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 proves them wrong.
In a comprehensive portrait of the corporate culture that unites Berkshire's subsidiaries, Lawrence A. Cunningham unearths the traits that assure the conglomerate's continued 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.
Rich with lessons for those wishing to profit from the Berkshire model, this engaging book is a valuable read for entrepreneurs, business owners, managers, family business members, and investors, and it is an important resource for scholars of corporate stewardship. General readers will enjoy learning how an iconoclastic businessman transformed a struggling textile company into a corporate legacy.

Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One
1. Origins
2. Diversity
3. Culture
Part Two
4. Budget-conscious and Earnest
5. Reputation
6. Kinship
7. Self-starters
8. Hands-off
9. Investor Savvy
10. Rudimentary
11. Eternal
12. All One
13. Berkshire's Portfolio
Part Three
14. Succession
15. Challenges
16. B.E.R.K.S.H.I.R.E.
Epilogue
Appendix
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Lawrence A. Cunningham, editor and publisher since 1997 of The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, is the Henry St. George Tucker III Research Professor at George Washington University. Cunningham's dozen books include The AIG Story (with Maurice R. Greenberg) and How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett. His extensive writings on a wide range of business and legal topics appear in leading university journals as well as in such periodicals as the Baltimore Sun, the Financial Times, the New York Post, and the New York Times. He lives in New York City with his wife and two daughters.