It's got some interesting points, and it taught me some stuff about businesses. But it's terribly repetitive. The main points could probably have been expressed in a ten-page essay instead of a 230-page book. I sympathize with the business students who have to use it as a textbook.

The book was kind of a let down from the investors perspective.I was expecting some really brilliant ideas from the 'Oracle of Omaha'.The book was more focused on managerial should's and shouldn'ts.It mostly boils down to Bufett's stance as to why Berkshire Hathaway is the greatest company and how awesome are their policies compared to the typical corporation.


Not pretty much to learn if you are interested in learning the in's and outs of the market.

I must admit however that the author did a great job in the last 3 chapters when discussing on subjects such as current accounting practices , goodwill and taxation.

Overall a book designsted torwards general managers or people with out of the ordinary financial resources.

If investing it is you are interested in then i suggest grab a copy of Peter Lynch's One up on Wall Street ASAP !

Very impressing!






































Gene Panasenko

It’s no wonder why he’s called the Oracle. Not only does Buffet have a strong understanding of finance and economics, he also has a very deep understanding of human nature/behavior & psychology, manufacturing & trade, management, leadership, corporate culture, corporate governance, influence, government / politics & law (particularly when it comes to regulations and anti-trust), philosophy, education, history, and many others. This makes him a three dimensional investor who has a vested interest / partnership in the companies to which he invests in, and quite opposite of the one dimensional day traders, who are essentially playing the lottery for the short term.

The one thing he doesn’t have a great understanding of is the high-tech & innovation sector, which he’s quite okay with. This makes him more of a conservative investor who doesn’t effect necessary improvement or change in society, but he’s a very a successful capital allocator nonetheless.

Phenomenal insights.

I thought this was all pretty good.

It's a strange compilation. Different sections from different reports in different years are arranged by topic. So, as business conditions change, the details of the advice changed. The fundamentals are always the same: Owning a business is good if the business is good and never invest because you think the price will go up rather than because the business is good.

Buffett is often funny (although some of his jokes are a little dated such that they're much less funny now than they would have been perceived when told (or earlier)) and usually makes business concepts very accessible.

This is my first book on finance and corporation.
I struggled to understand at the beginning not knowing the terms. But I eventually caught up and learnt so much much from this book. It is a great book on corporate finance. Every sentence of his made a valuable lesson to me.

There is so much to tell about what I learnt in this book but I'll give a little that I learnt quickly in few lines.

Invest in company as if you're purchasing the entire company.
Invest in a company which has a good economic in future at a sensible price.
Invest within your circle of competence.

Very good collation of Warren Buffett's writings.

Bought BKRB shares before I even finished reading. So good.

This book explained how Warren runnings his company, buy, sell and acquisition process from Warren and Charlie eyes. Also understanding the proper roles of managers and shareholders, finance, mergers, valuation, and accounting

The key to successful investing, Buffett is to purchase shares in good businesses at times when market prices are at a large discount from business values.


Buffet and Charlir equity-investing strategy remains little changed which is

(a) that we can understand;
(b) with favorable long-term prospects;
(c) operated by honest and competent people; and
(d) available at a very attractive price

One of the best pure business books I've read to date. You'll learn as much in this book as in any MBA class if not more and it's impressive how well he's able to synthesize accounting, finance, and strategy into a cohesive whole. What you get out of this book is not only an insight into how Berkshire Hathaway is successful, but also into how Buffett thinks about investment decisions. Below is a list of topics that I learned new things about and this review will allow me to save them for future reference.

1. Strategic capex: The amount of capital expenditure that a business needs to maintain its long term competitive advantages. Different firms require different capex and this should influence the cash flow number used for "intrinsic business value" as he calls it rather than the one-size-fits-all free cash flow that he criticizes.
2. Depreciation is also a substantial and relevant expense in many industries, and Buffett argues that it shouldn't be taken out in an estimation of cash flows in every industry either.
3. Amortization of acquisition goodwill doesn't make any sense given the inflated premiums that are paid these days. This is another item that investors should take care to review when they're assessing true cash flow and income.
4. He decrees option based compensation because it takes executive compensation off the P&L. This could very well be a contributor to the gap between productivity and worker's wages. He also thinks option-based compensation doesn't align managers with shareholders unless they're structured very carefully and he tends not to use them for Berkshire's subsidiaries.
5. He is critical of "revolving door capitalist owners" like private equity funds for how they fundamentally take advantage of and distort corporate ownership.
6. Stock buybacks are only worthwhile if a higher rate of return can't be earned by reinvestment in the business. Propping up share price certainly isn't an adequate reason. He uses similar logic for dividends, but differentiates based on tax treatment. Again, capital that can be reinvested at a high rate of return in the business will lead to earnings growth greater than if it were simply paid back to shareholders. He also thinks cash is helpful for firms on rainy days consistent with a long-term orientation.
7. Buffett doesn't believe firms should manage so that share price is maximized. He thinks they should maximize a subjective intrinsic business value measure demanded by shareholders that is closer in line to true earnings without accounting tricks and less price. He mentions a few times that it's better to be "approximately right than precisely wrong."
8. On this note, he doesn't think good CEOs should "always meet their numbers" because he doesn't think this is how business is actually done.
9. Buffett thinks that higher trading volume on a share isn't indicative of market efficiency on the principle that prudent investors invest for the long term. In this vein, he takes pains and acts to incentivize Berkshire shareholders to stay for the long term. At one point, he makes an analogy to how businesses would be run if they were constantly shuffling owners in a private setting.
10. He posits that advisers like consultants, bankers, and auditors are ultimately hired and fired by managers and the CEO not shareholders, so they likely promote managerial opportunism more than shareholders' best interests.

I'm as much of an admirer of Buffet as the next investor. So I think his lessons are worthy. However, I'm not sure this is the way to learn them. These essays come from the 10-K's of Berkshire Hathaway. They are mostly therefore geared toward how that company operated around the early 90s to the 2000s. You can learn the basic premise he uses from Graham. Go there. It's more relevant to your search. This is a nice foot note. But not for anybody looking for a broad perspective.

I read this book hoping to learn more about investment and business from one of the world's best investors, which this book delivers in spades.

Easy to read and understand. Great fundamentals. Best takeaways are to invest in solid companie whose services will be needed in a hundred years - like coke, rather than in technology who may be here today, gone in 5 years.

It's better to invest for the longterm in a handful of a great business that is managed well than to waste the time and effort investing in lots of mediocre companies.