Lawrence a Cunningham - Dear Shareholder: The best executive letters from Warren Buffett, Prem Watsa and other great CEOs

Praise for
Dear Shareholder

Little has been written about CEOs letters to shareholders. In Dear Shareholder , Lawrence Cunningham pulls together the best excerpts from the best letters. He demonstrates the qualities of superior letters, and the ones he has excerpted illustrate what makes for a successful company and a great CEO. Theres much to be learned from this volume.

Howard Marks , Director and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital & Author, The Most Important Thing and Mastering the Market Cycle

Want to know how the best CEOs in the business think? Dear Shareholder is your cheat sheet. Larry Cunningham has distilled the lessons buried in the annual letters of the most successful CEOs of our generation to bring us a treasure of timeless, common-sense principles for business, management and capital allocation (a surprisingly uncommon trifecta).

Robert Robotti , President, Robotti & Co.

Dear Shareholder is an invaluable curation of the finest shareholder letters, a treasure trove for current and aspiring investors and CEOs, and for anyone on the lookout for exceptional capital allocators. The clarity and concision of these letters correlates highly with extraordinary returns and will delight any reader intrigued by (very) long-term value creation.

Will Thorndike , Author, The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success

Dear Shareholder provides a collection of invaluable lessons and insights from the worlds savviest wealth-creating CEOs. Lawrence Cunningham delivers a curated classic that is both bingeworthy and a permanent addition to any investors library.

Lauren C. Templeton , President, Templeton & Phillips Capital Management & Author, Investing The Templeton Way

Its usually the case that Those who can do, while those who cant, teach or write. Not so here. Of course, Warren Buffett, Prem Watsa, Tom Gayner and others have been unquestionably successful. But they have also been able to write about that success, and therefore to teach. And Lawrence Cunninghams excellent selection, arrangement and commentary on their shareholder letters make their lessons accessible and digestible for the rest of us.

Guy Spier , Author, The Education of a Value Investor

In Dear Shareholder , Cunningham has curated some of the very best writing on business and leadership, ranging from the highest profile executives to thoughtful, less well-known stars. Housing this compendium in one volume is convenient and rich with wisdom.

Ted Seides , Host, Capital Allocators Podcast

Lawrence Cunningham has put together another excellent book, a collection of letters by CEOs, the limited few, who are not only good operators, but also good asset allocators, i.e., value investors. Dear Shareholder is a must-read for anyone looking to understand those CEOs who know how to manage to create value and make their companies attractive to those who seek value creation. They are defined by these character traits: integrity, humility, discipline, patience, and long-term perspective.

Prof. George Athanassakos , Ben Graham Chair in Value Investing, Ivey Business School, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada

Lawrence Cunningham was the first to distill the wisdom of Warren Buffetts letters in his ground-breaking Essays of Warren Buffett . Now he analyzes and extracts important information from the letters of other financial legends. Incorporating these cultural and leadership insights will surely boost your strategic IQ and your investment returns.

Laura Rittenhouse , CEO, Rittenhouse Rankings, Inc. & Author, Investing Between the Lines: How to Make Smarter Decisions By Decoding CEO Communications

Lawrence Cunningham forever changed my life with a simple insight: The best way to learn about business is to read the letters of its greatest practitioners. Larrys book, The Essays of Warren Buffett , is a master class in finance that inspired a generation of value investors. His newest offering, Dear Shareholder , channels legendary CEOs to teach us valuable lessons about management, leadership and corporate stewardship. Future titans of industry should begin their business education with this book.

Jeff Gramm , Author, Dear Chairman: Boardroom Battles and the Rise of Shareholder Activism

Shareholder letters are a unique keyhole into the business world. Professor Cunningham, the master curator behind The Essays of Warren Buffett , works his magic again in this inspired collection of the best letters.

Jacob L. Taylor , Host, Five Good Questions & Author, The Rebel Allocator

Dear Shareholder

Lawrence A. Cunningham is a business law professor and consultant based in New York City and Washington DC. Among his critically acclaimed books are The Essays of Warren Buffett; Berkshire Beyond Buffett; Quality Investing; and The AIG Story. A member of the George Washington University faculty, he is the Founding Director of GW in New York, an intensive training program for aspiring Wall Street lawyers. A graduate of the University of Delaware and Cardozo Law School and former deal lawyer at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Cunningham consults on corporate governance and has served on several boards, both private and public, currently including Constellation Software Inc. He also serves on the Deans Advisory Council of the University of Delaware College of Business and is a Trustee of the Museum of American Finance. In 2018, the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) awarded Cunningham with the 2018 Kenneth West Lifetime Achievement Award.

ALSO BY LAWRENCE A. CUNNINGHAM

The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America

Outsmarting the Smart Money: Understand How Markets Really Work and Win the Wealth Game

How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett

What Is Value Investing?

The AIG Story

Berkshire Beyond Buffett: The Enduring Value of Values

Quality Investing: Owning the best companies for the long term

The Buffett Essays Symposium: A 20th Anniversary Annotated Transcript

The Warren Buffett Shareholder: Stories from inside the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting

Margin of Trust: The Berkshire Business Model

Published and Distributed by

Cunningham Cuba LLC

&

Harriman House Ltd.

1129 Northern Boulevard (Suite 402), Manhasset, NY, 11030 USA

3 Viceroy Court, Bedford Road, Petersfield GU32 3LJ

www.harriman-house.com

Copyright 2020

Lawrence A. Cunningham

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cunningham, Lawrence A., 1962

Dear Shareholder: The best executive letters from Warren Buffett, Prem Watsa & other great CEOs

pages cm

includes index

ISBN(s)

Paperback: 978-0-85719-791-7

eBook: 978-0-85719-792-4

Cover design: Christopher Parker

1. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. 2. Buffett, Warren. 3. Watsa, Prem. 4. Corporate Management. 5. Shareholder Letters.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Publishers. This book may not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without the prior written consent of the Publishers.

While every effort has been made to ensure that information in this book is accurate, no liability can be accepted for any loss incurred in any way whatsoever by any person relying solely on the information contained herein.