Warren Buffett's Management Secrets by Mary Buffet & David Clark

I bought this book during Popular Bookstore's Expo a few months back. It has been a very long time since I purchased a book. It seemed that the collection was rather limited, not quite I expected. I bought about 10 books for my own reading pleasure. Target to complete - end March 2013.

One of the books that I am reading now is Warren Buffett's Management Secrets.




We all know who Warren Buffett is. His investment ability and management of companies has been exemplary and sometimes I do wonder if it is really as smooth as it was made out to be.

While his investments from 1979 to 2007 grew 19.78% per year, his company's annual net income grew 21.39%, indicating that his management ability outshines his investment ability. Interesting..

There are a few interesting fundamentals which was brought up in this book. Some of it includes;
a. Find the kind of business that offers the greatest career opportunities. He made a comparison between a company that needs to keep on innovating at a fast pace in order to be profitable and a company that do not need to constantly innovate. This part alone is a surprise to me. Throughout the days since I started working, I've been getting advice from consultants and bosses to 'look for a company that continues to innovate to stay competitive.' Here Warren explains that a company that needs to innovate in order to stay competitive will usually less profitable and will not be able to channel those profits to managers and staffs for the job well done. Companies like Coke and Gillette, will always have profits for their shareholders, managers and employees.

b. Delegate not just jobs, but authority.
Staffs need to be trained. Once they are trained, they need to be trusted with the job that they are paid for. And they will appreciate these trusts. Delegating authority to staffs to make decisions is a sign a trust. Warren Buffett owns more than 88 companies from various businesses and industries. There is no way anyone could have managed it, if micromanagement has been the call of the day. Instead, he has more than 88 competent CEOs to manage and run those companies. He will only get in touch with the CEOs once a year and requested them not to send him anything special.

c. Work at a job you love. This one hit me, directly. Warren Buffett said that
"There comes a time when you ought to start doing what you want. Take a job that you love. You will jump out of bed in the morning. I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don't like because you think that it will look good on your resume. Love what you do, Hire people who love what they do and both will lead to gold"

This book is a good read. In the next chapters, i will be going through his sharings on motivation. For someone who has 88 CEOs working for him and has become one of the wealthiest man must definitely have a strategy to keep his team motivated.