Lawrence A. Cunningham's Blog
August 6, 2014
July 9, 2014
Writing Berkshire Beyond Buffett: The Enduring Value of Values
A recent headline in USA Today
trumpeted “New Book Rewrites Buffett Legacy in Three Ways,” referring to my upcoming book, Berkshire Beyond Buffett: The Enduring Value of Values. The book explains why Warren Buffett’s place in American history is even more significant than currently assumed. Besides being a “legendary investor,” he has built a formidable corporation, demonstrated unsung managerial prowess, and chartered an ethical course for American capitalism that widens the meaning of value investing.
While my interest in Berkshire dates back two decades to when I first published The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, my work on this book gelled after Berkshire Hathaway’s 2013 annual meeting with a note to Warren. Despite Buffett’s copious shareholder letters and extensive writings about him and Berkshire, I wrote, I found one topic widely misunderstood: the nature and significance of Berkshire’s corporate culture to its identity, durability, and succession plan. I said I might want to write a book about that and asked what he thought. Warren replied that it sounded good to him, so I got to work, and the book will be released in October.
In recent years, widespread praise for Buffett became paradoxical: his goal has been to build Berkshire into a lasting corporation and yet even great admirers say the company cannot survive without him. What I found, instead, is that the companies that make up Berkshire—fifty-plus direct subsidiaries—each enjoy a strong and definite corporate culture formed and nurtured by great leadership which, when brought together, are a force with permanent strength.
To explain Berkshire’s corporate culture, I started at the top—with Buffett and his writings, with which many people are familiar—but found that the real work and the most interesting discoveries lie deep inside the subsidiaries and their founders, leaders, businesses, histories, triumphs and tribulations. So I gathered and studied information about each subsidiary—biographies, autobiographies, research reports, encyclopedic entries, press releases, public filings. I surveyed all current Berkshire subsidiary chief executives and interviewed many along with former managers and large shareholders of subsidiaries.
The clues quickly added up and a pattern emerged: as I profiled each subsidiary, the same traits began to appear repeatedly, nine altogether, including budget-consciousness, earnestness, kinship, entrepreneurship, autonomy, and a sense of permanence. Not every subsidiary had all nine, but many did, and most manifested at least five of the nine. Moreover, the traits shared a common feature: all are intangible values that managers transform into economic value. A portrait of Berkshire culture crystalized, one that is distinctive, durable and, ultimately, will allow the company to thrive even after Buffett’s departure.
While the publisher puts the finishing touches on the book this summer, here is an overview. The opening chapters cover Berkshire’s origins and foundations, with a few surprises even for those most familiar with this terrain, including particularly rich connections between Berkshire’s early acquisitions and the conglomerate that has resulted today. While Berkshire today appears vast, diverse, and sprawling, this synthesis of corporate culture shows instead a close-knit organization linked by discrete values.
The middle chapters, the heart of the book, take a series of deep dives into fifty Berkshire subsidiaries to illuminate each of the traits and how they ultimately operate together to give Berkshire its identity and destiny. I was delighted that, when circulating the manuscript for comment among Berkshire devotees, even the most avid readers found new facts, fresh insights, and a whole new way of thinking not only about Berkshire but about Buffett.
The closing chapters reflect on what Berkshire’s corporate culture means for Buffett’s legacy. They explore the elaborate succession plan at Berkshire, which most people misunderstand, and identify challenges Berkshire will face. I also draw specific lessons for investors, managers, and entrepreneurs who can benefit from Berkshire’s distinctive approach.
I had more fun working on this book than on anything else I’ve written. My wife, who has seen me struggle with innumerable writing projects, correctly observed that the words for this one just flowed naturally out of me. In part that was because, once I noticed how the same traits characterized all the subsidiaries, it became blindingly obvious and straightforward to narrate. In part, it was also because, having observed Berkshire and Buffett for decades through most of the acquisitions, the pieces of the puzzle fell naturally into place.
trumpeted “New Book Rewrites Buffett Legacy in Three Ways,” referring to my upcoming book, Berkshire Beyond Buffett: The Enduring Value of Values. The book explains why Warren Buffett’s place in American history is even more significant than currently assumed. Besides being a “legendary investor,” he has built a formidable corporation, demonstrated unsung managerial prowess, and chartered an ethical course for American capitalism that widens the meaning of value investing. While my interest in Berkshire dates back two decades to when I first published The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, my work on this book gelled after Berkshire Hathaway’s 2013 annual meeting with a note to Warren. Despite Buffett’s copious shareholder letters and extensive writings about him and Berkshire, I wrote, I found one topic widely misunderstood: the nature and significance of Berkshire’s corporate culture to its identity, durability, and succession plan. I said I might want to write a book about that and asked what he thought. Warren replied that it sounded good to him, so I got to work, and the book will be released in October.
In recent years, widespread praise for Buffett became paradoxical: his goal has been to build Berkshire into a lasting corporation and yet even great admirers say the company cannot survive without him. What I found, instead, is that the companies that make up Berkshire—fifty-plus direct subsidiaries—each enjoy a strong and definite corporate culture formed and nurtured by great leadership which, when brought together, are a force with permanent strength.
To explain Berkshire’s corporate culture, I started at the top—with Buffett and his writings, with which many people are familiar—but found that the real work and the most interesting discoveries lie deep inside the subsidiaries and their founders, leaders, businesses, histories, triumphs and tribulations. So I gathered and studied information about each subsidiary—biographies, autobiographies, research reports, encyclopedic entries, press releases, public filings. I surveyed all current Berkshire subsidiary chief executives and interviewed many along with former managers and large shareholders of subsidiaries.
The clues quickly added up and a pattern emerged: as I profiled each subsidiary, the same traits began to appear repeatedly, nine altogether, including budget-consciousness, earnestness, kinship, entrepreneurship, autonomy, and a sense of permanence. Not every subsidiary had all nine, but many did, and most manifested at least five of the nine. Moreover, the traits shared a common feature: all are intangible values that managers transform into economic value. A portrait of Berkshire culture crystalized, one that is distinctive, durable and, ultimately, will allow the company to thrive even after Buffett’s departure.
While the publisher puts the finishing touches on the book this summer, here is an overview. The opening chapters cover Berkshire’s origins and foundations, with a few surprises even for those most familiar with this terrain, including particularly rich connections between Berkshire’s early acquisitions and the conglomerate that has resulted today. While Berkshire today appears vast, diverse, and sprawling, this synthesis of corporate culture shows instead a close-knit organization linked by discrete values.
The middle chapters, the heart of the book, take a series of deep dives into fifty Berkshire subsidiaries to illuminate each of the traits and how they ultimately operate together to give Berkshire its identity and destiny. I was delighted that, when circulating the manuscript for comment among Berkshire devotees, even the most avid readers found new facts, fresh insights, and a whole new way of thinking not only about Berkshire but about Buffett.
The closing chapters reflect on what Berkshire’s corporate culture means for Buffett’s legacy. They explore the elaborate succession plan at Berkshire, which most people misunderstand, and identify challenges Berkshire will face. I also draw specific lessons for investors, managers, and entrepreneurs who can benefit from Berkshire’s distinctive approach.
I had more fun working on this book than on anything else I’ve written. My wife, who has seen me struggle with innumerable writing projects, correctly observed that the words for this one just flowed naturally out of me. In part that was because, once I noticed how the same traits characterized all the subsidiaries, it became blindingly obvious and straightforward to narrate. In part, it was also because, having observed Berkshire and Buffett for decades through most of the acquisitions, the pieces of the puzzle fell naturally into place.
July 7, 2014
The Babe Ruth of Good Business Today
Berkshire Beyond Buffett: The Enduring Value of ValuesOne hundred years ago this week, on July 11, 1914, George Herman (“Babe”) Ruth made his major league debut, for the Boston Red Sox at two-year old Fenway Park. Over the course of his baseball career, The Great Bambino set many records, including leading the league in home runs for twelve seasons; most total bases in a season (457); and highest slugging percentage for a season (.847). In all, he hit 714 home runs, a record that stood until 1974, when Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves claimed the title. But that is not why the Babe is immortal.
Other home run kings have achieved nothing like Ruth’s iconic status. Many decade-leading hitters—such as Harry Davis, Gavy Cravath, or Jimmie Foxx—are barely known. Even falling short of Ruth’s stature are the two players who passed him in home runs, Aaron and Barry Bonds (Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants), who took the top spot in 2007. Nor is Ruth’s immortality due entirely to the fact that he also excelled as a pitcher: for forty-three years he held the record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched in World Series play and his overall win-loss ratio (.671) remains the seventh best of all time.
Ruth’s immorality, rather, is due to how, through such extraordinary feats, he changed the game of baseball. He brought power to the sport at a time when typical strategy was to move players around the bases one small hit at a time. While baseball was thriving as an American pastime before he played, the Babe’s bold style, vast generosity, and utter unpretentiousness won the public’s adulation. His deep sense of ethics helped to rescue baseball from the damage done by the miscreant players who threw the 1919 World Series. His strength and optimism gave hope to millions during the Great Depression. Ruth made baseball a richer sport with a wider and enduring following, which is why we all recognize his name a century after his rookie year. And people venerate the Babe despite his many bad personal habits, such as gluttony, promiscuity, and pugnaciousness.
In American business, we have likewise enshrined transformative figures like Ruth despite faults. Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt built the nation’s infrastructure while J. P. Morgan and Henry Ford forged its business structures and methods. We condemn the cheaters to memory’s hell—from Charles Ponzi to Bernie Madoff—or at least purgatory, as with Michael Milken. We remain ambivalent about the likes of Jay Gould and others still derided as robber barons.
Peering into the crystal ball—ahead to 2064, 2114—who among contemporary figures will be etched in the civic consciousness? In baseball, that status may go less to players than to analysts and coaches. Credit Bill James (Historical Baseball Abstract) for uncovering through statistics the drivers of baseball success and lionize Oakland Athletics manager Billy Beane, who implemented a game-changing strategy based on big data—and became famous for doing so thanks to Michael Lewis’s page turner, Moneyball.
In business, today’s candidates for tomorrow’s public immortality might include Steve Jobs for visionary leadership, Jack Welch for management prowess, Jack Bogle for shrewd investing, and Warren Buffett for . . . all those skills. While I root for the immortality of each of these luminaries, my money is on Buffett.
To date, Buffett is heralded primarily as history’s greatest investor—beating the market by double digits over five decades. But that’s like saying Babe Ruth was history’s greatest power hitter: true but inadequate. Just as Ruth was both a famous home run king as well as an unsung pitching ace, Buffett is both a savvy investor and a spectacularly successful yet underappreciated manager, one whom astute investors have come to admire and discerning managers are starting to emulate. More important, just as Ruth’s presence became a game-changer, Buffett’s approach to business promises to revolutionize American capitalism.
warren buffettIn my upcoming book, Berkshire Beyond Buffett: The Enduring Value of Values, I describe Buffett’s approach at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. as generating economic profits from virtuous behavior. By reaping returns on capital from intangibles such as thrift, integrity, entrepreneurship, autonomy, and a sense of permanence, Berkshire practices a philosophy of capitalism that does well by doing good, is sensitive but unsentimental, lofty yet pragmatic, and public spirited but profitable. This approach drives power returns for Berkshire shareholders (which, in the spirit of disclosure, includes me and my family).
Berkshire’s rivals—whether private equity firms or strategic buyers—often maximize immediate short-term gain by borrowing heavily, cutting workers’ pay, increasing consumer prices, and externalizing the costs of doing business. Berkshire does the opposite. It uses scant debt, respects labor as partners, shares cost savings with customers, and pays a tax bill proportional to its big footprint—$5 to $7 billion annually in recent years.
And this attitude is neither altruistic nor moralistic, but practical and economic. This way of doing business matches today’s zeitgeist, with its heightened sense of stewardship and fair play, where increasing numbers of companies pay more than the minimum wage and those companies seeking to hide income offshore are excoriated. The approach also has a timeless horizon. As the spirit continues to spread, moving across companies from Intel to Whole Foods, the public beneficiaries will have Buffett to thank—perhaps for a century to come.
Other home run kings have achieved nothing like Ruth’s iconic status. Many decade-leading hitters—such as Harry Davis, Gavy Cravath, or Jimmie Foxx—are barely known. Even falling short of Ruth’s stature are the two players who passed him in home runs, Aaron and Barry Bonds (Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants), who took the top spot in 2007. Nor is Ruth’s immortality due entirely to the fact that he also excelled as a pitcher: for forty-three years he held the record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched in World Series play and his overall win-loss ratio (.671) remains the seventh best of all time.
Ruth’s immorality, rather, is due to how, through such extraordinary feats, he changed the game of baseball. He brought power to the sport at a time when typical strategy was to move players around the bases one small hit at a time. While baseball was thriving as an American pastime before he played, the Babe’s bold style, vast generosity, and utter unpretentiousness won the public’s adulation. His deep sense of ethics helped to rescue baseball from the damage done by the miscreant players who threw the 1919 World Series. His strength and optimism gave hope to millions during the Great Depression. Ruth made baseball a richer sport with a wider and enduring following, which is why we all recognize his name a century after his rookie year. And people venerate the Babe despite his many bad personal habits, such as gluttony, promiscuity, and pugnaciousness.
In American business, we have likewise enshrined transformative figures like Ruth despite faults. Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt built the nation’s infrastructure while J. P. Morgan and Henry Ford forged its business structures and methods. We condemn the cheaters to memory’s hell—from Charles Ponzi to Bernie Madoff—or at least purgatory, as with Michael Milken. We remain ambivalent about the likes of Jay Gould and others still derided as robber barons.
Peering into the crystal ball—ahead to 2064, 2114—who among contemporary figures will be etched in the civic consciousness? In baseball, that status may go less to players than to analysts and coaches. Credit Bill James (Historical Baseball Abstract) for uncovering through statistics the drivers of baseball success and lionize Oakland Athletics manager Billy Beane, who implemented a game-changing strategy based on big data—and became famous for doing so thanks to Michael Lewis’s page turner, Moneyball.
In business, today’s candidates for tomorrow’s public immortality might include Steve Jobs for visionary leadership, Jack Welch for management prowess, Jack Bogle for shrewd investing, and Warren Buffett for . . . all those skills. While I root for the immortality of each of these luminaries, my money is on Buffett.
To date, Buffett is heralded primarily as history’s greatest investor—beating the market by double digits over five decades. But that’s like saying Babe Ruth was history’s greatest power hitter: true but inadequate. Just as Ruth was both a famous home run king as well as an unsung pitching ace, Buffett is both a savvy investor and a spectacularly successful yet underappreciated manager, one whom astute investors have come to admire and discerning managers are starting to emulate. More important, just as Ruth’s presence became a game-changer, Buffett’s approach to business promises to revolutionize American capitalism.
warren buffettIn my upcoming book, Berkshire Beyond Buffett: The Enduring Value of Values, I describe Buffett’s approach at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. as generating economic profits from virtuous behavior. By reaping returns on capital from intangibles such as thrift, integrity, entrepreneurship, autonomy, and a sense of permanence, Berkshire practices a philosophy of capitalism that does well by doing good, is sensitive but unsentimental, lofty yet pragmatic, and public spirited but profitable. This approach drives power returns for Berkshire shareholders (which, in the spirit of disclosure, includes me and my family).
Berkshire’s rivals—whether private equity firms or strategic buyers—often maximize immediate short-term gain by borrowing heavily, cutting workers’ pay, increasing consumer prices, and externalizing the costs of doing business. Berkshire does the opposite. It uses scant debt, respects labor as partners, shares cost savings with customers, and pays a tax bill proportional to its big footprint—$5 to $7 billion annually in recent years.
And this attitude is neither altruistic nor moralistic, but practical and economic. This way of doing business matches today’s zeitgeist, with its heightened sense of stewardship and fair play, where increasing numbers of companies pay more than the minimum wage and those companies seeking to hide income offshore are excoriated. The approach also has a timeless horizon. As the spirit continues to spread, moving across companies from Intel to Whole Foods, the public beneficiaries will have Buffett to thank—perhaps for a century to come.
