US Immigration

Today's IPE class featured discussion of Europe's immigration policies and challenges. In much of the discussion, the US (along with Australia and Canada) was held up as an example of "good" immigration culture. Perhaps I've become so bogged down by the US media, where immigration is always a hot topic and our policies are always portrayed as needing to be "fixed," but it was interesting to hear the perspective of 80+ students from other countries. Apparently the US isn't doing such a bad job.

One thing this course has driven home to me is that I took so many things for granted growing up in the US. Many, many other places in the world enjoy so much less wealth, freedom, and . . . hope than we do; I feel very fortunate to have, through no fault of my own, had the opportunities I have had. As my Romanian-American classmate points out, perhaps I'm still riding high on the excellent representation of the US brought to us by yesterday's visit from Warren Buffett. Either way, I'm proud to be an American and God bless America!

The Oracle of Omaha

When I first heard that Buffett would be coming to IMD, I was ecstatic. When I learned that it was Warren Buffett, not Jimmy, I was disappointed but still pretty excited. We prepared and analyzed a case involving Berkshire Hathaway's first international acquisition, Iscar, and were joined by Buffett and Icsar's CEO, Eitan Wertheimer. Although we only had an hour with them, they covered a lot of ground ranging from investment strategy to operations policies. However, as is usually the case when we have the case protagonists in class, most of our questions were about softer issues: leadership, culture, and values.

Buffett impressed me as being very . . . real. His personal presentation was exactly in line with the writing style of his letters to shareholders and books: simple, modest, and sprinkled with stories from his entire career. His ability to remember elaborate details from decades ago is amazing. It was also great to have a prominent American here representing good values and responsibility. Moreover, I felt very much at home as he described his love of American football and steak.

Perhaps most important, however, is that I let the Oracle know that I had a prediction of my own: the Rice Owls will win the College World Series of Baseball in his hometown of Omaha this year. I will send him a Rice baseball cap so that he can show his support in June!