Exclusive Interview With Warren Buffett

CNBC's Becky Quick sits down with Warren Buffett to discuss the upcoming shareholder meeting, which starts Friday night and runs through Monday. Buffett refers to the annual event as "Woodstock for Capitalists."

Buffett: It's a gathering of partners. And-- you know we have a lot of partners, but-- I like the fact they feel part of the can't. And to see it's a real company, real products, real people. And-- and I get to see real stockholders, so it's -- it's-- it's a gathering.

Quick: It-- it started out as a very small event. When was the first-- when was the first one?

Buffett: Well, if you go way back we used to hold 'em in New Bedford, Mass.-- where Berkshire Hathaway started. So I would go back there. And-- and it was me and somebody taking the minutes. (butt to)) 10:34:44;11 And we would have about anywhere between eight and 12 people-- for the next 10 or so years until about 1981. And my aunt Katie would come and my Uncle Fred. I always packed the audience with people that would be sure to nominate me.

Quick: Eight to 12 people in the lunchroom at National Indemnity. It-- it's a-- very modest beginnings for what it's turned into. A huge, huge event.

Buffett: Yeah. Just-- just-- we-- we held it down there because I had a canteen that had to buy their own coffee or (LAUGHS) candy or something like that. I was always trying to turn a profit on the meeting. And then-- when we merged with Blue Chip Stamps we-- we moved to a-- room at a hotel here where we maybe had 100 people. The sound system didn't work right or anything. But-- but it was fun-- seeing shareholders and having 'em ask questions. And-- I liked it. My partner Charlie Munger (PH) liked it. And-- we're kind of hams. So-- it was a chance to get an audience.

On the Go and Having Fun

Buffett: It's interesting, there are a lot of events. And-- after the meeting which-- well, I get to-- I get there about 6:00 in the morning and then I walk around for a while and then we conduct six hours or so of questions. But then we have the international group for-- a few hours and then we have parties afterwards and all kinds of things. ((butt to)) 10:52:10 I don't get tired at all. And the interesting thing is Charlie doesn't get tired. And Charlie is 84. And he loves it. I mean when-- when we're up there with the international group and they're coming through he is-- you know if-- if they're from-- if they're from France he tells 'em about 28 things about France that they didn't know. And-- (LAUGHS) he's-- he's enjoying it too.

Quick: You know it-- it's something a lot of-- CEOs I would guess probably don't-- have quite as much of a grasp for the planning for their annual meeting as you might. You're paying pretty keep-- close attention to how many people are coming, the responses you're getting back, aren't you?

Buffett: Yeah, no, it's fun. Yeah, no I-- oh, I can tell you every day. And I-- I can tell you where they're from. And I compare it to the previous year. Now this-- this is-- this is a big event for us.

Quick: When do things really get busy for you? What time of your do you start picking up for this?

Buffett: They don't get busy for me. Kelly-- just does a fantastic job. I-- I don't even think about it. And my daughter does a great job, for example, on the movie. And we-- we've got-- the people in this office, they take care of everything. So I-- it doesn't really require time. I'm-- I'm very interested in it but-- but-- I don't have much to do.

Quick: OK, now you said the people in this office take care of it and people may think you have hundreds of people who are working behind the scenes, but this is a very small, tight group.

Buffett: It's-- it's 19 people. And they all have jobs and everything. But every one of those 19 will be participating in the meeting in some way.

Quick: I am amazed at the number of events. I mean you could start Thursday night and there are going to be events from Thursday through Monday that other people are holding. How many of those can you actually make it to?

Buffett: Well, I make it to as many as I can. ((butt to)) I am on the go-- every evening. You know Friday evening-- well, Thursday and Friday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday evening. And I'm enjoying myself?

Quick: And are-- do you like knowing that all these people are having-- the dinners and the gatherings and things, even the stuff you can't get to?

Buffett: Oh, yeah. When I'm Papa Bear, you know, I get to have a lot of fun with it. l(LAUGHTER)

Real Owners

Quick: How many people are you potentially expecting this year?

Buffett: I think we'll have about 30,000 based on the number of tickets we sent out.

Quick: Which is phenomenal?

Buffett: Well, it's-- it's-- they're real owners. I mean they-- they come to this-- they wanna learn more about the company. There's two different kinds. We got the very sophisticated type and they wanna ask kind of sophisticated questions. And then-- then they have-- we have the type that they put their-- a little bit of their life savings in it and they planned on it 'til they died. Just like they'd buy a farm or an apartment house.

And-- and they may not understand all the jargon that gets talked about by some of the shareholders but they-- they still got a feel for the business. They-- they-- we got 200,000 square feet of our products and-- on display. And they-- they feel they own part of a company, which is exactly how we want 'em to feel. It's not some little ticker symbol that moves around or something on a chart or something that gets recommended by some analyst or something. It's a real, honest-to-god business that they've bought into and that they're going to be of the rest of their lives.

CONTINUED: How Many CEOs Look Forward to Annual Meeting?

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