Warren Buffett is an American investor, business tycoon, and philanthropist. Known as the “Oracle of Omaha”, Buffett is best known for his strict adherence to value investing and frugality despite his immense wealth. He is among the wealthiest people in the world. Most of his wealth is tied up in Berkshire-Hathaway and its 65 subsidiaries.
Company / Organization
Business Category
Key Differentiator
Integration Strategy
Berkshire Hathaway
Conglomerate Holding Company
Diversified investment and holding company.
Serves as the parent company, holding a diverse portfolio of subsidiary companies and investments in various industries.
Geico
Insurance
Auto insurance and insurance services.
Provides insurance coverage and services, aligning with Berkshire Hathaway’s core insurance and reinsurance businesses.
BNSF Railway
Transportation and Logistics
Freight transportation and logistics services.
Operates as a major railroad company, contributing to Berkshire Hathaway’s diverse portfolio of businesses.
Berkshire Hathaway Energy
Energy and Utilities
Energy production and utility services.
Focuses on energy generation, transmission, and utility services, enhancing Berkshire Hathaway’s infrastructure holdings.
Dairy Queen
Food and Beverage
Fast-food restaurant chain.
Offers a variety of food and dessert products, diversifying Berkshire Hathaway’s investments in the food industry.
Duracell
Consumer Electronics
Battery manufacturing and sales.
Engages in battery production and sales, aligning with Berkshire Hathaway’s investments in consumer products.
See’s Candies
Food and Beverage
Confectionery and candy retail.
Operates as a confectionery retailer, adding to Berkshire Hathaway’s investments in the food and beverage sector.
Fruit of the Loom
Apparel and Textiles
Apparel and textile manufacturing.
Engages in apparel and textile production, complementing Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings in consumer goods.
Pampered Chef
Kitchen and Cookware Products
Kitchen and cookware products.
Specializes in kitchen and cookware products, diversifying Berkshire Hathaway’s investments in consumer products.
NetJets
Private Aviation Services
Fractional ownership and private jet services.
Provides private jet services and fractional ownership, contributing to Berkshire Hathaway’s service sector portfolio.
Precision Castparts Corp
Aerospace and Manufacturing
Aerospace and industrial manufacturing.
Operates as a global manufacturer of aerospace and industrial products, expanding Berkshire Hathaway’s manufacturing capabilities.
Founded in 1936, GEICO is an American automobile insurance company headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
In 1996 it became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire-Hathaway. Today, GEICO is the second-largest such insurer in the United States, providing coverage for more than 24 million vehicles. GEICO is well known in popular culture for its creative advertising campaigns and has been a major supporter of insurance for the ride-share industry.
Duracell
Duracell was founded in 1924 as a partnership between businessman Philip Rogers Mallory and scientist Samuel Ruben. Originally, the company produced mercury batteries for use in the U.S. military.
Duracell was sold to Berkshire-Hathaway by Procter & Gamble in 2014 in an all-stock deal worth $4.7 billion.
Helzberg Diamonds
Helzberg Diamonds was a family-owned jewelry retailer founded in 1914 by Morris Helzberg.
It remained in the family until 1988 when it became wholly owned by Berkshire Hathaway. It later spurned the book What I Learned Before I Sold to Warren Buffett by then company Chairman Barnett Helzberg Jr.
Today, Helzberg diamonds operates more than 200 stores across the United States
Kraft Heinz
The Kraft Heinz Company is the result of a merger between Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz in 2015.
The resultant company is now a food and beverage behemoth, collecting over $26 billion in annual global sales during 2020. It encompasses well-known brands such as Golden Circle, HP Sauce, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Maxwell House, and Kool-Aid.
At present, Berkshire-Hathaway has a 26.6% stake in Kraft Heinz.
American Express
American Express is a multinational financial company headquartered in New York City.
The company was founded over 170 years ago by the merger of companies owned by Henry Wells, William G. Fargo, and John Warren Butterfield. Today, Berkshire Hathaway has a significant holding in the company worth 18%.
Providing products and services across the finance, insurance, and travel industries, American Express was rated in 2020 as the 24th most valuable brand in the world. The company also consistently scores well for employee satisfaction.
Key takeaways
Berkshire-Hathaway is among the most valuable companies globally, primarily thanks to the investments made over the years by Warren Buffet and his partner Charlie Munger. The breadth of the company’s investments spans across many industries, and as you can see from the statements above, by 2020, the companies part of its portfolio generated almost $21 billion in revenues, of which almost $7 billion attributable to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders:
Some of the companies that make up the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio are listed below:
Warren Buffett is an American investor, business tycoon, and philanthropist. He is notable for his adherence to value investing and a frugal lifestyle that belies his immense wealth.
Warren Buffet can attribute most of his wealth to Berkshire Hathaway that has 65 subsidiaries in industries such as food and beverage, jewelry, and financial services.
Berkshire-Hathaway wholly owns companies GEICO, Duracell, and Helzberg Diamonds, among others. It also has significant stakes in multinational companies such as American Express and Kraft Heinz.
Value investing is a strategy advocating the purchase of stocks that are underappreciated by other investors or the broader market. Value investing was popularised by investor Warren Buffett, but the approach was pioneered by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd at Columbia Business School in the early 1920s. Graham would later go on to release the seminal book The Intelligent Investor in 1949.
The Buffet Indicator is a measure of the total value of all publicly-traded stocks in a country divided by that country’s GDP. It’s a measure and ratio to evaluate whether a market is undervalued or overvalued. It’s one of Warren Buffet’s favorite measures as a warning that financial markets might be overvalued and riskier.
The circle of competence describes a person’s natural competence in an area that matches their skills and abilities. Beyond this imaginary circle are skills and abilities that a person is naturally less competent at. The concept was popularised by Warren Buffett, who argued that investors should only invest in companies they know and understand. However, the circle of competence applies to any topic and indeed any individual.
Economic or market moats represent long-term business defensibility. Or how long a business can retain its competitive advantage in the marketplace over the years. Warren Buffet who popularized the term “moat” referred to it as a share of mind, opposite to market share, as such it is the characteristic that all valuable brands have.
The Golden Circle attempts to explain how certain businesses can inspire others and differentiate themselves in the market. Originally developed by author Simon Sinek, the concept helps businesses identify their purpose and then communicate that purpose to consumers in a meaningful way so that the brand can be highly differentiated in the marketplace.
The 5 Whys method is an interrogative problem-solving technique that seeks to understand cause-and-effect relationships. At its core, the technique is used to identify the root cause of a problem by asking the question of why five times. This might unlock new ways to think about a problem and therefore devise a creative solution to solve it.
First-principles thinking – sometimes called reasoning from first principles – is used to reverse-engineer complex problems and encourage creativity. It involves breaking down problems into basic elements and reassembling them from the ground up. Elon Musk is among the strongest proponents of this way of thinking.
Second-order thinking is a means of assessing the implications of our decisions by considering future consequences. Second-order thinking is a mental model that considers all future possibilities. It encourages individuals to think outside of the box so that they can prepare for every and any eventuality. It also discourages the tendency for individuals to default to the most obvious choice.
Warren Buffett is an American investor, business tycoon, and philanthropist. Known as the “Oracle of Omaha”, Buffett is best known for his strict adherence to value investing and frugality despite his immense wealth. He is among the wealthiest people in the world. Most of his wealth is tied up in Berkshire-Hathaway and its 65 subsidiaries.
Jeff Bezos was best known for founding eCommerce giant Amazon in 1994. However, the entrepreneur owns companies in several industries, including health care, retail, robotics, real estate, and media. Many of these companies have been acquired by Amazon over the years, but some have been the result of direct investment from Bezos himself (through his investment arm is called Bezos Expeditions).
Elon Musk is one of the richest people in the world, with his main ownership in Tesla, making him worth more than a hundred billion dollars. The companies founded by Elon Musk range from electric vehicles and renewable energies, with Tesla, rockets, with SpaceX, infrastructure with The Boring Company, and neurotechnology with Neuralink.
Bill Gates is an American business tycoon, software developer, investor, and more recently, philanthropist. After dropping out of Harvard University and founding Microsoft in 1975, Gates has at times been the richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $129 billion. He founded Cascade Investment in 1995 to manage his investments outside of Microsoft. The firm employs over 100 people and has significant stakes in hotel, rail transport, beverage, and waste management companies. To further his philanthropic causes, he founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000. The foundation holds almost $47 billion in assets and tackles entrenched global issues around poverty, healthcare, and climate change. The foundation also has several trust investments in companies such as Berkshire Hathaway, Caterpillar, FedEx, Walmart, and UPS.
Mark Zuckerberg is the largest shareholder of the company. Zuckerberg retains ownership and control of the company. Like Google, Facebook has issued two common stocks, Class A and Class B. The holders of Class B common stocks are entitled to ten votes per share, and holders of our Class A common stocks are entitled to one vote per share. Mark Zuckerberg has a voting power of 56.9%; he’s the main decision-maker.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
