Dear Shareholder
Dear Shareholder is a compilation of masterful works that showcase the ultimate in business and investment knowledge from an all-star team, written by Lawrence Cunningham, a corporate director, governance expert, and professor. This book is a rich source of business and investing wisdom, ranging from leadership and management to capital allocation and company culture. Dear Shareholder holds letters by over 20 different leaders from 16 companies, including Warren Buffett from Berkshire Hathaway, Tom Gayner from Markel, Kay Graham and Doh Graham from The Washington Post and Graham Holdings, Roberto Goizueta from Coca-Cola, and Virginia Rometty from IBM. This book includes topics such as capital allocation, buybacks, dividends, acquisitions, management, business strategy, and executive compensation.
"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
"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. There’s 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
“Lawrence Cunningham was the first to distill the wisdom of Warren Buffett’s 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. Larry’s 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
“Dear Shareholder provides a collection of invaluable lessons and insights from the world’s savviest wealth creating CEOs. Lawrence Cunningham delivers a curated classic that is both bingeworthy and a permanent addition to any investor’s library.”
— Lauren C. Templeton, President, Templeton & Phillips Capital Management & Author, Investing The Templeton Way
"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.