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Title: The Warren Buffett CEO: Secrets From the Berkshire Hathaway Managers by Robert P. Miles, Robert P. Miles ISBN: 0-471-43045-5 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 04 April, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.29 (21 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The soft facts of Buffett's success.
Comment: Robert Miles's most recent book grants overwhelming insights into the Buffett style of management.
Though having also been interested in the usually finance driven literature on Warren Buffett, I always missed to learn more about the soft facts in the incredible success story of Berkshire Hathaway.
This book perfectly filled this gap!
According to me, the chapter "Buffett CEO Compensation" is particularly interesting if one considers the current management desasters caused by the "motivation" tool called stock-options. Miles has prepared a good overview on Buffett's convincing anti-stock-option arguments and describes how Berkshire Hathaway compensates its CEOs with cash only. Very clear and very simple, as most of Buffett's fundamental rules.
Rating: 5
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Comment: Robert Miles knows Warren Buffett, and it's clear that he also knows a thing or two about the people who run the companies in Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. Armed with information gleaned from eight months of intensive interviews, Miles uncovers what makes a Berkshire manager tick, and covers the workings of Berkshire, itself, as well. Writing through the voices of the CEOs he portrays, Miles skillfully weaves the colorful histories of 18 firms into a revealing set of success stories. Many tales are similar - the CEOs love their companies; they worked hard to build solid businesses and no one regrets selling his firm to Berkshire. They all sound genuinely happier than you might possibly believe, and each chapter has business models you shouldn't miss. We invite any executive to enter these pages for an insider's view (still, it doesn't hurt to remember, they all knew Warren was gonna read it).
Rating: 2
Summary: A Pedestrian Book Saved Only by the Managers Themselves
Comment: Thank goodness Berkshire Hathaway is populated by so much management talent. Even Robert Miles' mediocre writing and pedestrian insights can't obscure the real value of this book, which is to document, in a detailed and therefore fairly convincing way, Warren Buffett's exceptional ability to choose and motivate people.
Buffett's techniques for dealing with people are well-known (he talks about them constantly) and this book has almost nothing really new to reveal, but Berkshire junkies will enjoy the anecdotes and facts that bring Buffett's concepts to life in a more concrete way. Even though many of the stories are recycled, hearing a few of the managers speak in their own words and tell their own versions is revealing. That Buffett himself made a kind remark about this book is unremarkable. What else could he possibly say about a book that features some of his key people? Bottom line: this is definitely a book for those already familiar with, and enthusiastic about, Buffett.
Miles' publisher, Wylie, has created a virtual industry out of quickie trade books about Buffett. Wylie's new twist in this book is the Berkshire managers, who provide whatever shine it emits. But somewhere along the way, a mighty big assist must have been delivered on the editorial end to tone the writing style down into something publishable. How so? Miles himself comes across as one of the most self-aggrandizing, uber-promotional, un-Buffett-like people imaginable. That someone could write about Warren Buffett, with seemingly so little concept of what the man is about, is amazing. It wouldn't be the first time Buffett's name has been exploited by someone who barely knows him, but Miles takes exploitation to a whole new extreme. The Robert Miles web page, which reminds one of a three-card monte dealer or perhaps, one of the more gelatinous used car salesman types, speaks for itself. The headline, "You May Never Meet Warren Buffett, But Hear Robert P. Miles Speak and You'll Feel Like You Have" says it all. If you want to read a book about the value of humility by an author who has the nerve to compare himself to Warren Buffett, well, this is that book.
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