Whenever Warren Buffett speaks at an event, somebody in the audience usually asks for a stock tip. Buffett will pause, only to reply, “Please forgive me, I really don’t follow the stock market.”
The house will convulse in laughter, as it always does when the questions is posed. On the surface, it might appear odd or even counterintuitive that one of the world’s richest investors does not follow the stock market. However, what Buffett does—and does so well—is that he researches the company’s revenue picture and more importantly, searches for organizations that offers a durable competitive advantage for the long term.
It was a pleasure to have Mary Buffett , an old friend, join The Luncheon Society for a conversation on how Warren Buffett’s investment mind works. Mary, along with co-author David Clark have created a series of books under the banner of Buffettology, to help investors better understand how he grew Berkshire Hathaway into the investment powerhouse that it is today.
Mary’s latest best-selling book is “Warren Buffett’s Management Secrets: Proven Tools for Personal and Business Success,” which has had a smashing run on the business best seller lists and her books have been translated into 17 languages and published internationally by over a dozen publishing houses. The question they ask is this: Can Warren Buffett’s decision-making offer a keyhole into how he makes his investment choices. The answer is “yes.”
It is fair to say that Mary Buffett has lived an interesting life. At a young age, she found herself working in the music industry alongside a variety of people including Phil Spector. Later, she served as the Managing Director at Playboy/After Dark Records and managed Hef’s music businesses. She later co-founded a post-production company called Independent Sound, which provided musical content for a wide range of clients, including a wide variety of commercials as well as motion pictures, like “Dancing with Wolves.” Continue reading
Only days before President Obama signed legislation to expand the definition of a hate crime, The Luncheon Society met with Judy Shepard, whose son is memorialized in the Matthew Shepard-James Byrd Hate Crime Prevention 
The Sierra Club’s Carl Pope poses the question. “Let’s say you’re canoeing down the river and it forks to the right and left. As you look one way,” he says, “you see a jarring set of rapids that travels down a treacherous route, with whitecaps that crash against the jagged rocks. However, when you look in the other direction, you see a smooth current, clear sailing, and none of the dangers found with traveling in the other direction.”
We may have lost temporarily a member, but we have gained an Ambassador. Our friend Jeff Bleich is the second member of The Luncheon Society to join the Ambassadorial ranks. Previously Jeff was the Special Counsel to the President in the Obama Administration. In private practice, Jeff was a litigation partner in the San Francisco office of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, and has been recognized for the past 7 years as one of the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal. 
Does overheated rhetoric invite and incite dangerous behavior? Is there a causal relationship between the killing of Dr. George Tiller and the rhetoric that originated from the partisan talk-television prior to his death? 
The world is a different place when seen through the eyes of Dr. Temple Grandin.
The Luncheon Society 
