During his most recent annual shareholder jamboree in Omaha, Warren Buffett criticised business schools for being too focused on arcane subjects such as options pricing. But what, in his opinion, should MBA students be learning? Two very basic skills, it emerges.

The world’s richest man was this afternoon at IMD, the Swiss business school, as part of a rapid tour of Europe, in which he is trying to tempt families in Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Italy into selling their businesses to Berkshire Hathaway, the investment vehicle he runs.

The press conference held in Lausanne in his honour was illuminated by his usual wit but yielded precious little in the way of news, as journalists from various European countries tried in vain to get him to name possible targets in their home markets.

Mr Buffett was, however, prepared to put flesh on the bones of his recent criticism of business schools, arguing that, as well as teaching the basics of how to value companies and understand markets, they should include classes in basic written and spoken communication.

“Almost all the students I meet could benefit from working on these two [skills],” he said. However, they were not emphasised in business school teaching because “to some extent they were beneath the self-image of faculty”.

For the student, learning how to speak and write more effectively would yield benefits far in excess of those gained from the study of esoteric financial tools, he argued. “You show me the person who can communicate well… they can have an enormous impact and they will jump out of the pack in terms of hiring later on.”

In spite of this criticism, Mr Buffett is frequently happy to work with business schools and their students. This afternoon at IMD, for instance, he participated in a webcast that also featured Eitan Wertheimer, the chairman of Iscar, the Israeli metalworking company in which Berkshire Hathaway took a majority stake in 2006.

Both he and Mr Wertheimer also fielded questions from IMD students earlier in the day, with family businesses being one of the major themes of the discussion. Monday’s Business Education section of the Financial Times will contain exclusive highlights from this session.

May 20, 2008 7:11pm in B-schools, Career/skills | Comment