The 20 Carroll School M.B.A. students knew they鈥檇 learn something about investing when they touched down in Omaha last month. How could they not? They were slated to spend the next morning with Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor, who鈥檚 based there. What they didn鈥檛 expect was that the most memorable takeaways from their time with Buffett, who鈥檚 no. 3 on听贵辞谤产别蝉鈥�s听list of the world鈥檚 richest people, would be his advice on managing their careers鈥攁nd lives.
鈥淲hat struck me was how philosophical he is,鈥� said Jen Kaing, a part-time M.B.A. student who鈥檒l graduate in 2019. 鈥淗e said making money is great, but the really important thing is being able to care for yourself and your loved ones. He said you don鈥檛 want to be a captive to your possessions.鈥� Buffett walks his talk: he famously lives in a house, nice enough but no mansion, that he bought in 1958.听听
Each year, Buffett, who鈥檚 chairman, president, and CEO of听, an investment holding company, invites a handful of M.B.A. programs to send small groups of students to Omaha. He hosts them for a two-hour Q&A session and then treats them to lunch at one of his favorite steakhouses.
Boston College students have been invited every other year for about a decade. The Carroll School chooses them by lottery (usually from a pool of 60 hopefuls), and the winning group of 20 includes a fairly even mix of men and women, full-time and part-time M.B.A.鈥檚. This year, they were among 120 students from six schools (including Harvard and Stanford) who met with Buffett.
Scott McDermott, a program director and lecturer of management practice at the Carroll School, leads the semi-annual trip. It鈥檚 not a class but rather a noncredit chance for the M.B.A. students to learn from a master. 鈥淗e鈥檚 considered the best investor ever,鈥� McDermott noted.
The group flies out on a Thursday and returns Saturday. Students are expected to bone up beforehand on Buffett and听. McDermott asks them to read听Tap Dancing to Work, a collection of听Fortune听magazine articles about Buffett and Berkshire, as well as several of Buffett鈥檚 annual letters to his company鈥檚 shareholders. In investment circles, the letters are holy writ. They lay out, in plain, folksy language, which investments Buffett has made and why. They also sometimes delve into his opinions about such business controversies as swelling CEO pay and the uses and abuses of derivative securities.
Buffett was equally willing to address touchy topics in his Q&A session with the M.B.A.鈥檚, Kaing said. One student asked why there weren鈥檛 more women among top investors. Buffett said he didn鈥檛 know but encouraged women in the room to pursue an investing career in the same way he did: by creating their own investment company and managing money themselves. 鈥淗e said if you want to break into the investment industry, your record will speak for itself,鈥� Kaing related.
He likewise took on the question, posed by Sierra Horn, M.B.A. and M.S.F. 鈥�17, of whether the United States is seeing a bubble as the country鈥檚 amount of student debt climbs. Buffett said he didn鈥檛 think so, but he did express concern about the need to somehow slow fast-rising education expenses, Horn said. 听听
But the insight that stuck with several of this year鈥檚 attendees had nothing to do with current events. Rather, it was Buffett鈥檚 insistence on the importance of communication skills.
鈥淗e talked about how being able to communicate well can increase a person鈥檚 value to a company,鈥� said Geoff Kramer, M.B.A. 鈥�17. 鈥淗e talked about IQ and said a lot of people are intelligent, but they can鈥檛 communicate that in a clear way. He said, 鈥業f you have intelligence but can鈥檛 communicate, it鈥檚 like winking at a girl in the dark.鈥欌��
Buffett told the students that he鈥檇 realized, early on, that he needed to polish his speaking skills and thus took a course based on the principles of Dale Carnegie to improve, said Maura Hogan, M.B.A. 鈥�17. 鈥淗e said his Dale Carnegie Institute certificate is the only one he has on his office wall,鈥� she pointed out. (Carnegie wrote听How to Win Friends and Influence People,听one of the best-selling self-help books of all time.)
M.B.A. candidates aren鈥檛 the only pilgrims who make their way to Omaha. Every year, Berkshire holds its annual meeting there, and shareholders come from around the world to hear from Buffett and Charlie Munger, Berkshire鈥檚 vice chairman, and attend social events. Buffett has called it the 鈥淲oodstock of capitalism.鈥�
Mark Zagata, M.B.A. 鈥�17, didn鈥檛 go so far as to compare the students鈥� meeting to a storied rock festival, but he did say that sharing his encounter with Buffett enhanced it.
鈥淕oing on the trip lets you experience this with other BC classmates and Scott,鈥� he said. 鈥淔riday night, we went out for a debrief, and we were all talking about Warren Buffett and what he鈥檇 said. There are extra benefits you get through experiencing something like this together.鈥�
Tim Gray is a freelance writer and a writing instructor at the Carroll School.