No. of Recommendations: 17
Which of Howie and Susie's qualifications do you think Berkshire will benefit from?
What one of my co-workers used to call 'dinner table education.' Perhaps like Henry Ford II (or even Edsel) who were better at business, if not inventing, than their father. Or Rupert Murdoch who inherited a small media empire and turned it into a Goliath. (See also: Ted Turner.) Majorie Post took her father's cute little cereal company and turned it into General Foods. Not quite the same, but Harry Reese learned the candy business from Milton Hershey, and Reese's Cups now outsell every other candy bar made. Gilbert Swanson learned the turkey business from his father and made it 1000 times bigger. Cornelius Vanderbilt learned shipping at his father's knee. Or'
Maybe someone can elaborate specifically how Howie and Susie will both serve to maintain the Berkshire 'culture' with both of them having at best only a nominal understanding of capital allocation and how to run a business'.
Sure. In the same way boards are often populated by members without specific industry knowledge, but who have qualifications in other area. Some may have tax expertise, some have government connections, others on (for instance) gaming startups may simply be networked to venture capitalists but have no idea how to write code. Buffett family members on the board may serve in the way I have already described: to keep short term thinkers at remove, and that is an asset in and of itself.
PS: some of the latest T&T moves have been exceptionally short term, not that there's anything wrong with that occasionally. But to think every board member must know 'capital allocation' is to misunderstand what a board is and does.
