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The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
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Author: Goofyhoofy 🐝 HONORARY
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Number: of 21944 
Subject: Re: Berkshire Proxy: How I voted
Date: 03/22/23 4:10 PM
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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.
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This community has written 21,448 posts about Berkshire Hathaway. The article-length ones it recommended most:
BRK: Why Not XOM? · 62 recs · 2024
Second quarter comments · 60 recs · 2023
Berkshire's Profit Contributors · 57 recs · 2023
Summary of 2Q 2026 · 54 recs · 2026
3Q Summary · 53 recs · 2024
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