3 days in Omaha

Hey Big Spender: I set Warren Buffett straight (what would he do without me?)

On Saturday afternoon, I departed Davis with two of my classmates and embarked on a pilgrimage to visit the “Oracle of Omaha”. The flight and layover hours melted away as we talked excitedly about the upcoming weekend, and more generally about our experiences at the GSM. When we arrived in Omaha, nearly at midnight, we merged with our classmates coming in on different airlines and packed tightly into a shuttle to the Marriott. Some of us hit the town and enjoyed a night cap at a local bar, while other, more ambitious students, charged off to the state line for some bonding over blackjack.

On Sunday, we woke up and enjoyed a hearty American breakfast at the hotel (made-to-order omelets, make-your-own Belgian waffles, sausage, bacon, grits, potatoes, etc.). This was our volunteer day where we split up into groups to give back to the community in an effort to give thanks to Warren Buffett for inviting us to Omaha. Some students took off to United Way for a morning shift, but the bulk of us took an afternoon shift, volunteering at either the Boys and Girls Club of Omaha, or Girls Inc.. I chose Girls Inc..

Once there, Executive Director, Roberta welcomed us and gave us a thorough briefing of the organization. We toured the impressive facilities and chose our mission. Some students were tasked with putting together bulletin boards about college life (to encourage the girls to consider college as an option), or about the financial distinction between needs and wants (we need rent and food, we want a manicure). Other students took on organizational tasks like cleaning and re-arranging the boutique, the wood shop or the storage areas. Some fixed broken tables and some hung student artwork. Kuntal spoke with Roberta to pick her brain about the Girls Inc. Financial Literacy program (since we are still tweaking our own FLP curriculum).

I broke away from pre-set tasks and chose to play to my strengths. Inspired by my background as a dancer/athlete and my passion for physical fitness, I stormed the fitness center and set out to design some fun workout routines tailored to the population. With the help of Mike (a Working professional student who I had just met), I designed some posters to hang in the gym with instructions for three 15-minute total body workouts. We gave little tips (start with a warm up on the treadmill/bike/Stairmaster to prepare your muscles for strengthening activities; always end with a stretch ; reach don’t bounce when stretching; etc.) as well as suggestions for specific exercises and repetitions. I recruited Liz to be a fellow “exercise model” and we took some fun pictures of us doing the specific exercises and stretches to supplement the descriptions on our posters. It seems like everyone had a great time, and accomplished a lot in the four hours we spent there. After a quick workout and dip in the pool, I joined Dean Biggart, Professor Barber, Heather O'Leary Garland, and my fellow classmates for a pre-arranged Tex-Mex dinner at the hotel, then headed out (through the bitter cold) to some local hangouts downtown.

Bright and early on Monday morning, dressed to the nines, we boarded buses for the big day. Our first stop was Berkshire-Hathaway subsidiary “Furniture Mart” a ginormous one-stop shop for all your furniture and electronic needs. Think IKEA+Costco+Wal-mart +Best Buy times 20. We were generously led around the store by a team of managers who answered our questions about inventory, logistics, and financials of the store's operation.

Next stop: Q&A with Warren Buffett. Armed with our pre-set list of questions, we joined the NYU Stern Students for the highlight of the trip – some face time with Mr. Buffett. We listened attentively as Mr. Buffett mused humorously about his life (the influence of his father, his first wife, his mentors); his political opinions (as a supporter of both Hillary and Obama, he’s a political bigamist), his dreams (do you know Sophia Loren?); the economy (he’s not worried about this recession in the grand scheme of things); philanthropy and his relationship with the Gates Foundation; foreign investments; his recent stint in the news over his bailout offer; and about the shortcomings of MBA programs (need more focus on communication skills).

Overall, he was affable, witty and extremely generous with his time and knowledge. After the Q&A and a brief lunch, he even took the time to pose individually with each of us - leading to a picture posing session worthy of George Clooney on the red carpet. I felt guilty using the billionaire as a prop for my next Christmas card, but hey, when’s the next time I’ll meet a financial icon?

Our visit to Borsheims seemed anti-climactic after our visit with Mr. Buffett, but as we stood in the middle of the mall and learned about the history and operations of the massive jewelry store, we had some time to reflect on the day. Last quarter, we read in our Micro Economics book that due to opportunity cost, it wouldn’t be worth Bill Gates’ time to bend over and pick up a $100 bill if it were lying on the street. If that’s the case, our time with Buffett was worth far more than any of us will ever be able to give back:

1 Roundtrip ticket from Sacramento to Omaha: $237
3 nights hotel at the Marriott: $200
Food and Entertainment for the weekend: $180
1 afternoon with Warren: Priceless

My only regret: not getting tickets to the Bon Jovi concert across the street from our hotel on Monday night :(

Final Preparations for our meeting with Mr. Buffett

February 3, 2008

I have a confession: I didn’t know who Warren Buffett was before he gave all that money to the Gates Foundation. Even then, he was only on my radar because of his philanthropy, and not because of his prescient stock investing abilities. Up until 5 months ago I was a dancer, and was totally entrenched in the non-profit world. I had no idea how to diversify a portfolio or what you were talking about if you mentioned amortization, dividends or annuities. So, in the fall when I entered the lottery to go on the trip to meet Mr. Buffett, I did so more out of curiosity and intrigue. Who was this man that was so deified by my classmates? How could my friends who went last year say that it was the highlight of their MBA experience? What insights could one man possibly give me that would change my life?

After winning the lottery to go on the trip and reading up on him, I began to see what all the fuss was about. As I see it, Mr. Buffett is a good man that makes good decisions. Seems like an oversimplification, but as I hear, he likes to keep things minimal and clear-cut himself. He is somehow able to wrap his mind around the intricacies of a company’s financials at a glance (an exercise which takes me hours of blood, sweat and tears) and pick companies he wants to “go long on”. He’s also a keen strategist with a sense of humor. In his 2006 letter to his shareholders he shares his plan to beat an 11-year old ping pong prodigy who keeps kicking his butt: “I’ve since devised a plan that will give me a chance against her. At 1 p.m. on Sunday, I will initiate play with a 2-point game against Ariel. If I somehow win the first point, I will then feign injury and claim victory.” He was joking (sort of), but I think it is a great metaphor for how he strategizes his investment decisions.

Today we had our last planning meeting for our trip to meet Warren Buffett in Omaha. Since we’d taken care of the logistical planning in the last two meetings, we discussed the fun stuff today: how we will take advantage of our Q&A time with Warren Buffett; what things we will do to “give back” as Mr. Buffett does; and what we’d like to give him as a gift of thanks for spending his time with us (shhh…it’s a secret). Some of my classmates have been inspired to volunteer in their own communities (like at the School of Imagination in Dublin, CA), others are reaching out to the Omaha community and are organizing volunteer opportunities in which many of us will participate while we are there, and others are putting together an investment plan to present to Mr. Buffett. I am very proud to be involved with the Financial Literacy Outreach Program. I’d like to think of myself as a co-instigator of the project (with Courtney Hans). Though my classmates have certainly taken the ball and RUN with it. Basically, it’s a plan to teach teenagers some basic, applicable money concepts. Our team, under the leadership of Kuntal Das, put together a curriculum, and conducted some test sessions in local high schools. Our plan is to share this curriculum with some organizations in Omaha, and to hopefully continue to workshop the curriculum in schools throughout our communities.

We leave in a couple of weeks…more then!