In an interview on 60 Minutes Warren Buffett (the ultimate numbers guy) has indicated that he wants his son Howard to eventually take over as Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Howard, a farmer, knows a fraction of the securities business that anyone else currently at Berkshire Hathaway knows. Why, then, does Warren want Howard (of all people) to be his successor? According to Warren, Howard will be the ‘guardian of the culture’! Warren believes that, upon his transition from the firm, the thing that would unravel Berkshire Hathaway faster than anything else is the dilution of the culture at Berkshire Hathaway.
As Warren knows only too well, what a principled culture giveth, an unprincipled one taketh away!