Book Review: Dining on the Buffett of wisdom

Investment buffs and Buffett-fans, take note: This is the only Buffett book consisting of articles written by the world's greatest living stock investor himself.

As the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett is often cited as the world's wealthiest individual, with a personal fortune of around $62 billion. Buffett studied under the investment guru Benjamin Graham and has always adhered strictly to his value investing philosophy.

Investors who can afford shares in Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway group have been rewarded with annual returns of around 21 percent every year for the last 42 years. Berkshire's annual shareholder's meeting is always held in Omaha, Nebraska and attracts more than 20,000 people. The meetings, nicknamed the "Woodstock for Capitalists", are known for their light humor and reflect the writing in the annual report.

Published in an accessible compilation, The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Investors and Managers (Third Edition) draws extracts from the Berkshire Hathaway annual report.

It incorporates extensive updates on topical subjects such as corporate governance, excessive CEO compensation, derivative financial instruments, the US trade deficit and Berkshire Hathaway's corporate governance. The first two editions of the book have been international sensations and are widely acknowledged as the most authoritative book on Buffett's investment philosophy.

Author Lawrence Cunningham is a Professor at George Washington University, Washington, DC, a leading authority on value investing and advocate for investors. He prepared this collection as the centerpiece of a symposium featuring Buffett's letters, held when Cunningham was director of the Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Center on Corporate Governance at Cardozo Law School, New York City. His numerous other books include What Is Value Investing? Outsmarting the Smart Money and How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett.

Those who have read Buffett's letters addressing the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders all attest to gaining an enormously valuable informal education - as the letters distill in plain words all the basic principles of sound business practices. Spotlighting issues such as selecting managers and investments, valuing businesses, and using financial information profitably - the writings are both broad in scope and long in wisdom.

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 always guide investment practice.

Linked to this theme are management principles that define the role of corporate managers as being the stewards of investing capital, and the role of shareholders as the suppliers and owners of capital. Resonant from these main themes are practical and sensible lessons on mergers and acquisitions, accounting and taxation.

This revised and updated edition of Cunningham's classic work is a treasure trove of sound business advice and investment ideas for serious investors from the man regarded as the world's most successful investor.

(China Daily 07/06/2009 page5)