Warren Buffett’s Son All Ready To Head Berkshire Hathaway

Warren Buffett’s son Howard said he has been preparing all his life to become the successor to his father in his role as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B).

In an interview with Betty Liu on Bloomberg, Howard said he has had a great opportunity to observe his father’s behavior and interaction with people, and he has been a member company’s board for 20 years, which has helped him prepare for this new role. According to him, it is important for him to spend time with the board of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) to understand the business.

Howard said Berkshire Hathaway has great managers who are responsible for managing each of the company’s businesses, and he is not worried about running them.

“Berkshire is built on great managers, as non-executive chairman, I’m not running those companies and that’s not what I have to worry about, I have to worry about keeping the managers…that’s the critical component of the future,” he said.

The younger Buffett also emphasized that following his father as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) requires continuing the practices that helped the company achieve it growth. Berkshire Hathaway has a market value of approximately $242 billion.

He explained that preserving Berkshire Hathaway’s culture means that “I need to make sure that people feel that they’ve been treated fairly, that whatever my dad committed to them remains committed.”

Jeff Matthews, shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) and author of “Warren Buffett’s Successor: Who It Is and Why It Matter,” commented that the transition to a second generation of the family on top of the board makes sense if Howard Buffett doesn’t have operational duties. According to him, Warren Buffett encouraged public policies that reward people based on merits, rather than connections citing his statement in 2007 that he favors “equal opportunity.”

In a telephone interview with Bloomberg, Mathews said, it is “hard to argue that out of all the potential successors to Warren Buffett, Howard Buffett is absolutely the best guy, unless you take into consideration what the role is. The role as chairman is not CEO. It’s to preserve the Berkshire culture. And when you look at it that way, he’s probably the right guy.”

During the interview with Betty Liu, Howard emphasized that keeping the company’s culture is critical. “You don’t want a CEO who’s going to change that and drive managers away. That’s probably one of the key parts of it, is just making sure that part of the culture remains intact. And people that are best suited to run the business run the business,” he said.

Howard is the second of Warren Buffett’s three children. He is the only one who has a seat on the board of the company. He also serves as executive director of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

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