QuestionerI'd like some tips from you about what characteristics you thought about 45 years ago when you were building the culture and values at Berkshire Hathaway.
WarrenYeah, well, I think culture has to come from the top. It has to be consistent. It has to be part of written communications. It has to be lived, and it has to be rewarded when followed and punished when not. And then it takes a very, very long time to really become solid. And obviously, it's much easier to do it if you inherit a culture you like. And it's easier in smaller firms, I think. I can think of a lot of companies, very big companies in this country, and I don't think if Charlie and I were around them for 10 years, we'd be able to accomplish much of anything. So it, you know, it is a grain of sand, type of thing and people just like your child, you know, sees what you do rather than what you say. It's the same thing in a business that people see how those above them behave, and they move in that they move in that direction. They don't all move that way. We've got 340,000 people now working for Berkshire. And I will guarantee you that there's, you know, some number, a dozen, you know, some number, a dozen, maybe 50, maybe 100 that are doing something today that they shouldn't be doing. And, you know, we, what you have to do is when you find out about it, you have to do something about it.
CharlieI think the one thing that we did this work best of all is we were always dissatisfied with what we already knew, and we always wanted to know more. And Berkshire, if Warren and I had stayed frozen in time, particularly Warren, it would have been a... I'd like to do it, understand. It would have been a terrible place. It's all we kept learning that made it work. And I don't think that will ever stop.