters chronicle his thoughts, approaches and reflections in the period immediately prior to his Berkshire Hathaway tenure - one that saw an unprecedented record of investing success. This early period was astonishing: in 1968 he beat the Dow by more than 50%. Because Buffett wanted to ensure that his partners understood his process, he wrote letters. In them, he sets out what he termed "ground rules" for investing that remain startlingly relevant today for every type of investor - from beginners to sophisticated pros. Warren Buffett's Ground Rules brings together, for the first time, and with Buffett's blessing, the key investment principles and teachings the letters reveal. Here you will find the basis for Buffett's contrarian diversification strategy, his almost religious celebration of compounding interest and his tactics for bettering market results by at least 10% annually. Quoting extensively and directly from Buffett, equity research expert Jeremy Miller introduces us to the timeless advice the letters contain, demonstrating a set of highly effective investment strategies that continue to resonate today.