Compassion

Last Saturday, I was reading 'Warren Buffett Shareholder: Stories from inside the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting' book. Lawrence Cunningham and Stephanie Cuba, the author of that book, have done well to arrange the the stories of people being affected by BRK's annual meeting. I finished reading the whole book in one day.

Jim Rosss

There is one story from 'Readers' chapter - Jim Ross. As for myself, when I visited Omaha for the first time, I flew with Southwest Airlines to Eppley Airfield. Even though I walked around Eppley Airfield to find A&W branch (Singapore has no A&W for 18 years since the last branch in Singapore closed), I still cannot recall where the bookstore, that is managed by Jim Ross, is located at.

Jim Ross had the desire to meet the customers' demand. As the number of visitors (for BRK annual meeting) increase, he learnt that the customers' demand outstripped his supply for specific books. Learning the reason why it is the case, he shared his concern with Warren Buffett in hope to get the insight about what books Warren and Charlie are reading.

I feel so touched when Warren Buffett was concerned that if his insight don't bring much sales, leaving Jim an inventory problem. I saw compassion in this act. Although I may not be connecting to many people every day, I do feel that I never saw that in my working career.

Finally, Jim Ross wrote about his excellent encounters about Charlie Munger's frugal acts. Ha, I like it as I am quite frugal myself too.

Phil Terry

One story from 'Managers' chapter - Phil Terry (for Stam Taylor). In Singapore, within my age circle, some of my friends are already talking about their worries of retrenchments and unhappiness at work. Sam Taylor truly cared to see his employees to remain employed after he sold his company.

I feel touched. There are not many owners having this kind of compassion for their employees.

Compassion

Compassionate is very important character for any business owner. It is common to have ruthless business owners or C-suite managers in order to maximise profit.

I think compassion will open many doors for the owners/C-suite managers to connect their business trades with each other. Over time, the sales will grow on many sides. Quantitative analysis may not tell you which owners are compassionate. Qualitative analysis does and compassionate stories about owners may explain why (some, if not all) quantitative figures are like this. End of the day, it may not maximise profit but may ensure the survival of the business for very long time.

Myself as Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder

After reading the book, I feel so proud to be Berkshire Hathaway shareholder. I am still holding on them for 5 years and ongoing. I have visited Omaha in 2014 and 2016 and tend to combine Omaha visit with national reserve park hike.

In 2014, I had few interesting encounters, making new friends at Yellow Brkers. In 2016, I made sure that I can see what Markel Brunch is like at Omaha, after BRK Annual Meeting. Beside that, I am glad to explore the ballroom being rented by Mr Tilson on Friday night. I was happy to listen and talk with 3 older BRK shareholders about their own lives and my own introduction.

Well, I am not so outgoing person and I do have similar feeling which Mr Tilson has in his early days visiting BRK Annual Meeting.

It is one of few stocks I can tell friends that I own BRK-B shares in case they want to copy me. That is why I do not tell them what stocks I have in my portfolio. I fear their long term mentality whereby they cannot stand the zig zag price movement of every stock I own. I feel very confidence investing in BRK-B shares as we all know there is price floor at our estimated price which BRK will buy back at in the event of underpriced BRK stocks.