Berkshire Hathaway, the $300+ billion conglomerate that Warren Buffett built, is among the world’s largest and most famous corporations. Yet, for all its power and celebrity, few people understand Berkshire, and many assume it cannot survive without Buffett. This book challenges that assumption.
In a comprehensive portrait of the corporate culture that unites Berkshire’s subsidiaries, Lawrence Cunningham unearths the traits that assure the conglomerate’s perpetual prosperity. Riveting stories of each subsidiary’s origins, triumphs, and journey to Berkshire reveal how managers generate economic value from intangibles like thrift, integrity, entrepreneurship, autonomy, and a sense of permanence.
Berkshire Beyond Buffett explores not only what will happen to Berkshire after Buffett, but presents all of Berkshire behind Buffett, the inspiring managerial luminaries, innovative entrepreneurs, and devotees of deep values that define this esteemed organization.
Whether or not you are convinced that Berkshire can endure without Buffett, the book is full of management lessons for small and large businesses, entrepreneurs, family firms, and Fortune 500 CEOs. Enjoy entertaining tales from Berkshire’s 50 main subsidiaries, including Dairy Queen, GEICO, Benjamin Moore, Fruit of the Loom, BNSF, Justin, Pampered Chef, Marmon, Clayton Homes, FlightSafety, and more.
Terrific Book Larry Cunningham’s new book tells why Berkshire Hathaway will endure as a prosperous company far beyond the Warren Buffett era. First of all, its businesses have been carefully picked for their competitive advantages, their “moats,” their “barriers to entry.” For example, it would be hard to buy or build a railroad to compete with Berkshire’s Burlington Northern. Mostly Berkshire will endure, says Cunningham, because of its culture of integrity, trust, and thrift. Managers and…
Even people who have never heard of Berkshire Hathaway or Warren Buffett need to read this book Berkshire Beyond Buffett is a must read not just for Buffett fans, but for anyone who wants to understand where business is headed. Far ahead of his peers in academia, Larry Cunningham came to the realization that Warren Buffett has lessons to teach that go far beyond business and investing, and which are valid for a far broader audience than just the Berkshire crowd.Â
Berkshire Hathaway after Buffett? It will continue to be “an institution that transcends the man and will be his legacy.” In his brilliant Introduction to the Second Edition of The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, Lawrence Cunningham observes, “The CEOs of Berkshire’s various operating companies enjoy a unique position in corporate America. They are given a simple set of commands: to run their business as if (1) they are its sole owner, (2) it is the only asset they hold, and (3) they can never sell or merge it for a hundred years.” With regard to investment thinking, “one must guard…