Volunteerism in Omaha, Saturday, March 14th, 2009

On Saturday morning, a group of my fellow students volunteered their time at Girls Inc. The local organization helps girls succeed in school and in life. We arrived at Girls Inc and the coordinator at Girls Inc. led us on a quick tour through facility and then left. Some of us decided to reorganize a few rooms - equipment room, library room and sewing/knitting room and few others worked on bulletion board. Myself and Donald worked on Sports Equipment room. We think we did a good job in organizing things. After having lunch (Thanks to Helen for getting lunch from Panera bread), we made a quick tour as to what fellow students did and we agreed everybody did fantastic job. Girls Inc was a really nice facility and certainly a worthy cause.

The trip to Omaha wouldn’t have been possible without the help and hard work of many members of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management community. Thank you to all who made the trip and for arranging the meetings and organizing our group activities.

Berkshire Day - Friday, March 13th 2009

First stop was the Nebraska Furniture Mart. The facility was absolutely huge—multiple buildings of several hundred thousand square feet each. We went to the furniture building first and met Mr.Bob, the CEO. He took us on a tour and talked to us about the business along the way.

Few interesting snippets from NFM:

Q: What is important you learned from your grand mother (Mrs B) ?

Bob: "Sell Cheap and tell truth to customers. "

Q: Other locations for NFM?

Bob: They did lot of marketing research (approx 2 years) and decided to have a store near Kansas city. Spreading to other cities might dilute the brand and quality. So no further plans to have NFM in other locations.

Also Bob spoke about customer care, work culture, layoffs, international markets (rugs). He also talked about learning from disney university in setting up their electronic store.

Next stop was Q&A with Warren Buffett. There were around 120 students from Boston College, University of Arizona, Harvard, Wharton and Peer Venture Fund. He entered the room and invited us to drink some of the Coke products he was nice enough to provide—Berkshire is a major stockholder of the Coca Cola Company—then the Q&A started.

Few interesting snippets with Buffett:

Q: First question you ask potential employees in an interview?

Buffett: He told one should have passion to their work and thats what he was looking for, although he hired only once in 2007.

Q: How do you value Gold?

Buffett: He said its interesting economic phenomenon and gold has mystical value. He mentioned it is terrible thing to look at gold as investment. also people will go for gold, when they fear for bills (currency)

Q: Regd entrepreneurship in current economic situations?

Buffett: Never put things on hold irrespective of economic situations. Its like saving sex for old age. if you have the passion to do it, you should never put things on hold.

Q: Concepts business schools programs failing to instill or teach to their students?

Buffett: One thing a manager should have is how to communicate in writing and orally. How to communicate ideas across people. He told about himself, how he was shy of speaking early in his career and how he overcame that.

Then he talked about social philosophy, what be learned in his career so far (how corporates behave, how management behave and human behavior in different situations). Also about tax code, how he filed taxes less than his secretary. He also mentioned he looks like George Clooney.

After a couple of hours of Q&A, we left for Buffett's favorite restaurant—Piccolo's steakhouse. After lunch it was photo session time. He took the time to pose for hundreds of group and individual pictures. Some of the poses were pretty funny: holding Mr. Buffett’s wallet, Mr. Buffett whispering investing secrets. There were many cameras and flashes. There were different poses. Most interesting was with cigar and wine. After individual photos, everybody took picture with respective schools.

Last stop was Borsheims jewelry. We had a chance to talk to the CEO, Susan for a few minutes. She talked about their business model, about herself, about Buffett. After that few of us shopped for jewelry and then we left for hotel.

Buffett Trip Preparation

Warren Buffett invited 25 UC Davis MBA students to visit his office in Omaha, Nebraska, on March 13th. As a first-year MBA student, I was fortunate to be one of those selected to go on the trip as I was on waitlist one day before the mandatory meeting on Feb 1st. To prepare for the trip, the UC Davis MBA students met two times to discuss Berkshire Hathaway’s history, Buffett’s career, personal life, current economic situation and the value investing strategies that have made him the world’s second richest person. Students planned volunteer work in Omaha as a way to recognize Buffett’s philanthropy and to thank him for his time. I've long admired Mr. Warren Buffett's investing acumen and track record leading Berkshire Hathaway.

Some interesting facts about Warren Buffett:

1. Warren Buffett bought his first share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started ltoo late.
2. He filed his tax return at age 13 and claimed bicycle and watch as $35 work expense for newspaper delivery boy job.
3. He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.
4. He drives his own car (Cadillac PTS) everywhere and does not have a driver.
5. He still lives in the same three bedroom house in mid-town Omaha, that he bought for 31.5k (Now ~700k).
6. He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company.
7. Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his desk.
8. His annual Salary is $100k (2006)
9. In 2006, announced plan to give away his fortune to charity, 83% to Gates foundation.
10. His favorite past time is playing bridge game.