The Essays of Warren Buffett — Lessons for Investors & Managers

A collection of the great investor's letters to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. It provides readers with the chance gain an invaluable informal education from the master of investment. With the use of plain words, the letters distill all the basic principles of Buffett's sound business practices. They are broad in scope and offer vital wisdom on the selection of management, the choice of investments, the valuation of businesses, and using financial information profitably.

From the Introduction

Experienced readers of Warren Buffett's letters to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. have gained an enormously valuable informal education. The letters distill in plain words all the basic principles of sound business practices. On selecting managers and investments, valuing businesses, and using financial information profitably, the writings are broad in scope, and long in wisdom.

Yet until now the letters existed in a format that was neither easily accessible nor organised in any thematic way. Consequently, the ideas have not been given the more widespread attention they deserve. The motivation for this compendium and for the symposium featuring it is to correct an inefficiency in the marketplace of ideas by disseminating the essays to a wider audience.

The central theme uniting Buffett's lucid essays is that the principles of fundamental valuation analysis, first formulated by his teachers Ben Graham and David Dodd, should guide investment practice. Linked to that theme are management principles that define the proper role of the corporate managers as the stewards of invested capital and the proper role of shareholders as the suppliers and owners as capital. Radiating from these main themes are practical and sensible lessons on mergers and acquisitions, accounting and taxation.

Many of Buffett's lessons directly contradict what has been taught in business and law schools during the past 30 years, and what has been practiced on Wall Street and throughout corporate America during that time. Much of that teaching and practice eclipsed what Graham and Dodd had to say; Buffett is their prodigal pupil, stalwartly defending their views. The defenses run from an impassioned refutation of modern finance theory, to convincing demonstrations of the deleterious effects of using stock options to compensate managers, to persuasive arguments about the exaggerated benefits of synergistic acquisitions and cash-flow analysis.

Buffett has applied the traditional principles as Chief Executive Officer of Berkshire Hathaway, a company with roots in a group of textile operations begun in the early 1800s. Buffett took the helm of Berkshire in 1964, when its book value per share was $19.46 and its intrinsic value per share far lower. Today, its book value per share is around $20,000 and its intrinsic value far higher. The growth rate in book value per share during that period is 23.8% compounded annually.

Berkshire is now a holding company engaged in a variety of businesses, not including textiles. Berkshire's most important business is insurance, carried on principally through its 100% owned subsidiary, GEICO Corporation, the seventh largest auto insurer in the United States. Berkshire publishes The Buffalo News and owns other businesses that manufacture or distribute products ranging from encyclopedias, home furnishings and cleaning systems, to chocolate candies, ice cream, footwear, uniforms and air compressors. Berkshire also owns substantial equity interests in major corporations, including American Express, Coca-Cola, Wait Disney, Freddie Mac, Gillette, McDonald's, The Washington Post, and Wells Fargo.

Buffett and Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger have built this $50 billion enterprise by investing in businesses with excellent economic characteristics and run by outstanding managers. While they prefer negotiated acquisitions of 100% of such a business at a fair price, they take a "double-barreled approach" of buying on the open market less than 100% of such businesses when they can do so at a pro-rata price well below what it would take to buy 100%.

The double-barreled approach has paid off handsomely. The value of marketable securities in Berkshire's portfolio, on a per share basis, increased from $4 in 1965 to over $22,000 in 1995, a 33.4% annual increase. Per-share operating earnings increased in the same period from just over $4 to over $259, a 14.79% annual increase. These extraordinary results continue, in recent years increasing at similar rates. According to Buffett, these results follow not from any master plan but from focused investing-allocating capital by concentrating on businesses with outstanding economic characteristics and run by first-rate managers.

Buffett views Berkshire as a partnership among him, Munger and other shareholders, and virtually all his $15-plus billion net worth is in Berkshire stock. His economic goal is long-term-to maximise Berkshire's per share intrinsic value by owning all or part of a diversified group of businesses that generate cash and above-average returns. In achieving this goal, Buffett foregoes expansion for the sake of expansion and foregoes divestment of businesses so long as they generate some cash and have good management.

Berkshire retains and reinvests earnings when doing so delivers at least proportional increases in per share market value over time. It uses debt sparingly and sells equity only when it receives as much in value as it gives. Buffett penetrates accounting conventions, especially those that obscure real economic earnings.

These owner-related business principles, as Buffett calls them, are the organising themes of the accompanying essays. As organised, the essays constitute an elegant and instructive manual on management, investment, finance and accounting. Buffett's basic principles form the framework for a rich range of positions on the wide variety of issues that exist in all aspects of business. They go far beyond mere abstract platitudes. It is true that investors should focus on fundamentals, be patient, and exercise good judgment based on common sense. In Buffett's essays, these advisory tidbits are anchored in the more concrete principles by which Buffett lives and thrives.

Many people speculate on what Berkshire and Buffett are doing or plan to do. Their speculation is sometimes right and sometimes wrong, but always foolish. People would be far better off not attempting to ferret out what specific investments are being made at Berkshire, but thinking about how to make sound investment selections based on Berkshire's teaching. That means they should think about Buffett's writings and learn from them, rather than try to emulate Berkshire's portfolio.

Buffett modestly confesses that most of the ideas expressed in his essays were taught to him by Ben Graham. He considers himself the conduit through which Graham's ideas have proven their value...