Super Stock Blog

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
There are many books out on Warren Buffett but this is the first authorized biography. as someone who has read most of what is publicly available on the Oracle of Omaha, I pre-ordered the book on Amazon as soon as I found out about it and started reading it as soon as I received it. The focus of the other books is mostly on Buffett’s stock picking skill; this book delves deeper into the formative experiences and his drive, focus and competitiveness that earned him the largest fortune of the modern era not tied to a particular industry. Other books have chronicled his transition from a pure Graham type investor to incorporating more Phil Fisher growth type approach to investing. as this book makes clear, there is more, a lot more to the Buffett magic than just stock picking. a lot of his value add is from working through difficult situations post-acquisition; and from “Carnegizing” management that is making good choices; you don’t get this influence over the operations of companies without ownership control. Buffet prides himself on being able to make quick decisions on acquisitions but as the book makes clear, he has no crystal ball to avoid nasty surprises like the rest of us. This is well documented in the history of his acquisitions – Blue Chip Stamp (drop in consumer interest), Buffalo News (labor unrest), Berkshire Hathaway (foreign competition in textiles), Coca Cola
(management succession), Salomon Bros. (culture/compensation), General re (off balance sheet derivatives). Buffett makes it through decades of challenges with his reputation for basic honesty and fair dealing intact. Particularly exceptional is his willingness, when Salomon was under fire for fixing Treasury auctions, was to step in as chairman and appear before prosecutors without attorneys present and to forgo accepted legal defenses in resolving the matter.
The book details Buffett’s “elephant bumping” (consorting with celebrities of various types) at great length; too much for my preference but probably will contribute to the commercial appeal of the book. it is also a cautionary tale of the corrosive effect of great wealth on family relationships.

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