The programme was produced my the Money Programme team, http://www.bbc.co.uk/moneyprogramme
The following link includes some embedded videos which were included in part or in full in the programme (possibly UK-only, but you can try)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8317072.stm and a summary of many of the ideas explored.
The programme was enjoyable (pronounced Berkshire Hathaway like Warren, not like the English county of the same name, pronounced BARK-SHEER), though contained little factual that one of us wouldn't have known already. For me, seeing some of the people and places, even some of the products I'd never see in England (DQ, the Geico ad), was interesting, and I thought that a good deal of the principals of Buffett and Charlie's processes were well explained with both being interviewed. Charlie mentioned the checklist: easy to understand; run by trustworthy, competent management; with durable competitive advantage; available at an acceptably attractive price. Warren talked of Ben Graham's Mr. Market in a way which is potentially enlightening to a good number of people who haven't come across it. The difference between investment and speculation. Buying the business not the stock certificate. For me, I'd always aim to explain and mention Graham's maxim, "Price is what you pay, value is what you receive" - best understood in the Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville essay, but on the whole, it was a good summary of the man, his humble attitude, the apparent contradictions, the unconventional but supremely rational thinking, the power of compounding, of avoiding debt leverage and that disastrous multiply-by-zero effect. In summary, while we can't all have the investing results of Warren Buffett, perhaps he can show us how to have the happy life he has.
Included were interviews with daughter, Susan (commissioned to buy his last car, a repaired hail-damaged, thus cheaper, SUV), son Peter, and a couple of excerpts from the 2004-ish interview with his late wife Susan (I saw this in full on the web some time ago) including the story of their unconventional but happy marriage where she introduced him to Astrid Menks - partly illustrating the unconventional contrarian aspect to Warren. Various other interviewees included Berkshire CEOs Kevin Clayton, Tony Nicely (saying WEB is GEICO's lovable grandfather-figure), Cathy Tamraz, the Fed regulator with whom Warren pleaded for a Sunday ruling change at the height of the Salomon Brothers affair, where his honesty and fair-dealing reputation won the reprieve and he set about changing the culture for the better - cut to video clip "If an employee loses us money I'll be sympathetic, but if they lose us a shred of reputation I'll be ruthless." Another interviewee was one of the senior Salomon executives who recalls the unpopularity of Warren's attempt to curb excessive compensation at the firm and a story of the Arbitrage desk asking if the firm could buy him out to stop his meddling with their bonuses. All this echoes with today's public concerns.
It even went a little unconventional to illustrate how Warren finds out what agrees with him and sticks with it. Such as the regular visits to Gorats, the minimal consumption of fruit and vegetables (save for banana cream pie or strawberry cheesecake!) or even a glass of water when T-bone, hash browns and Coke are available, with say peanuts and coke for breakfast.
Bill Gates was also interviewed regarding how he learns from Warren, about bridge and the charitable foundation - giving it all away etc. There was also the story of how Warren bought Nebraska Furniture Mart from the redoubtable Rose Blumkin with a personal visit, a handshake, no due diligence and a simple typed-up agreement with no lawyers involved. He didn't even check out the title deeds to the store.
A fair flavour was given of Berkshire's unique culture and how it still feels like a friendly family business despite its size and wealth, and how he charms and praises the CEOs so they still love their jobs while saying "I can do better investing Clayton's profit in this other company over here, than you can reinvesting it within Clayton". This section ended with Warren revealing how the Dale Carnegie course and "How to win friend and influence people" changed his life.
Anyhow, it covered a lot of interesting stuff in the space of an hour with no commercials (except Coke and GEICO ad excerpts for illustration) and I'm glad to have seen it. I'll probably watch it again tomorrow night 11:20 PM (GMT) on BBC One.
