Case Study Of Warren Buffett

Introduction: Bernie Madoff was a well-respected financier, his company Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC was very well known and even helped launch the Nasdaq stock market. Madoffs company was well trusted and he even had celebrity cliental such a Steven Spielberg, Kevin bacon, and Kyra Sedgwick. Madoff came from a low income family however, he was able to start his company from getting a $50,000 loan from his in-laws and he using money that he had saved from side jobs such as lifeguarding and installing sprinkler systems to found his company. The successfulness of Madoff’s company came from the company’s ability to adapt to change and us modern day computer technology. As his business grew he stated employing family members to help “His younger brother, Peter, joined him in the business in 1970 and became the firm 's chief compliance officer. Later, Madoff 's sons, Andrew and Mark, also worked for the company as traders. Peter 's daughter, Shana, became a rules-compliance lawyer for the trading division of her uncle 's firm, and his son, Roger, joined the firm before his death in 2006”(Bernard Madoff Biography 2016) Unfortunately on December 11th 2008 Bernie Madoff became well known for a whole new reason. He had been accused of performing an elaborate Ponzi scheme and he had been reported to the federal authorities by his own sons. A year later he admitted to the investigators that he had lost $50 billion dollars of his investors’ money and pled guilty to 11

5. - Please critically assess Buffett´s investment philosophy, and prepare to identify points where you agree and disagree with him.

The significant finding from this article is that the world of finance is a very strange world. This world can offer opportunities to many, and at the same time, it can prove to be a mess for the others. Many people are not corrupt in their person, but by being negligent or by being careless, they fail at doing their duty successfully at some points in time. However, what the article talks about is the complete picture. Steven A Cohen faced a problem. He got entangled in an enormous financial mess.

At a young age he had the drive and work ethic to make money. He was influenced to by his father who was a stock broker and bought stock at the age of 11. He finished his M.S. in Economics from Columbia Business School where his studied under Benjamin Graham and Phil Fisher. When working at Benjamin Graham’s partnership, he thought the guidelines of investment were too stringent, he felt there were opportunities for higher profits but company guidelines inhibited potential profits. After leaving Graham partnership, he was involved with 6 partnerships. Warren Buffet went on to organize the sale of his partnerships, ultimately securing his job as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He used his critical thinking skills to build Berkshire Hathaway. One of his abilities is the ability to identify talent and recruitment of talent. Warren Buffet believes that gossiping, lying, breaking agreements, becoming defensive, feeling entitled, and withholding key information slows down the decision making process (Market, 2011). These are the key fundamentals that have made Warren Buffet a success.

Comparing the Wells Fargo written policy to their actions shows a total disconnect. Quite possibly, their “shop mentality” or decentralized culture, played a part in a less ethical culture (The Economist, 2017). However, since leaders are integral in the formation of an ethical culture, it seems that upper management either did not communicate as well as they should have, or were complicit in the irregularities. Interesting though, is that Warren Buffet’s company, is the largest shareholder, again proving that it is necessary to develop and then monitor an ethics based program (CNN Wire, 2016).

We chose Bernard Madoff’s case because we thought that we could relate his case to many unethical behaviors. The analysis can be made on decision making and lack of ethical training which we think is an important topic to focus on this course.

Here, the discussion should shift to an analysis of Berkshire’s general record, its experience with MidAmerican, and its experiences buying equity positions in the Big Four. The general conclusion will be that Buffett has done very well as an investor and as the manager of Berkshire.

Discuss Buffett’s analysis of the junk bond failures of the 1980s.What is Buffett’s view of the role to be played by investment bankers?

Bernard Madoff had full control of the organizational leadership of Bernard Madoff Investments Securities LLC. Madoff used charisma to convince his friends, members of elite groups, and his employees to believe in him. He tricked his clients into believing that they were investing in something special. He would often turn potential investors down, which helped Bernard in targeting the investors with more money to invest. Bernard Madoff created a system which promised high returns in the short term and was nothing but the Ponzi scheme. The system’s idea relied on funds from the new investors to pay misrepresented and extremely high returns to existing investors. He was doing this for years; convincing wealthy individuals and charities to

One of the first most successful business mogul, Jonny Rockefeller achieved tremendous financial success. “The New Tycoons: John D. Rockefeller” He became one of America’s first billionaire. As a capitalist his goal was to make money. He envisioned himself as one of the richest person in America. Becoming a billionaire wasn’t something that was handed to him on a silver platter. “10 People Living the American Dream” Growing up he was one of six children. His mother raised him mostly single-handedly. He held various jobs to help support his family. Eventually his brother and him ventured in the oil business and monopolized the industry.

Media General is a mature company which has a lot of business including newspapers, television broadcasting and digital businesses primarily serving the southeastern U.S. (Over 18 TV stations and 64 newspapers). While because of the popular of Internet from the 2000s, more than 300 daily newspapers disappeared and daily circulation of newspapers fell to 44 million in 2011, the U.S. newspaper industry is dropping.

Warren Buffett utilizes a constant strategy to manage these companies including Berkshire Hathaway by holding shares for a long time. Berkshire Hathaway does not pay any dividends to the shareholders but reinvests surplus instead to maximize the value of the company. Under this strategy, each company is growing constantly and some of them such as GIECO and Nebraska Furniture Mart are the major layer in the industry.

At first, Mr. Warren E. Buffett said that their operating and capital-allocation process would not be affected by accounting numbers such as financial statement and any consolidated numbers. The book also says the accounting reality is restricted by the generally accepted accounting principles, GAAP, so that some intangible assets

Operated through a complex, cryptic structure Bernie Madoff, CEO of Bernie L. Madoff Investment Securities (BMIS), perpetuated the most embellished Ponzi scheme the world has ever seen. The basis of the securities fraud that took place approximately between 1991 – 2008 was influenced by Bernie Madoff’s reliance upon an unqualified staff, outdated software, organizational seclusion, a personal halo effect, and weaknesses in the regulating body. Madoff had the confidence of the public, yet to pull off such an elaborate scheme, he relied on a startling number of family members, vital accomplices working on the illegal trading floor such as Frank D. Pascali, IT staff members, and a separate BMIS branch of international employees

Kelly (2013) segments Buffett’s leadership transition into seven stages: opportunist, diplomat, expert, achiever, individualist, strategist, and alchemist. During the first four stages, Buffett concerned himself with growing his investment and not on the impact of the organization’s reputation, employees’ welfare, or community and is why this category is unilateral power (Kelly, 2013). In the early 1960’s, his transactional leadership style tarnished his reputation following the sale of Dempster Mill (Kelly, 2013).