A Weekend with Warren Buffett: And Other Shareholder Meeting Adventures

by Randy Cepuch

Once a year, the managers of public companies have to fling open the doors and let the owners in — whether they want to or not. A Weekend with Warren Buffett and Other Shareholder Meeting Adventures is a humorous, informative business-related travelogue that looks at how companies in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia treat their investors during the brief period when the welcome mat is out. It's an Average Joe Investor's search for shareholder democracy and an occasional free lunch. Companies featured include Berkshire Hathaway, Citigroup, Dow Jones, Dupont, eBay, Gannett, Google, Hawaiian Electric, Hershey, MGM Grand, Microsoft, Otter Tail, Playboy, Starbucks, Tootsie Roll, Wal-Mart and Walt Disney, among others.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business

272 pages, Hardcover

First published February 23, 2007

About the author

Randy Cepuch wrote mutual fund annual reports and other financial publications for 30 years, always with the goal of helping investors to understand what they own. His humorous business travelogue — A Weekend With Warren Buffett and Other Shareholder Meeting Adventures (published by Thunder’s Mouth Press, now Perseus Books, in 2007) — received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which said it “ranks among the best commonsense investment books, and is certainly one of the most fun to read.”
Cepuch is also a securities dispute arbitrator, an election officer, and a pie judge. He reads approximately 100 books a year, with favorite subjects including travel, music, wine, and business (ideally all at once).

Reviews

[Monzenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just made it through the 5 star threshold. I really appreciate the breadth of coverage the book takes to shareholder meetings, from the mundane to the controversial. (It even has international companies!) The small hiccup I had - the bit of adoration for everything Warren Buffett - is a minor point in the grand scheme of things. The other nitpick I would probably have is that the book would have been better served had it used a different title, rather than focusing on the one shareholder meeting out of the 20+ the author attended. On a bad day I would have docked a star for misrepresentation - but not today.

[Hallie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining, for those who may be interested in reading about what happens at shareholder meetings without needing to travel to attend one yourself (and as the author also believes, reading transcripts or attending online isn't quite the same thing). I do wish that there is a more updated version of this, to see how meetings have evolved since the 2008 financial crisis.

[Andrew Mutch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly quick and entertaining read of what goes on at the annual shareholders meeting of publicly traded corporations. The antics of activist shareholders and the efforts of CEOs and corporations to avoid too much scrutiny get equal billing as the author goes from the meetings of some of the largest corporations in the world to some of the smallest. Warren Buffet gets plenty of praise while some other CEOs come off as looking less than honorable. This would mostly appeal to someone with an interest in finance or how corporations are run.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of meeting Randy at the May 2010 Berkshire Hathaway annual share holders meeting. His good sense of humor gives an excellent lift to what many may feel is a dull subject.In fact his book is full of adventure and insight into what makes some corporations tick. It is both well written and well researched. Thanks Randy!

[Davehk · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book suffers from the same problem as most chapter-based anecdotes: there's no development of a theme, exposition of a theory or consideration of an hypothesis.

It's well-enough written, but the only must-read chapter is the first.

[Topher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short little chapters, with each chapter being the story of going to the annual stockholder meeting for a different stock. Very amusing writer, some good ideas hidden in it, seems like unintentionally, for investing. Liked the book.

[David Pincus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked it, it was a light-hearted introduction to what actually goes on at those things

[Dayini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative, enlightening and fun! This book makes me want to attend a shareholder meeting, read more about shareholder activism and do more research into those companies whose stock I hold.

[Matt]

Worth the read. It could have been very boring, but he was honest in his assessment criteria. Food, Freebies, entertainment.

[Karen Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

So informative. Really enjoyed all the goings on at the shareholders meetings.