Over a half-century of husking financial corn and counting balance sheet kernels later, and Warren Buffett is still the master of corporate harvest and yield. Keeping things simple has served him handsomely, so his recent words to the wise on B-school learning are worth noting.

Speaking at his recent annual shareholder jamboree in Omaha ("Think Small")--and again last week at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland--he criticized B-schools for over-emphasizing the arcane and for under-emphasizing basic written and verbal communications skills.

Addressing his first complaint, Buffett wants future corporate leaders to be more facile with valuating companies and understanding markets than with financial esotericism such as options pricing. And opining that teaching effective communication skills is somehow "...beneath the self-image of faculty,” he argues that the fleet of the spoken and written word "can have an enormous impact and jump out of the hiring pack."

Provocative stuff, even as the Swiss press assailed Buffet for “beisst auf Granit” (“biting on granite”) in his quest to get European family firms to sell to him.

Certainly, it is a truth of capitalism that the highest monetary rewards go to those fluent with the Latin and Greek of such exotica as credit-default swaps, deep-tranched loan structures, neural surgery and Washington politics, but when shareholders, employees and the general economy are involved, there is a sound argument for plain-speak (and sharper governance, a la SocGen boo-birds in Paris yesterday).

Just where are B-school heads at? Just this month, Chicago GSB's Capital Ideas is thinking about mind-reading skills, while Columbia B-School's Public Offering blog is grappling with the issue of how modern B-schools prepare graduates to be investment analysts and consultants, not leaders.

How linear are your corporate linguistic hallways?

Jeff Heilman

5/28/08