Imo, Buffet is one of the most talented managers in America, and with a compensation package apparently totalling only $356,000 a year with no stock options, shareholders are certainly getting their money's worth by hiring him to run the company. It is hard not to view getting a manager of his caliber for that kind of money as a complete steal. But the thing that really makes Buffet a steal, is that he truly tries to manage for shareholders interests and value, rather than for the purpose of lining his own pockets at shareholders' expense. Execs like Buffet, that view shareholders as important partners in the business, and whom consider themselves stewards of shareholders interests for the long run, are hard to find imo.
Any investor who you hire to run a company is going to be a complete steal, hueyone. After all, Buffett owns 32% of BRK.a worth 34,833,121,280. If he brings a company into the BRK.a fold, and starts "managing" that company, he most likely is looking at a % ownership higher than most outside CEOs that get hired in tech, just by virtue of his BRK.a position.
Even founders of most tech companies have nowhere near the equity position Buffett has in BRK.a, due to its initial focus-vs. your average tech company which requires VC backing to launch. Comparing Buffett and his equity stake to your average tech founder is silly, and comparing Buffett to your average outside CEO that a mature company hires is borderline ridiculous. (I'm thinking of the Apple situation when Jobs came back).
Besides that, Buffett is not an entrepreneurial star, sorry. He cleans up messed up companies, mostly by way of the balance sheet- he's good at that, true but can Buffett do what Steve Jobs did with Pixar or Apple, create something that wasn't there before? Is he a Michael Dell with the level of vision that requires? I think not- I havent read the latest Buffett book but I read the last one (the Warren Buffett way) and they spent forever talking about Sees candies. Personally I think all this adolation granted to Buffett recently is somewhat misplaced. He isn't buying any stock now, nothing cheap enough apparently, how convenient- unfortunatly executives that are running tech companies right now don't have that luxury and are expected to "come up with something" to turn this boat around. As someone who has been both an investor and an entrepreneur, albeit an insignificant one, I still think it fairly clear that the demands made on an entrepreneur are much more significant than anything an investor faces. I don't think Buffett is someone who should be advising on executive compensation. |
