TheCorporateCounsel.net

In an effort to entice more investors to read it, General Electric has overhauled its Form 10-K this year – and the final product is quite impressive. In a nutshell, the company has applied its enhanced usability principles that it learned from upgrading its proxy statement (see my video from last year about that) to its 10-K. A video on this exciting development is coming soon – but you can learn much about what GE did to enhance the 10-K in this 15-page presentation posted in our “Usable Disclosure” Practice Area.

Here’s a WSJ article on GE’s 10-K. And here’s a Seeking Alpha interview with GE’s CFO Jeff Bornstein entitled “How We Have Reimagined Our Financial Reporting”…

Warren Buffett’s Annual Letter to Shareholders

A few days ago, Warren Buffett released his annual letter to shareholders, his 50th and its more than 40 pages! Here are some articles about it:

– MarketWatch’s 13 Quotes from Warren’s Latest”
– WSJ’s “Crib Sheet for CFOs on Buffett’s 50th Annual Letter”
– WSJ’s “Analysis: Warren Buffett’s Annual Berkshire Letter”
– WSJ’s “Annotating the Oracle: Experts Weigh In on Berkshire’s Annual Letter”
– Fortune’s “Warren Buffett: My $100 billion blunder”
– CNBC’s “Buffett: These investments are a ‘fool’s game’”

Interestingly, Buffett’s annual letter declines to clarify the succession plan at Berkshire Hathaway (as noted in this article) – but Vice Chair Charlie Munger wrote his own letter (starts at page 38) to shareholders and named two potential CEO successors (as noted in this piece)…

Coming Soon: “The Women’s 100 Conference” in Palo Alto

I’m excited to say that we are holding a 2nd annual “Women’s 100 Conference” in DC this year on Monday, June 1st – and it’s already sold out without even marketing it (but the waiting list is short right now). In addition, I am holding a 1st annual on the West Coast – on Tuesday, June 9th in Palo Alto. That one is nearly sold out – but there are a handful of slots left (plus a few folks typically drop out – so there likely would be some movement if you get placed on a waiting list). The attendees are a mix of in-house, law firm & investors of all ages.

If you are interested in more information about either event, please email me. It is heavily geared towards networking and the panels are intimately interactive with the audience (see this framework & agenda and this 1-minute video from last year for an inkling of what the event is like)…

– Broc Romanek