Warren Buffett is a legend primarily for his investment philosophy. He isn’t concerned about the intricacies of the market, but instead focuses on the quality of the companies Berkshire Hathaway stands behind. Yet we know little about the leaders of the companies that Buffett handpicks. In Behind the Berkshire Hathaway Curtain: Lessons from Warren Buffett’s Top Business Leaders, author Ronald W. Chan — founder and CEO of Chartwell Capital — offers a behind-the-scenes look into the careers of Berkshire Hathaway executives who have both directly and indirectly contributed to the conglomerate’s success. Drawing on exclusive interviews from Berkshire leaders, Chan vividly describes how an exceptional group of managers has built a culture of achievement. With a keen eye for detail, he shows how their lessons can be applied for career success and personal fulfillment. Brimming with practical advice, the book will appeal to both executives and employees wanting to improve their leadership skills and work performance. Covering the career and life decisions of David Sokol of MidAmerican Energy, Cathy Baron-Tamraz of Business Wire, Dennis Knautz of Acme Brick, Randy Watson of Justin Brands, Stan Lipsey of Buffalo News, and many more, the book offers a wide range of business insights, philosophies, and strategies directly from leaders at the top of their fields.

Warren Buffett is the most successful investor in history. From his humble beginnings in Depression-torn Nebraska, he became the world's richest man before he started giving his billions away. But his wealth and power is balanced by self-deprecating wit, folksy charm, a modest lifestyle, and a well-earned reputation for blunt honesty. In truth, Buffett is far more complex than he appears, and he owes his success equally to hard work and his exceptional ability to spot value that others overlook. But as this short-form book shows, Buffett's insights, principles, and precepts hold lessons that investors everywhere can profit from. As his story proves, getting rich in the stock market isn't easy--but it's far from impossible.

A fascinating look at the top women at Berkshire Hathaway and how they got there Although proportionally women continue to lag far behind men as CEOs and board members at major institutions, there has been a marked uptick in the number of female business leaders in recent years. Looking at the changes that have happened at Berkshire Hathaway—Warren Buffett's holding company, The Women of Berkshire Hathaway: Lessons from Warren Buffett's Female CEOs and Directors provides a unique look at the gradual shattering of the glass ceiling at one of America's top firms. An influx of female leadership over the past few years—today there are four female CEOs, up from just one a decade ago—has invigorated Berkshire Hathaway with energy and unique female insight. Profiling these remarkable women, the book provides motivational and management information for a wide range of readers, from business students to Buffett fans. Looks closely at the female board members of Berkshire Hathaway and the female managers who run Berkshire Hathaway companies Follows the paths that brought these women to their current positions Explores their working relationship with their employees and Warren Buffett, and how they balance work and their private lives The only book focusing on eight of the most powerful women at Berkshire Hathaway, The Women of Berkshire Hathaway is an inspirational read about the triumph of a group of remarkable women within a company once dominated by men.

Great leaders have a great deal to teach those of us who aspire to leadership. But their lessons are as diverse and sometimes contradictory as the leaders themselves; we have to pick and choose among them, matching our own talents, temperament, and shortcomings with those of the models we aim to copy. Here are studies of six business titans of the recent past who offer a wide range of precepts for leadership: Warren Buffett, the most successful investor in history, who combines vast wealth with honesty, unfeigned modesty, and self-deprecating wit; Walt Disney, the great entertainer, who promoted family values but was also a tyrannical micro-manager; Thomas Alva Edison, the world's most prolific inventor, who gave us the phonograph, the incandescent light, the electric generator, and motion pictures; Katharine Graham, who earned world fame as the courageous publisher whose Washington Post led the fight to uncover the Watergate scandal that drove Richard Nixon from the White House; Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder and genius who dazzled the world with the revolutionary iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad; and Ray Kroc, the late-blooming entrepreneur who built McDonald's into the world's biggest fast-food restaurant chain. No reader will follow all of their precepts, but all six offer vital lessons for anyone who wants to be a leader.

For the first time the complete financial history of Berkshire Hathaway is available under one cover in chronological format. Beginning at the origins of the predecessor companies in the textile industry, the reader can examine the development of the modern-day conglomerate year-by-year and decade-by-decade, watching as the struggling textile company morphs into what it has become today. This comprehensive analysis distils over 10,000 pages of research material, including Buffett’s Chairman’s letters, Berkshire Hathaway annual reports and SEC filings, annual meeting transcripts, subsidiary financials, and more. The analysis of each year is supplemented with Buffett’s own commentary where relevant, and examines all important acquisitions, investments, and other capital allocation decisions. The appendices contain balance sheets, income statements, statements of cash flows, and key ratios dating back to the 1930s, materials brought together for the first time. The structure of the book allows the new student to follow the logic, reasoning, and capital allocation decisions made by Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger from the very beginning. Existing Berkshire shareholders and long-time observers will find new information and refreshing analysis, and a convenient reference guide to the decades of financial moves that built the modern-day respected enterprise that is Berkshire Hathaway.

As in previous editions of The Essays of Warren Buffett, this one retains the architecture and philosophy of the original edition but adds selections from Warren Buffett's most recent annual shareholder letters. All the letters are woven together into a fabric that reads as a complete and coherent narrative of a sound business and investment philosophy. As an aid to all readers, and to enable readers of the previous editions to see what is new in this one, a disposition table at the end of the book shows the various places in this collection where selections from each year's letter appear. Footnotes throughout indicate the year of the annual report from which essays are taken. To avoid interrupting the narrative flow, omissions of text within excerpts are not indicated by ellipses or other punctuation. This new edition is called for not because anything has changed about the fundamentals of Buffett's sound business and investment philosophy but because articulation of that philosophy is always delivered in the context of contemporary events and business conditions so periodic updating is warranted to maintain its currency