Learning from the masters of business

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Everyone should take time to read and to ponder what they’ve read.

To that end, I have kicked around the idea of doing a book review for some time now. Most successful executives and managers are proficient readers and consume written content daily—whether books, magazines, journals, or newspapers. I have found this is an excellent way to get ongoing professional development, and I typically have two or three books in process from various genres.

For this column, I picked three that cover interesting and well-known executives, their life stories, and respective businesses. Here are my main takeaways from each.

“The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life” by Alice Schroeder

This long and detailed biography reads like a history book. Schroeder has pages of footnotes at the end from her extensive research on Buffet.

The first thing I learned was that Buffet’s efforts to accumulate wealth started in his youth. He started working, earning, and saving as a child and had already built substantial savings by the time he graduated high school. He was always looking for ways to make money, whether it was a paper route or buying businesses, and he was quick to analyze ROI, maximize profit, and jump to the next venture—hence the name “Snowball.”

We often look at successful people and assume they have super intelligence or caught a lucky break. That is rarely the case, and Buffet literally has spent his entire life working, earning, and saving.

The second takeaway for me is Buffet’s commitment to ongoing learning about financial systems and his trade. He has spent hours upon hours reading, studying journals, and analyzing investment opportunities that no one else would even look at. He still reads multiple newspapers a day and consumes content to keep an edge on the market.

The last takeaway was that Buffet acquired much of his wealth from buying companies. I knew Berkshire Hathaway had an aggressive M&A strategy, but I still assumed much of his personal wealth was gained by investing in the stock market. Buffet spent long hours assessing companies—both healthy and struggling—and he was a master of finding undervalued businesses with little competition from other buyers.

In summary, start early, never take your foot off the gas, constantly educate yourself, and consider acquisitions to grow your business.

“Personal History” by Katharine Graham

I learned about Katharine Graham from reading the Warren Buffet biography. Graham and Buffet were very close friends and business partners from time to time.

“The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life” by Alice Schroeder

Graham grew up in an extremely affluent family, and it was interesting to learn about the lifestyles of families that came into wealth in the early 1900s when much of the country still lived in poverty. Her parents had many business ventures, but they were most well-known for owning the Washington Post.

She was a prolific writer, and her autobiography was put together with material from memos, letters, emails, and other correspondence that she wrote over her lifetime. With the development of texting and digital communication, it was a good reminder of the power of a well-written document. Her communication skills via the pen were impressive, and she stuck to traditional formalities even as technology developed.

Graham was a direct communicator. She took the helm of the Washington Post after her husband, Philip, committed suicide. She navigated the CEO position at a major company before women were really entering the workforce. She dealt with many difficult situations, including the Post’s coverage of the Watergate scandal.

On top of that, Graham was quick to meet disagreement head-on and would write to or meet directly with individuals who opposed her to settle disputes. She also was an excellent networker. This was helped by her family’s prosperity and her own wealth, which made it possible for her to host extravagant dinners. She lived in the heart of Washington, D.C., and was known as the best host in town. It was a privilege to attend a Kay Graham party, and the networking significantly helped her career and business.

In summary, excellent communication skills go a long way in building your reputation as a professional. Be direct when meeting adversity. Settle matters quickly and hone your networking skills.

“Buying Disney’s World: The Story of How Florida Swampland Became Walt Disney World” by Aaron H. Goldberg

In his final decades, Walt Disney had big dreams of opening Walt Disney World—a combination of amusement park/modern city that would be the way of living in the future. The site selection and acquisition made for a wild process that took place over many years and under complete secrecy.

This fascinating book details the process by which Disney, in California at the time, identified ideal sites throughout the country, eventually narrowed in on Florida, and then quietly bought up land over a period of many years to accumulate more than 25,000 acres in the heart of the state.

Disney was upset about the encroachment of commercial businesses on Disneyland in California and wanted total control of as much land as possible around Disney World. As you can imagine, the cost of this effort was tremendous, and the park’s construction was even pricier. The planning and execution of even the most minor details in the parks were very important to Disney himself, and that ethos is still deeply ingrained in the Disney way of doing business. This is one of the reasons the parks are so successful. The experience is second to none and keeps people coming back.

Disney was a visionary, and although the Disney World project meant racking up investors, loans, and other liabilities, he never wavered and was all-in from the beginning. By following his vision, the project became one of the most profitable ventures in history.

The entire story was engrossing, but the three key takeaways are:

1. Surround yourself with a leadership team that you can trust with your most confidential strategies and visions.
2. Do not miss the details, and do whatever it takes to execute flawlessly.
3. Take big swings—don't let anyone distract you from your dreams.

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